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So THAT's How You Fly a Plane Containing the Olympic Torch

As we publish this, a British Airways Airbus 319 is setting down at Royal Navy Air Base Culdrose in Cornwall, bringing with it the Olympic Flame straight from Greece.

London 2012 Olympics fever is officially in effect. The torch has landed.

So how does an airline—one that bans smoking onboard—manage to fly a live flame for four hours? Like this, apparently, as British Airways posted a photo to their Instagram account of the flame being buckled into its first row seats onboard the special BA2012 flight. The Olympic flame cannot be extinguished, and yet BA is flying with a fire marshall in the next seat and an extra pilot. You know, just in case.

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Royal Travel / Retro Travel / Vintage Travel / British Airways / BOAC / Queen's Jubilee / Celeb Travel / Queen Elizabeth II / → All Tags

The Flight That Brought a Girl Home to Become Queen Elizabeth II

Listen to The Beatles' "Back in the USSR" today, and pay special attention to those first couple lines:

Flew in from Miami Beach. BOAC. Didn't get to bed last night. On the way the paper bag was on my knee. Man, I had a dreadful flight.

BOAC. British Overseas Airways Corporation. This airline still exists today, believe it or not; with rebranding, you'll recognize them as British Airways. BA wasn't just a favorite airline of the Beatles, as you'll see in these photos sent to us by British Airways.

That is Queen Elizabeth II arriving at London-Heathrow on February 7, 1952, the date of the Proclamation of her accession to the throne, following the death of her father, King George VI. She was in Kenya with her husband, beginning a tour that would stretch from Kenya to Australia and New Zealand, when she became Queen overnight, necessitating this BOAC return flight to London.

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Airline Mergers / Airline News / BMI Baby / BMI / British Airways / Iberia / IAG / UK Travel / → All Tags

Bye-Bye BMI Baby

We all know that bmi ownership has changed hands from Lufthansa to IAG, the parent company to British Aiways and Iberia. When the merger is complete, bmi will be no more, a casualty in the battle that is the European aviation industry. But first, we bid a fond adieu to bmi's low-cost little brother, bmi baby.

With all the necessary signatures put to paper, IAG is starting to figure out the best way to combine operations and surge to airline dominance. The baby painted planes are the first ones to get the axe and it's all happening very quickly.

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End Your Week with New Routes from Air France, United and Allegiant

Sometimes it’s hard to stay on top of all the new route announcements that come our way, so we’ve complied a little bit of a rundown below. As long as you can afford the fares, this should definitely help add to your passport stamp collection.

· United:
Those residing in The Triangle are getting a new nonstop option this summer to go along with their new airport, and it’s going to take passengers all the way across the country. United is planning to launch nonstop flights between Raleigh-Durham and San Francisco beginning on August 15, although technically the first flights leave SFO on August 14. The new routes will do their thing aboard some of the airline’s Boeing 737-800s, and the flights are scheduled to be a daily option. United is the only carrier flying back and forth without a stop between the two cities, so you can expect to pay a bit of a premium for the right to do so.

· British Airways:
This week brings new route news from British Airways, as it looks like they’ll be sending some of their planes, passengers, and pilots to somewhere new. The airline is planning to link London-Gatwick with Algiers beginning at the start of the summer season. It’s going to be an option seven times per week, and all the flying fun will be done with some of the airline’s Boeing 737s. A weekend is North Africa sounds like a good way to get out of town right after the madness of the Olympics is over, so if you call London home—or just like to visit—this might just be something to look into.

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It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's a British Airways Plane Painted Like a Bird!

Airplanes painted to look like birds are nothing new—have you ever seen Nok Air's planes? Still, the newest fancy livery on the block comes from British Airways, who have stenciled a design on several of their planes in honor of the upcoming London 2012 Olympics. The design: a dove, complete with feathers on the plane wings, a stylized beak and thick tail feathers that form the iconic BA vertical stabilize swipes. Even better: it's gold.

Nine—count 'em NINE—Airbus 319s have received the golden dove treatment and are up in the skies as of today. Keep an eye out for them around Europe mostly, such as today's BA 1420 from Heathrow to Copenhagen.

The design and implemtation process for the new special livery is a complicated process that resulted from a contest. Check out the mesmerizing time-lapse video for all the sweet details:

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New Routes / Airlines / Airline News / Frontier / British Airways / Lufthansa / Turkish Airlines / → All Tags

New Planes and New Routes from Lufthansa, Frontier and easyJet

Sometimes it’s hard to stay on top of all the new route announcements that come our way, so we’ve complied a little bit of a rundown below. As long as you can afford the fares, this should definitely help add to your passport stamp collection.

· Lufthansa:
Boeing’s biggest bird is on its way to the United States, as the 747-8 is scheduled to make its debut between Frankfurt and Washington-Dulles International Airport sooner than later. Lufthansa is the lucky airline getting the very first one of these planes for commercial service, and it sounds like the delivery might happen as soon as the end of April.

We’re thinking that Lufthansa will want a little time to play around with their new toy—maybe some quick hops in and around Europe—but soon after it’ll be heading to the nifty fifty. The new 747 is longer than the A380 and pretty darn sexy—for an airplane—so we can’t wait to see it for the first time.

· easyJet:
They originally announced their intention to head to Iceland late last year, but now it’s finally time for easyJet to start doing its thing. The new flights started up earlier this week, as the low cost carrier will connect London’s Luton Airport with Reykjavik. The new flights do their thing three times per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. It might not be short sleeve weather over in Iceland just yet, but it’s never too chilly to check out the Blue Lagoon.

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Travel Advertising / London Travel / Britain Travel / British Airways / 2012 London Olympics / → All Tags

The Baggage Claim Carousel, Imagined as an Olympic Race

The city of London is the only destination on Earth get be declared a Top 10 destination by both Lonely Planet and Frommer's this year. The British capital is of course going to host the Olympics this summer, which apparently is kind of a capital-t Thing, which means that the city is going to get a little crowded.

It also means that we're going to see travel advertising tie-in after travel advertising tie-in, with every brand and company in existence trying to cash in on the buzz. That theme is going to get very annoying very quickly, but right now it's all just kicking off. There are even some people who think this early example, from British Airways, is cute. Maybe even too cute.

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Events / In-Flight Meals / Airplane Food / London Travel / British Airways / Food Travel / → All Tags

British Airways Starts the Olympics Celebrations Early with a Pop-Up London Restaurant

One of the current meals in economy class on BA

Eating airplane food on airplanes not enough for you? Luckily British Airways is going to satisfy those cravings for "chicken or beef?" with a pop-up restaurant called BA2012, opening in the Shoreditch area of London "on select weekdays" from April 4-17.

The space will be a "three-in-one art gallery, cinema and dining lounge," designed as much like the interior of an aircraft as they can manage, all to showcase the works of "the BA Great Britons" mentored by Richard E Grant, Tracey Emin and Heston Blumenthal. These artists, Prasanna Purwanarajah, Pascal Anson and Simon Hulstone, are behind the Olympic-themed films, menus and—oooohhh a special livery for aircraft—will be previewed here just as they go out onboard the actual fleet.

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Airline News / OpenSkies / Business Class Travel / Economy Class Travel / France Travel / British Airways / → All Tags

OpenSkies Adds Economy...Again!

Some airlines giveth, some airlines taketh away. Depending on how you prefer to travel, this could be a matter of both. British Airways' all-premium cousin, OpenSkies has announced the addition of a third class onto their 757s flying over the Atlantic. Besides the Biz Beds and Biz Seats, passengers can now expect an all new, Eco Class

Looking back at the history of this BA subsidiary, this 3-class concept is not new at all. When first launched, OpenSkies originally had a small economy cabin that offered customers a more upscale flying experience. After the merger with L'Avion in 2008, aircraft were reconfigured to an all-business class model featuring both lie-flat and recliner business class seats.

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Religion Travel / LOT / Poland Travel / British Airways / Air France / Airline News / Airline Uniforms / → All Tags

Airline Uniforms are Keeping the Faith

For airlines that fly internationally, cultural sensitivity is occasionally part of employee training. We have already talked about Alaska Airlines eliminating prayer cards from their first class meal trays. While the Alaskan carrier abandoned the in-flight faith, other airlines have gone the next step to ensure a religious vacuum while flying on their birds.

The Polish flag-carrier, LOT, may be added to the list of airlines that walk the fine line of being politically correct while upholding consistent uniform guidelines. The airline has been involved in quite a firestorm recently by banning cabin crew from wearing religious symbols that are visible to passengers. After much debate in the deeply religious nation, the carrier decided to renege on their decision and maintain original policy.

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Flight Attendants / British Airways / Airlines / LHR / JFK / → All Tags

What's Behind One of the 'Private' Doors in a British Airways 747

Ever wondered where your flight attendants sleep on long-hauls? The hidden cubby holes on a plane have always fascinated us (especially when we see things like this—so we couldn’t have been more thrilled when a rogue FA left the door open to their digs on our recent British Airways flight from Heathrow to JFK.

Right at the back of the 747-400, behind row 50-something and beside the bathrooms, the “staff only” door was ajar and revealing...steps! And a little ladder! Rarely have we seen something so enticing.

Since we’re not ones for being wrestled to the ground as terrorists, we didn’t dare climb up, but we’re totally hoping that up those stairs, something cozy like this is what was lurking.

Oh to be a jetsetting, cubby-sleeping flight attendant. Sigh.

Photo: Juliab for Jaunted

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Fly to Moscow for the Russian Election with a Semi-Secret British Airways Deal

Here at Jaunted we’re used to hearing about special deals to mark special occasions. And, let’s be honest, they’re normally pretty rubbish. So we’re massively intrigued about a new hidden offer that British Airways has come up with.

For some reason (maybe a BA person can explain), BA is classifying its four-hour Heathrow-Moscow flight as long-haul, and adding in planes that carry First Class and World Traveller Plus as well as economy and business. The route upgrade begins March 25, but for some bizarre-but-welcome reason, they’re offering a sneak preview of the new route on two specific flights next month.

Fly out on BA0872 on 4 March (8.40am start) and back on BA0873 on 6 March (at 6pm) and you’ll pay just £99 each way in economy, and £149 each way in business. Including taxes.

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