I worked as cabin Crew for Palmair on the 737-200 series and I had the great honour of being their first male steward. I remember how shocked I was when I first set foot on it. Having previously worked on the B777 it felt very old. When Palmair started operating it I think it was around 35 years old. However Alfa Charlie as we called her was a loyal old girl who served us well. The nose on take off as I sat in my jump seat in the rear galley was incredibly loud! The crew were great and most stay in touch all these years later. We were paid a ridiculously low wage, infact it was so bad, to pay my mortgage I ended up after a flight going back to the crew room and changing into old clothes to return to the aircraft and clean it for extra money! The passengers were wonderful and we had some great day trips visiting various European cities. Peter Bath would often wave us off and it all felt very special. Sadly those days are gone but I'm very proud to say I worked for a very unique airline. Myself and a few colleagues are plastered over the back of the aircraft in the museum at Bournemouth. You can find me above the fire extinguisher....oh fame at last!
wow! thanks for getting in touch Andy, it's great to hear memories from the folks involved. I didn't know the wages were that low. Yeah I bet it was quite a change from the 777, I recall when one of our pursers took his first look inside out 737-400 and nearly cried, though just like your 200 we loved our "old girl" :) I can see you were a close knit bunch which sure helps and of course all those memories too :) It really is a shame there isn't another company around with the same spirit and level of personal touch as Palmair, maybe it's time for someone to scratch around and see if they can find an old bird parked up and ready to rock ;) I'll be sure to take a look the next time I'm visiting the museum :)
Listening to the amount of day trip destinations that Palmair offered. I couldn’t even imagine going all the way to Cairo, just for a day trip! 5 hours there, probably only get around 2 or 3 hours in Cairo and then 5 hours back.
Yeah I thought it was a bit of a stretch, when I looked at their itinerary it seems that folks would get 4-5 hours in Egypt with most of the time being an escorted tour of the Pyramids. It still involved an earlier start and later finish at Bournemouth though, I do think that the older folks who made up the clientele had a better tolerance to such a trip though ;)
Thanks Liam, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I am working on both Monarch and Caledonian, the latter as part of a Thomas Cook arc which looks at all of the airlines in their lineage.
That was absolutely brilliant. I flew on Palmair aircraft to different destinations over the years and it was always a great experience all the staff and air crew were superb .
Thanks Jeff, I'm glad you enjoyed it. They were a great little airline and while it is a shame that they have gone, at least they were wound down in an orderly fashion and as a result folks will have happy memories rather than "that airline that ruined our holiday" like what happens with sudden shutdowns.
Thanks Darren, I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying the series :) I haven't done Spanair yet however I have got a research file in progress on them so shouldn't be too far off ;)
Thank you so much for this! I've always been interested in the story of Palm Air. You find such interesting and valuable facts! I'd love to add FlyJet and Silverjet and Flyglobespan to the list of requests. Sorry for all the requests I appreciate you take a lot of time and effort to make each video :)
Thank you, I'm very glad to hear that you enjoyed this one :) I did actually miss a few things out of this episode (for timing purposes and also because I was so stressed that I forgot things - I spent 45+ hours this week on this one). I was surprised about a few things when researching it and it was always my intention to cover Palmair as they were an interesting (and evidently surprising) little airline. I am working on both Flyjet & Silverjet, I hit a bit of a wall as the transition from one to the other is very tricky (lots of twists) Globespan is in the works too. I appreciate requests, it usually means someone is watching ;)
I can tell you put a lot of hard work into this and your other videos too! At least it's kept you busy during lockdown :) Ah I'm so pleased to hear you're working on FlyJet/Silverjet, and I'm not surprised to hear that there a lot of twists haha. Thanks again!
Sad that it went under but the 737-200 is now at bournemouth air museum I visited a couple times and I enjoyed sitting in the cockpit thanks for covering history of palmair 😁
Thanks Ruben :) Yes I need to visit the museum the next time I am down there, it has been quite a while since I saw the 737 as back then it was still in service :)
@@ExpoAviation thanks - just one more question if I may. You mention W sectors (I think it was in this vid) - is the following example correct. Manchester - Palma - Gatwick - Palma - Manchester?
Yes that's what we call W-Patterns as when plotted on a map it looks like a crude "W". During my time at Excel we had one aircraft which did another odd routing Newcastle - Thessaloniki - Bristol - East Midlands - Thessaloniki - Newcastle. It covered three UK departure points with one bird and was possible because the Bristol and East Midlands passengers only took up half the plane each. From a Bristol crewmember's perspective it was easy money but a very boring day as we spent 20 minutes maximum in the air but hours in ground transport.
I worked as cabin Crew for Palmair on the 737-200 series and I had the great honour of being their first male steward. I remember how shocked I was when I first set foot on it. Having previously worked on the B777 it felt very old. When Palmair started operating it I think it was around 35 years old. However Alfa Charlie as we called her was a loyal old girl who served us well. The nose on take off as I sat in my jump seat in the rear galley was incredibly loud! The crew were great and most stay in touch all these years later. We were paid a ridiculously low wage, infact it was so bad, to pay my mortgage I ended up after a flight going back to the crew room and changing into old clothes to return to the aircraft and clean it for extra money! The passengers were wonderful and we had some great day trips visiting various European cities. Peter Bath would often wave us off and it all felt very special. Sadly those days are gone but I'm very proud to say I worked for a very unique airline. Myself and a few colleagues are plastered over the back of the aircraft in the museum at Bournemouth. You can find me above the fire extinguisher....oh fame at last!
wow! thanks for getting in touch Andy, it's great to hear memories from the folks involved. I didn't know the wages were that low. Yeah I bet it was quite a change from the 777, I recall when one of our pursers took his first look inside out 737-400 and nearly cried, though just like your 200 we loved our "old girl" :) I can see you were a close knit bunch which sure helps and of course all those memories too :) It really is a shame there isn't another company around with the same spirit and level of personal touch as Palmair, maybe it's time for someone to scratch around and see if they can find an old bird parked up and ready to rock ;) I'll be sure to take a look the next time I'm visiting the museum :)
Will look out for you by the extinguisher Andy! (see my previous comment)
Oh my god, thank you so much! This was my favourite airline ever!
You're very welcome! I did say that I'd do it, just took a lot longer than planned ;)
Listening to the amount of day trip destinations that Palmair offered. I couldn’t even imagine going all the way to Cairo, just for a day trip! 5 hours there, probably only get around 2 or 3 hours in Cairo and then 5 hours back.
Yeah I thought it was a bit of a stretch, when I looked at their itinerary it seems that folks would get 4-5 hours in Egypt with most of the time being an escorted tour of the Pyramids. It still involved an earlier start and later finish at Bournemouth though, I do think that the older folks who made up the clientele had a better tolerance to such a trip though ;)
Fantastic, thank you. I would love to see something on Monarch and Caledonian Airways.
Thanks Liam, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I am working on both Monarch and Caledonian, the latter as part of a Thomas Cook arc which looks at all of the airlines in their lineage.
This was amazing!! Thank you!
Thank you, I'm glad that you enjoyed it :)
That was absolutely brilliant. I flew on Palmair aircraft to different destinations over the years and it was always a great experience all the staff and air crew were superb .
Thanks Jeff, I'm glad you enjoyed it. They were a great little airline and while it is a shame that they have gone, at least they were wound down in an orderly fashion and as a result folks will have happy memories rather than "that airline that ruined our holiday" like what happens with sudden shutdowns.
@@ExpoAviation Thank you for doing the video it brought back some happy memories. You did a very good job.
Really enjoying getting through this great series!!!. Recently subbed.. I was looking for a possible Spanair episode??
Thanks Darren, I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying the series :) I haven't done Spanair yet however I have got a research file in progress on them so shouldn't be too far off ;)
Thank you for making this video! I live right under the flight path next to Bournemouth, my mother has been telling me about this airline recently.
It was my pleasure, I hope you enjoyed it :)
@@ExpoAviation I certainly did!
Absolutely fantastic Phil!
Very hard work put in here well done
Thanks Jamie, I really appreciate that :)
Thank you so much for this! I've always been interested in the story of Palm Air. You find such interesting and valuable facts! I'd love to add FlyJet and Silverjet and Flyglobespan to the list of requests. Sorry for all the requests I appreciate you take a lot of time and effort to make each video :)
Thank you, I'm very glad to hear that you enjoyed this one :) I did actually miss a few things out of this episode (for timing purposes and also because I was so stressed that I forgot things - I spent 45+ hours this week on this one). I was surprised about a few things when researching it and it was always my intention to cover Palmair as they were an interesting (and evidently surprising) little airline. I am working on both Flyjet & Silverjet, I hit a bit of a wall as the transition from one to the other is very tricky (lots of twists) Globespan is in the works too. I appreciate requests, it usually means someone is watching ;)
I can tell you put a lot of hard work into this and your other videos too! At least it's kept you busy during lockdown :) Ah I'm so pleased to hear you're working on FlyJet/Silverjet, and I'm not surprised to hear that there a lot of twists haha. Thanks again!
Sad that it went under but the 737-200 is now at bournemouth air museum I visited a couple times and I enjoyed sitting in the cockpit thanks for covering history of palmair 😁
Thanks Ruben :) Yes I need to visit the museum the next time I am down there, it has been quite a while since I saw the 737 as back then it was still in service :)
I'd never even heard of the airline until now (perhaps because I live up norf!). Interesting story for sure, especially the longevity of it.
They did come up to Manchester occasionally but I don't think they went any further north than that ;) Glad you enjoyed it :)
@@ExpoAviation thanks - just one more question if I may. You mention W sectors (I think it was in this vid) - is the following example correct. Manchester - Palma - Gatwick - Palma - Manchester?
Yes that's what we call W-Patterns as when plotted on a map it looks like a crude "W". During my time at Excel we had one aircraft which did another odd routing Newcastle - Thessaloniki - Bristol - East Midlands - Thessaloniki - Newcastle. It covered three UK departure points with one bird and was possible because the Bristol and East Midlands passengers only took up half the plane each. From a Bristol crewmember's perspective it was easy money but a very boring day as we spent 20 minutes maximum in the air but hours in ground transport.
Thanks
Really enjoy all your videos and stories 😀
Wow thanks Adam :) I'm really glad you are enjoying the vids :)
Do a story on Air Finland.
Will do :)