Flying Archives - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

America, Countries, Europe, Flying, Sport

A tale of Lief, Erling and Transatlantic Norse power

11th July 202611th July 2026 funtime65

The Americans have never seen anything like it before, only they have… it’s a tale of Leif, Erling and Transatlantic Norse power.

Because, in truth, Leif Eriksson and the Vikings were the first settlers of North America.

Nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus.

When the longboats made terra firma at L’Anse aux Meadowes in Newfoundland.

And made their way over the years, four million of them, to the Upper Midwest and the Pacific Northwest.

Mostly to Minnesota, the Dakotas, Wisconsin, Washington State and California.

The Norse Home Country

Well, they’ve been joined, as we’ve all seen in the last month, by crewmen and women from the Old Country.

With the Norwegians giving the Scots a run for their money as the party people of this World Cup.

With their Viking-rooing, or Viking rowing crowd surge.

Even taking over escalators in Boston.

And those very same Scots taking to Norway as their adopted team.

Well, the nearest train station for Shetlanders is Bergen.

Row, row, row your boat

And while none got wet in its production apart from spilled lager.

Modern Norsemen did put their backs into it to row all the way across the Atlantic.

With 338 Norwegian supporters crossing the Atlantic on Norse Atlantic Airways’ longship to New York.

Of course, most of us don’t have that amount of time (and that’s our excuse) so we avail instead of their flights.

The stuff of legend

Norse have been putting on extra seats for Miami for their quarter-final match with England.

And we dare say that Norse flights will be in high demand for the final on Sunday, July 19 in New Jersey.

But here they are, should you be free for next Sunday, from £1,082 return Saturday to Monday.

America, Countries, Flying

All over for Uber with LA’s driverless cars

30th June 202630th June 2026 funtime65

They’re something to be said for cutting out the muddleman and in La La Land they’re gearing up for it being all over for Uber with LA‘s driverless cars.

And at the risk of getting blacklisted by the car ride behemoth and getting stranded somewhere unfriendly.

I’ve decided to get on board the driverless revolution.

Which transforms your holiday from. the moment you land at LAX.

Flying by the seat of your pants

From standing around jet-lagged after your luggage has been waylaid and you’re looking out tired for a car-reg to take you Downtown.

When you could have taken the train, explored the historic station and original Spanish settlement which I did on the way back.

Or if you just want to get to your destination after your weary journey then LAX will cut out that muddleman.

You know the Uber driver who is new to the country and doesn’t know their way around and drives you around in a circle.

OK that was in Santa Monica and then before that in Washington DC but you get the picture, which they didn’t.

Tech it in your stride

The Tech Tourism experience begins the moment visitors land at Los Angeles International Airport.

Where one of the world’s largest multi-billion dollar airport modernisation projects is creating a faster, smarter and more seamless journey.

Which gets you out on your trip quicker because of facial recognition and biometric screening to automated check-in and faster immigration processing via the Mobile Passport Control (MPC) app.

LAX is embracing a future of frictionless travel.

Electric trickery

The result is shorter queues, fewer document checks and a faster journey through one of the world’s busiest airports.

Then there’s the SkyLink, which opened this year.

The new automated people mover, a driverless electric train system which will connect terminals.

As well as the consolidated rent-a-car facility and Metro services.

Allowing visitors to bypass road traffic and move through one of the world’s busiest airports with unprecedented ease.

Right that’s your in-airport experience sorted.

Herbie and the driverless fleet

Now to get you out there and explore the City of Angels.

Without having to worry about your drivers, what they tell you is wrong with the country.

And whether you’ll get to your destination.

Wheno Waymo‘s autonomous vehicles will sort out your sensors and real-time mapping.

With Herbie, and wasn’t he the first, navigating the city’s busy streets .

Visitors can simply book a ride through an app.

And experience firsthand a technology that is redefining urban mobility.

Countries, Flying, Ireland, UK

Iolar where the Aer Lingus eagle dares again

27th May 202627th May 2026 funtime65

Is it a bird, is it a plane… no it’s an Irish plane Iolar where the Aer Lingus eagle dares again.

Should you have been out for a stroll around Bristol in the West Country of England on May 27, 1936 then you’d have been in for a shock.

When a Havilland DH.84 Dragon, or Iolar or Irish eagle in Gaelic parlance, flew over your head.

If you’re still around today of course, you won’t bat an eyelid at metal birds flying over your heads.

But sometimes it does no harm to turn the clock back.

And that’s what Aer Lingus has done, flying the EI-ABIIolar from Dublin to Bristol as part of its 90th anniversary celebrations.

The craic was 90

Green for go: Aer Lingus cabin crew members Laura Stapleton and Nicola Crimmins. Picture: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

Back in 1936, Aer Lingus was a fledgling airline with one aircraft, one route, five passengers, driven by an ambition to connect Ireland to the world.

Since then, the airline has flown everyone from Popes to Presidents, proudly providing an enduring connection between Ireland, the UK, Europe and North America.

Aer Lingus’ de Havilland DH.84 Dragon, EI-ABIIolar, is one of the last remaining aircrafts of its type and represents Ireland’s rich and storied aviation history.

As Aer Lingus’ first aircraft, EI-ABI Iolaroperated for two years with the newly-formed Irish airline, before it was sold and later lost during World War II.

Today’s Iolaris, a sister aircraft to the original, which was welcomed into the Aer Lingus fleet in the 1960s.

It was first restored for the airline’s 50^th anniversary in 1986. Now re-registered as EI-ABI, Iolar remains an enduring symbol of Aer Lingus’ heritage.

The Irish Volunteers

Landed: Laura and Nicola emerge from EI-ABI, Iolar. Picture: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

Iolar had been proudly on display in Aer Lingus’ maintenance headquarters at Dublin Airport in recent years.

With preparations to return the aircraft to its former glory commencing ahead of Aer Lingus’ 90^th anniversary.

The four‑month restoration, carried out by Midland Aviation at Abbeyshrule Aerodrome in County Longford, was supported by a dedicated group of Aer Lingus volunteers.

The skilled team combined archival research, engineering expertise and traditional craftsmanship to restore the aircraft.

‘While preserving its structural integrity and historical authenticity.

The restoration work included maintenance and certification checks, including full top overhauls of both engines and careful cosmetic restoration of the airframe.

With the skills of one of Ireland’s last aviation carpenters playing a vital role in preserving the aircraft’s authenticity.

Around the world with Aer Lingus

Flying Aer Lingus: My go-to Transatlantic carrier

Lynne Embleton, Aer Lingus Chief Executive Officer, said: ‘I am incredibly proud of the dedication and expertise shown by our colleagues and partners in bringing Iolar back to life.

‘And preserve an important piece of our history for future generations.

‘As we mark our 90th anniversary, we’re conscious not only of where we have come from, but how far we have progressed over the past nine decades.

‘From that first flight carrying five passengers across the Irish Sea, the airline today connects Ireland to over 100 destinations across Europe, the UK and North America.’

Of course, much as we would like the intimacy of a five-passenger flight we recognise times change and will relent to share our experience with others.

Even when liquored-up rugger buggers (and England’s west country is full of them) think it’s a great wheeze.

To chuck nuts at each other and past our heads.

Thankfully though Aer Lingus’s angels in the air are always there to intervene on our behalf.

Countries, Europe, Flying

Get off to a flier with twin trips

10th May 202610th May 2026 funtime65

And as our own race across the world continues here’s how to get off to a flier with twin trips.

All of us know that burning curiosity of looking out over to the next field.

Before finding out for ourselves how green it is.

With visitors on our loveholidays odyssey to Rhodes availing of the hop, skip and jump to Marmaris in Turkey.

Symi, see you: And Turkey on the horizon

And sailing into Turkish broadband space in Greek Dodecanese Island Symi.

Just as we found on the Jordan side of the world’s waterway the Red Sea when we entered into Israeli broadband space.

While we looked out over the Jordan river itself at the site of John’s baptism of Jesus to Israel.

Broadening our borders

There are many ways to cross a border, some more hospitable than others.

And we’ve climbed every mountain to walk unopposed through a metal gate from Austria into Germany.

And will walk across the International Bridge from Valenca do Minho in Portugal to Tui in Galicia in north-west Spain on Camino.

With La Raya/A Raia (the border) Europe’s oldest, dating back to 1297.

So now we’ve outlined some of the walkable borders.

We move on to those we can traverse by train and plane.

Now our friends at our local Edinburgh Airport have pointed us in the direction of these top twin trips.

From Berlin to Biarritz

Now Poznan’s charms have naturally long been known to Poles.

But for the rest of us we only came to love the western Polish city at Euro 2012.

With their fans’ backs to the action goal celebration.

Join the Poznan wave yourself by taking a three-hour train journey from Berlin.

While Austria and Hungary are linked by proximity and politics.

And Vienna and Budapest are just two and a half hours apart.

Of course, some countries’ borders are always disputed.

And people on one side share more in common with those across the border than the rest of the country they inhabit.

As is the way of it with the Basque Country, separated by the French and Spanish border.

But, of course, you can enjoy both by train from Biarritz to San Sebastián in just over an hour.

Countries, Europe, Flying

Nothing Toulouse making rowdy fliers pay

9th May 20269th May 2026 funtime65

As you don’t have to wreck the party to have a good time we agree with Ryanair you’ve nothing Toulouse making rowdy fliers pay.

The budget airline changed the face of air travel by making it affordable for everyone.

All of which meant, of course, that everyone had more money to spend on airport drinks.

And even more opportunity when we were required to turn up more than two hours before our flights because of extra security.

Which all led to the staple of a modern holiday… airport drinks.

Merci bien to the French

Of course overgrown big kids will abuse it for the rest of the class.

And flights crews increasingly face the threat of rowdy drunken passengers imperilling everyone’s safety way up in the clouds.

And pilots forced to reroute to protect everyone on board.

With the costs that involves which inevitably get passed on in increased fares.

And what of the miscreants, well this is where our French amis have stepped forward.

Ryanair takes the lead

With Toulouse Criminal Court fining two unruly passengers a combined €10,000 (expensive round) and 10-month suspended sentences.

After they disrupted a flight from London Stansted to Ibiza last year.

Forcing 184 passengers and six crew to divert to Toulouse.

Now all of this feeds into Ryanair’s bold moves to alter our relationship with drinking and flying.

With the airline arguing that bars and restaurants should restrict passengers to two drinks each.

Which may seem draconic but should be enough to get the party started.

While leaving the serving of alcohol at the discretion of flight crew also feels eminently sensible to all.

Happy drinkers

Sobering times: Don’t make a fool of yourself

Of course, we’re no saints, and have to reveal that we circumvented the cabin staff’s rules on a transatlantic flight from London to JFK.

And took shuttles back and forth to raid the crew’s stash behind the curtain next to the loo.

But here’s the rub, we were daft kids and did not disrupt our fellow passengers other than the hundred times we got out of our seats.

So the takeaway is that by civilising airport drinks and airplane drinking we can all enjoy ourselves.

And enjoy our flights and allow cabin staff to do their jobs, which is after all to look after us.

And get us safely to our destination and not hundreds of miles away in a different country.

Countries, Deals, Europe, Flying

Glasgow’s planes like clockwork

23rd April 202623rd April 2026 funtime65

Glasgow’s planes like Swiss clockwork always arrive on time. And its trains.

Because when my birth city’s burghers go upgrading their transport network they sensibly choose Swiss.

Now few of you might put Scotland’s largest city as the third oldest subway in the world.

Built in 1896 they are only behind Budapest, earlier that year, and the Daddy of them all, London in 1863.

Which means they’ve been at it 130 years.

The toblerone underground

And in contrast to the Hungarian capital you won’t get spot-fined by a scary Magyar guard for not validating your ticket.

Today’s Glasgow Subway looks very different from the one my grandparents would have taken.

The witty Glaswegians christening the Subway they have today the Clockwork Orange on account of their orange livery.

And with some driverless trains on the way later this year.

Although our Swiss hosts, at the grand Glasgow City Chambers last night, would not say if our trains would now be toblerone-shaped.

Ca va, we’re having some fun with you here, Swiss trains run, well, like clockwork.

Edelweiss, bless my Swiss home

On the right track: With your Swiss TravelPass

We gathered to mark the opening of the new summer seasonal Edelweiss flight route from Glasgow to Zurich.

Which will launch on May 29, running twice weekly (Mondays and Fridays) until September 14.

And because this is a return arrangement us Scots have put their mark on the Edelweiss planes.

With the Scottish Leather Group, the largest manufacturer of leather in Britain, kitting out the planes and seating passengers in style.

Deal us in

Best seat in house: And they’re Scottish leather

Switzerland, of course, has four seasons like the rest of us although we naturally associate it with winter and falling down mountains.

But having enjoyed its summer charms, walking and yodelling in the valleys.

There’s a whole new summer world waiting for those who travel through Glasgow.

Now you’ll be wanting to know how much you’ll have to shell out and the fares aren’t mountainous.

We found a sample return flight for the first week in June from £215.11.

Countries, Flying, UK

The Loch Ness MonstAer

24th March 202624th March 2026 funtime65

And to mark the Irish national airline carrier’s opening of a new route to the capital of the Scottish Highlands we trust some will claim that they have seen the Loch Ness MonstAer.

Only there is no such creature, and there I’ve said it, although there are no shortage of fluffy merch toys.

As we found out on a visit to the Loch Ness Centre where the Son and Heir left the glove puppet soothing toy he carried everywhere.

Among all the other Nessies.

Of course, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it was the fabled Loch Ness Monster which put Inverness and its environs on the tourist map.

When, in fact, word of the beauty of the Scottish Highlands had long been known.

From forays from friend and foe alike over the century.

With no less a chronicler than Samuel Johnson waxing lyrical about its beauties on his 1775 A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland.

Walking in Boswell and Johnson’s footsteps

Johnson commented on the diction of the Invernessians, to this day praised as close to ‘Queen’s English.’

Saying ‘The soldiers seem to have incorporated afterwards with the inhabitants.

‘And to have peopled the place with an English race.

‘For the language of this town has been long considered as peculiarly elegant.’

Johnson and Boswell were much taken by Inverness Castle, reputed home of Macbeth, and a particular fort nearby.

‘It was no very capacious edifice, but stands upon a rock so high and steep, that I think it was once not accessible.

‘But by the help of ladders, or a bridge.

‘Over against it, on another hill, was a fort built by Cromwell, now totally demolished.

‘For no faction of Scotland loved the name of Cromwell, or had any desire to continue his memory.’

All of which will be music to newbie Irish visitors to Inverness.

With the famously warty religious zealot no friend of our Celtic cousins either.

When we got our Erse kicked

Castle in the Aer: Inverness Castle down below

Today’s Inverness Castle may be different than the one B&J visited but you’ll still be able to take in the atmosphere on your visit.

Johnson goes somewhat off track though here.

With the kind of demeaning and belittling descriptions of the Invernessians which would have him cancelled today.

Although he helpfully reminds us that the Highlands and Islands is the home of the Gaelic or Erse language.

And stop giggling there at the back.

‘There is I think a kirk, in which only the Erse language is used, he notes.

‘There is likewise an English chapel, but meanly built, where on Sunday we saw a very decent congregation.’

Go West

B&J seemingly don’t linger in Inverness, preferring to get on their journey to the remote Hebrides.

Saying: ‘At Inverness we procured three horses for ourselves and a servant, and one more for our baggage, which was no very heavy load.

‘We found in the course of our journey the convenience of having disencumbered ourselves, by laying aside whatever we could spare.

‘For it is not to be imagined without experience, how in climbing crags, and treading bogs.

‘And winding through narrow and obstructed passages, a little bulk will hinder, and a little weight will burthen.’

Bonnie Prince Charlie’s last stand

Why B&J chose not to visit the site of the last battle on British soil, at nearby Culloden in 1746, we never learn.

Although it might still have been too raw.

But you can, and learn about the fate of Bonnie Prince Charlie, and how he too fled to the Western Isles.

Or the Jacobite Train, or Hogwarts Express over Glenfinnan Viaduct.

Or why they missed too the Clava Cairns, prehistoric burial site.

And the site of The Traitors UK castle at Ardross.

We’ll give them a pass on not knowing about the Victorian Market.

Or Scotland’s second-oldest bookshop and old church, Leakey’s.

Or not heading out to Chanonry Point on the Black Isle for dolphin watching.

And they actually do exist.

Take the Aer

Aer Lingus’s Inverness route will commence from 21 May.

With the new service operating twice weekly on Thursdays and Sundays.

We found a sample return fare in May from €22.62.

Caribbean, Countries, Deals, Flying

Woah, we’re going to Aerbados

12th February 2026 funtime65

And with apologies to soft reggae revellers Typically Tropical… woah, we’re going to Aerbados, woah, Aer Lingus Airways.

Yes, you read that right… Ireland’s national airline carrier have stepped up to fill the gap.

Where floor fillers Typically Tropical gave us Coconut Airways.

Which Son and Heir and Daughterie will recognise the tune from being repurposed in Woah, we’re going to Ibiza.

Now the Balearic Island has always had its charms which we enjoyed on family holidays long before it became Rave Central.

Bridging the gap

But we have long hoped and believed that the Caribbean could more than match it.

Once we opened it up for Irish travellers with a direct route.

England’s loss here, and more specifically Manchester’s, will be Ireland’s gain.

When Aer Lingus opens up a temporary seasonal route connecting Dublin and Bridgetown from 31 March to 31 May.

With fares available from €229 each way, including taxes, fees and carrier charges and departing Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

Now it might be a small window but there’s a world of fun waiting through it once you get out there to Bim.

Just promise us that should you get along to say Club Barbados and you see a dapper dude.

Suited and booted

In penguin suit and bow tie designed on to his t-shirt in the bar chaneling his Typically Tropical then say an Irie from us.

And he’ll be happy to let you join him at the mic.

Now Club Barbados is on Barbados’s prestigious Platinum Coast but you don’t have to be Midas to afford it like you might at next-door Sandy Lane.

And join the Club

Me-me and Dee-Dee: At Crop Over in Barbados

Club Barbados is all-inclusive and adults only and we found a Garden View room for £1830.14 (€2,102.45).

And an Aer Lingus return flight for the random dates of April 7-14 for €449.11.

Countries, Flying, UK

Concorde by a nose in Scotland

21st January 202621st January 2026 funtime65

And because you can still board the greatest plane ever built without shelling out a fortune, we mark 50 years since its inaugural flight and how it’s always been Concorde by a nose in Scotland.

Because, here on our doorstep at the National Museum of Flight in East Fortune in East Lothian, east of Edinburgh, Concorde still holds pride of place in its own hangar.

Which you can board, and enjoy, for just £14.50 of your Earth money.

And see how the other half lived, and flew, back then.

It wasn’t inevitable, of course, that Scotland would house a Concorde, in this case Golf-Bravo Oscar Alpha Alpha, the first of her kind to go into service with British Airways.

Since her maiden flight in January 1976, she has flown 22,768 hours and 56 minutes, landing 8,064 times and going through 6,842 supersonic cycles.

Concorde’s most dramatic journey

In almost 25 years of service, she traversed the globe, touching down in New York, Paris, Bahrain, Miami, Calcutta, Auckland and Barbados.

Its most dramatic journey perhaps though was one where it never got off the ground.

When G-BOAA took to the water instead.

On an unforgettable week-long journey from Heathrow to a bunch of fields east of Edinburgh.

Aisle be looking after you: In-flight entertainment

Concorde was loaded onto a specialist barge, the Terra Marique, at the Thames port of Isleworth.

And sailed up the Thames and north,.

Before being rolled ashore at the British Energy jetty at Torness, East Lothian.

The pipes are calling

She was then guided by members of 39 Engineer Regiment’s 53 Field Squadron (Air Support), with a helicopter hovering overhead.

Before, in true traditional Scottish style, was greeted by two pipers on arrival.

Which is a little bit extra.

And not what you’d get at any of the four Concorde sites in England.

Worth the journey then.

Countries, Europe, Flying

An Edelweiss by any other Alpine name

15th January 202615th January 2026 funtime65

If a rose is a rose by any other name then surely it figures that an Edelweiss is… An Edelweiss by any other Apine name.

Now this horticultural turn isn’t because of the influence of my very own Green-fingered One or Burns Night coming up on January 25.

Although I did serenade her at our wedding with My Luve Is Like A Red, Red Rose.

But because of the news of Swiss airline Edelweiss Air‘s launch of new Glasgow-Zurich flights this summer.

A tale of the roses

Another flower of Scotland: The Jacobite Little White Rose

It got us thinking that symbols often come without borders.

As they grow across lines and are also celebrated and worn too by neighbours who can fall out and fall back in again.

Which is the case of the Scottish Jacobite Little White Rose.

While our English friends mark equally a Yorkshire red and Lancastrian white rose.

Small and white clean and bright

So it can be done, and is, in the Alps where the Edelweiss is hailed by both Austrians and Swiss.

And as we discovered from the globetrotting Daughterie and Mr Daughterie.

That the wee flower figures too on Romanian currency.

So if you thought that it was the preserve of Austria because of The Sound of Music then you would be wrong.

The Swiss too treasure the mountain flower and market it in their tourist brands.

As does Edelweiss Air which has been trading and flying us Helvetiaphiles out to Switzerland for 30 years this year.

An Alpine hand

How sweet is my valley: Switzerland for all seasons

Glasgow will be served by flights every Monday and Friday from May 29 to September 14.

And continuing the Burns theme this is how ithers see us.

Although we know already that the Swiss are fans.

From their regular visits up to Caledonia to showcase their beautiful country and to share Scots-Swiss stories.

Our Alpine amis describe Scotland’s largest city as ‘combining Victorian architecture with modern culture, a vibrant music scene, and a rich football tradition.

‘And thanks to its location, Glasgow is ideal for a city break.

‘As well as a perfect base for tours through the Scottish Highlands or in combination with Edinburgh.’

MEET YOU IN THE AIR