Rzeszów and Poznań

Apologies for not posting much - I have been travelling and doing TV and radio appearances (about Brexit, what else?). Before returning to blessed Lenten topics, a quick round-up of snaps from my trips to Rzeszów (Tuesday) and Poznań (Friday). First, Rzeszów. A 40-minute hop from Warsaw. Unlike Wroclaw and Tri-City where the rail modernisation means you can do a day's business there from Warsaw leaving and returning the same day, Rzeszów and Szczecin remain beyond the range of the railways. One way from Warsaw to Rzeszów by train (change at Kraków) is around five hours. But by air, from home, two and half hours.

Below: my seat on the way out, right at the very back of a LOT Polish Airlines Embraer E175 (20A). Nice to get some sunshine, albeit through thick glass! Note the LOT logo on the winglet - designed by Tadeusz Gronowski in 1929, could this be the oldest airline logo in continuous use (90 years this year!) anywhere in the world?

Weather in Rzeszów - snow still on the ground, sunshine alternating with dark clouds rushing in on strong winds bringing more snow and hail, only to rush past leaving sun before next belts of clouds hurry on.

Rzeszów is the capital of Poland's Aviation Valley - many aerospace manufacturers, large and small, have clustered here. British firms too - McBraida, Poeton, Bodycote - working for the big international players. Not just building planes, but teaching aeronautical skills takes place in Rzeszów; below: a Cessna 152 basic trainer was doing touch-and-goes at the airport.

Today's meeting was at the McBraida factory, which makes made-to-order aeroplane parts from hard-to-machine materials such as titanium. The factory is just a short (but muddy) walk from the airport in the adjacent technology park.The flight back was in a LOT Polish Airlines Bombardier Q400 (below). Take-off was at 18:00; I was home at 19:45 - which included a walk from the airport to W-wa Okęcie station and the walk home from W-wa Jeziorki station (around 3,000 paces / 30mins walking).

On to Poznań, for the opening of GlaxoSmithKline's new global business centre. By next year, it will employ 300 people in high-end accountancy and finance roles serving all of GSK's European operations. The biggest concern is finding and retaining skilled people in a city where the registered unemployment rate is just 1.3%, and the economically inactive rate (strip out the cash-in-hand workers) is around 0.8%. The city of Poznań has the lowest unemployment in Poland... and yet, I can't help noticing that compared to other big Polish cities, it's a bit scruffy...

Below: I seemed to have stopped doing Old School Photochallenge posts around 2011, but - well, look you here! There is literally not a single hallmark that would prevent one from placing this photo back in 1989. And yet. Ul. Konopnickiej, Poznań. Friday 16 March 2019.

Below: more old-school retailing; this is the factory-shop window of Herbapol Poznań.

Below: this is more like the Poznań of my imagination - dour Germanic architecture, modern offices and green trams - looking down ul. Fredry, leading (eventually) to the Old Market.

Below: wide streets, good public transport, yet I'm getting the feeling that Poznań could do with a major wash-and-brush-up. It's a wealthier city than it looks.

Usually, I remove grafitto from my published photos with Photoshop, so as not to give vandals any more undue exposure for their uncivilised behaviour than necessary. But this piece (left), on a historical landmark, the Zespół domów urzędniczych on Ul. Marcelińska, is one for metaphysicists to ponder: never mind that energy = mass times the speed of light squared - here in Poznań we learn the equation that time = joy. Heraldicly crossed in saltire, two Camberwell Carrots (or more likely Marchewki Marcelińskie) rather suggest how the artist prefers to spend their time.

Today, I covered 14km around Poznań on foot - the best way to really get to know a city. It occurred to me a while back that the reason my spatial awareness of Poznań for many years was poor stemmed from the fact that I associate the Warsaw to Berlin railway line as one that runs from east to west. Yet as it passes through Poznań - near enough the midway point, it does a little zigzag; the rails running through the city's main station are aligned north-south. So the Poznań Trade Fair buildings are west of the station - not north, as I'd imagined them. And the old town is north-east of the station - and not south-east. This insight only came to me when I got a smartphone with Google Maps in it; prior to that, I'd never noticed!

This time four years ago:
Spiritual mentors and spiritual leaders

This time five years ago:

Architectural contrasts around Wilanowska

This time six years ago:

In memory of me

This time seven years ago:

Cleaning sensors on my Nikons

This time eight years ago:
Changing seasons and one's samopoczucie

This time nine years ago:
Stunning late-winter beauty
[these are among my most gorgeous winter photos ever]

This time ten years ago:
Lenten fare - Jeziorki gumbo

This time 11 years ago:
Digging up Dawidowska

Late Or Tomorrow

LOT Polish Airlines - what do the initials stand for? Well - like the word 'spa' - it's a word, not an acronym; the word lot in Polish means 'flight'. But for its passengers, more offer than not, it means 'Late Or Tomorrow'. So many flights delayed or cancelled, the airline is becoming a national joke.

Today marks the start of an intensive period of business travel - Rzeszów - Kraków - Wrocław - Warsaw - London. The first leg is to be a flight from Warsaw to Rzeszów, on LOT Polish Airlines. Boarding due at 10:00, departure 10:30, arrival 11:25.

Shortly after 10, passengers were informed that our flight was delayed "for technical reasons". We were told that we would be kept informed - we were not. Outside the window, however, we could see our plane, an Embraer ERJ-195, standing by the sleeve, with its left-hand engine's inspection panel open and two mechanics working away at it. This continued beyond departure time (no announcements). Then a fire engine turned up. The panel was closed, the engine started up. No flames on anything untoward, standard operating practice - when unplanned engine maintenance work has been completed, a fire engine has to be present. The sleeve pulls back from the airliner's door (bad news). The fire engine drives off (good news). The mechanics gather their tools and drive ofp in their van. We wait. Finally an announcement calls us to the gate to commence boarding. A bit more delay inside the plane.

The plane leaves the ground at 11:55, and touches down in Rzeszów at 12:27; flying time 32 minutes.

Left: just checking, yes, the engine is still there. [Aerial photo interpretation challenge: Anyone care to tell me what's the town down below? Plenty of clues there.]

The flight is smooth, the weather great, the views lovely. But the arrival is over an hour late. I dash for a taxi and make it to the meeting arriving ten minutes late. Not the end of the world, but the first presentation is already under way (from our host), and my late arrival does not look good.

LOT's in-flight magazine, Kaleidoscope, has a foreword from the airline's chairman apologising for the frequent delays experienced by passengers over the summer period, saying that this is now in the past. Clearly it is not. Yesterday, I read the story of a LOT flight (by Boeing Dreamliner) from Warsaw to Beijing that flew as far as the Urals then had to turn around and head back to Warsaw "because of vibration from one of the engines".

Not looking good for LOT. I wrote earlier about the Polish government's ambitions to build a new central communications port south-west of Warsaw in Baranów; this will only be feasible if LOT can grow in the next few years into a 'super-connector' airline to rival Emirates, Qatar and Turkish; this will not happen if passengers lose trust in the airline's ability to get them to their destinations on time. All down to proper maintenance. Prices too - this summer, my father's flight to Warsaw with my daughter Moni on LOT cost nearly twice as much as my father's return flight to London with me via BA.

My last LOT flight, from Munich, arrived late in Warsaw (just under an hour, but it was an evening flight and the delay cut into my sleep time); my father's first flight to Warsaw in 40 years, by LOT, arrived four hours late); the sobriquet 'Late Or Tomorrow' is justifiably deserved.

This time three years ago:
English as she is used in Europe

This time four years ago:
Where asphalt's needed - Nowy Podolszyn to Zgorzala

This time nine years ago:
I cycle to work along the cyclepath along ul. Rosoła

This time ten years ago:
First apple (today, the same tree groans with fruit)

This time 11 years ago:
Late summer spiders webs

Luton Airport, revisited

Luton Airport is living proof that Change Alone is Eternal, Perpetual, Immortal. I can't honestly say I can't remember when the current modernisation works began; they had no beginning and seem to have no end. The passenger flow from groundside to airside on Departures and from airside to groundside on Arrivals is in a state of permanent flux. Security, which used to be done on the first floor, is now on the ground floor; acres of new shopping space have been added over the years, with many units still not leased.

[By way of background, I fly through Luton around ten times a year and have done so for the past 10 or 12 years, so yeah, I know the place well. I know that you'll always find a seat at the new Pret-a-Manger, located where Bar Ten used to be by Gates 1-7. I know the free airport wifi is invariably crap, especially whenever there are any significant delays. And I know that W.H.M. Shit (anag) rarely has those large 15p bags needed to hold your magazines and other purchases. And that free copies of the Times are available by the gates, but run out early, though the rack by Gate 28 usually still has some even in the evenings.]

Today I was in for a shock as I left the baggage area for the exit - again it has changed. Once again, one leaves through a different set of doors, back to where they once were... or were they? It was so long ago... Below: a new look for Arrivals.

All change, but the signage isn't keeping up. Or the communication. Once, there were two machines serving railway tickets in the baggage reclaim area. Here, one could buy a ticket to London, ahead of the crowds queueing by the ticket machines nearer the exit. Those machines in the baggage area went a while back, on my last visit the ones by the exit were gone too.

Today, I wandered through the Arrivals hall, bewildered. The exit had been shifted - no sign of anywhere to buy tickets for onward travel - bus or train. The actual exit is now closer to the entrance area for Departures, and a long way from the stop for the bus taking passengers on to Luton 'Airport' Parkway station. Stuff it - if they can't sell me a ticket, I'll walk to the station, I decided. I ended up walking past some new construction (car park? offices?), through the National Express departure bays (all in new positions), then, beyond the drop-off point, finding myself having to hop over fences (in full view of the police) to cross the road in the wrong place to save myself backtracking several hundred metres.

The road from the airport to its station was not designed for, nor by, pedestrians. Either way, one is forced to walk along the verge of a busy road, without pavements. It's doable - it takes about 30 minutes (40 minutes in the snow) if you don't have more than a light rucksack. and it saves £2.10 on the bus fare.

Anyway, I get to Luton 'Airport' Parkway station, buy my ticket to town (£14.70), train comes in promptly and all is well. But I shall be going through 'London' Luton Airport airport again on Monday; will all go smoothly?

Luton is not my airport of choice; Heathrow is so much closer to my father's. But Luton is where the low-cost carriers fly into. I can get from Warsaw to Luton for 198 zł one way (£41) ticket bought three weeks in advance. The train to town is £14.70, tube across London (off peak) is £2.80, bus from Ealing Broadway to my father's is £1.50 (total £21.10 including airport bus). In other words, the 1,000 mile flight costs just twice as much as the 30 mile overland journey from airport to Ealing.

Now, all this is important in the context of a no-deal Brexit. If the UK should tumble out of the Open Skies treaty, third-country airlines won't be able to ply their trade between an EU member state and a non-member state. So forget flying an Irish or Hungarian airline between Poland and the UK - one will be stuck with national carriers, LOT and British Airways.

Looking three weeks ahead, BA's cheapest London-Warsaw ticket is £201. That's five times more than WizzAir. OK, so the tube's much cheaper (£1.50 off-peak from Heathrow Terminals 1-3 to South Ealing), but so what. LOT is half the price of BA (£102.70 for the cheapest flight one-way, three weeks out). Still two-and-half times pricier than WizzAir.

Which is just one reason why I really hate Brexit.

FOLLOW-UP 5 May 2018: Just seen the article in yesterday's City AM - WizzAir has just registered its UK operation as a separate entity, with eight planes and 300 staff. No doubt the planes, all based at Luton, will have G-____ registrations (rather than H-____ as at present). Registering then in the UK, taking on extra UK staff, will not be cheap. Costs will be passed on to the passengers. Unnecessary duplication of business process - just for the sake of Brexit.

This time three years ago:
Another office move (I'm pleased say we're still in the same building!)

This time four years ago:
Workhorse of the Free World's Air Forces over Jeziorki

This time five years ago:
Looking for The Zone, in and around Jeziorki

This time seven years ago:
I awake to snow, on 4 May

This time 11 years ago:
This is not America. No?

LOT's second Dreamliner over Jeziorki

Last month, LOT Polish Airlines took delivery of their second Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and we were fortunate enough to catch it flying in a cloudless blue sky on our New Year's walk around Jeziorki. Weather conditions, for the record - most clement; +5C, southerly winds.

The second Dreamliner, registration SP-LRB, is carrying out technical trial flights, while the first one, SP-LRA, is currently flying fare-paying passengers on short-haul flights (Prague, London Heathrow etc). These shake-down flights are intended to get crew and mechanics familiarised with the new machines (the first in Europe) before they start flying to far-off destinations in Asia or North America.

It is a most handsome aircraft, with a shape that's instantly recognisable; subtly more modern that other large twin-jet passenger airliners like the Boeing 767 or Airbus A330. LOT's Dreamliner fleet will augmented by SP-LRC, -LRD and -LRE by mid-March. There are, of course, question marks re: Polish government support for the ailing state-owned airline and whether the EU will accept further state aid (think of Alitalia and Olympic airlines).

Also notable in the skies over Okęcie right now is the vast number of WizzAir and RyanAir flights diverted here from Modlin while the new airport has its runway refurbished (already!) and ILS installed (fog has plagued the airport from late autumn on). The works are due to be completed by the middle of this month, let's wait and see, but until then, Okęcie is busier than ever.

Another newcomer to Okęcie is Qatar Airlines, which launched its Warsaw-Doha service last month (cost of return flight? Around 4,000 zlotys/€1,000). The two capitals are linked by four flights a week. Emirates will start flying into Okęcie next month thus vastly improving air links from Poland to the Middle East.

This time last year:
New Year's coal train

This time five years ago:
Winter train

Dreamliner over Jeziorki

At long last! I see it with my own eyes, after the years of waiting and delay - here she is! The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, in Linie Lotnicze LOT livery, over my house! SP-LRA, the first of LOT's fleet of eight aircraft ordered from Boeing. In fact, this is the very first Dreamliner to be delivered to a European airline.

I could make it out from a great distance - even well beyond Piaseczno, its long, flexy wings, bent upward at the tips like a slender banana, are unmistakeable. Far enough for me to grab my camera, change lenses to the mighty Nikkor 80-400mm (equivalent to 600mm on a DX-format sensor) and pop out onto the balcony. It sure makes and impression - it is big, it is quiet - and yet... and yet - those windows. The passenger windows are much larger than on any other airliner, giving the visual impression that the plane is therefore smaller than it really is. But I can assure you, the 787-8 Dreamliner is big; its 2m longer and with a 13m longer wingspan than the 767-300s that it will replace in LOT service. The Boeing 767 has been in commercial service for 30 years; LOT's fleet dates back to the early 1990s.

Below: LOT's 767-300, SP-LPA over Jeziorki, January 2009. And on the subject of LOT's 767 fleet, click here to see the most widely viewed post on my blog of all time ever (Captain Tadeusz Wrona bringing the disabled SP-LPE down over Jeziorki en route to a safe wheels-up landing at Okęcie).

This morning, I watched the Dreamliner flying south over Auchan, Piaseczno. A lovely sight, and so quiet too. By March of next year there will be more Dreamliners in LOT's fleet, serving the long-distance routes. For now, SP-LRA is flying training and promotional flights to regional airports.

I wish the new fleet well. LOT has had no fatalities during its post-communist history - may it continue to fly safely, may the Dreamliners serve as well as their predecessors. And may we one day fly one across the Atlantic to visit the New World.