Which? magazine, famous for unbiased reviews of pretty much everything these days has concluded that the world's third best Airline is Palmair European. Over 70,000 people were surveyed apparently

Palmair (who are not really an airline as such) fly a single 737-200 belonging to European Aviation of Dorset to Majorca and Tenerife and won the accolade for among a few other things having curteous staff, removing a few seats to increase legroom and putting flowers in the loos. 

Singapore came first, so I can only assume the likes of Emirates, Cathay, Qatar, British Airways, Qantas etc will be choking on their coffee this morning after spending millions on state of the art IFE, highly trained staff, Beds and brand spanking new aircraft. The equivalent of a Datsun Sunny sweeps up!

And why thier CEO thinks the should have 3rd place 

And their secret to beating Virgin Atlantic's super-wide bed? Keep it small and provide a very personal service, says Palmair Chief Executive David Skillicorn

"We don't have the newest airplanes and we don't travel to the sexiest places in the world. These are things you can't do when you are small," Skillicorn told Forbes.com. "But if our clients have any grievances, they can talk to me directly. No forms, no letters. That's our trademark."

"Forget about the stress of boarding a plane without knowing where you will be seated. We allocate couples away from crying babies and put families together," Skillicorn said.

"We don't bombard our customers with silly offers or luxury items," he added.

Also, forget about having the same dull meal on board, as the company, together with a local catering firm, ensures meals are not repeated on the menu for at least two weeks. "We don't want you to eat the same in case you come back from your holidays in that amount of time," Skillcorn, 48, said.

Palmair, founded in 1957, started out by leasing an aircraft to take passengers to Mallorca. It now flies to 14 European destinations, mainly in the Mediterranean coast.

But will it be making profits this year? "With soaring oil prices, I can't tell you we will. But I will be happy if it breaks even. But at least, it pays my salary. Let's put it that way," Skillicorn said.

All I can think is that the Bournemouth blue rinse set don't get to fly very often. How on earth can you make a judgement of this nature based on flying once or twice a year on maybe two airlines ?. I wonder how many voted and of them how many flights they clock up a year .

It has finally happened! The tiny British colony of New Zealand has actually been erased from the charts of the Globe. I just checked on Google Map and was dismayed to discover just a vast expanse of empty ocean. So where on earth is the former World's Third Best Airline going to land? I refer of course to "Air New Zealand". We know that we could never rise to the stellar heights of BA or QANTAS, but it is a sad day indeed when some tiny little "Euro" outfit outshines us. And what is this nonsense about being able to chat directly to the CEO about complaints? Ridiculous! Out here, should one have a gripe about our State-owned flag-carrier, you must first raise a petition and locate 300,000 people who can sign their name. Then our PM appoints a Royal Commission to enquire into the complaint. It is the "British" way. I believe I am digressing/diverging/diverting/straying/meandering/wandering and perhaps even losing the plot a tad here...what was the forum topic again? And is there honey still for tea?

 Outstanding news Dakota, at least now the All Blacks will stop hammering the crap out of the home nations teams.

By joves Sir, I'll have you know that our gentlemanly team of All Blacks do not hammer the c**p out of our UK cousins. Indeed Sir, nothing could be farther from the truth. We merely permit the natural talent of the Pongo-Landers to exhibit itself on the field of merrie sportsmanship. It has been said that the Kiwi team attempt to frighten the shorts off the sensitive Brits by means of the pre-start Haka protocol. I can assure you Sir, that this is not their intention at all. All that grotesque eye-ball rolling, leaping up and down and stomping the soggy English turf and the seemingly disgusting extending of the tongues whilst uttering vomiting noises is simply a natural result of their collective memories of having had to, in order to be polite, quaff large pint handles of luke-warm beverages the Brits consider to be "Real Beer"!!!! Might I add, in a very good-natured manner, that there are many amongst we Colonials that term it "*** Beer".......scrum down chaps...jolly rugger weather, what! 

PS: You could consider abandoning the tricky oval ball and focusing totally on that other Round Ball game where the chaps hug each a lot if they manage to boot it into that little net thingy a few times per year....just an idea fellahs. 

PPS: If you want to get more points in that Round-Ball game, why don't you simply make the goal size larger????

 Or we could go with the even smaller ball that we swing a lump of wood at. Seems that us chaps tend to get a bit confused with the oval ball just recently though : )

Greetings from colony of New Zealand where I listened to to the cricket match last night. Whilst this has nothing to do with aviation, I am curious as to how all problems can be solved by dancing? Perhaps the UK cricket team should have been on an intensive programme of traditional English folk-dancing in order to greatly enhance their batting skills? I can see them in my mind; frollicking onto the hallowed greensward at Lords dressed in their Morris dancing attire. The sight and sound would have so stunned the young Kiwi team that their concentration would have been entirely lost and the Brits would have swept all before them in a stunning victory over the upstart NZ lads. Just an idea. Always trying to be helpful to our Mother-Land. Play a straight bat, chin high, maintain thy crease, nose to the grindstone, shoulder to the wheel, all pull together and always remember you can lead your horse to the bridge but you can't make it leap into the river to drink...think about that chaps...... 

PS: Re. the Greatest/most significant civil airliner forum/debate. I have changed my mind and am now convinced that the Handley-Page Hannibal should receive that accolade...no question about it really!!!