Royal Airways

Royal Airways

IATA ICAO Callsign EA EAW PIDGEON
Founded	1933
Hubs	St. Christopher's Airport
Frequent-flyer program	Royal Airways Club
Alliance	Blueworld
Fleet size	22
Destinations	53
Headquarters	Aviation House, Calbend, Lendert-with-Cadell
Key people	Sir Colling Barnes (Managing Directour)

Royal Airways, formally the Court and Company of the Royal Erbonian Airways Corporation is the flag carrier airline of Great Nortend. Its headquarters are located at Aviation House, on the Calbend in Lendert-with-Cadell, and operates scheduled international services mainly from its base at St. Christopher's Airport as well as Rhise Airport. It is the only airline based in Great Nortend, and operates only limited domestic services between St. Christopher’s Airport and Rhise Airport. It is colloquially known as the Silver Pidgeon, owing to its replacing the use of carrier pidgeons for sending letters abroad during wartime.

History

Royal Airways was established in 1933 from the amalgamation of the Post Office Air Service, Haxley Airways and Hambrian Airways under Royal charter issued by His Majesty King Edmund IX. At first only operating flights a single route from the then St. Christopher's Aerodrome and an airport in Rhise, it has gradually broadened into a dual hub-and-spoke flight system operating out of St. Christopher's Airport in Nevvings and Rhise Airport. In March 26th, 1999, Royal Airways joined the Blueworld airline alliance as a founding carrier.

Corporation

Governance

Royal Airways is governed by the terms of its Royal Charter as issued in 1933 and amended in 1982. Control of the airline is vested in the Court of Directours which is chaired by the Governour. The day-to-day operations of the air line is managed by the Managing Directour, since 2019 Sir Colling Barnes.

Livery

The present Royal Airways livery is known as the „Silver Pidgeon”, comprising a polished silver fuselage with a red ribbon below the windows. Royal Airways is lettered in red above the windows, in capital letters widely spaced. The tail is painted with the Great Cross flag, the white represented in polished silver. The coat of arms of the Corporation is painted under the foremost set of doors. To reduce wear of the fuselage, the silver is applied as an additional coating, and is not the structural aluminium.

Uniform

The uniforms of Royal Airways denote rank. Officers, which includes the Captain, First Officer, Engineer and Purser, wear a dark navy double breasted jacket and trousers with black neck-tie and peaked cap, similar to that of naval officers. Their rank is denoted by gold rings on their cuffs, shoulder boards, and braid on their caps.

Stewards wear navy jackets with ties and caps. In the evening, mess jackets are worn with bow ties. Stewardesses wear grey dresses with white aprons during the day, changing into formal black dresses with white aprons in the evening. A hat is worn, except during the flight this is removed and replaced with a white cap.

Destinations

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Domestic

Under its Charter, Royal Airways is restricted, generally, to international flights. It is only permitted to provide domestic flights when there is a need to move one airliner from Rhise to St. Christopher’s, or vice versa, for operational reasons. The purpose of this restriction was to prevent competition with Nortish Railways, which had been formed twelve years prior in 1920. Currently, there are only between one and three flights daily between Rhise and St. Christopher’s each way. As there is no separate domestic terminal, all domestic passengers must pass through the same security and customs screening as international passengers. Combined with the somewhat inconvenient location of both airports, these factors mean that domestic air travel is limited and not particularly popular.

Fleet

Royal Airways flies 14 Boeing 737 airliners for short haul journeys. It has 8 Boeing 777 and 4 Boeing 747 aircraft for long haul journeys. Since the beginning of the jet age, Royal Airways has only had one hull loss crash. On St. George’s Eve in 2004, a Boeing 737 (R.A. Skyliner Winghorn) crashed in Clostary during descent in a storm. Of the 73 passengers and crew on board, 71 perished including all 8 crew. Since then, annual masses and services are held for the souls of all those who have died in plane crashes in the chapels of St. Christopher’s Airport and Rhise Airport and at Royal Airways Clubroom chapels around the world.

Cabin

All Royal Airways airliners have a two class cabin configuration with First Class and Second Class available on all flights.

Long Haul

First Class

The First Class cabin is arranged in a 1-2-1 seat configuration with 26 inch wide seats. On 6 of its Boeing 777 aircraft, there are 8 first class seats in two separate cabin compartments whilst on its other 2 777 aircraft, there are 12 seats in three compartments. The seats, which are upholstered in wool brocade fabric are fully reclined to a horizontal position for sleep. A mattress, twin sheets, blanket and pillow are also provided. Aisle curtains are provided for privacy, and a screen between the middle seats.

Second Class

The Second Class cabin is arranged in a 2-3-2 seat configuration. The seats are in plain woollen fabric and are approximately 20 inches wide, with a seat pitch of 38 inches, reclining up to 33°.

Short Haul

First Class

The First Class cabin is arranged in a 2-2 seat configuration. Seats are 21 inches wide and do not fully recline. However, there is a fully extendable padded footrest.

Second Class

The Second Class cabin is arranged in a 3-3 seat configuration. Seats are 18 inches wide. It is much the same as aboard the Boeing 777 aircraft otherwise.

Services

In-flight dining

On all flights, there is complimentary full food and beverage service which includes breakfast, morning tea, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner and supper, depending on the time and duration of the flight. As part of its signature level of service, Royal Airways uses marten silver cutlery, bone china crockery and lead crystal glassware in First Class and EPNS cutlery and ordinary crockery and glasses in Second Class. It also uses starched table cloths and napkins in First Class, and starched place mats and napkins in Second Class. Meals are served in courses, either from the trolley or from the galley. As First Class is served before Second Class, food left over from meals in First Class are offered to Royal Airways Club members in Second Class and thence to other passengers.

For First Class, luncheon and dinner usually include an entrée (or hors d'œuvre), a soup, a roast, a salad and a sweet pudding. Dinner also includes a remove and sorbet before the roast, and a dessert of (nuts, fruit and cheeses) after the sweet pudding. Breakfast is typically a cooked breakfast with a choice of eggs, bacon, potatoes, black pudding, kippers, mushrooms and tomatoes, toast, porridge and oatmeal with pastries, fruit and breads. In Second Class, luncheon and dinner are much simpler and consist of of an entrée, a roast and a sweet pudding. Dinner has an added remove before the roast. Breakfast usually has the option between a pre-cooked breakfast and a cold breakfast.

A full afternoon tea is included for First Class. In addition to tea, a selection of cakes, buns, biscuits, savoury sandwiches, pastries and scones are offered. In Second Class, a simpler assortment of biscuits and buns with tea is provided. Morning tea is a simple assortment of biscuits and buns with tea, and supper is a similar collation with cold meats, cheeses or fish. On fast days, Royal Airways adheres to the Church of Nortend's regulations on fasting and abstinence. Fish generally takes the place of meat. Passengers may specially request a normal meal.

In-flight amenities

On long haul flights, there is a shared lounge in between the two main cabins where there is a bar. A variety of fiction and non-fiction books are provided. Music is also provided in both classes at the seat through the in-flight 'radio', accessed with headphones. A selection of board games, cards and puzzles are also available, as well as writing paper, stationary, postcards &c. Telegrammes may be sent for a fee.

There is no seat-back entertainment system.

Royal Airways Club

Royal Airways operates the Royal Airways Club for valued passengers, also colloquially known as the Pidgeon Club. There are two tiers of membership. Frequent flyers are eligible for Ordinary membership upon making 20,000 frequent flyer miles in a year while Full membership is by invitation for frequent flyers with a „significant” record of loyalty to the Company, or more commonly, by proposal and secondment by an existing member otherwise. Honorary membership is complimentary Full membership, and often bestowed on senior peers, politicians, diplomats, military officers, councillors, churchmen, judges, civil servants and statesmen, either during a term or for life. There is believed to be nearly 50,000 members of the Club, mostly Second Class members.

Membership entitles members to admittance to Royal Airways Clubrooms at airports around the world, as well as affiliated Blueworld airline lounges abroad when flying on Royal Airways. Other significant benefits include complimentary flights, increased luggage allowances, porter service, stand-by list priority, expedited check in, booking flexibility, travel insurance and concierge services abroad. For instance, most flights have between two and six First and/or Second Class seats reserved for members of the Club until a few hours prior to departure for last minute tickets. Ordinary membership has restrictions on access to these services, depending on annual frequent flier mile thresholds.

Membership is integrated with the Blueworld airline alliance, although reciprocal benefits vary. Full members qualify as Blueworld Gold members, as do Ordinary members with over 60,000 annual miles. Ordinary members with more than 40,000 annual miles qualify as Blueworld Silver members while all other Ordinary members qualify as Blueworld Bronze members. Blueworld members qualify only as Ordinary members, with equivalent mile status as for Ordinary members.