Following the recent annual autumn fair at Feltham, held recently, I was interested to note that a lot of the latest airline issue postcards tend to be advertising cards that no longer depict shots of aircraft in flight or on the aprons.

None truer of this trend are the two latest cards by AirMalta who previously issued large size cards that showed off their aircraft, the current issue merely has the tail logo. There are some exceptions though. Cirrus Airways of Germany have produced a nice set of four cards of their fleet. TNT have a nice card of a BAe146QT with various larger freighter tails behind. Lufthansa seem to be the only airline that continues to issue loads of cards of their aircraft. I have two albums full of them and still do not have room for them all. TAP have a new livery set of various Airbus types that may still be found on board.Air Baltic have issued two new 737-500 cards and Malmo Aviation have issued two BAe146 cards – a ground rear view and one that doubles as a sticker.

From Peru, Aero Condor have a cut out set of cards with two showing their 737-200 – possibly the final airline issue card of this early version. Turkish airlines have a new drawing set of A330,340,320 and 737-800 with backgrounds of Istanbul and other city skylines and passenger silhouettes.

Here is a selection of these new cards

Interestingly enough there have been some new issues from seaplane operators such as Trans Maldivian and Greek AirSea Lines. Although I tend not to collect these they are welcome to those who do. A new operator is planning a seaplane service from Glasgow but will they issue cards ?

Since my last article I am aware of two other operators for the Airbus A380 producing cards – artist impressions from Lufthansa and Qatar Airways. Does anybody know of more ?

Publishers continue to issue a profusion of cards and airport operator BAA has issued a set to mark the 60th anniversary of Heathrow. They have a purple background with a card for each decade since the 1940s. Only two feature aircraft, Concorde and the landing of the first A380, seen at Pier 6, T3 claimed to have cost £100M to equip. These two are shown plus the 1940 s tent terminal, complete with Post Office for sending those now rare Heathrow cards, and 1950s tower interior.

Till next time, happy collecting

Download this section as a .DOC file (right click and 'save target as' ...)
<< Previous .... Worth A Second Glance	Next .... Monthly Features >>
	Close this window