COLIN COHEN

email: ccpm@talk21.com

mail: Colin Cohen, 21 Oakdean Park, Finchley N3 1EU, UK


ARTICLE NO. 44

Please note my new address as above. As the move has taken lots of my time and in line with the anniversary theme, Doug has assembled a few extracts from my old articles from the 1990s.

For some long-forgotten reason the 1993 Christmas issue appeared in April 1994 and contained Article 4 which in turn included “Cyprus Airways have cards of their A310 and A320  but not yet one of their BAC1-11 which I noted is now painted in their new livery when I visited Larnaca airport recently. I have been informed that the TAME (Ecuador) 727 which I am still hunting has in fact been issued twice by the airline. The two cards are very similar and differ only in that one has the background mountain more prominent and the aircraft is slightly closer and in darker colouring”

Looking back these were both among the last cards to be issued of these types by passenger carriers. The BAC1-11 has now almost vanished completely and the 727 was retired by the US majors in 2003. Cyprus did produce their 1-11 card and it became as common as most cards from this carrier. By contrast TAME 727 cards remain rare to this day.

Article 7 came out in January 1994 and listed many new issues of the time. Again many became common but one listed as TACA 767 take off remains virtually unknown. MD-11s appeared on new cards from both Alitalia and VASP. 10 years on the MD-11 is also on the way out as a passenger carrier but has been re-invented as a freighter. Crossair also featured a new livery on B.Ae146 and SAAB 340 – 10 years later Crossair had absorbed Swissair and been rebranded as Swiss but remained in financial intensive care.  Meanwhile it had given us the flight attendant recruiting card featuring the SAAB2000 shown.

By Article 11 April 1995 the computer generated card had arrived with the first of the huge output by Frontier of different tail designs on their 737s , initially –200 later –300. This series continues to be updated with the most recent set now featuring the A.319.

I guess thats enough looking back. Looking forward to resuming normal service in 2004. Meanwhile happy Christmas and happy collecting for 2004.

COLIN COHEN


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