''Airline'' is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

fly on the wall Fly on the wall is a style of documentary-making used in film and television production. The name derived from the idea that events are seen candidly, as a fly on a wall might see them. In the purest form of fly-on-the-wall documentary-making, t ...

television programme A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed betw ...

produced by

LWT London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...

that showcases the daily happenings of passengers, ground workers and flight crew of

Britannia Airways Britannia Airways was a charter airline based in the UK. It was founded in 1961 as Euravia and became the world's largest holiday airline. Britannia's main bases were at London Gatwick, London Stansted, London Luton, Cardiff, Bristol, East Mi ...

(series 1) and later

EasyJet EasyJet plc (styled as easyJet) is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate airli ...

(from series 2). The show was broadcast between March 1998 and January 2007 on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

, was often repeated on

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...

and aired in

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

on Pick (previously known as Sky Three and Pick TV),

Sky Real Lives Sky Real Lives was an in-house channel from BSkyB that showed extensive programmes about travel, adverts for travel agencies and documentaries. The channels closed on 19 August 2010. History Sky Real Lives first launched as Sky Travel on 3 Octobe ...

and, as of 4 February 2019,

CBS Reality CBS Reality is a European television channel broadcast in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. History CBS Reality was launched as Reality TV on 1 December 1999 as a joint-venture between UPCtv and Zone Vision. In 2005, Liberty Global, owner of ...

. The programme's success sparked a US version of the series, following American low-cost airline

Southwest Airlines Southwest Airlines Co., typically referred to as Southwest, is one of the major airlines of the United States and the world's largest low-cost carrier. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has scheduled service to 121 destinations in the U ...

Production

were first approached about the possibility of filming during mid-1998, after the first series with

(filmed at

Manchester Airport Manchester Airport is an international airport in Ringway, Manchester, England, south-west of Manchester city centre. In 2019, it was the third busiest airport in the United Kingdom in terms of passenger numbers and the busiest of those n ...

in 1997) was discontinued. The first series with EasyJet was broadcast in January 1999, and the programme continued with them until it was discontinued. In 2003 it was ITV's most popular factual programme. The programme has been sold to many countries worldwide, including New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. Starting with the second series in 1999, the programme follows passengers and staff of EasyJet and Reed Aviation Reed Aviation was later merged to create

Aviance UK Aviance UK was an aircraft ground handling agent, operating at 15 airports in the United Kingdom and many more, as part of its alliance, worldwide. It was a subsidiary of the Go-Ahead Group, a rail, bus and aviation services provider across the ...

(the handling agents) including Manager: Graham Fraser; Check-in trouble-shooter: Jane Boulton; Check-in assistant: Katrina Leeder; Supervisors: Leo Jones, Brett Holland and Leanne Cheung, Dispatcher: Kevin Reardon; Captain: James McBride, Stewardess: Janey Stock and Stelios as well as many passengers. The series were originally set in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

but later incorporated

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

and

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

airports. ''Airline'' was also occasionally filmed at

Gatwick Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after Hea ...

and

Stansted London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London. London Stansted serves over 160 destinations acro ...

airports.

Tony Robinson Sir Anthony Robinson (born 15 August 1946) is an English actor, author, broadcaster, comedian, presenter, and political activist. He played Baldrick in the BBC television series ''Blackadder'' and has presented several historical documentaries ...

and

Veronika Hyks Veronika Hyks (born on 21 October 1951) is an English voice over actress and narrator. Hyks is often employed as a voice actress or works as a narrator. Early life Hyks was born to Czech parents in the London borough of Westminster. Her family nam ...

replaced

Charlie Higson Charles Murray Higson (born 3 July 1958) is an English actor, comedian, author and former singer. He has also written and produced for television and is the author of the ''Enemy'' book series, as well as the first five novels in the ''Young Bo ...

as voiceover. The programme also follows some passengers and staff on interesting journeys and during important moments in their lives. Wedding proposals, marriages, illnesses, business trips, reunions and once-in-a-lifetime experiences have all been filmed, both happy and sad, and one 2001 episode featured exclusively on the consequences the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

had on EasyJet's operations at Luton. The programme also aims to educate the airline's passengers concerning its rules and regulations—some of the highlighted issues relate to missed check-in, incorrect travel documentation, and the carriage of prohibited items.

Regular contributors

Notable Britannia staff

*Supervisors: Pat Baines, Cathy Duffy *Captains: Peter Klack, Tony Rex *Flight Steward/Stewardesses: Brian John Aldridge (BJ)

Notable EasyJet/Aviance staff

Staff overview

Series list of EasyJet staff

Format

Opening titles

These titles have a sky background and feature a Britannia plane (series 1) or an EasyJet plane (series 2–4) before cutting to clips of the overall series. For series 5 and 6, these titles changed to using a lighter blue sky and switching to an all blue logo. For the next two series, the titles changed to using an orange sky and blue/orange logo. For the final two series, they were similar style to that used in series 5 and 6 but now with a reddish tint and features an airline in the logo.

Opening and ending sequences

*At the start of each series the narrator would show snippets of what was to come throughout the series. This would normally be announced with the phrase ''"Welcome onboard another series of Airline"'' *At the beginning of each episode in every series, the narrator would give a quick preview of what would be shown.
This would normally be announced with the phrases ''"Coming up/Tonight on Airline"'' or ''"Onboard Airline tonight"''. *At the end of most episodes, the narrator would provide an epilogue of what eventually happened to some of the passengers, staff, or business decisions (e.g. new plane, stock price) involved in that particular episode. *Series 1-4 did not show what was coming up in the next episode but did feature at the end of the programme, before the credits, information of what happened to the passengers featured. *Starting in series 5, clips of what would feature in the next episode were shown during the first 10 seconds of the credits. *At the end of each series, the narrator would look back and highlight some of the more important things shown such as gripping stories about various members of airline staff. This would take about a minute and feature the common phrase ''"The Summer/Winter season has come to an end"''.

Changes to Luton Airport throughout filming

– Area not used for Passenger operation at the time

Series guide

Special episode

''Holiday Airline''

*Series 1: 10x30' (2001) – First shown from 31 August 2001.

References

External links

* {{Aviation reality television 1998 British television series debuts 1990s British reality television series 2000s British reality television series 2007 British television series endings Documentary television series about aviation English-language television shows ITV reality television shows London Weekend Television shows Luton Airport Television series by ITV Studios Aviation television series