Where art thou, 777s?

Will they or won't they bring in those planes?

I have no idea what happened to those 777s. It is alleged that Royal Brunei Airlines were, through some extremely complicated leasing agreement, about to embark on a new chapter with the 'new ' old planes. They would be looking to capitalise on the long haul service which has been a redeeming trait of the national carrier, catering to the smattering of tourists that were keen to fly from the Southern Hemisphere to the North.

Months have gone by and no sign of it yet. Traversing through cyberspace, you can only pick up bits and pieces of information, nothing really mindblowing now after the series of articles that The Brunei Times had touched on last year lifting the lid on the whereabouts of the planes. Delve further and further into the murkiness of it all and I was surprised to find out the age of the planes, formerly of United Airlines and Vareg in the Americas, North and South respectively.

Whilst one of the aircraft has been painted, and my does it look good, it seems after a few emails to plane spotters at Fort Worth in Texas, that the plane still sits at a hangar there as recently as a few weeks ago.

A close friend was disappointed to hear that he would not be able to make the trip to London at the tail end of last year, after having specifically drawn up plans to travel on the 777 and visit family in the UK, via Brunei. His plans were meticulously planned out so that he could see what Bruneians get up to on the weekends and jump, hop and skip to play golf in Bangkok... or was it the other way around? Regardless its the type of visitor that would probably have spent in Brunei, and those are which would benefit the nation's tourism receipts. He changed his plans and flew to Bangkok, skipping Brunei entirely, because he had more to gain by travelling Qantas. The fairly innocuous reason behind the loss of this customer? A rewarding frequent flyer programme.

I have spoken to friends and acquaintances about travellers who would be more inclined to hop onto what would have become Brunei's halo aircraft, and spend some time in Brunei before they feel the urge to carry on with the next segment of their trip. The opinion has been unanimous in that the delays would serve to hurt the national carrier and Brunei's tourism other than anything else.

While there are a number of stops to contend with on the current service, being fairly non-plussed about these things budget travellers enjoy a fair inflight service, sans alcohol of course, with options to spend some time in Brunei and traverse through to other parts of South East Asia is still a big drawcard. Yet the expectations for these visitors to spend much, or plan an extended stay at the Empire Hotel, would seem to be somewhat misplaced because the majority of a different variety.

They remind me of another acquaintance, Sullivan, that came through Brunei on his way from countless other countries and cities in Europe, that included Scandanavia, the Emirates in the Middle East, East Asia and N. America. They love going out to see the world, them Aussies... He stayed at some kind of rest house, a backpackers' inn of sorts here in Brunei, he couldn't explain where it was really and from my brief chat it was in the vicinity of Gadong. Sullivan walked everywhere, and he spent a grand total of 80 Brunei dollars during his 4 days and 3 nights. Of course touring the world on a budget and visiting 120 locales throughout the globe, extravagance could result in being stranded in a foreign country, and most are better of for being frugal.

So I guess we'll have to just contend with feeding our tourism industry with more Sullivans. Except RBA have just suspended flights to Bali, and Shanghai, potentially making it less attractive to the Sullivans in this world. Infact whilst Ray Sayer has come out to say that it is a strengthening of the core network, it underlines the fact that RBA have their work cut out for them. It would seem that the 777s are the least of their worries... as for the arrival of the Dreamliner, not wanting to sound harsh, but I think it would be best to take it with a pinch of salt and for now, at least, to dream on.

Where are you?????