As some of you know, JP Airline Fleets International is an annual publication of Buchair.
For those not familiar with JP: it is the “bible” of airline fleets. It lists just about every operator in the world of aircraft that weigh 3,000 pounds or more. It not only shows the fleets of airlines but also the fleets of the fractional operators, corporate operators who use airliners, and those operators that have but a single Beaver and operate in the wilderness of Alaska.
Buchair has been taken over by the folks who publish Flight International magazine. While the book is still good, they unfortunately made some “improvements.”
I still recommend the book to those who are interested in the fleets of various operators.
Here’s an email I wrote to Buchair:
An open letter to Buchair:
Not only is the 2008/09 edition of JP Airline Fleets International the last edition to be published by Buchair, it may also be the last edition I purchase.
I have faithfully purchased JP each year for over twenty years. Now that Flight has taken over Buchair, I see changes that are not for the good. In order of “badness:”
REMOVE the self-serving ads for Flight in the fleet listings. There are sections for the ads which I can tolerate. However, to have ads througout the entire book is not something I like. I especially don’t like the fac that they are ads for the publisher’s other products. Keep your ads in the sections set aside for the ads and not in the fleet listings pages.
REVISE the listings back to the way they were. The government aircraft should be listed by registration and the fleets of the operators listed by size. It was a good system. Why change it?
RETURN each country’s “quick facts” back to the headings for each country. This is minor point but I always enjoyed reading a little bit about the country, even if it was only the head of state, population, and size.
Having just received my copy yesterday, I have not been able to ascertain if there are any more “improvements.” I’m hoping there aren’t any and that you will return this book back to the way it was.
On a positive side, I do like the time line at the start of the pictures section.
Alternatively, if you don’t care if the data is 100% up to date, then you can get an out of date version at a significant discount.
Back in the mid 90’s Buchair published a “travel” version of the JP called the BuchAirLog. I have the 1996 version. Currently, most of the pages are falling out and the entire thing is discolored various shades of yellow. However, I still note every hull loss in it (for an aircraft that was in service in 1996).
Subtle difference here - Janes lists a/c types whereas JP lists types in fleets by country with tailnumbers (and engines/pax seating/selcal) making good reading for the aerosexuals out there. The spotters bible!
Check out the excellent Bizjet book by the same company (RobReid - i know you like your biz) but some speculation that it may not continue in its current excellent format or at all.
If you have not seen Bizjet (or similar type books) they go a long way to answering the many who-owns-what questions that appear here.
I may be mistaken but I think nano04 was talking about price. $90 ain’t that high when you consider Jane’s 2008/09 issue is $915 (up from $880 for the 2007/08 issue). CD cost of JP is about the same as the book; Jane’s on CD is $2,095. For only $2,315, you can get the online version.
DamiRoss et al
Seems more than a few people are not impressed with the new format/layout, there is a thread running on the following link to a forum where you can express your dismay at the messing with the ‘spotters bible’. JPforum
