-
Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Aviation Discussion
- Thread starter trentside
- Start date
- Status
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
atillathehunn
Established Member
J-2739
Established Member
Best be Qatar. I looked at pictures of the interior of the British Airways version, and it looks drab af.
AlterEgo
Veteran Member
Aurigny released their charity pleasure flights on the Trislander this morning. Just three rotations from GCI, 48 seats for sale. All gone. This was on 20th May only, a day on which I have to attend a f*****g barbecue so I can't go!
Gahhhhhh.
Hopefully they will release another date...
Gahhhhhh.
Hopefully they will release another date...
atillathehunn
Established Member
I disagree. While the BA A380 is drab, it is best for economy. If you select a window on the upper deck in economy, you can bin to the side of your seat. Gives you a good arm rest, and a well positioned pillow makes the journey quite bearable. The extra personal space is a bonus.
Crawley Ben
Member
I did my first A380 journey last September on EK from LGW - DXB. Very nice aircraft, plenty of space (I was in economy with the Mrs). Very quiet aircraft it has to be said. I'm sure you will enjoy regardless of the airline you fly with.
Cheers
Ben
Crawley Ben
Member
I've read elsewhere this morning that Qatar Airways are to launch a new route from Cardiff to Doha (with numerous connections from there to many other destinations elsewhere). No date mentioned as yet, and no aircraft type mentioned either. Cheers
Ben
Ben
atillathehunn
Established Member
Just seen that elsewhere.... Cardiff! I would imagine the WAG has sweetened the pot a little bit.
Aircraft type... does the A3XX series have the legs for Cardiff?
atillathehunn
Established Member
Other destinations in the announcement were San Francisco (actually thought they already went there), Malaga, Lisbon, Mombasa, Kiev, Chittagong.
J-2739
Established Member
Probably one of those cases of Eco class being better than the Premium.
atillathehunn
Established Member
I don't know, they don't pay me enough to fly premium cabins.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
It was years ago now, but I found the economy seats in the Malaysia Airlines 777 (3-3-3 layout, 34" pitch - the sort of thing that would be premium economy on many airlines) more comfortable than the Business Class ones (which at the time weren't fully lay-flat). Just fitted the shape of my body better.
Crawley Ben
Member
Wondered if it might be better suited to a 787 maybe? I'm guessing the 787 is roughly on a par with the A350 in terms of pax it can hold (taking the 787'9/10 out of the picture as I know they are 'stretched' versions etc)
Didn't know there was the demand for long haul to/from Cardiff in all honesty.
Cheers
Ben
atillathehunn
Established Member
I don't think there's that much demand either, which is why I thought one of the new MAX or NEO series (or even maybe classic A320?) would be better until they assess demand?
I would imagine they would want 5 weekly quite quickly for flexibility - I think a 787 5x weekly is a little too much.
EDIT: I've just seen services start in 2018, which smacks of them waiting for new aircraft to be delivered. So maybe the NEO/MAX series?
Last edited:
Tetchytyke
Veteran Member
You'd be surprised. Emirates can make a daily 777 Newcastle-Dubai work because of the connecting travel to the Far East and Australia.
atillathehunn
Established Member
This, I admit, always does surprise me.
Though with Newcastle being stuck in the middle of nowhere, they do have a captive market.
Cardiff could be diluted by Birmingham, Manchester (marginal), Bristol (KLM connections), and Heathrow being down the M4.
AlterEgo
Veteran Member
What a frivolous route.
atillathehunn
Established Member
Can't imagine it being much of a money spinner.
Perhaps they plan on making it up on cargo? Mint sauce and roast lamb in more demand than originally thought?!
Flying with Emirates. Glasgow to Dubai and onwards to Shanghai. Sadly only in economy but I've heard good things about their economy class so I'm looking forward to it! (With the exception of a cramped 10 abreast 777!)
As for the Qatar route from Cardiff - I'm not sure how well that will go. However there isnt that much in terms of Eastbound hub flights from there with the exception of KLM so it could save a lot of passengers in that region from going to Birmingham/London so we'll see. I can see them using a 787...
Tetchytyke
Veteran Member
I actually can see it working. Cardiff and Swansea have a combined population of about 1.5m people. Bristol doesn't have many long haul connections and Birmingham is hours away.
There's going to be less dilution of the market than here in Newcastle, where we have BA, KLM and Air France with regular connections as well as Edinburgh a couple of hours up the road.
ld0595 said:
The 777 isn't that bad, although the seats are narrow (only 17") the seat pitch is still good. And get the two-abreast seats at the back and it's really quite alright. And with them charging for seat selection now, you've probably got more chance of getting those seats at the back than you would have before.
I wouldn't want to be doing 18 hours on the 777 from Dubai to Auckland mind
hock:I think Bristol are quite keen to bring in Etihad or Emirates though, so that could be interesting if that happens. If anything, this will definitely encourage them to speed up!
The 777 isn't that bad, although the seats are narrow (only 17") the seat pitch is still good. And get the two-abreast seats at the back and it's really quite alright. And with them charging for seat selection now, you've probably got more chance of getting those seats at the back than you would have before.
I wouldn't want to be doing 18 hours on the 777 from Dubai to Auckland mind
Yeah, I'm sure the width will be OK for my 8 hour flight - I've done a 787 so if I can survive that, I'll be able to survive this! I would be put off an 18 hour flight even if I was in business.. I cannot imagine doing that in economy! :eek:
atillathehunn
Established Member
The rivalry between Bristol and Cardiff is about to get hotter, like you say.
Had Turkey's recent political and security situation not deteriorated, I would have though TK would have announced an expansion to one or other (both?).
Maybe I'm pessimistic, but I still think the route will launch with a narrow body, and hence Qatar being in a better position over Emirates, who would be forced to run a widebody.
I would think if another airline comes to the region it would be Etihad using a narrow body to Bristol.
I think Qatar now has first mover advantage to expand to a widebody quickly and use existing marketing channels should Emirates or Etihad be seen to be sniffing around Bristol.
Had Turkey's recent political and security situation not deteriorated, I would have though TK would have announced an expansion to one or other (both?).
Maybe I'm pessimistic, but I still think the route will launch with a narrow body, and hence Qatar being in a better position over Emirates, who would be forced to run a widebody.
I would think if another airline comes to the region it would be Etihad using a narrow body to Bristol.
I think Qatar now has first mover advantage to expand to a widebody quickly and use existing marketing channels should Emirates or Etihad be seen to be sniffing around Bristol.
atillathehunn
Established Member
I actually can see it working. Cardiff and Swansea have a combined population of about 1.5m people. Bristol doesn't have many long haul connections and Birmingham is hours away.
There's going to be less dilution of the market than here in Newcastle, where we have BA, KLM and Air France with regular connections as well as Edinburgh a couple of hours up the road.
The 777 isn't that bad, although the seats are narrow (only 17") the seat pitch is still good. And get the two-abreast seats at the back and it's really quite alright. And with them charging for seat selection now, you've probably got more chance of getting those seats at the back than you would have before.
I wouldn't want to be doing 18 hours on the 777 from Dubai to Auckland mind
I do struggle to see how Emirates survive on the route. They bring a daily 777-300ER in, so 140, 000 ish seats per year. The population of Newcastle is only c. 280, 000. Did nearly 50% of the population fly Emirates?! I forgot about Air France. In which case yes it's quite diluted, though with KLM, SN Brussels, Flybe so is Cardiff/Bristol, though a larger metropolitan area.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Do they serve Edinburgh or Glasgow? If not, passengers may also be coming down from Scotland, not to mention York etc.
Emirates serve Glasgow, Etihad and Qatar Edinburgh.
atillathehunn
Established Member
I would have thought York would be better connected to Manchester - more flights to choose from as well.
Qatar passengers from Glasgow will use Edinburgh I would think.
More destinations missed from the list I posted earlier include Prague, Abidjan, Accra, Mykonos (like Malaga seasonal), Pattaya
A quick glance a to Wikipedia says that passengers to/from Dubai on Emirates was 231,000 resulting in a load factor of approximately 83%. Not bad I'd say although load factors mean nothing if you're selling the seats cheaply.
Glasgow has two flights per day and seems to have an average yearly load factor of ~76% ish with a quick calculation using the Wikipedia numbers.
Shaw S Hunter
Established Member
Although some have expressed their doubts about the viability of such a route I think it has a reasonable chance. Remember that Bristol's runway is too short to handle a wide-body without weight restrictions so long-haul from Cardiff will likely attract plenty from across the Bristol Channel. The Gulf airlines have all been making a good living from regional airports so no reason to rule out Cardiff.
londonboi198o5
On Moderation
- Joined
- 28 Dec 2010
- Messages
- 449
Emirates have 2 x 777 flights daily to and from glasgow to dubai.
They have had a A380 do it once as well
atillathehunn
Established Member
I believe I've read elsewhere that the A380 would be penalised on weight into Glasgow so won't be a permanent fixture. Might be wrong though.
The use of Cardiff over Bristol isn't the shock - government willing to offer incentives, quiet so they can grab whatever slot they want more or less, long runway (BA does maintanence on their large jets there). It's more the choice of any airport in that region really.
- Status