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Flight to Germany on Large Jet

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Masboroughlad

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A few years ago, it was possible to fly from the UK to Germany on the first/last leg of a intercontinental flight. I think it was to Munich, possibly on a far Eastern airline?

Is such a journey still possible with any carrier that would allow a flight on jumbo sized plane? Any UK to any German airport in November.

Is there somewhere to find out?

Thanks in advance.
 
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rf_ioliver

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Not Germany but Finnair use an A350 on the morning Helsinki-London Heathrow fiights

t.

Ian
 

Mag_seven

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Sometimes when an airline is introducing new long haul planes e.g. A380 they will use them on short haul flights first for crew familiarisation etc. I think that both Lufthansa and Air France have used new long haul planes on routes from Germany/France to London for a limited period recently. (I think BA also used new A380's on short haul routes for a small period as well).
 

embers25

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Not Germany but Finnair use an A350 on the morning Helsinki-London Heathrow fiights

t.

Ian

You don't realise how cheap the Finnair spec is for planes is until you fly their A350 and compare how much it rattles and feels flimsy compared to Singapore and Qatar. That said, it still beats their A321.

Iberia also run new and old A330's to Madrid and BA run very old 767's to Stockholm at least, not Germany though I don't think.
 

rf_ioliver

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You don't realise how cheap the Finnair spec is for planes is until you fly their A350 and compare how much it rattles and feels flimsy compared to Singapore and Qatar. That said, it still beats their A321.

Iberia also run new and old A330's to Madrid and BA run very old 767's to Stockholm at least, not Germany though I don't think.

Given Finnair's prices I'm always surprised that I'm not getting first class treatment in economy...
 

Alfonso

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A few years ago, it was possible to fly from the UK to Germany on the first/last leg of a intercontinental flight. I think it was to Munich, possibly on a far Eastern airline?

Is such a journey still possible with any carrier that would allow a flight on jumbo sized plane? Any UK to any German airport in November
Is there somewhere to find out?

Thanks in advance.
London to Madrid on some Iberia flights then Madrid to Frankfurt on LAN?
 

Bald Rick

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Iberia should be running their new A350s on London flights this week and next for crew familiarisation, although I don’t know which rotation (diagram).
 

InterCity:125

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I don’t know if it still runs but Korean air used to operate 777s a330s and even 747s between Vienna and Zurich.
 

Hornet

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I don’t know if it still runs but Korean air used to operate 777s a330s and even 747s between Vienna and Zurich.

I flew down to Malaga from Dublin on an Aer Lingus A330-300 a couple of weeks back on their early morning rotation. (They also use the A330 on a Faro rotation). Many moons ago my other half flew from Dublin to Heathrow on an Aer Lingus 747-100, which was used to clear a backlog of cancelled flights.
 

Hornet

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Aer Lingus doesn’t operate 747s anymore.

As I said in my post, many moons ago, (late 1980's). I've flown to Dublin on a DC-8 from Stansted and a Ryanair BAC 1-11 to Stansted from Dublin (with someone facing me in a rear facing row of seats).

British_Aircraft_Corporation_BAC_1-11_Series_531FS%2C_Ryanair_JP6442069.jpg
 
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STEVIEBOY1

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Thai Airways used to do some flights that flew Heathrow/Amsterdam then onto Bangkok. Garuda, Kenya Airways and Philippine Airlines also used to touch down in Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, Rome until several years ago, enroute to the Middle East and Asia. Although the flights end to end took longer, it was nice in a way as it broke the journey up and you could stretch your legs if they let transit passengers off for an hour or so. KLM used to fly DC8s from Heathrow To Amsterdam, they were good to fly in. Delta used them on some internal US flights too.
 
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BA's 0700 LHR to FRA is normally a 767. That's the only large plane they fly to Germany that I am aware of.
 

Royston Vasey

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There was a daily 772 rotation from LHR-MAD up to last winter (albeit often substituted for A321) BA458/9 but it is now scheduled A321. BA need all the widebodies they can get right now with the Dreamliner shortage. Service in Club World was the standard Club Europe offering
 

paddington

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BA's 0700 LHR to FRA is normally a 767. That's the only large plane they fly to Germany that I am aware of.

This is correct, and obviously operates a return flight from Frankfurt in the morning.

However, BA has only five 767s remaining and all are due to be retired by November 2018, so you need to check the dates carefully if you want to fly this route in November. Also the aircraft are subject to substitution at any time
 

Bald Rick

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Iberia’s A350 came to London’s yesterday pm, and went back on a BA flight code, BA522.
 

atillathehunn

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The Manchester - Munich - Singapore flight you refer to is gone, replaced with a non-stop, as reported elsewhere. The only widebody to Germany from the UK is the above-reported flight to Frankfurt with a 767. If you want short haul widebodies, there are more options to Spain and Finland.

Jet2 also operates short haul A333 to the Spanish holiday islands, and TUI seem to use 787s on some holiday flights too.

To clarify the post with a Rwandair A333 at Gatwick - they have no traffic rights LGW-BRU, but yes it does operate a hop between the two cities before heading to Kigali.
 

Dentonian

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These are called 'fifth freedom' flights, whereby airlines are permitted to carry passengers between two foreign countries as part of a continuing flight to/from the airline’s own country.

This relatively recent article lists fifth freedom flights that are currently operating in Europe... it lists a couple of intercontinental flights to/from Manchester and London.

Singapore operate MAN-IAD but it was converted to A350 ops well before April this year.

I flew MAN-MUC with Singapore (my only 777-300 flight) returning with easyjet (my only EZY flight) and I think it worked out cheaper than Lufthansa, with the Singapore leg (£75) actually slightly cheaper than easyjet.
 

Shaw S Hunter

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Jet2 also operates short haul A333 to the Spanish holiday islands, and TUI seem to use 787s on some holiday flights too.

This sort of thing, ie wide-bodies providing peak capacity on bucket-and-spade flights to the Med/Canaries, has been going on for a long time though is now less common than previously. Most likely between UK or Scandinavia and the Canaries. Malaga used to see many wide bodies on summer Saturdays but charter airlines tend to have fewer wide-bodies today and the operational economics make 2-hour flights harder to justify.
 

STEVIEBOY1

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Years ago, BA used to operate regular services from Heathrow to Paris CDG with L 1011 Tri-Stars.
 

atillathehunn

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Singapore operate MAN-IAD but it was converted to A350 ops well before April this year.

I flew MAN-MUC with Singapore (my only 777-300 flight) returning with easyjet (my only EZY flight) and I think it worked out cheaper than Lufthansa, with the Singapore leg (£75) actually slightly cheaper than easyjet.
Small point of order, but Singapore now flu SIN-MAN-IAH (Houston) not IAD (Washington Dulles).
 

atillathehunn

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This sort of thing, ie wide-bodies providing peak capacity on bucket-and-spade flights to the Med/Canaries, has been going on for a long time though is now less common than previously. Most likely between UK or Scandinavia and the Canaries. Malaga used to see many wide bodies on summer Saturdays but charter airlines tend to have fewer wide-bodies today and the operational economics make 2-hour flights harder to justify.
I believe Jet2 lease an Air Tanker A333 for this purpose for the summer season only. I don't know the pattern but when I saw it on flightradar it was heading to Tenerife which is one of the longer flights in the short haul Spanish holiday markets.
Thomas Cook again seem to use one of their TATL A333 but not sure, either way not many.
TUI I seem to recall have a dedicated short haul 788.

They are however in the charter or package market rather than say easyjet capacity boosting with a larger frame and as you say not terribly common. I'm sure you're right that the economics has to be pretty marginal based on using an aircraft otherwise between long haul rotations.
 

Dentonian

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I believe Jet2 lease an Air Tanker A333 for this purpose for the summer season only. I don't know the pattern but when I saw it on flightradar it was heading to Tenerife which is one of the longer flights in the short haul Spanish holiday markets.
Thomas Cook again seem to use one of their TATL A333 but not sure, either way not many.
TUI I seem to recall have a dedicated short haul 788.

They are however in the charter or package market rather than say easyjet capacity boosting with a larger frame and as you say not terribly common. I'm sure you're right that the economics has to be pretty marginal based on using an aircraft otherwise between long haul rotations.
The Jet2 a/c (G -VYGL) is MAN based and is indeed used on routes to the Canaries and Palma. It is currently just NW of Barca inbound from the latter.
 

mad_rich

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Widebodies to/ from Europe is not especially remarkable.

*Long-haul* configured widebodies are rarer, and are usually because of tag-on flights like SIN-MUC-MAN-MUC-SIN, or direct familiarisation flights like LHR-CDG on the A380. The difference is most noticeable in business class.

There are also triangular patterns. Can't think of any within Europe at the moment, but BA for example fly LHR-Antigua-St Kitts-LHR. The difference here is that they only fly one way at the base of the triangle. I think United used to fly LHR-BRU as part of a triangle from somewhere.

Some more examples here:

https://www.headforpoints.com/2016/12/18/flying-long-haul-planes-on-short-haul-redemptions-3/
 
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