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Aviation Discussion

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WestCoast

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The question would be how long they will be around. Niki Lauda has owned a variety of airlines, usually with a similar style of operation, and none of them has really lasted that long. Maybe he should have stuck with racing driving.

As for reclining seats, am I alone in considering them a *bad* thing for short haul where most people do not wish to recline? As long as the back is at a comfortable angle to start with there is really no need.

When I first read about the venture I thought the same but given that it's now 100% Ryanair owned and the strategy is driven by them I reckon it will be quite formidable - essentially it's a bit of a Virgin Group scenario with Lauda being the poster boy a la Branson and ruthless Ryanair behind the scenes. Given that Lauda commands much respect in Germany/Austria it's a clever way of capturing the market and pulling people away from Eurowings/easyJet who have exploded since Air Berlin has gone bust.

Agreed about reclining seats but it was just a suprise they'd go for a higher spec.

Another thought - easyJet, Ryanair & Vueling all now have Austrian subsidiaries - they must have some sweet deals on European flying licenses. :)
 
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Bletchleyite

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When I first read about the venture I thought the same but given that it's now 100% Ryanair owned and the strategy is driven by them I reckon it will be quite formidable - essentially it's a bit of a Virgin Group scenario with Lauda being the poster boy a la Branson and ruthless Ryanair behind the scenes. Given that Lauda commands much respect in Germany/Austria it's a clever way of capturing the market and pulling people away from Eurowings/easyJet who have exploded since Air Berlin has gone bust.

That's not quite how the Wikipedia article is worded - it sounds more like a Ryanair purchase which is likely to be integrated over time, I'd bet on the classic 5 years.
 

Shaw S Hunter

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.Another thought - easyJet, Ryanair & Vueling all now have Austrian subsidiaries - they must have some sweet deals on European flying licenses. :)

I believe it's more to do with slightly more relaxed employment protection rights/employer taxation liabilities despite Austria's EU membership.
 

LOL The Irony

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Next retro livery will be a Landor 747 https://www.flightglobal.com/news/a...r-747-named-as-next-british-airways-r-456251/
getasset.aspx


On another note, the BEA 319 is coming next week.
 

Bald Rick

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Seems to be busier than normal tonight at Luton given by the noise over my house... and it transpires a Laudamotion flight to Vienna had a rejected take off following suspected engine failure at Stansted. Full evac on the runway (including, no doubt, the pilot’s digestive system). Runway still closed. Diverts to Luton, Southend and no doubt others.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-47423607
 
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Butts

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Had a daytrip from Cardiff to Edinburgh 0630 returning on the 2055 from Glasgow on Flybe - both on an Embraer 175.

Took her 50 minutes to get up and 55 to get back all for the princely sum of about £60 return.

This is the best way to travel between Wales and Scotland's capital cities !!

Only a shame it wasn't an E190 to make it a perfect day.
 

Techniquest

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How far in advance did you book that Butts? Sounds like a good day for sure, and an E175 is nothing to be sniffed at, indeed I think I'd have been more gutted it wasn't a Q400 personally!
 

VioletEclipse

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I prefer Boeing 737s and Airbus A319s/A320s personally, but I hate how environmentally devastating ANY plane is. I gave up flying for that reason.
 

Techniquest

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737s for the win in terms of most European airlines, small aircrafts I've had the favourite has to be the Q400. ATRs look fun but not yet had one.

I don't like the environmental hit air travel makes either, but it is what it is.
 

VioletEclipse

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737s for the win in terms of most European airlines, small aircrafts I've had the favourite has to be the Q400. ATRs look fun but not yet had one.

I don't like the environmental hit air travel makes either, but it is what it is.
Yeah, although I hear Easyjet are working on an electric plane. Still IMO progress is slower than it should be with making less environmentally harmful planes.
 

Butts

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How far in advance did you book that Butts? Sounds like a good day for sure, and an E175 is nothing to be sniffed at, indeed I think I'd have been more gutted it wasn't a Q400 personally!

Availability on Cardiff to Edinburgh / Glasgow and back was quite good this month. Last week I booked a couple of "returns" one at £49.98 , one at £65, and a "single up" on April 1st for £24.99 (hope that's not a joke)

Both services I got yesterday were well loaded. I am moving back to Scotland later this month but working in Wales for the rest of March hence the need for quite a few flights at once. As I will be returning to live in Falkirk, Edinburgh and Glasgow are fairly easy to get to so I can "mix and match"
 

Shaw S Hunter

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Yeah, although I hear Easyjet are working on an electric plane. Still IMO progress is slower than it should be with making less environmentally harmful planes.

The theory behind nuclear fusion is understood but making it happen is proving rather difficult. Likewise scaling up drones to the size of a commercially viable airliner will take some time. It also needs continuing improvement in battery technology. I rather suspect we will have aircraft continuing to burn fossil fuels long after electric road vehicles have become the norm.
 

gsnedders

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Yeah, although I hear Easyjet are working on an electric plane. Still IMO progress is slower than it should be with making less environmentally harmful planes.
It's unsurprising that little is happening; the energy density just isn't there, and aircraft are size and weight sensitive. Jet-A is 43.15 MJ/kg; the best batteries are around 0.875 MJ/kg, and even assuming an electric motor has double the efficiency of a jet engine you're still going to need to carry a lot more weight for the same amount of propulsive power (and therefore need larger wings, etc. etc.), to say nothing of the space those batteries would take up.
 

Bletchleyite

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Yeah, although I hear Easyjet are working on an electric plane. Still IMO progress is slower than it should be with making less environmentally harmful planes.

Until non-fossil-fuel burning generation is going to cover all of its power needed, it's still harmful (though not as harmful); the main problem with a plane is that a lot of the energy is wasted on keeping it up in the air, and on very high speeds.
 

Peter Mugridge

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Until non-fossil-fuel burning generation is going to cover all of its power needed, it's still harmful (though not as harmful); the main problem with a plane is that a lot of the energy is wasted on keeping it up in the air, and on very high speeds.

The bulk of the energy use proportionately is during the take off phase; when an airliner is cruising at altitude the engines are not often doing much more than when they are idling on the ground, thanks to how thin the air is at 35,000 ft.
 

Peter Mugridge

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Farnborough Air Show has just announced they have axed the public days and displays.

On the plus side, however, it appears the trade stands will now be open to the public on the afternoon of the Friday of the show week. That should be very interesting.
 

SeaKing

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Later in the year i am using Addis Ababa airport (Nearly 5hrs transit stop) have seen alot of poor reviews regarding it but have not known anyone who has personally used it, are the reviews justified.
 

atillathehunn

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Later in the year i am using Addis Ababa airport (Nearly 5hrs transit stop) have seen alot of poor reviews regarding it but have not known anyone who has personally used it, are the reviews justified.

Chaotic, small, generally fine. Toilets hit and miss. Depends on your reference point really.
 

Techniquest

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Can't comment on that airport, I'm currently posting this LIVE from VA992 BNE-SYD :D

Full review of Etihad, the 787-10, the 787-9, Virgin Australia (based on their domestic service at least) and the Virgin 737-800 will come soon. As will a review of Abu Dhabi, Sydney and Brisbane airports. It'll all get discussed in what will be long trip report reads soon, but I will discuss at more length the aviation bits on this thread no doubt.

Fair to say though, my first Virgin Australia flight has been awesome and it's not over yet. Some of the best crew I've seen anywhere, if not *the* best. Etihad, well I'll go into that after my return trip, but I'm not keen on them based on my experience so far. The planes were fine, but the rest of the travel experience left *much* to be desired. As I say, full low-down after my adventure!

My upcoming flights are EY455 SYD-AUH on an A380 and EY21 AUH-MAN on 16th and 17th March 2019. I'm also on Ryanair again (YAY!) LBA-VNO on 19th March and VNO-LTN on 21st March. So a busy couple of weeks!

How I survived that 14 hour flight I don't know...
 

cactustwirly

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Just booked my flights to Stockholm, was originally gonna travel with SAS, but their prices went up when I was booking, so I'm going with BA instead!
Never been SH with BA, so it'll be interesting to see how they compare to easyJet, who I'm travelling with to Austria next month!

Interesting that BA use T2 at Arlanda, which is the international LCC terminal, instead of T5 which all the other legacy carriers use!

But I'm happy, beats Norwegian! (sorry Tech, but the A320 is much more preferable than a 737!)

I'm going to Italy in July, and I'm hoping for easyJet to keep my A320 streak, but I fear I'll be going with Ryanair from STN! (flights are being booked for me, so I have no control!)
 

Techniquest

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Just booked my flights to Stockholm, was originally gonna travel with SAS, but their prices went up when I was booking, so I'm going with BA instead!
Never been SH with BA, so it'll be interesting to see how they compare to easyJet, who I'm travelling with to Austria next month!

Short-haul on BA isn't too bad, ouch to the price increase during booking with SAS though! It's been a good few years since I last flew easyJet so I can't make any real comparison between BA and easyJet which would be fair. The M&S chicken and bacon sandwich they were serving on-board in October was good, I don't think much of the coffee on BA though!

But I'm happy, beats Norwegian! (sorry Tech, but the A320 is much more preferable than a 737!)

I'm going to Italy in July, and I'm hoping for easyJet to keep my A320 streak, but I fear I'll be going with Ryanair from STN! (flights are being booked for me, so I have no control!)

Foolish to let others book your flights! I'd always prefer to do it myself!

I am glad to see you chose BA over Norwegian though. It may well be 3 years later now, but I still refuse to fly Norwegian after that JFK-LGW flight. Mind you, I'm not choosing to fly Etihad again after my return to England. If I wanted LCC-quality service, I'd book on a LCC. Financial trouble or not, I'd have better crew with Ryanair.

Virgin Australia, however, I would very happy to fly with again. Without question the best crew I've had on 55 flights around the world!
 

cactustwirly

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Short-haul on BA isn't too bad, ouch to the price increase during booking with SAS though! It's been a good few years since I last flew easyJet so I can't make any real comparison between BA and easyJet which would be fair. The M&S chicken and bacon sandwich they were serving on-board in October was good, I don't think much of the coffee on BA though!



Foolish to let others book your flights! I'd always prefer to do it myself!

I am glad to see you chose BA over Norwegian though. It may well be 3 years later now, but I still refuse to fly Norwegian after that JFK-LGW flight. Mind you, I'm not choosing to fly Etihad again after my return to England. If I wanted LCC-quality service, I'd book on a LCC. Financial trouble or not, I'd have better crew with Ryanair.

Virgin Australia, however, I would very happy to fly with again. Without question the best crew I've had on 55 flights around the world!

Yeah, I was quoted £158 on Skyscanner, but by the time I went to the SAS website it was £220!
BA was slightly cheaper at £190!
Not exactly cheap, but the best price I could find!
I don't normally buy stuff onboard, especially coffee, for such a short flight, I think I'll be getting coffee from Pret before I board.
Interesting you say that, when I flew BA LH a few years ago, I thought their coffee was really good, better than VS!

It's complicated, I'm not paying for flights, so I get what I'm given! Not that I have a problem with that, they are free flights afterall!

I flew Norwegian from Copenhagen to Gatwick, a few years ago, and I was impressed.
The only bad thing I can see, is that they use 737s, with a dodgy layout, so some seats don't have windows!
But they fly from Gatwick not Heathrow, which is less convenient for me, and the flight times were a bit of a PiTA, and going to Stockholm they weren't a huge amount cheaper than BA!
 
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Bletchleyite

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Well it is much newer than a 737 and has a bigger cockpit.

And is wider, so as a passenger you get larger overhead bins and either a wider seat or a wider aisle depending on the airline (both are good) and large overhead bins. And you have the Airbus control philosophy which allows for things a pilot can't cope with - the pilot of the plane that set down in the Hudson did say he reckoned that with having to manually push the boundaries of a stall (rather than just pulling back hard and the aircraft doing what it knew it could) he couldn't have done it in a Boeing.

Only problem is "if it ain't Airbus, I'm not going" doesn't rhyme :D
 
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