Aviation Discussion

[Bletchleyite]

They still do seem to have A380s on the Vancouver trip. Is there a way of checking which plane it is before you buy? Or at least what it is meant to be?

Should be visible while picking a seat?

 

[YorkshireBear]

Should be visible while picking a seat?

Obviously... Never mind

 

[Techniquest]

They still do seem to have A380s on the Vancouver trip. Is there a way of checking which plane it is before you buy? Or at least what it is meant to be?

Whenever I look for BA flights on their app, I tap the details drop-down box and it lists the planned craft type there. No idea for sure where on the desktop site it would be but it's sure easy enough to find on the app.

 

[cactustwirly]

Yes but what are the interiors like? I’m not wing walking now...

Are the interiors improved on the CEO interiors? What’s different about NEO interiors?

Same as a CEO tbh
Not such a bad thing, the A320 interior has always been very good, world's away from the 737 interior!
Just bear in mind that the BA A321s have been densified with a tighter seat pitch, I assume this is the same with the A321 NEOs

 

[WestCoast]

First time flying through Prestwick to/from Barcelona this week. Driven past a couple of times since I’ve been living in Scotland but never flown from it. Interesting place really, the terminal is a bit of relic but not the worst I’ve been in. There was quite a bit of cargo traffic and even a Norwegian 787 stored there receiving maintenance.

Given I had my boarding pass, time from leaving the train to being in the departure lounge duty free was an incredible 8 minutes. For sheer convenience, the only other airport that comes close is probably Southampton. Also the half price ticket offer for flyers is brilliant too, 4 quid from Glasgow on the train is cheaper than the 500 bus to Glasgow Airport from the city centre! Let’s hope they manage to keep the place open!

 

[Aictos]

First time flying through Prestwick to/from Barcelona this week. Driven past a couple of times since I’ve been living in Scotland but never flown from it. Interesting place really, the terminal is a bit of relic but not the worst I’ve been in. There was quite a bit of cargo traffic and even a Norwegian 787 stored there receiving maintenance.

Given I had my boarding pass, time from leaving the train to being in the departure lounge duty free was an incredible 8 minutes. For sheer convenience, the only other airport that comes close is probably Southampton. Also the half price ticket offer for flyers is brilliant too, 4 quid from Glasgow on the train is cheaper than the 500 bus to Glasgow Airport from the city centre! Let’s hope they manage to keep the place open!

Do you recommend Glasgow over Edinburgh?

Got a potential flight that I’m looking at in September and I can use either.

 

[Bald Rick]

First time flying through Prestwick to/from Barcelona this week. Driven past a couple of times since I’ve been living in Scotland but never flown from it. Interesting place really, the terminal is a bit of relic but not the worst I’ve been in. There was quite a bit of cargo traffic and even a Norwegian 787 stored there receiving maintenance.

Given I had my boarding pass, time from leaving the train to being in the departure lounge duty free was an incredible 8 minutes. For sheer convenience, the only other airport that comes close is probably Southampton. Also the half price ticket offer for flyers is brilliant too, 4 quid from Glasgow on the train is cheaper than the 500 bus to Glasgow Airport from the city centre! Let’s hope they manage to keep the place open!

For train to plane convenience, it’s hard to beat Southend.

Do you recommend Glasgow over Edinburgh?

Got a potential flight that I’m looking at in September and I can use either.

Much of a muchness. It depends where you are travelling from to get there. I tend to prefer Glasgow as it seems less busy.

 

[Aictos]

For train to plane convenience, it’s hard to beat Southend.



Much of a muchness. It depends where you are travelling from to get there. I tend to prefer Glasgow as it seems less busy.

Scotland to London, ideally Luton Airport as a alternative to the train especially if it’s far cheaper!

 

[Bald Rick]

Scotland to London, ideally Luton Airport as a alternative to the train especially if it’s far cheaper!

Sorry I meant where you are starting your trip to the airport. Glasgow airport is great from
Glasgow, and anywhere west thereof, Edinburgh is great from Edinburgh and Fife / Lothian. But there’s a swathe up the middle where it is a toss up if you are travelling by car, and the bes5 option will vary if using public transport.

 

[WestCoast]

For train to plane convenience, it’s hard to beat Southend.

Much of a muchness. It depends where you are travelling from to get there. I tend to prefer Glasgow as it seems less busy.

Yes, for sure Southend is also very convenient. However, I’d forgotten about it because the only time I flew to/from Southend there were no trains due to weekend engineering so it was a replacement bus to Southend Victoria, walk to Southend Central and then c2c into Fenchurch Street. Even that wasn’t too bad but I can imagine it’s super convenient when the trains are running.

Do you recommend Glasgow over Edinburgh?

Got a potential flight that I’m looking at in September and I can use either.

I tend to prefer Glasgow Airport to Edinburgh Airport as it does seem to be more relaxed in my experience, if you hit Edinburgh at the wrong time of day it can be rather packed. Having said that there’s nothing especially wrong with Edinburgh, both airports are quite similar inside.

 

[Aictos]

Sorry I meant where you are starting your trip to the airport. Glasgow airport is great from
Glasgow, and anywhere west thereof, Edinburgh is great from Edinburgh and Fife / Lothian. But there’s a swathe up the middle where it is a toss up if you are travelling by car, and the bes5 option will vary if using public transport.

Ahh well I’ve not decided yet, depends on if I decide to get a rail rover for the Glasgow area or not.

 

[Gadget88]

What’s everybody’s thoughts on this new Boom Supersonic aircraft? Will it be popular?

Boom Supersonic (Chalet C24), U.S. developer of the proposed Mach 2.2 Overture commercial airliner, is highlighting at the Paris Air Show the program’s progress and more key details about the 55-passenger aircraft.

https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-...boom-unveils-more-details-supersonic-airliner

Here is a link to the article

 

[Bald Rick]

What’s everybody’s thoughts on this new Boom Supersonic aircraft? Will it be popular?

Well it has to get off the ground (literally), but yes it will be popular. There’s plenty more people around these days compared to when Concorde was around who are cash rich and time poor and therefore will make use of it on the busiest intercontinental routes.

 

[yorkie]

What’s everybody’s thoughts on this new Boom Supersonic aircraft? Will it be popular?

I think it's not a good idea, for environmental reasons:
https://www.independent.co.uk/trave...teve-jobs-widow-travel-subsonic-a8718911.html

...in July 2018, the International Council on Clean Transportation warned: “Emerging SSTs are likely to fail current and perhaps historical landing and take-off noise standards.”

The organisation also predicts supersonic aircraft will consume between five and seven times as much fuel per passenger relative to comparable subsonic aircraft...

 

[Tetchytyke]

There’s plenty more people around these days compared to when Concorde was around who are cash rich and time poor

I'm not so sure. The hyper-rich have a private jet which beats the faff of a scheduled airline hands down, even a supersonic scheduled airline. Concorde stopped because BA couldn't get it to make money. I don't think so very much has changed.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Concorde stopped because BA couldn't get it to make money.

Not quite - Concorde was profitable for BA but not for Air France; when AF pulled out, BA would have been faced with 100% of the support costs, nit just the 50% they had been covering up to that point. There was also the issue that a large proportion of their regular passengers were killed in the Twin Towers - and also a lot of those people were the only ones in their respective employers who had the authority to allow other members of staff to fly on Concorde. That was a large proportion of their market wiped out at once - so when AF pulled out, BA decided to follow suit and a joint announcement was made.

All this has been covered in much detail on the Concorde forum at the time and in the couple of years afterwards - a lot of it posted by insiders ( I'm not sure I'm allowed to link to other forums on here, but it's rather easy to find via Google ).

 

[Bald Rick]

I'm not so sure. The hyper-rich have a private jet which beats the faff of a scheduled airline hands down, even a supersonic scheduled airline. Concorde stopped because BA couldn't get it to make money. I don't think so very much has changed.

Hyper rich yes, but there’s a lot of people who don’t make that rank but still have cash to burn. I know people in the private jet industry, and you’d be surprised at the market (a lot of it is to the east, rather than west).

 

[gsnedders]

I'm not so sure. The hyper-rich have a private jet which beats the faff of a scheduled airline hands down, even a supersonic scheduled airline. Concorde stopped because BA couldn't get it to make money. I don't think so very much has changed.

Even chartering a private jet capable of comparable range for a single flight is very expensive; there's plenty of people who simply don't think that that justifies the cost, but could justify double the price for half the flight time.

 

[Crawley Ben]

They still do seem to have A380s on the Vancouver trip. Is there a way of checking which plane it is before you buy? Or at least what it is meant to be?

Don't know about other airlines, but when I have flown with BA in the past, they have listed the aircraft booked to fly when you are making the booking (can't remember where to find it off the top of my head sorry)

I do believe the BA A380 to YVR - (Vancouver) is summer season only (apologies if wrong)

Cheers

Ben

 

[Tetchytyke]

Slightly less exciting, but Lufthansa have launched a daily (except Saturday) flight from Newcastle to Munich. Sensible times too. Hope it works out.

 

[scotrail158713]

Slightly less exciting, but Lufthansa have launched a daily (except Saturday) flight from Newcastle to Munich. Sensible times too. Hope it works out.

I hope it works out too. Newcastle desperately needed another airline for connections to the US, so this hopefully does that job. As well as a useful link to Munich that is.

 

[158756]

I hope it works out too. Newcastle desperately needed another airline for connections to the US, so this hopefully does that job. As well as a useful link to Munich that is.

Unfortunately they won't arrive in Munich until late afternoon, and so miss all connections to the US.

 

[scotrail158713]

Unfortunately they won't arrive in Munich until late afternoon, and so miss all connections to the US.

Ah, ok. I suppose it could still work for connections to the Far East though.

 

[cactustwirly]

Flew with TUI/Titan today.
Titan were very good, friendly crew and I like the onboard IFE.

TUI weren't so impressive, the in-flight food wasn't good, a poor selection tbh.
First time using on aircraft food, as I was in a hurry due to traffic delays.

Still think EZY are hard to beat

 

[WestCoast]

Glad to hear! Sounds like you were definitely on the right Titan Airways flight today.....

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jet2-plane-passenger-pinned-down-16791116

 

[TheEdge]

Two trips with BA this week, from Heathrow to Munich and back. Despite their age (20 and 15 respectively) the A319 out and A321 back were perfectly acceptable. Crew on the outbound flight were marginally better than on the return, but not enough to care.

Must admit what I saw of Munich airport was disappointing at best. Very long queue at passport control (bearing in mind they had a Qatar, Saudia, two Deltas, two Londons and an Egyptian charter all going from the same gate cluster within about 45 minutes of each other to only have three security lines and 3 (eventually 5, no EU window) passport windows open struck me as a very un-Germanic bit of disorganisation. Boarding was also a bit of a ham fisted affair. Small buses and not enough of them ferrying to the aircraft, the first passengers on the aircraft probably had a good 20m wait for the last few to arrive.

And another thing! A 40m S-Bahn service to get to the city, despite the infrastructure being in place no faster way into the city. Strikes me as very un-German.

 

[TheEdge]

As an aside does anyone have any idea where I might be able to find the timetable from 2011 for Emirates and Jetstar. I'm digging for some flight numbers!

 

[paddington]

struck me as a very un-Germanic bit of disorganisation. Boarding was also a bit of a ham fisted affair.
...
Strikes me as very un-German.

I'm not really sure why Germany supposedly has this reputation for efficiency. I generally find all my trips involving German airports to be "disorganised" and "ham-fisted". And my train trips in Germany are usually delayed. I find FRA to be the worst major airline hub in the developed world (I actually find CDG to be OK)

I have had good train and airport experiences in Austria and German-speaking Switzerland though.

 

[Aictos]

Anyone used Asiana? Specifically Chicago to Seoul?

 

[WestCoast]

The Lufthansa & Star Alliance partners terminal at Munich (T2) is absolutely fantastic, even has free coffee machines. Easily the best place to change planes in Europe, maybe alongside Zurich.

The other terminal (T1) which serves the other carriers is not great at all - small pokey gate areas which are crammed when it's busy.