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Aviation Discussion

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TheEdge

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51407951

The man in charge of clearing Boeing's 737 Max to fly again has said he will not do so until he has flown the plane himself.

Steve Dickson, head of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), would not set a timeframe for allowing the plane back in the air.

The aircraft has been grounded by regulators around the world since March 2019.

It was banned from flying after two separate crashes killed 346 people.

Mr Dickson said on Thursday that he would fly the plane with his wife and family members on board.

Last month, Boeing said it did not expect its 737 Max plane to return to the skies before July at least, which was longer than initially expected.

So the FAA continue to slam the door on Boeing whenever they try and suggest the MAX could be flying again by any set date. They really are sticking with the line of "it'll be ready to fly when its ready, regardless of the time"

Also seeing news that Icelandair is the newest airline to be eyeing up an order of A321neos to run alongside/instead of the MAX family.

I'm still not 100% convinced the commercial airliner part of Boeing is going to survive this, at least not in its current form. I can't be the only person seeing some reflections of the Comet in this.
 
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Crawley Ben

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Just reading up on connections at Gatwick now if you’ve got a Easyjet flight from Aberdeen to Gatwick then a Easyjet flight to Prague for example, can you stay airside to make the connection without having to clear security again?

As Easyjet only use one terminal as I understand it?

Afraid not as Easyjet don't pay for the use of the Transfer Area, so you will need to go outside & come back in again.

Cheers

Ben
 

Bald Rick

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Airline Man

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I watched that as well. Lots of go-arounds. The commentator got a bit carried away with the situation at times!
 

ValleyLines142

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Just trying to have a look on Flight Radar stats of the oldest aircraft in commercial service? Oldest one I've seen so far is C-FPCA of Air Canada (B767), which is almost 31 years old (March 1989).

Second oldest I've found is PH-BFH of KLM (B747), which is almost 30 years old (March 1990).

I know Jet 2 have recently withdrawn G-CELH (B737), which managed a staggering 33 years in service (September 1986).
 

TheEdge

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Just trying to have a look on Flight Radar stats of the oldest aircraft in commercial service? Oldest one I've seen so far is C-FPCA of Air Canada (B767), which is almost 31 years old (March 1989).

Second oldest I've found is PH-BFH of KLM (B747), which is almost 30 years old (March 1990).

I know Jet 2 have recently withdrawn G-CELH (B737), which managed a staggering 33 years in service (September 1986).

You need to aim higher than that!

They may not show up on Flight Radar but there are still a decent number of DC3s flying commercially, well into their 70s and 80s now.

Even older Twin Otters are still plying their trade as they enter into their 40s. Dash 7s built in the 70s are still flying.

Got to think to find the extreme examples.

If you want to stick to "modern" airliners or their derivities you've got the FedEx DC10s, various airlines operating 737-200s fitted with gravel kits in Canada. The odd DC9 is still flying. Not sure how old Delta's remaining MD80s are but they are fairly long in the tooth.
 
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ValleyLines142

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You need to aim higher than that!

They may not show up on Flight Radar but there are still a decent number of DC3s flying commercially, well into their 70s and 80s now.

Even older Twin Otters are still plying their trade as they enter into their 40s. Dash 7s built in the 70s are still flying.

Got to think to find the extreme examples.

If you want to stick to "modern" airliners or their derivities you've got the FedEx DC10s, various airlines operating 737-200s fitted with gravel kits in Canada. The odd DC9 is still flying. Not sure how old Delta's remaining MD80s are but they are fairly long in the tooth.

Well I haven't been able to find any! I suppose I just haven't looked hard enough.

I did just do a general search on Google but the only articles I found were about 18 months out of date.
 

Bletchleyite

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RichJF

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Just trying to have a look on Flight Radar stats of the oldest aircraft in commercial service? Oldest one I've seen so far is C-FPCA of Air Canada (B767), which is almost 31 years old (March 1989).

Second oldest I've found is PH-BFH of KLM (B747), which is almost 30 years old (March 1990).

I know Jet 2 have recently withdrawn G-CELH (B737), which managed a staggering 33 years in service (September 1986).

C-GNLK flying for Nolinor. Combi Boeing 737-200 with a venerable age of 45.8 years. Recently had a glass cockpit fitted as well. A lot of the Canadian early 737s are low hours/cycles so expect them to be in service for another decade or so.
FedEx DC/MD-10s are mostly into their 40s now too.

Planespotters is your friend here. Go to Production List, click on your aircraft of choice, then click 'status' & it'll sort by first off the production line.
https://www.planespotters.net/production-list/index

Quite a lot of DC-3s with new engines fitted that are close to human 'old age'. A few have been converted into Basler BT-67s; original airframe but brand new innards.
 

darloscott

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Very unusual to have landed fully including the nosewheel and still gone around, normally if the nosewheel goes down it's staying. Must have been blown such that it was almost certainly going to leave the runway if the landing was continued.
More than likely related to runway length remaining to slow down - if they floated a significant way down then the best decision is to go around, despite having landed
 

Bald Rick

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More than likely related to runway length remaining to slow down - if they floated a significant way down then the best decision is to go around, despite having landed

Most likely. The spoilers didn’t come up as soon as it touched down, so the pilot must have known, and decided better safe than sorry.

Either that or he had an arrangement with Jerry from Big Jet TV :lol:
 

Crawley Ben

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British Airways launching a summer season route between Heathrow & Newquay starting 02nd July & ending 07th September.

Flights will be 5x weekly (Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday).

Fares start from £90 return, rising to £250 in Club Europe.

Cheers

Ben
 

cactustwirly

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British Airways launching a summer season route between Heathrow & Newquay starting 02nd July & ending 07th September.

Flights will be 5x weekly (Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday).

Fares start from £90 return, rising to £250 in Club Europe.

Cheers

Ben

Interesting, didn't think it was a commercially viable route, especially for an A319
 

Techniquest

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British Airways launching a summer season route between Heathrow & Newquay starting 02nd July & ending 07th September.

Flights will be 5x weekly (Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday).

Fares start from £90 return, rising to £250 in Club Europe.

Cheers

Ben

Ooh nice, I've been wanting to tick off NQY for ages. I'll have to investigate this tomorrow...
 

darloscott

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Interesting, didn't think it was a commercially viable route, especially for an A319
It’s not, look at the times. Clearly a slot sitter for the summer. May get a bit of connecting traffic from Germany but as soon as something better comes along they’ll be off.
 

randyrippley

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BA flight took advantage of storm Ciara and did NY to LHR in less than 5 hours, speed butexceeded 800 mph due to jetstream.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-51433720

Pity the picture shows a 777 and not a 747!

I came across on a BA flight from Boston in the late 1980s where the pilot went for the record but only managed second best. Lively flight to say the least, a five hour rollercoaster. I think we were told we had a 300mph tailwind. This recent flight was probably quite scary
 

Airline Man

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Thus unnecessarily tying up the time of a security officer while you do, therefore costing more than using transfers. How utterly bizarre that there even is a separate fee for that.

So much can go wrong with transfers, especially when flights misconnect, not to mention losing transfer bags and the cost of repatriating them with their owners. It all adds complexity and cost to the business no-frill carriers don't do it.
 

Tetchytyke

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So much can go wrong with transfers, especially when flights misconnect, not to mention losing transfer bags and the cost of repatriating them with their owners. It all adds complexity and cost to the business no-frill carriers don't do it.

EasyJet, for all the PR bluster with "Wiorldwide by EasyJet", don't actually do connections, as you note. What they will do is make it look like you're buying a through ticket but actually sell you separate tickets and an insurance policy to cover the connection.

If it goes tits up, the insurer may or may not pay out. EasyJet's insurer, DoHop Connect, have an "interesting" list of exclusions.
 

Tetchytyke

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Most notably they consider bad weather as "force majeure" which is outrageous, really.

Indeed. I was looking at it using EasyJet Newcastle-Belfast-IOM and the list of exclusions was a disgrace. They also included strike action as "force majeure".

In February, in Europe, the flights will either go wrong because of bad weather (as we've seen this week) or the French ATC. I'd save the £24.95!
 
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