Aviation Discussion

[theageofthetra]

Not really, unless you can get an exit row or want to pay for a Comfort+ seat which has extra legroom. Other than that they're much the same. Seatguru is good for US carriers if you want to do more research.

My partner has access to Gallileo so we will check occupancy level nearer the time to see how full they are. As our flight gets in in the evening into Maui midweek and most Americans tend to want to arrive at weekends or in the morning it will hopefully give plenty of seat choice.

 

[atillathehunn]

The news is reporting a Pegasus 737 has skidded off the end of a runway at Trabzon airport on the Black Sea, and come fairly close to bring the holiday makers closer to their intended destination. It has skidded off the small cliff and was perilously close to being in the drink.

Apparently icy runway and heavy braking led to the excursion.

http://www.bbc.com/turkce/haberler-dunya-42680812

 

[Darandio]

Airbus are looking like they may have to drop the A380.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/15/air...a380-if-theres-no-new-deal-with-emirates.html

Airbus has admitted that unless it can find more buyers for its A380 superjumbo, the program may have to end.

The European planemaker has said it will build 12 A380s in 2018 and a further eight in 2019. Airbus said the minimum annual number it is prepared to build each year is six.

The main customer for the world's largest commercial jet is the Middle Eastern carrier Emirates, who took delivery of their 100th A380 during 2017.

Speaking via webcast Monday, Airbus sales chief John Leahy said negotiations for Emirates to buy more of the superjumbo were ongoing.

"We are still talking to Emirates and quite honestly they are probably the only one in the marketplace who can take a minimum of six A380s a year for a period of eight to 10 years," he said.

"If we can't work out a deal with Emirates I think there is no choice but to shut down the program," Leahy added.

Leahy said he believed the A380 would come back into fashion as air traffic was doubling every 15 years and bigger planes would be needed to satisfy demand.

Airbus has increased the average list prices of its aircraft by two percent across the product line, effective from January 1st 2018. The new average list price for an A380 is $445.6 million.

 

[jopsuk]

there's an awful lot to the A380 production process, especially the logistics. Whilst they can shift wings, fuselage sections etc for everything else using the planes, the 380 has a dedicated RoRo ferry, two dedicated RoRo barges and a fleet of specialised road vehicles, plus various transfer points and staging locations. That's a lot of ancillary cost on top of the usual factory costs- even if idle those things are a drain.

 

[YorkshireBear]

It would appear the Airbus A380 has received a reprieve with 20 ordered with an option for 16 more from emirates.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42732842

Superjumbo jet future secured by Emirates order

The Emirates airline has announced an order for up to 36 Airbus A380s.

The $16bn (£11.5bn) deal amounts to a reprieve for the A380 after Airbus threatened to stop making the jet if it could not come to a deal with Emirates.

Emirates is the only airline to have put the A380 at the heart of its operations and had been expected to place an order for more of the jets at the Dubai Airshow last November.

However, it then ordered 40 Boeing 787 Dreamliners instead.

Emirates said it had now made a firm order for 20 of the A380, the world's largest passenger airliner, with options to buy a further 16. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2020.

Emirates is already the largest customer for the plane, with 101 currently flying and 41 more firm orders previously placed.

On Monday, Airbus sales director John Leahy said the company would have to halt the A380 programme if Emirates did not place another order.

 

[Butts]

Witnessed Ryanairs new "baggage policy" in action from Stansted to Luxembourg and back earlier in the week.

In order to take a Normal Cabin Sized Bag on you have to pay for priority boarding or it goes in the hold free of charge at the gate. If you have not paid you can still take a diddy one on , if you have you can take both.

This has had the unfortunate effect of increasing the queue in priority boarding filling it up with peasants obstructing my ease of access to my front row seat I have paid £21 for

 

[Peter Mugridge]

It would appear the Airbus A380 has received a reprieve with 20 ordered with an option for 16 more from emirates.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42732842

Not long ago Airbus were making noises about up to 100 being sold to various airlines in China provided then much hyped Emirates order went ahead.

Given that this Emirates order is smaller than the much hyped one, do you think it is big enough that at least some of those Chinese customers might now bite?

 

[fowler9]

what are the loadings like on the Emirates A380's? I'd be interested to see what they do instead if the A380 goes out of production.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Not long ago Airbus were making noises about up to 100 being sold to various airlines in China provided then much hyped Emirates order went ahead.

Given that this Emirates order is smaller than the much hyped one, do you think it is big enough that at least some of those Chinese customers might now bite?

I would suggest the Emirates order is what Airbus desperately wanted to keep the production line open just long enough until market conditions make a Chinese order almost inevitable. The raison-d'etre for the A380 was allowing increased capacity at the busiest, and possibly slot-controlled, airports. Dubai, and to a lesser extent Heathrow, with just 2 runways would struggle without the A380. Beijing is busier than both but does have 3 runways whereas the world's busiest airport, Atlanta, has 5. Doubtless the delay in finalising this new Emirates order was down to serious haggling on price. At some point the big 3 Chinese operators will need A380s for key routes to/from Beijing: the question is how soon.

 

[atillathehunn]

what are the loadings like on the Emirates A380's? I'd be interested to see what they do instead if the A380 goes out of production.

On which flight on which day?? This is an unanswerable question in the absence of some more information. I would imagine that they enough loadings to make it profitable else they wouldn't continue to run the flights.

Shaw: you're right they are looking east. No American or South American airline is even vaguely interested. Airlines between London and New York have opted for smaller more frequent flights to cater for the business traveller who looks for frequency. I don't think that will change soon. I disagree with analysis elsewhere that the hub and spoke model is dead; with Norwegian pulling their Edinburgh to Hartford (Connecticut) flight which was launched with much fanfare, this model clearly isn't the gold mine people thought it would be.

 

[Butts]

Stansted Airport may have a reputation for big queues (everywhere) but I was off the plane through UK Border and Customs (Bensons Untouched) within about 10 mins of landing on Wednesday Night. Mind you I had no hold baggage and there was no one - I mean no other people at Passport Control when our passengers arrived there.

Must have been lucky but this is the second time I have sailed through there in six months.

 

[fowler9]

On which flight on which day?? This is an unanswerable question in the absence of some more information. I would imagine that they enough loadings to make it profitable else they wouldn't continue to run the flights.

Yeah sorry mate, it was a rather vague and daft question.

 

[ian959]

what are the loadings like on the Emirates A380's? I'd be interested to see what they do instead if the A380 goes out of production.

I cannot give you a split between A380 and 777 flights nor specific sectors but according to BITRE data in Australia, inbound to Australia from Dubai the load factors overall were 92.96% and outbound from Australia to Dubai were 49.93% in October 2017. The actual outbound load factors would be higher than quoted though as they probably don't include passengers from Auckland transiting through Australia on the A380 flights from Auckland via Sydney/Brisbane/Melbourne.

 

[frodshamfella]

Blue Air have 8 routes now out of Liverpool. The latest news destinations are Palma and Malaga. Easyjet have four new routes from Liverpool, Venice started late 2017, this year they add Palermo , Pula and Dalaman.

 

[atillathehunn]

Yeah sorry mate, it was a rather vague and daft question.

No problem.

 

[atillathehunn]

I cannot give you a split between A380 and 777 flights nor specific sectors but according to BITRE data in Australia, inbound to Australia from Dubai the load factors overall were 92.96% and outbound from Australia to Dubai were 49.93% in October 2017. The actual outbound load factors would be higher than quoted though as they probably don't include passengers from Auckland transiting through Australia on the A380 flights from Auckland via Sydney/Brisbane/Melbourne.

Interesting that, if you're correct about the way the figures split, that the Oz/NZ market is split nearly evenly. A non scientific guess would have been that Oz was busier, given the bigger cities and economy in Australia. Friends are about to move over to Australia, so I may well soon be back that way.

Blue Air have 8 routes now out of Liverpool. The latest news destinations are Palma and Malaga. Easyjet have four new routes from Liverpool, Venice started late 2017, this year they add Palermo , Pula and Dalaman.

I saw their marketing when I was last in Liverpool city centre. Has anyone tried their product? I would imagine it's the standard, but you never know.

 

[frodshamfella]

Interesting that, if you're correct about the way the figures split, that the Oz/NZ market is split nearly evenly. A non scientific guess would have been that Oz was busier, given the bigger cities and economy in Australia. Friends are about to move over to Australia, so I may well soon be back that way.




I saw their marketing when I was last in Liverpool city centre. Has anyone tried their product? I would imagine it's the standard, but you never know.

I did last year to Hamburg and was pretty impressed ...
Seats comfortable even a complimentary drink and snack. Will go on them from Liverpool to Milan / Bergamo in May. I'd pick them over others if there is a choice.

 

[theageofthetra]

Witnessed Ryanairs new "baggage policy" in action from Stansted to Luxembourg and back earlier in the week.

In order to take a Normal Cabin Sized Bag on you have to pay for priority boarding or it goes in the hold free of charge at the gate. If you have not paid you can still take a diddy one on , if you have you can take both.

This has had the unfortunate effect of increasing the queue in priority boarding filling it up with peasants obstructing my ease of access to my front row seat I have paid £21 for

Did it speed up boarding? Was it slower to retrieve the bag at the end due to the presumably increased number being put in the hold?

 

[Butts]

Did it speed up boarding? Was it slower to retrieve the bag at the end due to the presumably increased number being put in the hold?

I must be honest the boarding did seem fairly quick. However the return flight only had 77 people onboard. As I mentioned there were visibly more people in the Priority Queue than normal.

I can't answer about retrieving the bags as both mine were inside with me.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Could anyone identify this 747 at Heathrow yesterday please? It looks like one of the VIP / Government ones...?

 

[fowler9]

Could anyone identify this 747 at Heathrow yesterday please? It looks like one of the VIP / Government ones...?View attachment 41805

Looks like UAE government to me. Apologies, I can't identify the actual aircraft. Am having a guess at A6-HRM from the Dubai Royal Flight.

 

[Darandio]

Complete stab in the dark but it looks like A6-HRM landed there on Friday. https://www.netairspace.com/photos/...47-422/LHR_EGLL_London_Heathrow/photo_212953/

 

[fowler9]

Complete stab in the dark but it looks like A6-HRM landed there on Friday. https://www.netairspace.com/photos/...47-422/LHR_EGLL_London_Heathrow/photo_212953/

A ha. I was going off googled images after seeing the flag on the tail. I think we are forming a consensus. Ha ha.

 

[fowler9]

What were you on Peter? I am going to guess at an A320. Not sure what airline.

 

[atillathehunn]

That's a BA craft the photographer is on with the red tips there.

 

[fowler9]

That's a BA craft the photographer is on with the red tips there.

Of course. Only been on 2 BA A320's, I assumed the tips would be blue for some reason.

 

[atillathehunn]

Of course. Only been on 2 BA A320's, I assumed the tips would be blue for some reason.

Makes me think of Comic Relief for some reason.

 

[Speedbird96]

Long time lurker of this forum and being an AvGeek, thought I might add my contribution to the page

Could anyone identify this 747 at Heathrow yesterday please? It looks like one of the VIP / Government ones...?View attachment 41805

VIP / Government is right, operated by Dubai Royal Air Wing for the Government of Dubai. A6-HRM is one of 5 Boeing 747-400's in their fleet.

-------------------------------------------

Gulf Air has posted a schedule update for their twice daily flights from London Heathrow to Bahrain. GF7/2 and GF3/6 from 15th June 2018 will go over from Airbus A330-200 to Boeing 787-9 operation. First aircraft due for delivery in April 2018.

https://www.routesonline.com/news/3...ans-boeing-787-london-service-from-june-2018/

Quite looking forward to seeing Gulf Air's first Boeing 787, but will be saddened when their Airbus A330s will be withdrawn!

 

[fowler9]

So I correctly identified the 747. Don't all congratulate me at once. Ha ha.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Can someone please tell me what inflight entertainment is like on Air Mauritius? I’ve heard worryingly bad things...