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Aviation Discussion

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Shaw S Hunter

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More importantly, nor can the FAA! The major western industrial nation's certifying authorities have been happy to endorse each other's approvals of equipment. The 737 MAX debacle has demonstrated that not only has a major manufacturer cut corners with safety in the interest of profit, but far more alarmingly, an erstwhile globally respected watchdog has knelt at the altar of commercial pressure and failed in its primary duty. The loss of Boeing's credibility is unfortunate for those in the company who are committed to excellence and honesty within the organisation but in the final analysis it is just a commercial failure through misjudgement.
The FAA is a government agency and has been shown to be unfit for purpose. Even if heads roll there, other certifying responsible authorities will insist on local verification. It is the loss of trust that will undermine the US aircraft industry, - even for domestic sales.

While the FAA has clearly been deficient some of that is due to years, decades even, of government pressure to reduce funding of that organisation which arguably goes back to the aftermath of a major Air Traffic Controllers' strike during the Reagan administration. So while Congress will happily jump on the FAA-bashing bandwagon it too has a degree of culpability due to its lack of properly diligent oversight. And then factor in the lobbyists...

It would be interesting to know if anything similar has happened with the Airbus NEO family, with the self certification of modifications to them.

Although does Airbus's experience of making the entire A320 family and A330 and A340 single type ratings make them possibly more aware of the risks in that sort of endeavour?

While the comparison is an obvious one to make the reality is that the A320 and A330/340 families were designed as fly-by-wire (FBW) from the very outset so making adjustments to on-board flight computing is much easier and the testing/proving of such changes much more reliable. None of that is true of the Boeing 737 whose basic design is over 50 years old ie pre-dates any useful on-board computing other than found in the space programme. Hindsight is always a wonderful thing but Boeing really should have come up with a clean sheet design to replace the 737 as soon as the Next Gen series were in production.
 
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YorkshireBear

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That’s about getting the aircraft centre of gravity right. There’s a very specific set of circumstances with certain loading and fuel that a go-around might cause issues with the computers controlling the elevators and aerilons. This set of circumstances only affects one type of A320neo configuration, and only Lufthansa have it. Hence they are blocking off the back row. Incidentally this set of circumstances has never happened in the real world, it was discovered through theoretical simulation some time after certification.

But better safe than sorry.

I thought that BA had it too. But yes that is what I was referring to. It's in no way the same or comparable to MCAS.
 

fowler9

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Bit of geek info. Go on Google Maps and check out Leipzig Halle airport. There is the An-225 and at least 3 An-124's on the ground. Also there is a Virgin (I think) 747 flying due East just North East of Chichester.
 

ld0595

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Quite excited to be flying the upper deck of the 747 with BA in December! First time in the upper deck and my first time flying business class. Only going on the westbound since it's a longer flight and I could only afford anything other than economy on the return, but I went ahead and booked a reward flight with Avios since BA are removing the 747 off the Philly route. Hoping to bag 64A/K since I hear it's one of the best seats, but it's blocked for just now. However, I'm in 62A just now as apparently this is quite good.

Counting down the days! :D
 

Bald Rick

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Quite excited to be flying the upper deck of the 747 with BA in December! First time in the upper deck and my first time flying business class. Only going on the westbound since it's a longer flight and I could only afford anything other than economy on the return, but I went ahead and booked a reward flight with Avios since BA are removing the 747 off the Philly route. Hoping to bag 64A/K since I hear it's one of the best seats, but it's blocked for just now. However, I'm in 62A just now as apparently this is quite good.

Counting down the days! :D

I’ve done top deck 747 four times, all with Virgin in Premium economy. The extra space is notable, and having your own little storage bin under the window is very handy. You also get to see the pilots coming and going!
 

fowler9

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Quite excited to be flying the upper deck of the 747 with BA in December! First time in the upper deck and my first time flying business class. Only going on the westbound since it's a longer flight and I could only afford anything other than economy on the return, but I went ahead and booked a reward flight with Avios since BA are removing the 747 off the Philly route. Hoping to bag 64A/K since I hear it's one of the best seats, but it's blocked for just now. However, I'm in 62A just now as apparently this is quite good.

Counting down the days! :D
Very jealous. Have a great trip.
 

Ted633

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Quite excited to be flying the upper deck of the 747 with BA in December! First time in the upper deck and my first time flying business class. Only going on the westbound since it's a longer flight and I could only afford anything other than economy on the return, but I went ahead and booked a reward flight with Avios since BA are removing the 747 off the Philly route. Hoping to bag 64A/K since I hear it's one of the best seats, but it's blocked for just now. However, I'm in 62A just now as apparently this is quite good.

Counting down the days! :D
62A is a good seat to go for. Window seat and no one to climb over to get to the aisle. I wouldn't change to 64A/K if I were you as those seats are right next to the toilet
 

Butts

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Had my first significant but not compensatable (is that a word ?) delay on Flybe tonight for ages.

1710 ex Birmingham to Edinburgh left at 1840- to be fair they did text twice first 30 min then 90 min delay.

Really galling aspect the 1710 to Glasgow left bang on time.

Yes folks my last few trips to Birmingham have been from Glasgow !!!

To be fair I have experienced it the other way round before.

Not so much a sniff of a free drink in the crazy world of Airlines. Perhaps delay compensation should be staggered and kick in after an hour !!
 

nlogax

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62A is a good seat to go for. Window seat and no one to climb over to get to the aisle. I wouldn't change to 64A/K if I were you as those seats are right next to the toilet

62 is a decent row up there. I had 62J in July while JFK-bound. Would have loved the window but it was a gate op-up from WTP so I really didn't mind so much.
 
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Connect Airways have now made the long awaited official announcement about the future of FlyBe.

As speculated by many, FlyBe becomes Virgin Connect in 2020.
The rebranding will not fully take place until many changes and improvements have taken place and are effective.
As such, aircraft will not be repainted until these changes have been made.

No information yet on the likely route changes, or changes to the aircraft fleet.

https://virginconnect.co.uk




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Butts

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Connect Airways have now made the long awaited official announcement about the future of FlyBe.

As speculated by many, FlyBe becomes Virgin Connect in 2020.
The rebranding will not fully take place until many changes and improvements have taken place and are effective.
As such, aircraft will not be repainted until these changes have been made.

No information yet on the likely route changes, or changes to the aircraft fleet.

https://virginconnect.co.uk




.

That's a blast from the past, lets's hope it lasts longer than BA Connect some older posters will remember.
 

atillathehunn

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Connect Airways have now made the long awaited official announcement about the future of FlyBe.

As speculated by many, FlyBe becomes Virgin Connect in 2020.
The rebranding will not fully take place until many changes and improvements have taken place and are effective.
As such, aircraft will not be repainted until these changes have been made.

No information yet on the likely route changes, or changes to the aircraft fleet.

https://virginconnect.co.uk




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A pretty logical step really, and good that they will integrate into a frequent flyer programme.

They also seem to acknowledge that there is a long way to go before they will be in an acceptable shape to carry the brand. Which is good. Tidy up the route network, hopefully without mandatory redundancies and get back to core flying. I have seen rumours of an order of A220s but I've also just seen an article that indicates Swiss have grounded all their A220s.
 

AM9

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62 is a decent row up there. I had 62J in July while JFK-bound. Would have loved the window but it was a gate op-up from WTP so I really didn't mind so much.
Just done the outbound journey BKK-DPS (Bai), on top deck of a Thai 747-400.
Business seats are the previous style, I.e.,full recline but about 20 degrees off horizontal. Space available, enormous! Just 30 seats in the space some airlines fit over 70 economy seats. That was for a 4hr flight. Unfortunately the LHR-BKK flight wasn't so comfortable, flat beds but only 74 inches long, that's 1 inch headroom!
 

Titfield

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Speaking of Flybe.

I am trying to find the times of flights between SOU and BHD so I can do a day return in Nov / early December for work - hence Monday to Friday.

I have tried their website but all the interactive tool seems to give me is that it it is now impossible as to all intents and purposes every day the times are different and there is no sensible day return ie arrive by 1000 leave after 1600.

Is it me or is the SOU BHD finished.
 
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Speaking of Flybe.

I am trying to find the times of flights between SOU and BHD so I can do a day return in Nov / early December for work - hence Monday to Friday.

I have tried their website but all the interactive tool seems to give me is that it it is now impossible as to all intents and purposes every day the times are different and there is no sensible day return ie arrive by 1000 leave after 1600.

Is it me or is the SOU BHD finished.

No it's not finished (yet?)
They've reduced the number of flights.
Not all are showing on the search engine, because they're full and some others are nearly sold out.

Looking at the timetable.

November
3 direct flights on Mon & Fri
2 direct flights Tue - Thu
W/E = 1 on Sat & 2 on Sun

December sees Mon reduced to only 2 direct flights.

You can do a direct flight, day return in November on Mon & Fri, or a late morning out (arrive BHD 1200) and evening return on Wed & Thu
In December the Monday option is removed.
However, they offer connecting flights via Manchester, so a day return is possible Mon-Fri using a combination of direct and via MAN flights.

The key thing is the morning flights appear to sell out quickly.


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TheEdge

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I just hope the "Jersey" call sign survives. A tiny bit of British aviation heritage still sneaking along
 

158756

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A pretty logical step really, and good that they will integrate into a frequent flyer programme.

They also seem to acknowledge that there is a long way to go before they will be in an acceptable shape to carry the brand. Which is good. Tidy up the route network, hopefully without mandatory redundancies and get back to core flying. I have seen rumours of an order of A220s but I've also just seen an article that indicates Swiss have grounded all their A220s.

Not sure about Virgin Connect. The Virgin name may have been applied to many things, but not a successful regional airline. What does this brand mean to passengers? If it is intended to keep the business going on any significant scale most passengers will not be connecting with any Virgin flight or even passing through an airport where Virgin Atlantic operate.

On the other hand, for Virgin Atlantic, what will it mean for the brand that the Virgin name is flying round on a bunch of Exeter based Dash 8s? Improvements are planned, but fundamentally costs need to be reduced. Will they become associated with zealous enforcement of baggage rules and the unreliability Flymaybe are famous for?

On the A220 - Air France/KLM has a stake in Virgin Atlantic, perhaps it could be suitable for streamlining the offering to Paris and Amsterdam? Other than that, until/unless the third runway is built at Heathrow it's too big for Flybe.
 
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.....On the A220 - Air France/KLM has a stake in Virgin Atlantic, perhaps it could be suitable for streamlining the offering to Paris and Amsterdam? Other than that, until/unless the third runway is built at Heathrow it's too big for Flybe.

Don’t forget also feeding passenger traffic into Virgin Atlantic’s largest shareholder, Delta Airlines (49%).

Virgin Atlantic have recently announced that in the event of the new Heathrow runway being given the go ahead, they intend to pursue a massive expansion of their route network (84 new destinations) including to 37 European and 12 UK domestic destinations.

Then there’s Manchester, where not only are Virgin Atlantic well established and slowly growing their range of North American and Caribbean destinations, but where FlyBe have a large base and route hub.

It could lead to feeding KLM and Delta at AMS, Air France and Delta at CDG, Virgin Atlantic and Delta at LHR and Virgin Atlantic (and Delta?) at MAN.

What happens to the rest of FlyBe’s network is anyone’s guess ATM.
 

atillathehunn

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Not sure about Virgin Connect. The Virgin name may have been applied to many things, but not a successful regional airline. What does this brand mean to passengers? If it is intended to keep the business going on any significant scale most passengers will not be connecting with any Virgin flight or even passing through an airport where Virgin Atlantic operate.

On the other hand, for Virgin Atlantic, what will it mean for the brand that the Virgin name is flying round on a bunch of Exeter based Dash 8s? Improvements are planned, but fundamentally costs need to be reduced. Will they become associated with zealous enforcement of baggage rules and the unreliability Flymaybe are famous for?

On the A220 - Air France/KLM has a stake in Virgin Atlantic, perhaps it could be suitable for streamlining the offering to Paris and Amsterdam? Other than that, until/unless the third runway is built at Heathrow it's too big for Flybe.


Little Red was a disaster, if that's what you're referring to. But they had very expensive wet lease planes and pretty sub optimal slots at Heathrow. Flybe has a lower cost base and a different MO.

The brand doesn't need to necessarily connect to or from a Virgin flight. Virgin Australia doesn't need to connect to Virgin Atlantic. It's standalone brand but one that can offer proper connections as well. Virgin trains exists, Virgin Atlantic exists, Virgin Australia exists. Flybe would not exist if it weren't for this buy out, and they know something has to change.

The Flybe brand is bad, and they need a refresh. And the delay in re-branding announced is so they can get their house in order, particularly the new and unpopular baggage rules. Hopefully reduce some of their delay tactics.

I think the hole in the entire plan at the moment is just Virgin's focus on Manchester, and offering connections through MAN to their long haul services. The connection experience is currently a joke. They need to pressure the airport to streamline this before they can truly offer it.
 

Bletchleyite

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The Flybe brand is bad, and they need a refresh.

I agree. Almost everyone talks of them as "Flymaybe", with about as much regard as people had for 1990s "British Fail".

They will of course have to improve their punctuality and reliability if they want to avoid the Virgin brand getting dirtied in the manner that it was in pre-Pendolino Virgin Trains days (though it did recover afterwards due to latter-day VTWC being pretty decent).
 

parkender102

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Too expensive for me! It does look like a nice and relaxed way to travel, for sure, but way too far out of my price range. Economy will have to do!

Incidentally, I don't know what it is with Emirates but there's just *something* that stops me considering flying with them. I cannot figure out why I don't want to fly with them, but they're not on my list to try. Even the likes of Spirit in the USA, Jetstar in Australia and Scoot over in Asia are more appealing than Emirates. Again, don't know why and I know it won't prove to be a popular opinion.

As for paying £26 and up for choosing my seat on my Haneda to Heathrow flight, no I don't consider that good value. It is indeed over 12 hours, but I'll wait until check-in opens and see what I can get. I had good fortune doing so in May 2018 when I did Toronto, so there's always a chance I'll be fine this time too.

1 month tomorrow until I'm in the air again, excitement is mounting rapidly! Best start practising some commonly used Japanese words...

Yes the only reason I got to fly Business Class a couple of times (upgraded to 1st Class on one leg) was because it was work related and they were paying. No way in a million years would I consider Business or First Class when generally Standard Class is fine. I'd rather break up a long haul flight in Standard into 6-7 hour manageable chunks and have a day or 2 in somewhere like Hong Kong or Singapore. The extortionate prices of Business and First are just way over what a normal person can afford! Ryanair for shorter distances is perfectly adequate and the price is right - heading to Madrid, Cordoba and Granada next week with the wife for a week using Ryanair bargain flights.
 

atillathehunn

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I agree. Almost everyone talks of them as "Flymaybe", with about as much regard as people had for 1990s "British Fail".

They will of course have to improve their punctuality and reliability if they want to avoid the Virgin brand getting dirtied in the manner that it was in pre-Pendolino Virgin Trains days (though it did recover afterwards due to latter-day VTWC being pretty decent).

In fact, no one in our household calls them Flybe, only Flymaybe. One member commutes regularly on them so we never leave for the airport to pick them up until the plane is spotted on flightradar in the air and with the nose pointing the right way.

On one occasion recently I started my journey on a Dash 8-100 in a refugee camp in sub-saharan Africa, taking off from a gravel airstrip tightly controlled due to potential militia activity to a city, connecting long haul to Amsterdam thence to Manchester (breaking my self imposed avoidance of that outrageous airport) with the final leg on Flybe, also on a Dash 8. The experience of the Dash out of a tiny gravel 'airport' was far much better than any experience out of Amsterdam with Flybe... we were late with no information, shut in the plane with the door sealed and no AC in the height of summer for an hour while they worked out if a thunderstorm was going to close AMS and a long taxi and a bus ride in Manchester... at check-in baggage sizes were hotly contested by passengers and staff with many (understandably) angry people... They will do fine under Virgin, but they have to put their house in order.

Reducing the stretch of their fleet and focusing on core flying is essential. The holiday routes are nice to have, but not essential when you cannot do your core work well enough.
 
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.....They will of course have to improve their punctuality and reliability if they want to avoid the Virgin brand getting dirtied.......

Which, according to reports from the briefing yesterday, is precisely why they are not fully implementing the new branding, or re-painting aircraft etc, until that shake up has produced positive results.


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......I think the hole in the entire plan at the moment is just Virgin's focus on Manchester, and offering connections through MAN to their long haul services.
The connection experience is currently a joke. They need to pressure the airport to streamline this before they can truly offer it.

Improving the convenience and viability of Manchester as a proper connecting hub, depends very much on the completion of the airport's current £1 billion Transformation Programme, demolishing T1 and what the future plans are for T3.
With MAN T2 doubled in size, there's a prospect that domestic and European feeder flights will be able to use that terminal, or connect to the terminal more effectively.


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158756

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Don’t forget also feeding passenger traffic into Virgin Atlantic’s largest shareholder, Delta Airlines (49%).

Virgin Atlantic have recently announced that in the event of the new Heathrow runway being given the go ahead, they intend to pursue a massive expansion of their route network (84 new destinations) including to 37 European and 12 UK domestic destinations.

Then there’s Manchester, where not only are Virgin Atlantic well established and slowly growing their range of North American and Caribbean destinations, but where FlyBe have a large base and route hub.

It could lead to feeding KLM and Delta at AMS, Air France and Delta at CDG, Virgin Atlantic and Delta at LHR and Virgin Atlantic (and Delta?) at MAN.

What happens to the rest of FlyBe’s network is anyone’s guess ATM.

Virgin/Delta's Heathrow presence is tiny by comparison with any other airline trying to run a feeder network. At Manchester it's a case of blink and you'd miss them, especially in Winter. Their Heathrow expansion plans are a wishlist based on a number of slots they will never get. If it is to survive Virgin Connect needs to place more importance on almost everything other than connections with Virgin Atlantic.

This has Little Red written all over it.
 

Bald Rick

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I think it’s an interesting move. Virgin connect will have lots of travel market data, and (importantly) lots of customer contact details from Virgin Trains. Think of all the people who have used VT London / Birmingham - Scotland over the years. Go back far enough and Virgin will no doubt have market data on XC, which they will able to use in conjunction with ticket sales they make through their own website.

With VT becoming an ex TOC, what price adverts suggesting ‘stay with Virgin’...
 

atillathehunn

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Virgin/Delta's Heathrow presence is tiny by comparison with any other airline trying to run a feeder network. At Manchester it's a case of blink and you'd miss them, especially in Winter. Their Heathrow expansion plans are a wishlist based on a number of slots they will never get. If it is to survive Virgin Connect needs to place more importance on almost everything other than connections with Virgin Atlantic.

This has Little Red written all over it.

It can't be Little Red - they tried to build Little Red from the ground up with very expensive wet lease aircraft with only one destination - Heathrow.

This is axiomatically different. The airline exists, albeit with previous management who tried expanding in strange ways without the resources to back it up. This is Virgin doing two things: buying up a regional airline which has merit - it serves quite a few routes which otherwise are untouched, and two acts as a regional feeder service for long haul. Manchester has quite a few long haul flights, and I believe is the intention to add more. I can foresee Virgin Atlantic adding either New Delhi or Mumbai with VS metal. And while a limited outlook at Heathrow, they still have quite a few flights if they can make the connections work, which they could not with Little Red - the slots missed their TATL bank. Also VS just joined the China Eastern Joint Venture with AF/KL. Probably pushing a bit more traffic through AMS, LHR and CDG.

The company cost them very little - £2.2m and inherited a much, much lower cost base.

While it seems they have finished closing bases, they will still be trimming services and focus on getting the important flights back to reliability.
 

sheff1

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https://virginconnect.co.uk
"Our customers will naturally expect the same exceptional travel experience as they do with other Virgin-related brands."

I am sure customers are looking forwad to be beiing denied access to a flight whilst holding a valid boarding pass - as per the widely admired travel experience perfected by Virgin at Euston.

Almost everyone talks of them as "Flymaybe", with about as much regard as people had for 1990s "British Fail".
Perhaps we all been lucky, but I and various friends and acquaintances who use Flybe regularly have never had cause for complaint ... unlike some experiences with Virgin East Coast. There, again, I don't recall us having problems with the 1990s British Rail either ... lucky there too, obviously.

Of course, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating - let's hope Virgin do deliver and it is not just 'Awesome' hype and poor delivery.
 
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