Pembo's random news & views (24/01/06)

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Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 920

Hi everyone,

Loads of random stuff to ramble about and a few questions to ask so - here goes.

Firstly, had an experience of the LGW BA 737s last week; heard so much recently about them looking tatty and when are they going to be replaced etc. I don't know if it was just the two aircraft I went on, but both of them seemed very clean & tidy to me and looked in good shape.

Up in Newcastle on Friday, and there seemed to be problems with the Heathrow flights - anyone know what was going on? I *think* an A320 went tech up there causing a bit of chaos as when I landed, an A320 was just pulling off stand and another A320 was parked up on a remote stand (I presume the broken machine?).

To the NCL-LHR route generally; is there a set pattern of aircraft types on the route? Last time I was on it, it was A319s; now I see nothing but A320s. Do 757's ever come in anymore. I'm on the 09:20 on Thursday and the last flight back later that day and am trying to second guess what type I'll be travelling on. It seems an absolute age since I last flew an Airbus!

Got my next business trip planned for February. I've never flown business class long haul before and it looks like I'm about to get my first taste. Flying out to Kuala Lumpur (KUL) with Malaysian (from AMS), and after a few days there onwards to Perth. Both flights I believe are scheduled to be 744s. Anyone have any experience of Malaysian Airlines, whether their business or economy product? I'm flying back (from KUL anyway) with KLM on one of their 74Ms.

Anyone else feel the Teesside seems quiet of late? Not much news coming out of there and they appear to have failed to break the 1m mark. Tis a shame and with Ryanair pulling out of Rome; don't see that improving either despite the second WW aircraft coming in Summer.

My brother had a run down on an Eastern flight to Bristol recently; said the flight was almost empty - don't know if this was typical. Hope not.

Oh and finally, back to LGW. Haven't been down there for about 4 years until last week. Isn't it a hell of a better experience than LHR? The entire feel of the place, the openess, the cleanliness etc... If I have to hub through the UK again (rather than the preferred AMS), then I think I'll try and do LGW!

Bye for now.....

Original post

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 6,503

Interesting stuff. Sounds like you're having a lot of fun at the moment and I'm sure most of us envy you travelling Business Class to the other side of the planet!

Never tried Malaysia Airlines myself, but SkyTrax rates them as 5-star, along with a few others, so they must be pretty special!

Have a great trip.

Member for

21 years

Posts: 4,209

LGW North Terminal is excellent, especially when it means flying BA! However the South terminal is practically identical to Heathrow in terms of feel, Heathrow is actually better IMHO.

As for aircraft on any UK Domestic service its entirely variable. Could easily be a 319, 320, or 757, or less likely something bigger. Manchester is set to get a significant number of extra 767s on the shuttle services from the summer season as there is no longer to be a set based 767 operating the JFK route (Its been BNWH for about the last 8 years I believe). Also 767s have been required recently just for sheer capacity, so it may even become the case that the 767 even gets regularly scheduled onto a Shuttle, as opposed to just a once or twice a week random flight, again, most notably at Manchester.

Member for

19 years 10 months

Posts: 624

To the NCL-LHR route generally; is there a set pattern of aircraft types on the route? Last time I was on it, it was A319s; now I see nothing but A320s. Do 757's ever come in anymore.

Thats the same as Aberdeen. There used to be atleast one B757 per week day to Heathrow but not anymore. London Heathrow seems to be Airbus 319 and 320 only. London Gatwick is always B737-300 and 400.
Whether BA have taken there B757 off due to disposing of them or whether its because of competition from BMI? I dont know.
Also BA have recently announced that they are cutting there ABZ-LGW flights from 4 x daily to 3 x daily. That is due to lack of demand though.

Member for

20 years 10 months

Posts: 1,089

Pembo,

you should be on 319's for both of your flights on Thursday.

Quite a lot of the 757 flying at the moment is on domestic routes, including some NCL and ABZ flights. I suppose though with a handful of 757's and a huge fleet of A319/320's the law of averages means that most flights will be on Airbus.

1L.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 920

Well, a 319 or a 320 sounds good to me. I'd like a 320-100 actually, just because they're so rare, though I notice BA schedules show the flights as operated by a 319.

So, what do the A321s do? Do any of those do domestic routes?

Hi T5 - its weird; I've always loved flying and travelling and I still get a kick out of it despite the trips being more frequent and work related, than the previous occassional and holiday related. One thing that is starting to bug me though, is waiting around in airports. I haven't achieved enough miles yet to gain auto access to the lounges, and hanging around for 4 hours with nothing to do gets a bit repetitive after a while; particularly if views are limited.

I like your comments on Malaysian. Don't know a great deal about them but I'm sure I heard (maybe 10 years ago) that they received a warning (allegedly) for flying with minimal fuel, such that if they had an incident, and had to fly on to another airport, they'd be dangerously low on fuel. I don't know if my memory is playing tricks on me but I'm sure MAS had to be given a few priority landings due to low fuel. Its a shame that my only knowledge of this airline is this one piece of bad publicity. Can anyone else remember?

Member for

21 years

Posts: 4,209

Pembo, all the 321s are baed at T4, and just do the European routes out of there. As all domestics go from T1 its extremely rare for a 321 to ever get operated on a domestic, and I'm still not entirely sure whether or not its happened at all yet.

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 3,124

Pembo, all the 321s are baed at T4, and just do the European routes out of there. As all domestics go from T1 its extremely rare for a 321 to ever get operated on a domestic, and I'm still not entirely sure whether or not its happened at all yet.

There was an A321 on a shuttle run to EDI just a couple of weeks ago, that was the first time though, and so far the only time there's been a BA A321 at EDI.

Member for

19 years 9 months

Posts: 334

Pembo,

In the last 2-3 weeks the 757 only operated the BA1332/1333 (1245 ex LHR then 1530 ex NCL) on Fridays and Saturdays. All other flights were operated by A319/320 fleet(according to my sources) Your flight tomorrow is almost always a A319 but an A320-100 does appear occasionally though. I suspect that with some of the EF 767s being transferred to LH, then the 757s are having to cover more European flights. Most shuttle flights to GLA and EDI are also operated by A319/320s now.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 920

Ended up on A319s both ways as most of you predicted.

Got back on an earlier flight too, the ex15:50 from LHR which meant a shorter day.