Aviation Discussion

[fowler9]

1

I thought Heathrow was closed for Bush (Jr) arriving, and then it took the rest of the day to deal with the backlog that created?

100th anniversary of the RAF. If all goes to plan 100 military aircraft from across the years will form and fly over London. Should be impressive.

 

[Crawley Ben]

Tianjin Airlines are moving their Chongqing service from Gatwick to Heathrow as of August 25th August. 2x weekly service with Airbus A330 aircraft.

Ben

 

[AlterEgo]

1

100th anniversary of the RAF. If all goes to plan 100 military aircraft from across the years will form and fly over London. Should be impressive.

That’s the entire Air Force these days.

 

[Warwick]

I wonder if more than one F-35 will be up?

 

[frodshamfella]

Easyjet starting a new route to Toulouse from Liverpool this winter.

 

[jopsuk]

flew on an ex-Air Berlin easyjet last week, still in Air Berlin colours. Are they planning on changing the interiors as well as the repainting? It had reclinable seats (which have no place on low seat pitch, high density, short haul planes) with the headphone socket(!) taped over and one seat near the back out of use because it was in such bad condition. Must save a considerable amount of weight if they swap them out for the standard (perfectly comfortable) seats in the rest of the fleet (no recline mechanisms, no entertainment wiring etc).

This was from Corfu- whilst everything else (including TUI 767s) was happily taking off on runway 35, we had to wait for a gap in arrivals (also using 35) big enough to allow us to use 17, as apparently we were too heavy to guarantee safe clearance over Mt Pantokrator

 

[Bald Rick]

flew on an ex-Air Berlin easyjet last week, still in Air Berlin colours. Are they planning on changing the interiors as well as the repainting? It had reclinable seats (which have no place on low seat pitch, high density, short haul planes) with the headphone socket(!) taped over and one seat near the back out of use because it was in such bad condition. Must save a considerable amount of weight if they swap them out for the standard (perfectly comfortable) seats in the rest of the fleet (no recline mechanisms, no entertainment wiring etc).

This was from Corfu- whilst everything else (including TUI 767s) was happily taking off on runway 35, we had to wait for a gap in arrivals (also using 35) big enough to allow us to use 17, as apparently we were too heavy to guarantee safe clearance over Mt Pantokrator

Ah, that explains why I saw one on final approach to Luton last week. I nearly fell off my bike when it went over!

 

[CC 72100]

flew on an ex-Air Berlin easyjet last week, still in Air Berlin colours. Are they planning on changing the interiors as well as the repainting?

Similar here - externally it was in Easyjet livery, inside was still very much ex-Air Berlin. This was on a flight that was originally advertised as not being operated by Easyjet, the career in the end was... Easyjet Europe!

Seemed in better nick than the Easyjet A319 on the return that felt a bit tired.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Similar here - externally it was in Easyjet livery, inside was still very much ex-Air Berlin. This was on a flight that was originally advertised as not being operated by Easyjet, the career in the end was... Easyjet Europe!

Seemed in better nick than the Easyjet A319 on the return that felt a bit tired.

easyJet Europe is an "anti-Brexit" measure and is technically a different airline to easyJet proper (which is Luton based, at least for now). It's not dissimilar to easyJet Switzerland in concept (though that is part Swiss owned).

I would see the long term structure as being most stuff operated by easyJet Europe, then there being separate smaller easyJet Switzerland and easyJet UK to ease operation into and out of those two non-EU countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EasyJet_Europe

As to those aircraft, I believe the plan will be to put the new seats (as per the new A320s) into the whole fleet. I quite like them so I approve of this (though I wish they hadn't crammed an extra row in at the back, this can be avoided by paying a small sum to select a seat forward of the exit row where there is, on the 320s, quite a lot of space now, as for fairly obvious reasons it wasn't possible to squash those seats up).

 

[telstarbox]

Is there a design convention for which bits go on which floor in a passenger terminal? IME most small European airports have the check in desk and baggage claim at runway level which makes sense as it avoids moving heavy bags between floors. Then the gates are often on the next level up with passengers boarding either via jet bridge or going back down to runway level and boarding via steps.

 

[AlterEgo]

Is there a design convention for which bits go on which floor in a passenger terminal? IME most small European airports have the check in desk and baggage claim at runway level which makes sense as it avoids moving heavy bags between floors. Then the gates are often on the next level up with passengers boarding either via jet bridge or going back down to runway level and boarding via steps.

I’m not sure there is a formal convention but in large airports arrivals is nearly always on a lower floor than departures, where more than one floor exists.

 

[Crawley Ben]

British Airways to add flights to Cologne from Gatwick (4x weekly) starting November 2018.

Assume this will be for the Christmas markets (which I would recommend visiting having been myself many times)

Cheers

Ben

 

[CC 72100]

easyJet Europe is an "anti-Brexit" measure and is technically a different airline to easyJet proper (which is Luton based, at least for now). It's not dissimilar to easyJet Switzerland in concept (though that is part Swiss owned).

I would see the long term structure as being most stuff operated by easyJet Europe, then there being separate smaller easyJet Switzerland and easyJet UK to ease operation into and out of those two non-EU countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EasyJet_Europe

As to those aircraft, I believe the plan will be to put the new seats (as per the new A320s) into the whole fleet. I quite like them so I approve of this (though I wish they hadn't crammed an extra row in at the back, this can be avoided by paying a small sum to select a seat forward of the exit row where there is, on the 320s, quite a lot of space now, as for fairly obvious reasons it wasn't possible to squash those seats up).

Thanks for that - indeed re-registration to Europe looks the more likely future.

Ps. Isn't Berlin Tegel a dump!

 

[AlterEgo]

British Airways to add flights to Cologne from Gatwick (4x weekly) starting November 2018.

Assume this will be for the Christmas markets (which I would recommend visiting having been myself many times)

Cheers

Ben

About time too.

 

[Bald Rick]

British Airways to add flights to Cologne from Gatwick (4x weekly) starting November 2018.

Assume this will be for the Christmas markets (which I would recommend visiting having been myself many times)

Cheers

Ben

Agreed re the Christmas Markets.

Train via Brussels much more civilised though. And generally quicker too.

 

[Aictos]

Thanks for that - indeed re-registration to Europe looks the more likely future.

Ps. Isn't Berlin Tegel a dump!

Not really it's one of the best airports to use due to the layout, you're never far from a exit and it's easy to get about compared to the likes of other airports.

I've used worse airports!

I just hope they keep Tegel open even when they get Brandenburg open much like we have Heathrow and Gatwick.

 

[berneyarms]

Thanks for that - indeed re-registration to Europe looks the more likely future.

Ps. Isn't Berlin Tegel a dump!

Depends on which terminal your flight goes from. The original terminal is grand.

 

[gsnedders]

I just hope they keep Tegel open even when they get Brandenburg open much like we have Heathrow and Gatwick.

I think that highly unlikely, given a large part of the motivation was unifying airports to avoid the London situation which is terrible for connecting passengers. With BER now over capacity, I think it's more likely that SXF will survive, because it at least achieves the goal of keeping everything more or less in one place (the infrastructure for connecting between the two isn't there, but that's no worse than T5 to T4 at LHR).

 

[CC 72100]

Depends on which terminal your flight goes from. The original terminal is grand.

Ah - that could explain it - I arrived into TXL on Easyjet (can't remember which terminal they use).

To be fair security was fine, but after going through the doors of no return into the arrivals area it appeared very inadequate for the amount of people waiting and milling around. Signage seemed minimalist and the sign for the local transport info point would disappear ("ah ok, so we'll presume that we should still keep walking this way then on the basis of we haven't been told it's not this way?"). The bit out at the front for buses then again seemed cramped.

Stark contrast to MUC and HAM which are my other German airport experiences.

Did have to smile at the queuing system in security having "BER Berlin Brandenburg Airport" all over it though... well you may as well use it!

 

[theageofthetra]

Around 13.20 today I saw what looked like an old four engined aircraft heading north over London whilst I was at London Bridge. I reckon it would have been over North London at the angle I was.

It looked like it had a quite vertical tail- the nearest aircraft I can think of it resembled was an old Bristol Britannia.

Any ideas what it was?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Thanks for that - indeed re-registration to Europe looks the more likely future.

Ps. Isn't Berlin Tegel a dump!

Dunno, but it can't be worse than Schoenefeld, which is definitely not "schoen".

 

[Bletchleyite]

I think that highly unlikely, given a large part of the motivation was unifying airports to avoid the London situation which is terrible for connecting passengers. With BER now over capacity, I think it's more likely that SXF will survive, because it at least achieves the goal of keeping everything more or less in one place (the infrastructure for connecting between the two isn't there, but that's no worse than T5 to T4 at LHR).

One option would be for SXF (hopefully with a bit of a refurb) to be a low-cost carrier terminal, in the manner the old terminal at Barcelona is (or was, I forget). Obviously it shares runways (well, at least one runway) with the new BER if it ever opens.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Stark contrast to MUC and HAM which are my other German airport experiences.

Hamburg's present terminals are quite new - in the late 1990s it was a bit of a rathole - it has had a Heathrow-esque transformation[1], though a few years earlier.

[1] With the Queen's Terminal and T5 I have moved Heathrow from "go out of your way to avoid" to "go out of your way to use". Even T4, formerly incredibly grim, has been tarted up somewhat.

 

[gsnedders]

Did have to smile at the queuing system in security having "BER Berlin Brandenburg Airport" all over it though... well you may as well use it!

They're all over the place at both TXL and SXF nowadays. Always amuses me. But yeah, may as well use them rather than ordering TXL/SXF ones!

One option would be for SXF (hopefully with a bit of a refurb) to be a low-cost carrier terminal, in the manner the old terminal at Barcelona is (or was, I forget). Obviously it shares runways (well, at least one runway) with the new BER if it ever opens.

Right, this is what I'd expect: the fact they're adjacent and share runways is precisely what makes it in principle doable. The new arrivals terminals at SXF actually are more grim than the old one, IMO. But that's not that surprising given they have a planned lifespan measured in years and not decades.

 

[Bald Rick]

Around 13.20 today I saw what looked like an old four engined aircraft heading north over London whilst I was at London Bridge. I reckon it would have been over North London at the angle I was.

It looked like it had a quite vertical tail- the nearest aircraft I can think of it resembled was an old Bristol Britannia.

Any ideas what it was?

There’s a lot of ‘heritage traction’ heading into Farnborough for the airshow, so have at look at their website for info.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Around 13.20 today I saw what looked like an old four engined aircraft heading north over London whilst I was at London Bridge. I reckon it would have been over North London at the angle I was.

It looked like it had a quite vertical tail- the nearest aircraft I can think of it resembled was an old Bristol Britannia.

Any ideas what it was?

Except that the Britannia was a propellor aircraft, the only four engined one over London Bridge at the time was a jet, one of Virgin's A340s. The do look a bit old fashioned and have a fairly distinctive tail. They look a bit like the old stretched DC-8s actually.

 

[Bald Rick]

Except that the Britannia was a propellor aircraft, the only four engined one over London Bridge at the time was a jet, one of Virgin's A340s. The do look a bit old fashioned and have a fairly distinctive tail. They look a bit like the old stretched DC-8s actually.

There’s a lot of planes that don’t transmit the ADS-B and thus don’t appear on Plane Finder / FlightRadar. Occaisionally some commercial craft, but particularly older stuff.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Are any Britannias still flying though?

Could have been an Electra? I think there's one or two of those still around in Europe?

 

[InterCity:125]

None of the planes on plane finder look like them though.

 

[Bald Rick]

None of the planes on plane finder look like them though.

Assuming theageofthetra saw a prop aircraft, my bet is a DC6, as the one that is in the Red Bull fleet is at Farnborough.