Global Airlines launch flights announced

[Bald Rick]

4 cycles? In the summer months, 6-8 is rather the norm. The general principle is that you want to keep the plane in the air from 6am until at least 9-10pm, if not later.

cycles presumably means round trips, Rarely will a LCA get more than 5 round trips out of one aircraft in a day although no doubt it does happen.

 

[Cloud Strife]

cycles presumably means round trips, Rarely will a LCA get more than 5 round trips out of one aircraft in a day although no doubt it does happen.

No, a cycle is just the process from pre-flight preparation to shutting down the engines on arrival. Most typical low cost carriers will do about 8 cycles a day maximum, although it's not uncommon to see an airline start at A, fly to B, fly to C, back to B, then off to D, back to B, then back to A. Usually the airlines try and mix it up though, so that a plane will do a mix of short hop cycles and longer cycles, as a plane's maintenance and lifespan schedule is counted in cycles more than hours. So, you don't want to base a plane in Belfast and have it do nothing but short hops to Glasgow and Liverpool, you rather want to have it do a Glasgow followed by a Malaga or a Tenerife.

 

[Bald Rick]

No, a cycle is just the process from pre-flight preparation to shutting down the engines on arrival. Most typical low cost carriers will do about 8 cycles a day maximum, although it's not uncommon to see an airline start at A, fly to B, fly to C, back to B, then off to D, back to B, then back to A. Usually the airlines try and mix it up though, so that a plane will do a mix of short hop cycles and longer cycles, as a plane's maintenance and lifespan schedule is counted in cycles more than hours. So, you don't want to base a plane in Belfast and have it do nothing but short hops to Glasgow and Liverpool, you rather want to have it do a Glasgow followed by a Malaga or a Tenerife.

Yes, I know all that, ehat I ment was that the post you oro referred to meant ’cycles’ in terms of round trips.

 

[TravelDream]

A low cost aircraft will do 3, possibly 4 cycles a day. That's 600-1,000 passengers over 24 hours who not only buy the flight, they buy food and drink, pay various additional fees, book car parking, hotels and car hire through affiliates.

Everyone is talking about cycles when I think they mean sectors.
Cycles refers to the pressurization of the aircraft and subsequent depressurization. It's one of the major measures of aircraft lifespan and maintenance requirements.
The A380 was designed and certified for 19,000 cycles or 140,000 hours (whichever came first). I have no doubt a life extension programme will be put into place to extend it to 25,000 cycles and 200,000 hours or more which would be done with reference to how well the aircraft is holding up so to speak and likely on some special extra inspections or part replacements during what's normally called a 'D' check (A 'D' check is the heaviest maintenance an aircraft will do and involves essentially dissembling the plane and replacing lots of life limited parts).
Airbus doesn't do A/B/C/D checks for the A380 though and the D check is called the Heavy Maintenance Check and is required each 12 years.
And I believe the testing during certification took the aircraft to around 50,000 cycles successfully.

Sectors refers to each flight so to speak. So London to Palma to London to Dublin to London would be four sectors.
Yes, basically the same thing, but not the right word.

Ryanair, like most LCCs, would look to do 6-8 sectors per day during the summer season. Some aircraft will inevitably do more (there are planes which do 12 at Ryanair) and some less (four sectors if going UK-Canary Islands twice). That's why the planes tend to operate from 6am until late.

This is the big issue with long haul low cost. An eight sector day means eight sets of passengers with eight potential seat sales, eight opportunities to sell bags/ priority boarding, eight potential onboard purchasing groups and so on.
And fares aren't often that different. Look at London to Dublin for next Sunday and London to Tenerife on Ryanair. £126.29 to Dublin and £130.44. That's for a flight four times the length.

As I have said, I have no doubt low cost long haul can work on the Europe-North America market as it has been shown to work in the Middle Eastern and Asian markets, but it's a tough one to crack.

 

[Skymonster]

… and now its a [HiFly] A340…

Global Airlines puts its logo on a Hi Fly A340 as the A380’s future remains uncertain

British startup says it is still pursuing its AOC and hints at a joint operation with Portugal’s Hi Fly

www.airdatanews.com

Global Airlines, the British startup founded by James Asquith, surprised observers again by revealing an Airbus A340-300 painted in its logo.

I sometimes wonder if James Asquith was once known as Martin Halstead and he previously launched an “airline” named Alpha One Airways… Back in the day I [correctly] greeted that one with as much scepticism as I do this one today.

 

[mpthomson]

… and now its a [HiFly] A340…

Global Airlines puts its logo on a Hi Fly A340 as the A380’s future remains uncertain

British startup says it is still pursuing its AOC and hints at a joint operation with Portugal’s Hi Fly

www.airdatanews.com

I sometimes wonder if James Asquith was once known as Martin Halstead and he previously launched an “airline” named Alpha One Airways… Back in the day I [correctly] greeted that one with as much scepticism as I do this one today.

It’s a HiFly A340 in their livery with Global decals that’s already been sold to a Zimbabwean airline and shortly to be delivered (new reg already known) and is currently flying for Surinam Airways. Grifters gotta grift….

 

[yoyothehobo]

If they chop the top deck off the services, does it count as reducing the overheads?

 

[edwin_m]

If they chop the top deck off the services, does it count as reducing the overheads?

Perhaps they should fly it under a low bridge?

Children hurt as roof of school bus ripped off by Coppull bridge

Among the injured is an eight-year-old boy who was taken to hospital with a "nasty cut to the head".

www.bbc.co.uk

The roof of a school double-decker bus was ripped off when it struck a low bridge

 

[birchesgreen]

Repainting a A340 is certainly a good way to get a cheap pop from the avgeek community.

 

[nwales58]

Common features of A340 and A380?

4 Engines 4 Long Haul was a slogan a certain airline came up with. 20-30 years ago maybe.