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[loganair] 31/3/2020 12:26

A few years ago the airline I was flying for needed to lease in a further A320.

The choice was an aircraft straight from operating for Air France or one that had been sitting on the ground for 6 months. The Air France lease was more expensive compared to the aircraft that had been sitting on the ground for 6 months.

Being a typical airline, the airline went for the nominally cheaper option of leasing the A320 that had been sitting on the ground for 6 months.

I use the word nominally as all we ever seem to have was electrical problems with this aircraft, thereby the aircraft was all to often AOG because the aircraft had been sitting around on the ground for 6 months. After a year it would have been cheaper for the airline to have paid a slightly higher lease for the Air France as this aircraft had no such problems.

[loganair] 31/3/2020 12:09

Ryanair flying their aircraft for a few touch and go's or not doing so will make no difference to doing 'A' - 'B' checks etc I think it has more to do with keeping the engines and electrics running and in good working order.

Also Captain's must fly at least once every 30 days otherwise they need to go into the simulator for a check and also keeps the first officers in practice as well.

I do not think that medical currency will have been done away with nor would the flying currency as both would be dangerous to do so. I am sure that the pilots 6 monthly sim checks are still going a head as I know of at least one UK airline has already said as much.

[cashandcard] 31/3/2020 12:01

Smithy,


One of the other issues for Ryanair is the 737 Max issues means they will not be receiving those planes as previously expected. So, even in this crisis, they need to ensure the aircraft they have are ready to go when airspace starts to open up again.



Cash

[smithys2019] 31/3/2020 11:43

Easa have done away with the 80% slot requirement... also large swathes of regulation are additionally being waived, such as medical currency and flying currency.

In short there are plenty of mitigations in place to mean airlines shouldn’t have to do this. Only thing I can guess why RYR are Doing this is that their engineering is so well optimised that they are concerned they will not be able to unpack Their aircraft in the event of a rapid reversal in fortunes.

[cashandcard] 31/3/2020 11:39

NPP62,

In the last financial crisis, some estate agents were going around houses talking the talk, 'selling' to their own colleagues as there were so few viewings for several months - thus keeping their 'pitching' skills fresh.

Could they do something similar for airlines cabin crew? Get them onto parked planes and serve each other etc...


Cash

[npp62] 31/3/2020 11:35

It may also be to protect the slots which are worth a fortune on their own. Engineering wise, Aircraft during normal operations have pre flight checks, post flight checks, daily's, weeklies, 'A'checks then more in depth scheduled engineering which takes them off line for a few days or more. If not used for a period of time (7 days I think) the aircraft goes into 'parking' which results in more work to put them into... and get them out of 'parking'. It's good to avoid the need for this if possible. Flying also keeps the crews currency up to date. Another essential thing to do. No point being able to fly again only to find your crews are out of currency and are unable to fly before they are checked again!

[loganair] 31/3/2020 11:22

Europe’s biggest budget airline is operating frequent “ghost flights” – empty planes with no passengers – where aircraft take off, circle the airport, and land again.

For most of its fleet of 451 Boeing 737s, this appears to be happening around once every four days.

The reason for operating empty flights that don’t go anywhere is to maintain aircrafts’ operational availability.

Planes that have been grounded for a significant period have to be checked over before they are cleared to fly again, a process that keeps them from flying for even longer and costs the airline money.

[smartie6] 31/3/2020 11:11

How much can you continue to write daily? Surely there’s nothing more to say than bust?

[loganair] 31/3/2020 11:09

Dubai to support Emirates with equity injection.

[smithys2019] 31/3/2020 08:26

LoganAir is a Nigel Hater and Mickey is a Tarquin! Never have guessed! 😂

[thamestrader] 31/3/2020 08:25

Good. Hopefully this becomes permanent. Focus on LHR-T5. If (on return to normality) it gets overloaded, start flying direct from other UK airports (MAN, GLA, etc.) to save wasted time/capacity/carbon flying via LHR, or worse LHR and LGW, or indeed via AMS, FRA, DBX. This is an opportunity for BA to improve itself. Might not need that third runway, after all.

[qantas] 31/3/2020 08:15

Please do your own research as always.

[flyingadventure] 31/3/2020 07:58

British Airways suspends flights in and out of Gatwick.

[buywell3] 31/3/2020 04:00

Well said sir

[arteespresso] 31/3/2020 00:58

Oh did not realise British Airways flew postal flights. Perhaps you think Loganair is British Airways as well. Just because it was in British Airways colours does not mean it was British Airways.

[m1k3y1] 31/3/2020 00:20

Update
BA Cabin crew now being asked to operate repatriation flights on a voluntary basis.
They are to be supplied with Masks (non N95) and gloves but up to them if they wear them or not.

[milliecusto] 30/3/2020 23:31

Another 17k cases in America in one day, think that Dow Rally will be short lived

[loganair] 30/3/2020 23:22

It seems to me that British Airways crews on sort haul European routes find it far too tiring to fly any more then 2 sectors or often just managing to fly one single sector in a day then must get of for an overnight rest whereas I'm use to flying 4 sectors on the A320 such as Manchester-Malaga-Gatwick-Malaga-Manchester or Exeter-Bournemouth-Amsterdam-Bournemouth-Exeter or Exeter-Bournemouth-Amsterdam-Bournemouth-Paris CDG-Bournemouth-Exeter.

[loganair] 30/3/2020 23:09

tt - If the CAA gives dispensation to the airline to fly these flights then they are perfectly and 100% legal. Strictly speaking to fly outside of CAA rules with dispensation the crew are supposed to be asked, however the crews almost always say yes as they are scared for being fired by the airline they work for.

Personally I always say yes and these types of flights are usually the most interesting and unusual to fly.

Many pilots like to just fly the same old routes as they get use to them and therefore are easy and simple for them to fly, on the other hand personally I prefer to fly to as many different destinations as I can as I find flying on the same route day in and day out very quickly becomes very boring.

[take_that] 30/3/2020 22:56

M1k3y1 would you care to substantiate your claim with your area of operation within BA? I don't mean your actual position but are you a past/current crew member or are you ground based. I get the impression that you aren't sold on the concept of this recovery flights. If you are crew, then I presume you would know whether these flights are legal or not under FTLs. I can't imagine that BA would knowingly circumvent rules, as they are certainly very public at this time and a little bad press would not help their profile one bit and cost more far more than any savings being made.From what I know, WW cabin crew are the more senior (age and experience, together with being more Union centric) crews. Why would Unite allow this to happen, even if it were as you say legal?

[loganair] 30/3/2020 22:54

jail - this is not a freebe for the passengers, they still have to buy a ticket for the flight back from Lima, Peru.

The crews who are doing these repatriation flights are doing so because they remain on full pay and full flight pay instead of being furloughed on reduced pay.

[loganair] 30/3/2020 22:50

m1 - why do you keep posting about 'agreement' has nothing really to do with CAA laws.

What one UK airline has in its contract for its crews is different from another UK airline, this has absolutely nothing to do with the CAA flight time limitations.

Normally a 2 pilot aircraft pilots can be on duty for 12 hours, with their consent this can be increased to 14 hours and in an emergency may be increased to 16 hours.

If 12 to 14 hours the Captain must write a flight report to the airline as to why. If between 14 hours and 1 minute and 16 hours the Captain must write a report to the CAA and the airline must tell the CAA why the pilots were on duty for this time.

[m1k3y1] 30/3/2020 22:47

jailbird......good on them and the crews who are doing it.