AEUs B757

[hottowel]

Would anyone like to shed any light what sort of routes etc the AEU B757 will be doing. Is it an extended range a/c.
Sorry for the dull or silly question, but I am on the otherside of the F/D door with the tea and coffee..

Cheers :p

[Mr @ Spotty M]

I can answer one of your questions, the aircraft is a 757-200ER which means it is ETOPS equipped, however AEU does not have ETOPS approval. This does not mean extended range as all 757-200 have the same basic fuel capacity. Hope this helps.

[hottowel]

Cheers Spotty.... thanks for the answer

[aeulad]

The Astraeus 757 G-OAVB operates from London Gatwick to:

Taba
Hassi Messoud
Malabo
Freetown
Verona Brescia
Dubrovnik

Regards

Mike

[Hamrah]

....and Preveza

[Flightrider]

Mr @ Spotty M, on an issue of pure semantics, there is actually no such thing as a 757ER. Boeing never designated any 757 builds as an ER - there are simply low and high gross weight aircraft and the HGW aircraft are capable of ETOPS certification and operating longer sectors (of which the AV8/Astraeus aircraft is one).

[Gunship]

And the inaugural ASTRAEUS flight to Freetown arrived on Monday night and left yesterday EXACTLY on time (something new for Africa) ;)

Welcome to Sierra Leone ASTRAEUS ! :D

[Eff Oh]

Flightrider
We have a B757 which has written on the Boeing flight manuals (and on the side), "Boeing B757-200ER". So Boeing think they have an "ER"??? I wasn't sure about their being an "ER" or not, but seeing these books had confirmed to me that there was. I dunno!! :confused: :hmm:
Eff Oh

[EPRman]

The main difference between ETOPs and non-ETOPS 757's is the former have an hydraulic driven generator which can be used as a fourth AC electrical source. This powers several busses in the event of a double AC bus failure and provides amongst other things the captains EFIS and instruments, left FMC, left HF and so on. In the non-ETOPs it can get a bit dark and basic on the flight deck with a double AC bus failure with the additional pressure of flight beyond 90 mins resulting in loss of electrical power.

[CrashDive]

Spotty, perhaps that should read 'AEU does not have ETOPS approval yet' ;)

[colegate]

There were three principoles behind the original ETOPS approval. They were additional instrument cooling on the flight deck, additional generators and additional fire protection in the cargo holds.

[Mr @ Spotty M]

Yes CrashDive, but getting ETOPS approval is not that easy to get if you want 120 min or more.
Colegate, l was wondering when someone would point out the extra instrument cooling along with its check valve. I was also thinking that l know of a number of HGW aircraft, that are not ETOPS, to add to Flightriders comments.

[CrashDive]

It's been a few months since this post was last resurected but wherein, as a follow-up, I'm delighted to report that Astraeus today gained 120 minute ETOPS approval for the B737-700.

Somewhat as proof of this, as I type, AEU233 is en-route from London Gatwick to Deer Lake / Canada - during the course of which it will be making full use of the ETOPS approval. :ok:

ETOPS for the B757 fleet will be following soon.

[TCX G-FCLH]

Astraeus 757-28A G-OOOB is be wet leased to African operator Daallo Airlines soon.

Mark

[G-OCAT]

I didn't think Daallo had enough work for a whole 757 of their own?

[TCX G-FCLH]

I was surprised too, but they must have for AEU to lease one of their 757's out there

Mark

[aeulad]

Astraeus are operating on BEHALF of Daallo Airlines. I was on the inaugaral flight, full both ways.

Regards

Mike

[BAe 146-100]

What are the reason for these Freetown flights? I can't see Sierra Leone being a tourist destination!

Please enlighten me! ;)

BAe 146

[aeulad]

The Freetown flights were started in light of the lack of a reliable service between Freetown and London. They are nearly always full, but before AEU came in on the route, flights were all over the plaec. AEU has brought reliability and increased service/comfort to the route, and is proving extremely popular.

Regards

Mike

[TJ747]

HI THERE,

Just in regards to the Dallo Airlines bit, Mytravel leased a 767-300 to them for a while when they first started i believe, flt op LGW-CDG-DJB-CDG-LGW.

The loads from gatwick werent that great but ended up being full from CDG-DJB.

Not sure what is down that way but i believe the reason they stopped them was because of security, a few crew were robbed and an engineer held at knife point for his ID....why.

Not great but i spose this is what comes with operating these kinda flights and not having the proper security for staff.

Hope all is well and happy xmas to all

Many thx

TJ747

[Flightrider]

MyTravel were operating the flights with a 757 and normally used one of the two heavyweight aircraft (G-CCMY) to operate the service.

Main reason they stopped was post 9/11 when Djibouti was seen as unsafe for a period of time and FCO advice was not to travel there under any circumstances. MYT didn't restart after that because of some dispute over payments with Daallo outstanding from the previous period of operation. I think it was Air Holland who took over for a period of time before Excel and now Astraeus.

From MYT days, crew used to travel between the airport and the hotel in a secure vehicle and the hotel is also secure. I never heard about anyone being robbed or mugged and am surprised that they could find themselves anywhere where this could happen. Then again, if you go wondering around outside the hotel if told it is not safe to do so, you do need to keep your wits about you. Same goes in Djibouti or Crawley.

[dontdoit]

No thanks - I'd take my chances in Djibouti before I'd risk my life going out in Crawley on a Saturday night !:eek:

[Puritan]

W.r.t. 'FCO advice was not to travel there under any circumstances' - remembering that this was issued from the same people / government that, not so long ago, were telling us all about the WMD's that could be found in Iraq ?! :rolleyes:

I'm with all of you about keeping your wits about you wherever you happen to be; Gessh, my eldest lad had a knife pulled on him literally just last night ( albeit, fortunately, with no damage done ), and guess where it happened ?..... in Eastbourne !

Nb. I have not long been in the door after operating last nights Djibouti - CDG – LGW, and very lovely it was down there too, e.g. decent hotel, sitting by the pool, the hot sun shaded by the palm trees, a nice tropical breeze blowing ( the only dampener I suppose is that it's a night flight out & back and that last nights headwinds meant the leg from JIB to CDG was 8:15 flying time ).

That said, I love Africa ( no, really, I do ! ). :)