I find it very interesting to see various human traits demonstrated on this site about various subjects.
It must be obvious to all that people invent facts to prove their points or are so gullible they simply regurgitate so called facts given them by others with vested interests.
It would appear that ringbinder as a customer of the airline in good times and bad holds more credance than others and it is with this perspective that I tend the following.
Solomons have chosen the wrong aircraft for their Brisbane/Honiara sector as has been proven time and time again in recent weeks with massive delays,cancellations and lack of proper service. It is not unreasonable by any stretch of the imagination for a full fare paying passenger to expect that they can travel on a prebooked flight and that their baggage will travel with them.
So lets look at the actual facts given me by staff
ERJ 170 Dry Operating Weight 22067 kgs
Max Take Off Weight 37200 kgs
Zero Fuel Weight 29600 kgs
Therefore it can carry 15133 kgs of which 7600 kgs must be fuel resulting in best possible payload of 7533 kgs. Allowing 100kgs for pax plus baggage it can carry aprox 76 pax with 7600 kgs of fuel.
However with a published block time of 3hours 30 minutes and a diversion to Santo of 1hour 30 minutes it would require 5 hours of fuel +var res +fixed res+approach and landing. I don't know it's burn rate but lets be optimistic and say it averages 1600 kgs per hour . That gives us 8000 + 800 + 800 + 400. THis 10000 of fuel means 5133 kgs of useful payload or aprox 50 passengers.
It's not rocket science to see why people aren't able to travel and that as good as this aircraft may be it is the wrong choice for this operation.
I think someone insinuated in a previous thread that people with vested interests are putting themselves ahead of the interests of this airline and as time time goes by this appears to be becoming a stronger possibility.
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