Airlines, Airports & Routes Topics about airports, routes and airline business.

BA Cityflyer-2

Old 4th Aug 2018, 14:35
  #101 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Bristol
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Anyone know why today’s BA7017 from BRS to FLR is scheduled to be close to 3 hours late again despite the LCY flight carrying only a marginal delay? Appears to have got held up in FLR.

Flying this route from BRS next Saturday and rather worried about it!
hi_fly is offline  
Old 4th Aug 2018, 15:32
  #102 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: South Wales
Posts: 121
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally Posted by hi_fly
Anyone know why today’s BA7017 from BRS to FLR is scheduled to be close to 3 hours late again despite the LCY flight carrying only a marginal delay? Appears to have got held up in FLR.

Flying this route from BRS next Saturday and rather worried about it!
I don't know about today’s flight but I wish you the best of luck as the flight is always delayed or cancelled, sorry I can't be more positive.

When I travelled on the same flight in June the outgoing flight was 2hrs late due to the late arrival of the aircraft.

The return journey from Florence to Bristol was horrendous. The incoming aircraft from London City arrived at Florence on time and boarded the flight to Bristol with no problems. Travelled to the end of the runway and waited for 1hr. The pilot said the aircraft was too heavy and we had to return to stand to add more fuel and disembark the aircraft. 3hrs later boarded for the second time and the pilot announced that the plane was still heavy so he left all of the hold bags behind. As you can imagine everyone was unhappy.

On arrival at Bristol completed lost baggage forms (they were not lost, more like deliberately left behind) and the bags arrived the following Friday, 6.5 days later. I suggest you pack some essential items as hand baggage just in case the same happens to you. I noticed the outgoing flight last Saturday was cancelled, I think the crew were out of hours. It appears the same crew operates the three flights so if there is a big delay they will cancel the last flight.

On the positive side, Florence is beautiful. Have a great time and good luck with the flights.

Update:- Today’s flight from Bristol to Florence has been cancelled for the 2nd consecutive week.

Last edited by Welshtraveller; 4th Aug 2018 at 17:27.
Welshtraveller is offline  
Old 4th Aug 2018, 18:43
  #103 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Bristol
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Thanks for the response and sorry to hear about your experience - not good!

And yes...saw that it was cancelled in the end today presumably due to crew being out of hours. It’s a poor performance for a flight that only operates once a week.
hi_fly is offline  
Old 4th Aug 2018, 19:15
  #104 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: South Wales
Posts: 121
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Thumbs up

Originally Posted by hi_fly
Thanks for the response and sorry to hear about your experience - not good!

And yes...saw that it was cancelled in the end today presumably due to crew being out of hours. It’s a poor performance for a flight that only operates once a week.
Hope the flight works out well next week. Please share your experience when you return. Enjoy Florence.
Welshtraveller is offline  
Old 4th Aug 2018, 19:17
  #105 (permalink)  

Brunel to Concorde
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Virtute et Industria, et Sumorsaete Ealle
Posts: 2,283
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Last week the BRS-FLR sector was cancelled because, it was presumed, crewing hours were an issue after the FLR-BRS sector landed at the latter nearly three and a half hours late. Today the FLR-BRS sector landed at BRS either 76 minutes late or 78 minutes late, depending on whether FR24 or the BRS website is the more accurate.

As has been said, the BRS-FLR sector was then cancelled. Do airlines now operate to such tight crewing schedules that a delay of just over an hour will put crews 'out of hours'?
MerchantVenturer is offline  
Old 4th Aug 2018, 21:17
  #106 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: London UK
Posts: 7,630
Likes: 0
Received 16 Likes on 14 Posts
I saw this go, on time, from LCY, at 0700 this morning. It overnights there and seems to start on time, then sits in Florence for hours for some reason.
Today’s flight from Bristol to Florence has been cancelled for the 2nd consecutive week.
Seems third consecutive week - not just 4 Aug and 28 Jul, but 21 Jul as well, when the inbound had arrived at Bristol just 50 minutes late. Only a three sector day, not four, so not quite apparent how the crew can be out of hours. It then overnights at Florence and does a return Stansted on Sunday morning, and then back to LCY.

Being off from LCY to Skiathos JSI in a couple of weeks, a significantly longer sector, beyond Athens, we hope for the best ...
WHBM is offline  
Old 5th Aug 2018, 05:59
  #107 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 377
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Yesterday they hired a Carpatair F100 to do the IBZ-MAN flight. Perhaps Cityflyer has been overly optimistic with their scheduling of the Embraers, or there is a broken one somewhere
Logohu is offline  
Old 5th Aug 2018, 08:19
  #108 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Ask crewing
Posts: 209
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally Posted by MerchantVenturer
Last week the BRS-FLR sector was cancelled because, it was presumed, crewing hours were an issue after the FLR-BRS sector landed at the latter nearly three and a half hours late. Today the FLR-BRS sector landed at BRS either 76 minutes late or 78 minutes late, depending on whether FR24 or the BRS website is the more accurate.

As has been said, the BRS-FLR sector was then cancelled. Do airlines now operate to such tight crewing schedules that a delay of just over an hour will put crews 'out of hours'?
Yes they do. They then assume the already knackered crew will just carry on deep into discretion to bail out their flawed planning.
FL370 Officeboy is offline  
Old 5th Aug 2018, 10:21
  #109 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: South Wales
Posts: 121
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally Posted by FL370 Officeboy


Yes they do. They then assume the already knackered crew will just carry on deep into discretion to bail out their flawed planning.
That’s awful. BA was one of my favourite airlines but not anymore. I notice the cancelled flight to Florence stayed in BRS overnight and travelled to STN this morning. I can’t understand why yesterdays Bristol to Florence flight was cancelled as the incoming flight only arrived 1hr 15min late. My incoming flight arrived 2hrs late last month and the flight still departed. Perhaps there was another reason for the cancellation.
Welshtraveller is offline  
Old 5th Aug 2018, 16:14
  #110 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: edinburgh
Posts: 193
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
And equally knackered ground staff dealing with delayed , cancelled and flights arriving with NO baggage.
Why schedule an aircraft on a route if its not within its capabilities.
frontcheck is offline  
Old 5th Aug 2018, 17:09
  #111 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: London UK
Posts: 7,630
Likes: 0
Received 16 Likes on 14 Posts
But Bristol to Florence is quite within its capabilities. Its not like there's a short departure runway as there is at LCY earlier in its day's rotation.

Back in the supposedly "bad old days" of IT flights at least the various flights were carried out, maybe late if the inbound was so. If there happened to be insufficient performance on the day (like One-Elevens operating to Tenerife) then a fuel stop was arranged. But this is only 725nm, less than half the E-170s typical max payload range.
WHBM is offline  
Old 11th Aug 2018, 21:58
  #112 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Bristol
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
So I made it across to FLR today on BA7017 from BRS but landed 2 hours late.

The morning LCY departure left 90 mins late due to a a cabin crew member calling in sick. A further 30 minute delay at BRS was due to an 5 unaccounted for bags being loaded which needed sorting.

I spoke to the cabin crew who were excellent. When I queried when they’d go out of hours they said they had already as they had come in on an early flight from Milan and volunteered for the FLR/BRS legs. This meant the LCY-FLR-BRS-FLR flights could operate but they’d end up working close to 13 hours!

Given this flight has been cancelled a few weeks in row I was happy to make it over...all down to a dedicated crew who volunteered at LCY. This route is certainly not without its challenges!
hi_fly is offline  
Old 12th Aug 2018, 01:45
  #113 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: U.K.
Posts: 1,863
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Crew sometimes over egg their willingness. Unless it goes into a day off..., crew are asked for their views but it’s ultimately the Captain who, under the peril of what he’s being told by the FO and cabin crew, decides whether to work into discretion or not.

it sounds like the crew here do a UK-FLR-UK-FLR-UK .... it doesn’t take long to go out of hours after that.
easyflyer83 is offline  
Old 12th Aug 2018, 06:51
  #114 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: South Wales
Posts: 121
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Hi Fly,

Glad the flight wasn’t cancelled and you arrived safely despite the delay. The route definitely has it’s challenges, I don’t think the crew are over egging their willingness. Sounds like they have gone above and beyond to make the flight happen. Very poor scheduling on BAs part with poor customer service with the strong chance of delays and cancellation. Please let us know what happens with the return flight. Enjoy Florence.
Welshtraveller is offline  
Old 12th Aug 2018, 08:24
  #115 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: London UK
Posts: 7,630
Likes: 0
Received 16 Likes on 14 Posts
Originally Posted by hi_fly
The morning LCY departure left 90 mins late due to a a cabin crew member calling in sick .... I spoke to the cabin crew who were excellent. When I queried when they’d go out of hours they said they had already as they had come in on an early flight from Milan and volunteered for the FLR/BRS legs.
This doesn't quite seem to add up. The morning LCY-Florence is due to depart 30 minutes before the Milan gets in, in fact it departs shortly after LCY opens, so the crew must have overnighted at LCY.And if "a" crew member then called in sick, why was the whole crew replaced by one which had come in overnight from Milan. Did the whole crew call in sick ?

I have heard this one before, that someone has "called in sick", when in fact it's nothing of the sort, but a mess-up by crewing.

Do Cityflyer have some Italian-based crew ? Not an idle question; a few years ago I was surprised to find that Cityjet at LCY on the 146 also had so (after a very fluent bilingual PA announcement on one of their flights to Italy), and some of their rosters through LCY were crewed from that end. LCY is a difficult place to retain staff, as we know much of Cityflyer's hub there is actually crewed from Scotland.

It's very good that tghe crew support last-minute mess-abouts like this. One hopes that crewing and management have a similar positive attitude back to them.
WHBM is offline  
Old 12th Aug 2018, 09:08
  #116 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: South Wales
Posts: 121
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally Posted by WHBM
This doesn't quite seem to add up. The morning LCY-Florence is due to depart 30 minutes before the Milan gets in, in fact it departs shortly after LCY opens, so the crew must have overnighted at LCY..
But the 7.15am flight from LCY to Florence didn't depart on time, yesterday the flight left 1hr 35min late. Sounds like they were waiting for the crew from the Milan flight so no overnight at LCY.
Welshtraveller is offline  
Old 12th Aug 2018, 09:51
  #117 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: London UK
Posts: 7,630
Likes: 0
Received 16 Likes on 14 Posts
Originally Posted by Welshtraveller
But the 7.15am flight from LCY to Florence didn't depart on time, yesterday the flight left 1hr 35min late. Sounds like they were waiting for the crew from the Milan flight so no overnight at LCY.
Indeed. But it doesn't just tie with one crew member reporting sick that morning, if they were waiting for a whole crew.
WHBM is offline  
Old 12th Aug 2018, 09:51
  #118 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: UK
Age: 66
Posts: 801
Received 24 Likes on 15 Posts
Originally Posted by Welshtraveller
But the 7.15am flight from LCY to Florence didn't depart on time, yesterday the flight left 1hr 35min late. Sounds like they were waiting for the crew from the Milan flight so no overnight at LCY.
sounds like it and possibly faster than calling in from standby (IF they even had someone on SBY - Do BACF have airport stand by crew like at BA at LHR and LGW?)

The Florence crew were possibly then used on a later flight with a standby that was called in to make up the numbers

Crewing is a nightmare (i used to do it) and although if you only have 50 pax you can go with just 1 CC member, but if you have a Club Europe load to look after as well then you def need more than 1 CC.
rog747 is offline  
Old 12th Aug 2018, 09:55
  #119 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: UK
Age: 66
Posts: 801
Received 24 Likes on 15 Posts
to add
to have airport standby crew is not ness the best option as the longer they sit around waiting then the less duty hours they can be used for - whereas calling from home mean max duty hours apply (but dependant on time of day etc and whether they have a day off booked next day and more)
but it was not common to roster SBY to day off
rog747 is offline  
Old 12th Aug 2018, 10:08
  #120 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: London, UK
Posts: 690
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
rog747 - in my day, cabin crew minimum numbers was dictated by number of seats fitted - minimum one CC per 50 seats regardless of number of pax so on a 50 (or less) seat aircraft one CC OK but a 51 seat aircraft minimum two CC. Have the rules changed? PS we could config our a/c down to 100 seats (changing 6 abreast to 5 abreast) and in extremis go with two CC and minimal service.
willy wombat is online now  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.


All times are GMT. The time now is 21:35.


Copyright © MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.