Re:Freetime
 

You are absolutely right, we are waiting for the TSA in the United States to approve the freetime check-in for the XL France aircraft, the Gatwick service is operated by one of the Uk regsistered 767's so there is no porblem there. It could be earlier than August however, we are at the mercy of the TSA, but we are hoping for approval sometime in July.

Off Airport check-in
 

Off airport check-in in SFB has been suspended due to the XLF A330 operating the MAN and GLA routes. XL France as an independent operator do not have TSA approval to operate the downtown check-in despite the flight operating under an XLA flight number. This approval 'could' take some time to be issued so have no realistic idea when the service will be resumed. However if the flights was changed over to the other XLA B767-300 G-VKNI it would be able to operate under the current XL UK TSA approval. No sure if it is feasable to swap B763 for the A330?

Re:Freetime
 

We've sold the A330 all the way to the end of October, and the load fator is running at 99%,l NI only holds 273 so woud not work, plus its being used from the middle of July as extra capacity on the Gatwick/Sanford route on Friday and Saturday, other days its used on the caribbean routes.

We still have out finger crossed for an early approval as Iberworld was approved for the TSA check-in at our Lake Buena Vista location in just 33 days from the start of the operation......

Quote: just a side note the engineers have been having a few problems with it as of late. we had to connect it to an air start last week because the aircraft wasnt accepting ex pwr.

G-STAW


Looking at the flight schedules since the aircraft arrived early June, it seems to have been pretty punctual, with very few delays of any note. Certainly a different story to last year's 747 flights. Even departed on time, arrived early on a good number of occasions. Hope that maintains for the rest of the summer.

XL Airways B737-900
 

XL Airways have experienced a problem with one of there B737-900, the plane heading for Manchester was forced to land at Larnaca (Cyprus) Airport after they shut down one of the engines.

BBC NEWS | England | Manchester | Engine problem forces plane down

late arrival at Manchester
 

Hi all
First time poster - does anyone know anything about the big delay in the Sanford - Manchester flight (XLA1131) today please? Left Sanford late and arrived at Manchester 13:00 instead of 09:00. Is this related to the engineering issue above?

How much time can a plane realistically make up in two weeks? We're due to be aboard 26/07 and wondering if this will lead to a cascade of delays for a while until it gradually catches up.

Long Haul charters usually have a couple of hours on the ground before their next flight. The flight is only 4 hours late so will hopefully make up time within the next day or 2. Looking at the SFB website it has knocked onto tha GLA-SFB flight which is due to depart at 1430. If the a/c landed in MAN at 1300, it will probably only leave GLA an hour or 2 late.
Things in this industry change so quickly, it would be impossible to predict how your flight will be 2 weeks in advance.

Hi caaardiff
Fantastic, thanks - much appreciated.

Hi caaardiff !

May I just ask, as I am more than a little confused. XLA1131 was due to leave Manchester today at 1330 as XLA1136. Are you saying the aircraft is transferring up to Glasgow to do the 1430 flight today as I thought TCD only flew on a Monday from Glasgow. If so do you know what has happened with todays MAN-SFB flight.The only flight I could see on Sanford website was the Gatwick flight.

Thanks

...there is always extra flights for the Scottish school holidays at this time.

I just came to the conclusion as the SFB website showed GLA "delayed"
GLA wesbite showed XLA1136 "scheduled" with an XLA136F arrival from MAN.

Thankyou caaardiff!

I can only assume that they were picking up passengers at Glasgow.

XL France plane operating Glasgow to Sanford today and tomorrow. Looks like its about 4 hours behind schedule so will not arrive back into GLA until about 13.00 tomorrow.

Scheduled to take off tomorrow at 15.00. What is a realistic turnaround time for an A330-200? Is it likely to be down to a delay of 1-2 hours?

hello guys,

re A330 tech problems;

the crew where able to use the APU, leave the ex pwr disconnected, it was just a niggling problem so it wouldnt of effected any of its immidiate schedule, so thats good.

i would be more worried about the onurair idiotic crew holding on stands at MAN, not letting the XL A330 park, they where getting v.annoyed last week. thats happening so much recently.....

good new about the -900, its on its way back from larnaca either today or tomorrow, the 767-200 shipped the crew down to bring it back home, should hopefully be back in service by the end of the week. turned out to be a quite rare engine problem tho.....

The 767-200 is going back to gatwick for a good o'l rest, and it deserves it, so do the crew, they looked drained today. Kudos to them :ok:.


G-STAW

Already back in service....was in PMI this morning!

Several recent posts have been moved to a more appropriate forum:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/passeng...307-excel.html

XL Airways Long Haul
 

Yesterday XL announced to travel agents that they are withdrawing their Caribbean routes with effect from November. Apparently letters of explanation will follow. Anyone have any info on this? I checked Freedom Flights and the only long haul route they are operating is Sanford.

Cheers

Strange... We as an agent have not heard anything down here in Somerset. We only had the rep in not long ago and everything seemed rosey..I even thought they had ordered A330's to replace the 767 fleet...

Have just checked on XLholidays.com and as you say they do not show anything after November either, but no offical mention of the routes being stopped.

Would be interesting to know what the reason is. Prices were certainly competative...Let us know if you near anymore news

Thanks