Same here....far too few nowadays sadly:(

I can recall days standing on the viewing deck looking out at the main pier & satellite of South Terminal full of heavies. Sad that those days are long gone.

Hopefully 2014 marks the beginning if a renaissance for the big jets at Gatwick.
First the Emirates A380 from today and soon the Norwegian 787's, let's hope there's more to follow.

There must be some long haul routes which could work from Gatwick, which might encourage other airlines or indeed existing operators to try?

First Scheduled A380 for Gatwick
 

As mentioned by Seljuk22 Emirates A380 UAE9/EK9 is on it's way.

I had planned to watch it come in from our local cinema's balcony. It has a lovely view of the approach into Gatwick's 26.
But Gatwick is on easterlies.
So looked forward to sitting in the back garden and watch it go by leaving Mayfield heading west at at 7000'.
But the cloud base has got lower and lower as the afternoon progressed.
Sometimes it clears away at evening sunset. Fingers crossed.

The good thing is there is always tomorrow and..... :)

PC

PC
Thats what I have just said..I love Easterlies normally..but so wanted 26L arrival tonight..the cloud is low here 2.5 miles East of LGW but can see all departures clearly at the mo!
Heres hoping cloud stays the same..doesnt get worse...and it is looking like Easterlies all week from the Met office weather
Good luck with your sightings..we have FR24 if nothing else!!!

A great day for LGW and Emirates:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWw7SnjOGug

Those were the days!

Wow that brings back memories

Vectisman are you sure only four of the BA fleet are off base for the night?? What are the four? GLA/EDI/?/?. It's been a looong time since BA had 20 out in the first wave, mainly as every time I have been flying at dawn o'clock they're kinda rare on the ground.

Goodbye flybe.
 

Not one comment on the departure of flybe from LGW after all those years of flights. I know many flybe staff very sad to be leaving lgw.

I will miss Flybe as they were a great airline(think the NQY is still going to be here for a while tho)..it is a sad day as they have been here for a long while.shame that they had to go,I didnt realise it was today that they finished

Charley B did they have to go was it more down to their perilous state forcing them to sell the slots? I think it's a real shame that they couldn't continue at Gatwick.

I much prefer to see airports with as diverse a range of airlines as possible. Gatwick is sadly too orange these days for my liking and the departure of FlyBe has only served to escalate that.

As is the viewing deck :*

Hi Skipness


Edinburgh, Glasgow, Jersey and Nice are away overnight. They tend to send between 12 and 16 out in their first wave. Other aircraft join flight programme during day so to speak. I think this happens as the increasing longer sector flights(Malta, Paphos, Larnaca, Tenerife, Arrecife etc...) mean they tend to need more aircraft available later in the day to operate the late afternoon evening flights to the destinations with multi frequency flights. At this time several aircraft will be away from base on the longer sectors until very late in the evening/early hours.


I hope that makes sense!!


V.

Further to my last post I believe the scheduling keeps utilisation of aircraft at an economic level as well as using slots that may cost less than the prime time first and second wave ones that are now dominated by easyjet. BA has the Heathrow slots to take care of most of its 'business' passengers at those prime times.
BA concentrates Gatwick prime time slots for routes that need frequency and/or carry good club Europe loads.
Having said that places such as Paphos etc... do well in the premium cabin too. I am travelling there in May and there are 9 or 10 rows dedicated to Club Europe. Both cabins full each way too.




V.

UAE 10 still on the ground???
 

Well just managed to see the A380 go past on it's way in about an hour late.

But now it is showing on flightradar24 as A6EDZ and parked up apparently on taxiway Uniform.
Still powered up as showing on FR24 but hasn't moved for over an hour.

PC

See from the Lgw site, the EK is delayed until 9.00am tomorrrow morning. Unfortunate start.

Does Norwegian now have 5 based aircraft at Lgw? That's what their flight info from their site seems to suggest. And is there more to come?

TB

Ah OK that makes (some) sense, although I they're hardly sweating the assets by working them hard in that scenario. If they are to compete with easyJet on any level, sedentary utilisation can't be a help. EZY have 59 departures before 9am, BA have 17. OUCH!
Thanks for that.
Did it ever park on 110 at all or are they bussing?

Skip ness
I believe aircraft utilisation has improved over the past year.
True BA have far fewer departures but seem happy enough with recent yield. Hence the short and long haul expansion this year. I know nothing like the network reach as in the late 1990s/early 2000s but in terms of actual daily movements quite similar. Sadly I have been through timetables from that time and counted. I know I need to get out more!
I think we also need to remember that easyjet and others also tend to start flying earlier in the day. A few years ago very early morning deps were rare except amongst charter carriers.
When you look at the Gatwick arrival/departure boards you can easily see the easyjet waves. BA tend to be spread more evenly throughout the day.
Apparently BA did bid for the Flybe slots but didn't want them until 2015 so they went to easyjet. Willie Walsh did say at the capital markets day that BA would still be able to expand at Gatwick using other available slots. (And I suppose without having to pay £25 million which must help the bottom line!) I believe more destinations both winter and summer will be available from Winter 2014/2015 when the short haul fleet becomes all airbus.


V.

One of the other things to come out of all of that was that demand for paid Club Europe out of Gatwick was poor, the cabin may be full but many are on redemptions, which is partly why the RFP for new short haul was quietly parked in favour of ten second hand A320s, some of which were ones Wizz Air no longer wanted ! My key point is they're leased (!) Long haul at ten frames is back at 2005 levels having swapped some US routes to LHR in return for more long haul holiday types, which is at least sustainable on it's own two feet.

Wallp
think it was all to do with finances why Flybe ceased here..something about all size aircraft having to pay the same landing fees maybe?
Still a shame:(
LGW is very Orange these days!!

Skipness
It did park on 110 last evening..but why it hasn't departed yet I am not too sure!!
ETD on EK website is 09.00