its a shame the 757's are leaving, last year i spent many a trip to MAD and back on them from LHR. i understand though that due to age BA needs to modernise and move forward. Boeing i think found a winner in the 757 - its certainly my favourite passenger aircraft and one which is still very popular around the world by airlines. Shame Boeing couldnt extend the shelf life of the production a little longer.

Still i have gone off the point, rumour i heard is some of the BA 757's are cargo bound - DHL i believe could be the new operator, and the deal might already be done? ........

MON and LS maybe sniffing around, dependant on the age of the a/c.

I'd be very surprised to see MON being interested, since it's doing much the same - getting rid of 757s and standardising short haul on A320/321s.

Does anybody have an hour/cycle/age profile for these aircraft?
The 757 will do routes that a 321 cannot so I would not discount interest from the charter operators.

I seem to think that there is interest from a cargo conversion company. As for pax use it may be difficult as airlines may still be down scaling the seat numbers for the next few years.

Have BA still to make a large order for new long-haul a/c to replace disposals?

the main reason BA are forced to get rid of the 757 is that some numpty designed Terminal 5 to be a "container only" terminal! As the 757 and the 737 cannot take containers they cannot be handled at T5.....so Bye bye 757.

Shame

Both aircraft can take containers but some time ago the future of both types was settled. I believe that it was deemed to expensive to convert and purchase a stock of containers. With airbus the same cans fit all three 19/20/21 and 22 presumably. There is also an EU plan to convert main airports to containers in the future.

The 757 has operated from Terminal 5.....

The Terminal was designed for aircraft with bins however it CAN cope with the 757 and of course and has done.

"Snow diverts "

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"can someone please explain to me why BA are sending their LHR long haul inbounds all over the UK, when every other airline seems to be landing at LHR OK."

....yep amasing, we are 1 hour away, they could have parked 20 777/747s on the west apron/taxiways at Manchester for fuel and go which must surely have been better than the other options, and we have a railway station for off loads !:ugh:

Speedbird Ops consolidate and take note !

BA has no use for 757s just as American is putting them on the transatlantic and looking at routes south of MIA.

Of course, Willie was always aggressive about reducing types at EI... As for cargo conversion, not the first time for BA 757s...

They could of also brought some of the diversions into NQY rather than SNN or AMS etc ? splash and dash off to LHR again!

cornishsimon 'They could of also brought some of the diversions into NQY rather than SNN or AMS etc ? splash and dash off to LHR again!'

I guessing that would be unlikely as the a/c didn't/couldn't splash and dash on this occassion, all a/c that diverted then night stopped. Would NQY (and surrounding hotels) able able to handle several night stopping 777's, 747's, etc.?

If it was a divert in which the a/c would then depart again, then fair enough, but night stopping, then no. Also, would the ramp have enough space for these widebodies to self manouvre away from stand after their time on the ground? I am not NQY bashing, just enquiring.

answer to hotels would be yes! Newquay in winter isnt exactly rammed and has plenty of hotel space available. and the field has plenty of space now, remember up until December it was an raf base which handled all sorts of RAF equipment.

I read a message from Walsh that a buyer has been found for the B757s and a letter of intent signed. The deal isn't finalised yet.

Does it have a single tug for a heavy or engineering support? Think that might have been the clincher, added to the fact that airfields that BA serve or train at would be more comfortable for the crews.

NQY has the runway length but not much else, as Skipness indicated if it was a simple splash and go fine but if not there would simply be too much to go wrong.......

On the other hand Manchester is 175 miles away, has all the infrastructure required, acres of empty space, enough as I indicated to take a sizeable chunk of the fleet that ended up at airports with no connections either via train or shuttle should the crews have had to terminate as most ended up doing !

Infact some aircraft ended up in Europe, one was even 800 miles away in Spain, it then went out of hours.... this was crazy and gave no regard for pax who might have whinged but at least would have been within 2hours of London either by air or train had they been at MAN.

BA will cut the numbers of a/c at LGW from 35 to 32 until next winter.

757s to exit BA fleet
 

From Flight this week (maybe old news to some but haven't seen anything on here about it):

"BA expects to sell 757s next winter, use A320s instead
By David Kaminski-Morrow

British Airways is expecting to sell its remaining 11 mainline Boeing 757-200s during the next winter season, and replace them with Airbus A320s, rather than expand its Paris-based OpenSkies operation. Chief executive Willie Walsh says the decision has been taken "in principle" and that the carrier was "actively pursuing the sale" of the jets. BA has not identified a buyer for the 757s, although industry sources say FedEx Express is the front-runner. OpenSkies was originally to expand to six aircraft by the end of this year, but Walsh says this plan was shelved in light of a review of the business's performance, the outlook for the industry, and the chance to sell the 757s."

The 757 exit and trimming of Open Skies business plan is probably responsible for the rumoured redundancy of 100 BA engineers.:sad:

Yeah unfortunately this is old news - there's been quite a debate about who might pick up these 757s. I believe they are expected to be picked up by freight carriers (TNT, DHL etc)...