Flight BA238 from Boston possibly Diverting to NCL from LHR operated by a Boeing 777-200.

Aswell as BA883 From Kiev.

BA238 Now gone to PIK.

BA 883 Landed at NCL.

That BBC site loads much quicker than EGNT's.

The future of SN/BMI route?
 

Prices of SN flights to Brussels have gone through the roof. Weekly SLF to Brussles for the last couple of years. Tried to book flights for February/March. Looking for £500 for a Monday/Friday return.

A few regular travellers are wondering whether these prices will continue the rest of the year. Already £200 for September flights.

Looks like NCL-AMS is my best option, but it's 8 hours home door to work door.

Few more cancellations ex NCL and airport now seems to be closed temporarily (clearing the runway?).

Latest is that it will be re-opening at 22:10.

I've noticed the airport website is slow to load...zzzzzzz over the last couple of weeks. updated flight arrivals are available on BBC TV 1/2 Ceefax page 451 via Sky.


NB...just tried now 2325 and it loads instantly....looks like problem solved.

Why is it that BA have cancelled all NCL-LHR services again today? Thats three days in a row I believe, at the slightest sign of trouble in LHR the NCL flights always seem to be first to be cut, surely they could have operated at least some of them?

According to the local radio ALL BA flights between NCL and LHR have been cancelled today, tomorrow and Monday bar one each day!

I'm confused about this too!

I was about to post on that very subject

I flew in from Spain with BA and was heading home for a visit to Newcastle on Thursday when I was told in Valencia by Iberia that my flight to Newcastle was cancelled but I'd be ok to catch the flight on Friday.

Arrived at Heathrow and the BA CS told me the flight was cancelled and that it was likely due to the weather that the flights on Saturday would be cancelled. Wasn't too impressed as I would have arranged flights into an airport with flights into Newcastle.

I asked for my options and was told I could take the train or that BA would put me in a hotel for the Friday but not the Saturday. I asked for a refund and it took an age as they couldn't work out the value of the flight to Newcastle as I was travelling VLC-MAD-LHR-NCL

I asked why Easyjet and FlyBe were able to operate into Newcastle and was told 'they have a different weather policy' by the CS girl.

In the end BA paid for me to be taxi'd to Gatwick and I bought my own flight with flybe.

Cancelled my return with BA and will route via CDG instead

Nothing to do with weather at Newcastle - it's quite simply that BA's policy is that whenever there is any disruption to the schedule it is the domestic services which get pulled first to allow them to try and keep the rest of the schedule going. Their reasoning is that it is easier to find alternatives modes of transport for domestic flights.

Does anyone know what reg is operating the TOM BGI cruise flight? It's on final call, 1.5 hours late, good job the cruise dosen't leave for 7 hours after their original flight arrival, my parents are on this flight.

Sunshine79,

This mornings BGI was operated by G-OOBK

Thanks for the info. The a/c eventually took off at 1239 instead of 0950, bloody weather!

Weather did not figure as a reason for the delay to the BGI flight. NCL is currently operating without any major problems considering the snow fall at present, thoguh aircraft are delayed as reaction of snow earlier on in the week.

I know this is quite a frequent question but is there at all a time scale for EK to look to upgrade their offering from NCL?

Not only is the 772 a larger aircraft it also offers a far superior product onboard to the A332. A friend of mine recently travelled to NCL-DXB-PVG return and was very disappointed with the hardware. The reason for this was he flew solely on the A332 and A343 - the two worst cabins on EK.

Every other airport in the UK experience's EK's flagship Y and J class (F at LHR on the A380- the 77W's from LHR and LGW don't feature the shower/suite! ;)), is it not time that NCL at least get the stepping stone to the 77W?

P.S. I do realise that their is more for consideration but from a selfish passengers point of view - it would be nice to see the newer aircraft!:ok:

MUFC fan - I expect the aircraft type used will only change if the passenger profile changes, i.e. if more people book seats in Business Class, the airline will in due course make more seats available, either with additional flights or with an aircraft with a different seating layout.

Is the Newcastle route filling the Business Class cabin? Or in yield terms are leisure travellers calling the tune? Is there scope for a mixed operation (e.g. ATH-DXB has a daily 777 and a 4 x weekly A-330)?

For info, here is a list of which aircraft Emirates currently has scheduled for which routes from Dubai:

Airbus 330
Ahmedabad, Amman, Athens, Bahrain, Bangalore, Beirut, Chennai, Damascus, Dammam, Delhi, Dhaka, Doha, Durban, Dusseldorf, Karachi, Khartoum, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Kuwait, Larnaca, Luanda, Mahe, Male, Malta, Moscow, Mumbai, Munich, Muscat, Nairobi, Newcastle, Nice, Riyadh, Rome, Sanaa, Shamshabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Tripoli, Tunis, Venice, Zurich.

Airbus 340
Abidjan, Accra, Auckland, Beijing, Beirut, Brisbane, Casablanca, Johannesburg, Lagos, Melbourne, Milan, Nairobi, Perth, Shanghai.

Boeing 777
Addis Ababa, Amman, Athens, Bangkok, Beijing, Beirut, Birmingham, Brisbane, Cairo, Cape Town, Chennai, Christchurch, Colombo, Damascus, Dammam, Dar es Salaam, Delhi, Dhaka, Doha, Dusseldorf, Entebbe, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Guangzhou, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Houston, Islamabad, Istanbul, Jakarta, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Karachi, Kochi, Kozhikode, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, Lagos, Lahore, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Los Angeles, Male, Manchester, Manila, Mauritius, Melbourne, Moscow, Mumbai, Munich, New York, Osaka, Paris, Perth, Riyadh, Rome, San Francisco, Sao Paolo, Shamshabad, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Tehran, Vienna, Zurich.

Airbus 380
Auckland, Bangkok, London Heathrow, Paris, Seoul, Sydney, Toronto.

By the way, MUFC fan, there can't be many Maidstone United fans up this way...;)

The 330 fleet is split into low density (more business class seats) and high density layouts. Although scheduled to receive a high density version, I understand NCL gets a low density version about 25% of the time - don't know if this is down to demand for business class seats (which would be a good thing!) or other operational reasons.

And in answer to the original questions, if there is a time scale for EK to upgrade the route from NCL, nothing has been made public.

There is a 2 class and 3 class configuration (Y/J v Y/J/F) but I was not under the impression their were to different 2 class configurations?!:confused:

Thanks ConstantFlyer!:ok:

I figured as much, I intensely objected to be being blatantly lied to by BA CS at Heathrow, Iberia were great (surprisingly) at the Spanish end, they've been surprisingly improving of late.

I am a regular BA traveller and just hated the whole attitude. I'd much prefer someone had said to me the real reason and I'd have said fair enough and booked elsewhere.

Another corker, which I've relayed in a email to BA customer services was

'Easyjet and FlyBe are lower cost airlines and get preference for landing at regional airports as they have more flights than BA and FlyBe only operate propellor planes which are better in the snow'

This employee has been well and truly named and shamed to BA.

Credit to FlyBe and NCL staff who kept car parks and walkways clear and free during difficult conditions