Strategic Airlines - UK
 

Any one know anything about this airline, Strategic Airlines UK?

They seem to be operating out of Gatwick within Europe at present but I believe they are an Australian airline.

Some more info here

Fly Strategic UK

Originally an Australian airline, Strategic are now operating flights from Manchester and Gatwick to Greek and Cypriot destinations on behalf of Olympic Holidays. They are registered in Luxembourg and have 3 A320's in their fleet.

Strategic Airlines
 

The Australian arm also flies A330 as well as A320. Routes are internal plus to Phuket and Bali

Strategic had an operation in France last year with an AOC and french registered a/c. They opertaion was so bad that they were in the news for all the wrong reasons, endless lentghy delays....so much so that their AOC was revoqued.....not a pb they moved to Luxembourg...
So a big mockery of EU-OPS...I thought we were all working under the same umbrella and standards.

Where is the AOC based ? Oz, UK or LUX ? They have an office at LGW but what do they do from that ?

Strategic AOC
 

My understanding is that the company has a Lux AOC and an Australian AOC

I watched a video footage from TF1 which is one of the main french TV channels. Strategic had lots of technical pbs last year. They had lots of SAFA checks which were not good leading to the french AOC being revoked. As there is no European system, what France did was not followed by other countries. Therefore Strategic had its french licence revoked in august 2010 and came back to fly in France in September 2010 with a Luxemburg AOC and Luxemburg registered aircrafts...the same aircrafts that the french people called Rubbish bins...avions poubelles.
So I hope they get the same rigourous checks here as SAFA checks are a European check system.

I've booked an Olympic holiday to Zakynthos for during August:). The flights are with Strategic (STUxxxx for flightradar fans). I'll report back on my experiences later in August.:hmm:

I flew LGW to ZTH on STU2742 on 31/7/11.
It was an A320. Seat space was typical cattle class but the seats were decent quality leather. The flight left LGW 35 minutes late but that wasn't bad since the plane had already done MAN to ZTH and ZTH to LGW so far that day and had left MAN 1hr 30min late.

I was somewhat bemused that they kept the seatbelt signs illuminated for over 30 mins after takeoff, I would have expected them off after around 20 mins. The aisle was occupied by trolleys for over half the 3 hour flight (drinks service,meal service, drinks again, 'duty free'), some what slow service, and so that caused problems for those heading off to the loos.
CC seemed to be pleasant enough and handled the club 18-30ers with tact.

I didn't sample their food/drink but it was advertised at the usual charter/LCC prices.

I returned on 14/8/11 ZTH to LGW on STU2743 - same plane.
The flight left 2:30hrs late - attributed by various announcements to MAN ATC delaying the previous leg (Man to ZTH) and ZTH ATC delaying the previous leg. (It had arrived 2:30 late at ZTH)
Like my 31/7/11 flight seatbelt signs illuminated until 30mins after takeoff and the aisle was blocked by trolleys for much of the flight.

Landing at Gatwick was a little different!
Touchdown was heavier than a typical landing, enough for a few people to comment, but the landing was after floating above the runway for longer than usual. That's OK, not all landings are the same and it wasn't worryingly heavy. It was the announcement whilst on the taxi way that made it sufficiently different .....
"Due to a weight imbalance problem .... when we have arrived at the gate will passengers in rows 1 to 6 please remain seated whilst some of the passengers from the rear of the aircraft disembark".
Passengers in rows 1-6 duly sat in seats whilst rows 7-18(me) disembark.
CC let 1-6 move just as I passed through the door.
I left rows 1-6 and 19-31 to fight it out.

Overall my flights were much the same as on any other charter/LCC carrier.

I was aware whilst on holiday that some Strategic flights on 18/8/11 had long delays. A notice at my hotel informed of a 4-5 hour delay for a ZTH to LGW flight and stated the reason as 'delay on a previous leg and using an alternative aircraft minimise further delays' ... the perils of a charter company which has about 2 aircraft !

Cubemaster.

Hey I am an employee for Strategic, let me explain some of the procedures regarding your flight.

The seatbelt sign remains on until the a/c has reached it's cruising altitude, granted it's a lot longer than UK airlines but that's the airline's procedures and is written in the Airline's OPS manual.

As cc we normally start the service asap as we are required to carry out a number of services as required by management.

On 2 of our aircraft we've had 4 incidences at MAN when attached to an airbridge that the aircraft's nose gear is going up quickly during disembarkation then back down too quickly for the airbridge to cope with causing the sensor that is placed under door 1l to be crushed under it. We keep rows 1 to 6 seated so the weight balance remains the same. I believe

i know that Strategic is being rebranded to Air Australia on 15th Nov. What is happening to the LUX carrier will that be rebranded too or will that still be called strategic.

Strategic currently operates 3 A320 aircraft in Europe. At the end of the autumn season, one aircraft will return to Australia and join the Air Australia fleet. The other two aircraft will remain in Europe and continue to operate as Strategic Airlines.

The Irony of all this was that Air France reputedly did their maintenance.

No,the Strategic name will remain in Europe.

Do we know which one?

Has anybody flowen with this airline?

They are starting in DUB next summer and prosume the flight will be operated by aircraft from LGW as thats the only airport that I can see they operate from.

They do flights from MAN as well there is usually one there when i fly out in the morning

Is ita a A320 at both MAN and LGW then?

They only operate A320's in Europe.

one of the a320's seem's to have been parked up at man for the last couple of weeks,anyone know why?