I dont think a A319 is 'very heavy' isnt just they have a mix of less fuel capacity and lower rated engines?

Its normally the inbound from Canaries thats the issue with headwinds (in normal weather patterns)

The Easyjet ones are, with all the seats and extra set of overwing exits. The thing that always amazed me is that an A319 and A320 both weigh nearly the same when empty, despite the 320 being a much more capable aircraft in most circumstances.


I can't vouch for this, but perhaps restricted takeoff weights are an issue with Aer Lingus or Easyjet? I was once told by the operating crew on a flight to Malta that that 319 used on the route was certified to carry more weight than the others..

All the EZY 319s have the same structural limits but there are a couple of 'paper' MTOWs; let's say High and Low as I don't know what they are.

For short-range and near-Europe most of them are paper-rated at Low.

For the longer-hauls a smaller number are paper-rated at High and can load more fuel.

There is no change to the airframe to swap between ratings but it saves them in per-tonne charges to use Low where possible.

Edit: this airliners.net thread suggests 64 tonnes and 73.5 tonnes. Quite a difference!

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo...d.main/266167/ ( reply 5 )

Well its 2000 miles to St Johns and it is an aircraft with a range of 5,000 miles so there would be no reason for a fuel stop.

Very true, El Bunto. Many airlines will reduce their weight limits as a paperwork exercise to keep the landing fees down. Some airlines do raise and lower them to suit operational needs.


In the case of Westjet, the likes of a 4 hour oceanic flight looks to be quite easy compared to some of the 6+ hour transcontinental and Pacific flights they put their 737s through!


OwenC, for a standard 737-700 or 800 you are talking closer to 3000 miles, then take winds, ETOPs etc. into account. Sometimes when charter airlines send aircraft across to Canada for the winter they still fuel stop in Iceland, and that's when empty too!

You can be talking 200kts plus of headwinds westbound in the winter if you wanna go the shortest route. A detour over Iceland is a regular occurance for the heavies to JFK etc. It would be a real struggle to get a 737 or a319 to Newfoundland. Sure the Air Canada A319 LHR-YYT flight had to refuel in Shannon a few times westbound this year, and they had 4,000 meters of runway on departure. There were 757s stopping in Gander, Bangor etc westbound for fuel this winter.

Lufthansa for BHD?
 

Rumors going around other websites that there is going to be a German route announced by Lufthansa from BHD. Any idea what route and when it starts?

BFS Dude,

This is an interesting suggestion. Safe as to say if it is Lufthansa, it would be Frankfurt, otherwise if Eurowings, likely to be another German destination. Perhaps a return of a previous route from Belfast, to Berlin.

Let hope. Frankfurt would be a great hub airport to add to the map. With KLM coming in the addition of say a 3/4 times per week Frankfurt would be a welcome addition....

EI-BUD

I understand from the people that know the Ams is double daily for w15/16

Speak to the refuellers..they know all ;)

Well if AMS goes double daily... "Well I f**king never" or maybe "Would u Adam & Eve it"

In case anyone reads this as a negative comment... it isn't

In some respects KLM be daft not to in terms of the connections they can sell.

Lufty were looking around earlier this week, at both BFS airports. Then announced new record year of performance in Dublin! Make of it what u will. :rolleyes:

06:30 ( 07:30 Amsterdam time ) should *just* make it for the mid-morning wave of westbound departures.

Most of the KLM heavies are still coming over NI at that time, inbound from the Americas. So the little F70 will be pacing along beneath them...

Actually the Amsterdam atlantic flights arrive rediculously early. Around about 3am they start flying over my house.

One swallow does not a Summer make.

Over-Belfast times for Thursday 12th February. Inbound to Amsterdam.

KLM48 04:49 CHICAGO
KLM672 05:18 MONTREAL
KLM18 05:27 DULLES
KLM24 05:50 HOUSTON
KLM32 06:29 TORONTO
KLM602 07:25 LOS ANGELES
KLM214 08:30 VANCOUVER

Um? A United flight for Amsterdam was over my house last night at 2am.

They DO come in rediculously early..

There might have only been seven flights over Belfast but there are certainly a lot more than that to AMS and yes they do go in very early.

Bit too far south here for N American KLM (I do get S American/Carribean though) but I do get three Lufthansa a shade after 3am so would be somewhere in the Irish skies between 2-2:45 I would guess

Where I live we get constant flights from the NYC/Chicago area from 2am onwards.

The Flights from continential Europe come through seriously early!! Basically the middle of the night here..

Was just looking at flights to New York and interestingly BHD now undercuts BFS by a fair bit and sometimes even DUB. Fares available at £401 for a large part of the year via AMS using the imminent KLM cityhopper to connect.

Now obviously the non-stop flights from BFS and DUB are preferable to most people but it does give another option for those willing to give up time to save a bit. In that sense it can only hurt the UA flights from BFS.

Arrived back home today and spotted a big advertisement for KLM one of the billboards was advertising America

Looks like KLM is going to go up against BA for connecting pax in AMS
Quite honestly I can see KLM going double daily from BHD with most of those passengers not seeing outside of Amsterdam airport

On an other note Willie Walsh said he wanted to increase IAG presence in NI with other routes being looked at for Vueling but with Iberia Express popping up all over Uk this summer to Madrid, could it be on the cards for 2016?

When did Willie Walsh say about new NI roures for NI?

I do hope he means LCY!

KLM
 

Is the AMS service year round as the web site wont let me book after OCT 15. Says we do not operate! !

Normally summer season runs to the end of October?
Maybe someone in the know will inform soon

I've found no winter timetable either, however in work today I notice every NI newspaper had a full page spread advert for KLM at Belfast, one hell of a campaign.

Saw the same but thought they would release winter very soon

If your stuck I'm sure there will be the normal EZY to AMS five times a week up at BFS........or maybe they will go daily during the winter !!

Albeit minus any connections.....

EI swtich BHD-PMI to DUB aircraft giving BHD two free slots...

I thought all are lingus summer routes where going to be a W rotation from Dublin. Meaning just 2 aircraft at BHD this summer and the aircaft must doing the usual LHR/LGW x3 and then the odd Verona at the weekend

Nope third aircraft operates AGP/FAO only. PMI was by LGW aircraft last year.

I wonder what they are going to do with the two free slots? Maybe the Tuesday one allows for a season long Verona charter? But what about the Saturday one.. They must have something up their sleeve! But it's getting abit late on to announce a brand new route! Anyone any idea!!

Pedantically, Belfast City doesn't have 'slots'.

It is a Facilitated Airport, so movements may have to be co-ordinated during peaks, but there is no must-have-a-slot-to-fly system.

http://www.acl-uk.org/default.aspx?id=105

I can't see two free slots? Only one at LGW on a Sat afternoon, looking into it I can see the a/c covers the LGW-NOC rotation with 1hr25mins on the ground at NOC, vastly cheaper place to lie idle than LGW I shouldn't doubt.

Didn't literally mean slots but slots available with the third frame based.

Looks like they have updated their booking system. Lgw back to 3 daily using bhd aircraft on a Tuesday, and as mentioned above the bhd seems to do bhd lgw bhd lgw noc lgw bhd landing back at 20:20 on a sat.

Bit of shame was hoping for something slightly more exciting. Odd how they have basically just changed the dub crew from doing the lgw to the Pmi. Think they're doing themselves abit of a disfavour. The old Pmi sat and tues times were betting for stags hens etc. must make sense to someone though.

So they have, my info was from Wednesday.

Forgive my ignorance here but when you say "PMI was by LGW aircraft last year", what does that mean?

I used the PMI service last year and from FR24 logs it seemed the aircraft operating was based at BHD (albeit almost exclusively on LGW's) and the crew both outbound and inbound were all Northern Irish which I assume points to BHD crew? Not disputing the point just wondering what "LGW aircraft" referred to.

AC

Pmi and all services last year were by BHD based aircraft with the exception of Tuesday flight in the evening on LGW which operated by non based ac, routing LGW BHD LGW, resulting in a later departure to LGW and a much earlier last flight back on the route.