Anyone know what the exact numbers of based aircraft will be from Sunday 1st. I guess it'll be what we have now with the addition of some TUIs.

On the TUI thread someone has put together the entire program which showed 1 Max and 3x 738 at NCL plus W flights. The above comments re Freebird made me think that this may have been refined or is it even more flights? Seems too good to be true after the recent few years.

From the 1st May we’ll have 4 based a/c. Not sure on how many MAX/NG’s. Looking further ahead looking up to 12 flights per day. Including the W’s and the Dreamliners which will be up to 6 times per week in peak summer.

x1 7M8 x3 738

Think the MAX has set routes and starts with FAO (am) & ZTH (pm) on Sunday

So it looks like the following based for summer 22.

7x Jet 2, 738 currently. Increasing to 8.
4x TUI, 738.
2x RYR, 738.
Plus 1xBA, A319/320/321. 1xKL, E190/737. 1xAF, E190/E170. 1x LM E145. Nightstoppers.
In addition to several W movements from a range of airlines.

In the peak summer period, I calculate that Jet 2 need 9 based aircraft to operate their NCL programme.

9 has been confirmed in their schedule for peak. (August) with the additional
aircraft coming from EDI or GLA when they are “off peak”

Tui restarting flights soon to Orlando and Cancun twice weekly.

Airport Rating
 

In todays Daily Telegraph......Newcastle is rated joint 3rd best UK airport with Heathrow. They rated the UK's 16 busiest airports in 16 categories...joint bottom airports were Bristol and Leeds/Bradford. Top was London City.
NB Airport Management, before bringing out the Champagne....... Ncl is one of the few airports failing to offer water refill stations......but well done everyone.

LHR
 

BA have certainly got the knife out when it comes to NCL-LHR this Summer. From the initial schedule of up to 7 per day, we are down to a maximum of five and very often just three (or even on one date I looked at, two) per day. Looks like they have given up on point to point traffic this summer end giving all the capacity over to connecting flows. Hope this doesn’t permanently damage the route.

They are struggling with operational issues namely people resourcing, airport capacity constraints and unstable IT systems. So they are going to be curbing capacity by cancelling around 60 flights a day. Inverness has also seen a large chop of flights not just us.

no need to worry about this they will be back. Staffing major issue and ncl has good rail links to London.

they will be back to 7 by next summer

Looks like the airport have major staffing problems also..yet again aircraft holding this morning!

Great planning for the summer season?

That'll be the RYR Dublin that landed 2 minutes early, the BA that landed 8 minutes late and the RYR Alicante which was 6 minutes late? Looks like a 15 min break in ATC cover. Not the end of the world, really.

Ok no problem then😀. Suppose holding fuel doesn’t matter much these days or the professional reputation of a major UK airport..

Nice try but you need to give yer head a shake - it was a NOTAM'd 15 minute break, not a major staffing problem.

Anyone know what ever came of the supposed A330 freight flights?

Supposedly they couldn't get operating permits for HKG.

More holding tonight..including..Shock horror Emirates.

So SWBKCB…just what is going on? Notams issued but a bit of paper doesn’t hide , what really, for a supposedly major NE airport is going on?

Bad planning by management or bad planning by management…?

Presumably the industry wide staff shortages - NCL, MME and Leeming all have closures this week

Teesside closures? Don’t think so…AFS reductions maybe, but no airfield closures?

My point is..can’t remember in years…many years , this ever happening especially at Newcastle, just at a time when airports, airlines and stakeholders (I hate that btw) need to get their act together for the sake of this great industry and the travelling public…

So is it bad management…or bad management!

or a global pandemic of which the like has never been seen before?

If Newcastle was struggling to recruit/retain ATCOs pre pandemic then that situation will be much worse now, to advertise/recruit/validate someone new minimum 9 months and often over a year if Radar controller needed. I would guess that there is no pool of qualified controllers looking to move after the last couple of years…..

OK - sh*t happens and I'm sure there is more to this than meets the eye, but I'm curious as to how you miss a 787 worth of bags at Newcastle?

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news...astle-23917384

Someone soon needs to be an ex-employee.

TUI missing bags
 

It boiled down to TUI not loading enough containers on the 787 inbound and NCL not stocking them with no other ways to secure the bags in the hold for transit.

For example no pallets or cargo nets and no net retaining system in a hold designed for pallets/containers.

Added to the restriction in the bulk hold for weight and balance purposes.

Hopes this clarifies the situation.

Was that why an extra 787 flew BHX-NCL-MAN today.
about the same time as an E3-Sentry was conducting some training.

Yes - the extra 787 came to pick them up.

Baggage handling at NCL
 

It would appear that there remain issues in respect of baggage handling at NCL .
This years flight schedules provide for a number of returning flights that arrive back c.01.00 the following morning.
Case in point last Friday there were five 738's 4xJet2 & 1xTUI that arrived around same time. However the TUI disembarked first & were first through security & into the baggage hall, followed by the pax from the four other Jet2 aircraft.
What then ensued was that the TUI pax had to stand around for an hour & a half whilst all four JET2 flights luggage came through first. An irate conversation then ensued with the baggage supervisor on duty who informed them that JET2 had their own baggage handler whereas TUI used Swissport?....
So what's this all about ?

No spare containers at the airport.

LS542
 

Hearing of a near 24 hour delay on yesterday‘s Jet2 return leg from Gran Canaria. Looks like the aircraft diverted to Porto on the way home and is still there.

It was usual to be able to bulk load Hold bags on wide bodies like the 767, DC-10 and Tri-Star - just wondered why you cannot on the 787>?

It operates to enough remote holiday airports that the question of always having enough 'cans' available thus could be an issue.
or you carry the empties with you....

Is it (a 787) too fragile to lump the bags straight in the hold>?

Its about the choice Jet2 and TUI have made. Jet2 have their own ground and baggage staff at many UK airports (but not all, I don't think) and even at some European ports too. They handle Jet2 and only Jet2 flights. This is very much against the trend in the industry where the function is usually outsourced to 'experts' - ground handling companies. Because of razor-thin margins in the industry, Swissport is the only company left at a lot of airports. For employees T&C's aren't great, physical work in unergonomic conditions or aircraft holds, in all weather.
Do people get "irate" at the Occao driver when Sainbusry's fails to deliver their shopping on time?

Good news for 23 just read on Edinburgh thread via Routes online

Sun Express starting Ncl (and Brs)

Apologies if this should be in the SLF forum but are Namco and the Traveller shop still open at Newcastle?

Good news about Sun Express, .presumably we don't know the actual destinations in Turkey or the planned frequencies yet.

Antalya is the most likely start-up destination

That would put them head to head with fellow Turkish operator Corendon plus Jet2 and TUI