Qatar have reactivated a few retired A330s which are flying without titles in some cases. This was due to them grounding a number of A350s and the fallout from that has caused mayhem in fleet planning. Basically anything can turn up on the day!

Airline uses an aircraft with 30 more seats a few weeks before Xmas and you think what, it's random?

​​​​​​On a more factual note. A good few days for Edinburgh, with 5 new/resuming routes. Bari, Valencia, Poitiers and Santiago from Ryanair, and Dalaman from Turkish Airlines.

Increase in Cork to 12 a week in '22 and Shannon to 3 with FR

Using the A330 is indeed random as they should be on their way out.

Its been fairly well publicised that Qatar have had to retain some airframes due to the A350 issues. Maybe the 787 has been re deployed on primary routes with the older airframes on secondary routes such as EDI.

At Present Manchester is getting a real mixed bag of B788/9s A350 and B773 and I think we have had an A330 from memory

Looks like PHL could be dropped by AA in S22 due to 787 delivery delays:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/america...ys-11639054802

Confirmed. AA dropping Edinburgh. Hugely disappointing. Delivery delay of some aircraft is a genuine headache for airlines. I suspect had forward bookings been robust and looking good, American would have found a way to operate EDI-PHL in some way, even if it were at a reduced frequency.

https://news.aa.com/news/news-detail...2/default.aspx

They make it sound as though it’s just not operating in 2022. There is a chance it could be back in 2023.

It's hard to know. The memo implies they could return ("We will no longer serve Edinburgh, Scotland; Shannon, Ireland; or Hong Kong. We'll continue to evaluate these routes as more aircraft become available and would like to be able to serve them again in the future"), but this article (https://www.scotsman.com/news/transp...delays-3489300) states "We thank team members who served our customers in Edinburgh and Shannon and are working closely with them during this transition" which is the kind of thing you'd say when you're getting rid of staff.

I could see them returning when they have enough A321XLRs, which may be summer 2024. Once they have them though, and if the route is reinstated, there might be a reasonable chance of the route operating year-round, even if not daily in winter. It would be reasonable to think that there would be enough One World fliers to and from the EDI catchment that could form a reasonable foundation for a year-round route to a US One World hub.

Yes would be interesting to know out of all their many routes the thinking behind which routes have been culled. DBV was always a bit of a longshot marginal I felt and 787s seemed very ambitious even before covid. Otherwise these routes would already have been on eg 763’s

Qatar S22

Qatar starting to amend schedules. EDI-DOH showing as returning to daily from 1st June. Mixture of 787-8 and 787-9. Subject to change of course but if confirmed, would be a welcome boost for EDI. They also appear to be reinstating service from Birmingham and Cardiff.

Where have the A350’s gone? (barring the paint issue!)
Much prefer the A350 service.

I assume in short term, Qatar will continue to have limited number operational A359’s. The ones they do have available will be used on primary - high yield routes. As we know, everything can change at short notice. If bookIngs do surge as a result of the relaxation of testing regs, Qatar may increase EDI capacity further. They’ll certainly be very keen to keep Emirates away from a return to EDI.

Isn't that a further delay to the return of a daily service ？ I thought that when I last checked it was daily from the clock change, but I may be wrong.

You may be correct. Qatar, like most airlines have made numerous changes to schedules reacting to the ever evolving covid situation. The decision of the UK Gov to relax testing regs must have had an impact on their forward planning. The reported (yet to be confirmed) reinstatement of service from Birmingham and particularly Cardiff is perhaps another sign that Qatar have increasing confidence in the UK market rebounding. In my opinion, Australia opening up in the short to medium term is key. What’s not in doubt is Qatar’s commitment to Edinburgh. Other than for a short period, they have maintained a service from EDI throughout the pandemic. EDI I’m sure will have pulled out all the stops to retain this legacy airline.

Qatar are a legacy airline now? Blimey! :eek:

They must be feeling particularly confident if they are reinstating Cardiff.

A colleague was on one of the second week of VS BGI service and said there was less than 50 people on it outbound… VS must be haemorrhaging even more money on that particular route. Why did they not suspend it for a good while and maybe try again?

A fair point and is surprising that the route (for now) continues to operate. Having said this, the VS operated BGI service is only winter seasonal and is relatively short. They haven’t operated twice weekly every week as they advertised prior to route starting. They did drop some dates. I don’t think anyone would be surprised to learn that EDI will have dangled a carrot to prise VS from Glasgow. DL who own VS from a strategic and commercial point of view clearly see EDI as a bigger and more established market. VS will certainly hope to offset any loses from this route with the expectation that the MCO route performs strongly. The forward bookings for MCO, particularly at the popular school holiday dates appear to be very promising. The inbound services from the US to EDI appear to be solidly booked throughout, especially in the premium cabins. In the bigger picture however, VS do strange things at random times. Until recently, they had a substantial presence at Manchester. They have slashed this recently and appear to be concentrating heavily again on LHR. Who knows if they will stick with EDI in the medium to long term.

Delta neither own nor control VS, they have a say but they're not in control. The move from GLA to EDI says more about GLA being harder to get to than before even with the M74 as well as EDI discounting to win the business. The retirement of the B744 also made EDI an option, the relative strength of EDI is being a bigger draw in the US-Scotland market than GLA, and you'll note BGI is almost 100% UK originating. The House of Mouse used to be overwhelmingly UK originating but I understand Delta now feed US outbound traffic via MCO so the move to EDI may make more sense. MAN still has BGI/ATL/JFK/MCO/ISB with LAS/BOS/west coast suspended. They closed LGW and retrenched to LHR to survive but we haven't seen a post COVID market yet, that should be interesting.