787
 

I can only comment from BHX and the 788/789 seems to have been no different to any other aircraft tech wise and most issues seem to revolve around delays (various reasons) and the knock on effects on crew duty hours. They have taken decisive action at BHX with the 787 short-haul schedule for next summer greatly reduced the flights by adding an extra 737 to the base instead which might improve matters especially if it doesn't involve Sunwing.

The irony this morning after the B772 re-routing to Gatwick, BHX ended up with 3 spare aircraft, one positioning empty to Palma, a Sunwing to EMA to cover for the tech aircraft still stuck in Ibiza and a 788 having the extra one sent extremely late yesterday afternoon from Manchester to cover the Friday Tenerife. BHX still had all 11 departures as per peak summer schedule so not as if flights had ended.

It seems all the issues happened on the wrong day, a Friday where the summer schedule is virtually still in full swing. If this had happened Monday-Thursday the results might have been different (short-haul not long-haul) but you can't gamble on that but I suppose unlucky to have so many issues in the space of a few hours.

I didn't realise that only one 763 isn't flying, was that planned or is "YK" tech at Manchester or just stood-down?

The most recent 737 addition to the fleet is also showing on the ground Manchester for 18 hours so aircraft shortages most days would appear not to be the issue and it is just general delays and the knock-on issues with crew hours (mixed in with some tech), which seem to have created this.

As for the 772 re-route to Gatwick, which was caused by the 16 hour turnaround at Manchester yesterday to operate the Friday BHX-BOJ was perhaps a little too tight for handling purposes:hmm:. I assume that there was more to this as 16 hours is well in excess for crew to be back in hours. I know I would not be a happy bunny if I was on the Burgas flights especially if travelling with under 4's knowing what had gone on in the last 48 hours.

It would be good to hear from someone within TUI to hear of some of the obstacles involved in recovering the schedule from Friday.

Pete

YK had a recurring tech issue in MAN which means it only just returned to service again today. This meant the KGS currently has a 30 hour delay from yesterday as they planned it to back in service yesterday but it unfortunately wasn't. Statistically, despite only the 2x frames left, the 767s have still been better with their reliability overall than the 78s this summer despite their 25+ years strong service. I guess keeping them on shorthaul only ops has helped, but at the same time, this is more intense work.

EC-MUA ..of Privilege Style still subbing for Tui at LGW ,and just arrived in Wamos A330 .EC-NYJ from MAD ..as TOM24P ,first Wamos here for quite a while for them
EC-MUA off to Kos tomorrow so both are needed .

When I first mentioned TUI acquiring a relatively cheap 777 for Summer operations I was laughed at but they certainly appear to be making good use of the Privilege Style one. TUI should lease a 777 or 2 for the whole Summer season. It would allow 737 flights to be merged and free up aircraft, reducing the number of 737s chartered in.

A lot of unhappy P&O cruise customers on social media at the moment, because their Manchester flights to the Caribbean this winter are now being operated by Maleth-Aero, using an A330, rather than a TUI 787.
I appreciate that aircraft can always be substituted, but given that these flights have been scheduled for months, why did TUI agree to run a charter for P&O when they knew they did not have an aircaft available ?

Definately agree ..maybe they should lease one from Air Tanker ….the Wamos aircraft that is here is one of their smarter ones …they are really overstretched aircraft wise now

Air Tanker don’t have 777’s.

It is one of those airline conundrums that Fleet Planning will work out a particularly lean and efficient game plan with no slack, knowing that if they get into an AOG difficulty they can always subcharter in from the Spanish/Lithuanians, probably at less overall cost than having their own spare. Meanwhile the Finance team, working in a parallel universe, and maybe driven by commands from Germany (other owners are available) look at the simplistic cost per hour of subcharters and say "no more hiring in - do it with your own resources".

P&O cruise
 

wowzz, Its not only Manchester passengers using Maleth-Aero, also Gatwick passengers.
It has nothing to do with TUI however as Maleth-Aero have signed a deal with P&O to operate the flights this winter, basing a A330-200 aircraft at each airport.

How is a Maltese airline getting traffic rights to fly UK-Barbados?

Wet lease through URO as they have done with A346s in the past?

We're booked to fly LGW-BGI on 18th Nov to join P&O Britannia, and have (so far) been given a Tui flight no. Info we received suggests there are (or were) 2 Tui flights to join the ship from LGW that day.

No changes notified to us yet.

Is this P&O binning-off Tui after all the problems last winter?

Lots of disatisfaction being expressed on P&O passenger groups on FB as some people (so far at MAN) are being told of these changes and not happy to fly on "an airline they've never heard of with no IFE"

I don't think it is so much P&O " binning off" TUI, more that TUI do not have sufficient capacity to deal with the passenger numbers.
I must admit that having booked PE seats to the Caribbean this December, on the expectation that I would be flying on a TUI 787, I would be mightily unimpressed to be switched to an A350 with a single class cabin and no IFE.

Its all being arranged by UK-based aviation solutions firm Ford Aviation.Two Maleth Aero Airbus A330s will operate return flights from the UK to the Caribbean between November and March next year.

Flights will be from Gatwick and Manchester to Barbados and Antigua where passengers will join the ships Britannia and Arvia.

One of the wide-body A330-220 aircraft will be based at Gatwick and the other in Manchester for direct flights to the Caribbean islands.
Credits Travel Weekly.

How is it decided which passengers are allocated which flight?
6 of us are flying back from Barbados on 3rd November, there are 2 separate bookings and 2 of our party who made they own booking are not on our TUI flight…

That is a very good question, but I doubt that anyone can answer it on here.

TUI in Germany becoming rather more strict on hand baggage. Wonder if this will happen in the UK as well ? Max 40x30x20 cm and no more than 2kg - or pay 10 euros for 55x40x20 cm.
https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/tui-aviation/tuifly/tuifly-to-strictly-limit-size-40-x-30-x-20-cm-and-weight-2-kg-of-hand-baggage

Flight only pax, not those on package holidays

Tui / sunwings
 

Are any tui aircraft off to Canada this year or has that agreement finished now with the westjet purchase? I see the first sunwings aircraft went back yesterday

Yes a number of TUI UK 737s (mix of NGs and MAXs) will head over this winter.