Britannia to Manaus (Brazil)

[Localiser Green]

I know Britannia have been operating (and continue to operate) ad-hoc charters on behalf of P&O Cruises this Winter, but I am a little intrigued by a couple of flights down to Manaus (MAO) in the Amazonas of Brazil this Friday.

The routes are:

MAN-BGI-MAO-MAN with a 763 (BY698A/B)
BHX-BGI-MAO-BGI-MAN with a 762 (BY632A/B)

So far the ad hoc routes (PBI/FLL/BGI/ACA/EZE/SCL) have been understandable for Cruise passengers, but MAO is way inland. :confused:

Thanks for any light you can shed on the subject :)

[Go-Around]

Just a guess, but is it the only decent airfield around?

[Remmington]

Been there/done that
Maunaus is the kick off point for Amazon cruises. Large town established by Portugese when rubber plantations thrived in 1800's - some Brit ****** stole a rubber seed and planted it in Malaya.....over 100 rubber merchants commited suicide in one night - see headstones in graveyard....has only opera house in Jungle...Portugese brought in Opera companies from Portugal...one complete company died of Malaria....Concord has landed at Maunaus International...area also has special Brazilian tax status as duty free port...Eiffel [tower fame] built The "Floating Dock ''
Portugese used to send dirty washing back to Portugal as they considered Amazon water too muddy.
Any more you need to know....
Oh Yes the Palace Hotel for best whores in town....
Hope that Britania have better luck than Portugese

[chippy63]

May well be wrong, but I believe that the Amazon is still pretty wide and deep even that far inland, and can take ocean-going vessels.

[mr.777]

Funnily enough my folks are flying to Manaus tomorrow night to go on the P&O Amazon cruise!
Anyway,they were supposed to be going on BY,who someone already correctly pointed out operate charters on behalf of P&O.
They got a letter in the post last week saying that flight was now leaving LGW 3 hrs later and being operated by Thomas Cook A330 with tech stop in Tobago.I thought A330 would have had the range to get to Manaus without refuelling,although I suppose if its an all-economy cabin version,bit of extra weight due the extra pax.
Anyone in the know got any ideas why BY now unable to operate flight?Folks quite upset as last cruise they went on,they rated the BY flight as one of the best longhaul ones they've done!

[Remmington]

Not much choice of diversion - Belem/Salvador or onwards to West Coast.....you are right about cruise ships getting up this far which is just beyond where the Black & White Amazon sources meet. Its a graveyard for ships of all sizes....Paddle ships used to operate further upstream towards Peru/Colombia. Believe it or not the Peruvian Navy have a gunship stationed on the border
supplied by Air as its a long way round by sea!

[Fokkerwokker]

I pax'd out with an Air Two Bob crew about 10 years ago and had three days there courtesy of a benevolent DFO. Fascinating place - so much so that none of the Trolley Dollys wanted to go shopping - no really!

Had an introduction to a Brit forestry expert who took us all up-country, in the back of his Toyota pick-up, and showed us the real rain forest. Terrific experience.

I remember that on departure, when we tried to push back, the tow bar went into self destruct with the nearest replacement being days away.:eek: Quick phone patch to ops for authorisation and we powered back without any further ado.:cool:

If Manaus was easier to get to I wouldn't mind going again.

FW

[Mr @ Spotty M]

Mr.777
May be due to Britannia, short of 767s.
They have 6 on the Hadj.
Also l guess that JMC (Thomas Cook) may be stopping due to crew change, as they operate flights into Tobago.
Hope this helps.

[flufdriver]

Interesting place, was there about 96, loved the piranha display in the airport.
The approach usually brings you in over the river,

i was amazed to see little kids jumping into the River considering all the exotic marine life that is trying to eat you.

wouldn't mind going back for a better look.

Fly a few hours further south and you can see the fires marching north. (at least back then you could)

[Carbon Life Form]

Diverted into Manaus with the 767-400 enroute Sao-Paulo-NY
due to the loss of one engine driven Generator, the APU'S refusal
to come on line, and our unwillingness to fly another 7hrs on one generator.

Dumped 20,000lbs of fuel into the Amazon and arrived in Manaus, appropriately, to an evironmental convention that had absorbed all but 70 hotel rooms and we had over 270 souls.

Answer was a room each for all crewmembers, while everyone else got to know each other a lot better than expected.
Interesting place though. As stated earlier Amazon is more like a lake at that point, very wide, and lot's of wildlife.

Left the next night after replacing all GCU'S which was still not the cause of the problem, as, a week later in Gatwick during a 'c'
check the same aircraft's generator's would not come on line after start.

After some trouble shooting it was resolved to be a software problem, but was still enough of a concern with it's history that we ferried back empty to NY the next day, leaving LGW at 0700
which was quite unusual.

I picked up some stuffed Piranha heads in Manaus and brought them home for the kids, after which one went missing accompanied by a very sick dog. Hard to believe those teeth didn't cause a problem.

[Hartington]

Take a boat trip to the confluence of the Negro and the Amazon and see the two different coloured streams of water continuing to flow in the same river for several miles. It was still a bit of a frontier town in 79 when we went there. In those days AF operated a twice weekly 747 CDG/French Guyana/MAO/LIM so we had three nights between the two flights.

[Localiser Green]

Thanks for all the replies.

Incidentally mr.777 the BY698A from MAN still seems to be running tonight (22:15), though obviously JMC may be sub-chartered to operate it with the 330.

Sounds like an interesting place anyway. :cool: