Air Europa from SOU

[skytravel]

Hi all

I am flying with Air Europa from Southampton-Palma in two weeks on the AEA124/125. Does anyone know what 737 series I will be flying on? I have seen a number of 734's there recently, but was just interested to know thats all.

Cheers,
Skytravel

[oliversarmy]

almost certainly a -400 series or -800


OA

[corporate kid]

Only seen 400s there recently!!!!

[skytravel]

Yes me too, but a 738 did do a Malaga service a few weeks back. What happened to their 738's? Last year they operated the majority of the services from SOU.

[jmc757]

About the -800's. Wouldn't at all surprise me if those are kept for their growing Schedueled network, and the -400s doing the mainstay of the charter routes.

Just a thought.

[Diamond 'katana' geezer]

for what it's worth i flew -800 to tenerife back in the day from sou

[skytravel]

I would be surprised either jmc757. On their scheduled routes they are also using an MD-83. Is this aircraft on lease from Spanair? It's a surprise to me that they are operating an aircraft other than a 737/767.

Really Diamond geezer? I thought Spanair's A320's operated the TFS service

[Diamond 'katana' geezer]

hi ya skytravel

it was xmas 1999 when i went, so as i said....back in the day :)

geez :cool:

[Buster the Bear]

As the runway is quite short, all the passengers have to race from the front of the plane to the rear in order for it to get airborne during the take off roll, if they resist, the plane has to land at Hurn for more fuel!

Whoops, that is BeFly Hairdryers!

[skytravel]

Yes don't I know it! I have been flying PA28's from SOU for a year, and I have been holding at the brava one for those 146's to depart and they use up so much runway! It's unbelievable!

Do you think the 737's refuel enroute to PMI from SOU as well now? I wouldn't be surprised, the r/way is very short here isn't it
:p

[Oscar Duece]

skytravel

I doesn't matter if your in a Pa28, 737, 747 or a bloody Cri-Cri. You should be using the full length at all times. (club policy if I remember anyway). If your engines quit you can't use the extra length behind you...Besides Baa don't charge by the foot, so get your monies worth..:sad:

[Exel]

As far as i'm aware ALL Air Europa oprations from SOU are now operated by 737-400's.

800 series aircraft used to operate some routes, but these aircraft could never operate fully loaded and as far as i'm aware about 25% of seats were never put on sale due to the fact the aircraft would never get off the ground. Well, it was either that or sell every seat and don't take any luggage.

Some routes operated by various other operators still have the need for a tech stop enroute to some spanish destinations. I believe Nantes was a favourite stopping off point. I'd be very surprised if this requirement was ever mentioned to the punters when booking their hols.

[skytravel]

Thanks for that Exel. I suppose Britannia's 757 flight to Palma doesn't operate fully loaded then! Why can't BAA just extend that runway! It would make life so much easier! Get on with it NOW!

[Wycombe]

....presumably because of the Motorway right at one end and the railway workshops right at the other.

If extending the Rwy at SOU was easy, I'm sure BAA would have already done it when they spent a lot of money on the Airport in the mid/late '90's

[skytravel]

Wycombe

Its a real shame with the location of the airport. I believe there is so much potential, and the fact that one million people live within an hours makes it a favourite place for people to fly from. Unfortunately where there is no room for extending the runway, this may never happen. I live 10mins from there, and the airport itself is surrounded by houses etc. I just hope that in years to come, there may be some improvement occuring

[Oscar Duece]

Sadly SOU (nee Atlantic air Park) will never be more than a regional / business airport. But at least a profitable one.

It was just put in the wrong place to start with. Perhaps if it was more east/west, across the road and into the park to the west (not the marshes to the east) it could have been as busy as LGW by now.

Only other option would be to put the M27 in a tunnel between J5 & J7 (for those not local, there is NO J6 for some reason) and use that for a main runway. We own some farm land next to J7 and would be happy to build a terminal or some hangars for a couple hundred £k.:ok:

[AhhhVC813]

I think you may find that the wonderfully overpowered 757, would treat the runway at SOU with contempt and pull a full load off the runway on it's way to PMI. It's not that short. Vagar in the Faroes is short (1250m).
Runway length is, of course, relevant to any airfield, depending on the types that operate there and the destinations served. You could land a Jumbo at SOU, and take-off again. But the load capability would be a bit thin. I would also be surprised if a 737-400 would have to stop anywhere if only going to PMI, as it has an excellent power to weight ratio, which is the be all and end all off shorter runways.

[Buster the Bear]

I am sure that I read on here once that the charter jets operated with empty seats to facilitate the short runway and that the BAA paid for these empties?

BAA shareholders would be upset to hear of this I am sure! Coss subsidies, Gwyneth will be after em again!

[surely not]

BY have operated all their 757 routes ex SOU with full loads, no restrictions.

Air Europa also operated full loads on the -800 last year.

Spanair A320 operated full loads, but had an optional tech stop built in I think.

Spanair MD83 had a restricted load ex SOU and always used all the runway before rocketing upwards.

The FlyBe 146 tech stops at BOH were due to Temps of around 33c at SOU which is way above the norm and as such understandable.

Hope this helps the knockers re read their ops manuals and time tables to stop posting inaccurate nonsense.

[AhhhVC813]

BAA currently yield 3.8%, which in the aviation market is a pretty good return. Their shareholders are probably satisfied.
I would imagine that airlines who use any airport in the country whether it's BAA owned or not, pay the costs required. What is this so called 'seat subsidy'? Clearly it is not needed, (see comments by surely not).
Unfortunately, remarks made about the capabilities of aircraft to lift a payload from an airfield are usually made by people who do not have much of a clue about aircraft performance. I'm sure that Thomson, My Travel, First Choice, Airtours or any of the other holiday companies, only operate to make a profit. If they fill up their aircraft, then presumably, they will make one. If not, then there's not much point in doing the route. There are no prizes for losing money.

[skytravel]

AhhhVC813,

I couldn't agree more with you! Its quite funny though seeing how much this topic has changed, from asking if anyone knew which type of 737 I will be flying on, to aircraft pay loads! LOL

Thanks anyway, its been interesting. Anyone with info of SOU, tell here LOL :D

[Tom the Tenor]

Anyone know what the Aer Arann loads are like Cork-Southampton?

I am sure that a lot airports that have runways on the smallish size and that receive 733s and 734s hope that such carriers will consider taking the blended winglet conversion now being offered as this should see a marked increase in take off performance?

Looking at 734 and 738 take offs at Cork and watching the NGs with winglets you can see how much performance improvement there is - very impressive!

[MerchantVenturer]

Tom,

Cannot give definitive figures for ORK-SOU but recently an announcement was made locally here about the first year of Aer Arann's ORK-BRS service.

During that period 13,000 pax were flown. Now given that there are six rotations a week on an ATR 72, this would not seem to equate to a particularly high load factor. Not having worked in the industry I would not know whether these figures would be considered poor, satisfactory or even good for the first year of an operation, albeit BA Citiexpress/Brymon flew the ORK-BRS route prior to Aer Arann.

Until May the flight was a combined ATR 72 one from ORK to BRS then on to SOU, back to BRS then finally return to ORK. The figures above relate solely to the ORK-BRS-ORK legs.

As you probably know in May the flights were made into separate rotations: - ORK-BRS-ORK with a ATR 72, and ORK-SOU-ORK with I believe a ATR 42. I don't know what is planned for the winter.

[skytravel]

Hi

Well I did fly on a Boeing 737-400, outbound was on EC-HNB. This aircaft had so much legroom it was incredible!!

Return was on EC-IRA, which is a new B734 in the AEA fleet. The advert on the fuselage was a new one as well, with "Queen We will rock you" !! The aircraft had less legroom on return, but it was bareable for a 2hr flight.

The flights were early arriving, but when back at Southampton we held on taxiway Alpha-2 for about 30minutes as there weren't any stands available for our aircraft. Eventually a BA Dash-8 departed and we took the space.

AEA are an excellent airline, well done!!