LUTON History and Nostalgia

[LTNman]

Didn't Britannia used to operate a 767 service from Ltn to Australia? If they did was it a charter service?

[cj241101]

Originally Posted by boeing_eng

Yes....767-200's were based in the 80's and I seem to recall did some Summer high season work around 2005/2006.

767-300 was a regular in summer 2000, remember it getting parked on stand 5 occasionally, normally on the east apron. Operated Wed and Thu only.

[NRU74]

LTNman
In your post2327 is the guy in the black and white pic using an Aldis?

[Falcon666]

Re:Britannia Australia flights
I remember sitting in Singapore Changi and seeing Luton on the destination board.
Think the flight originated in Perth and it was a fortnightly service?

At the time didn't they also do ad hoc flights to Barbados from Luton.

The 767-200s in the high season from Luton
Mon Thessaloniki , Dalaman
Tue Malta , Bourgas
Wed Paphos
Thur Palma , Dalaman
Fri Palma , Corfu , Ibiza
Sat Paphos , Alicante
Sun Larnaca , Bodrum

Cant find the year though.
Friday night around 11pm used to be entertaining (with two 767s on occasions) if i remember correctly.

Travelbag was the company, just remembered Flights were Oct/ Nov to Mar/Apr
There is a timetable on a well known on line auction site

[Level bust]

For info on B767-200

1986 - Thursday to Iraklion
1989 - Tuesday & Thursday to Palma
1993 - Monday to Ibiza. Did a W pattern in between to Manchester (I think) So got an extra day in Ibiza!

All summer flights, in the winter of 85/86 they did a double Lyons for the skiing season.

[oldbalboy]

Originally Posted by LTNman

Didn't Britannia used to operate a 767 service from Ltn to Australia? If they did was it a charter service?

did charters from 89 for about 12 years from LTN then LGW + Manchester to variety of destinations in Australia & New Zealand using 767-200 & 300

[lotus1]

I remember a relation flying from Luton to Perth on the 767 they lived at st Albans and always flew from Heathrow on either BA or Singapore but when this service started it was a god send they said the money they saved enabled them to fly twice a year on this service.

[almost professional]

Is it true Britannia chose the B767 over the A310 because it could make FL370 by the UK FIR boundary off Luton and miss a shed load of slot restrictions?

[Offchocks]

Originally Posted by almost professional

Is it true Britannia chose the B767 over the A310 because it could make FL370 by the UK FIR boundary off Luton and miss a shed load of slot restrictions?

I'm not sure about the A310, but I'm pretty sure I saw something on TV touting the capability of high flight levels and avoiding slot restrictions.

[squeaker]

IIRC The first B767 that Britannia used to Oz was G-BOPB.
Immediately christened by the locals as Go Back Ome Pommie B@stards...

[ajd1]

Certainly the decision was between B767-200 and the A310. Story was that Britannia were close to ordering the 310, then Boeing made them an offer they couldn't refuse.

[boeing_eng]

The A310 was seriously considered but operating economics and interior layout issues were two big factors that tipped it for Boeing

BY joined with Braathens to gain a few concessions from Boeing for the joint 767 order (including a part-financed simulator which lived at LTN for many years)...Although Braathens association with the type didn't last long!

Incidentally, only G-BYAA operated for Air Aruba

The Australia runs initially operated weekly LTN-Bahrain-Singapore-OZ.....The crews were away for ages! The flights switched to LGW and MAN and the stops swopped to AUH/SHJ and Batam in Indonesia....

[lotus1]

With regards to Britannia using the 767 my first flight was from gatwick with family to Ibiza 85 we had the late George best on the plane what ever the press said about him he was a true gentleman no special treatment just a true gent with regards to braathens using the767 it was so uneconomical for them they had to get rid of it only used it for a year and a half also didn't Brittania lease a 767 from air newzealand there was a tv show many years about Luton when the plane in question could not take off a passenger said they saw a mouse on it plane was searched and yes it was found.

[Mr Oleo Strut]

Originally Posted by LTNman

Didn't Britannia used to operate a 767 service from Ltn to Australia? If they did was it a charter service?

Yes. I remember disembarking from an Alitalia 747 at Kingsford-Smith just before Christmas 1995. We'd been very lucky and had been given given a first-class upgrade from Bangkok so we were feeling very pleased with ourselves, cool, nice and refreshed. On the next stand was a Britannia 767 off-loading. It was packed. They'd come out directly from the U.K. in 26 hours with only a refuel in the Gulf. Their pax followed us through the terminal. They were utterly, totally shattered, like zombies, poor little kids crying, wives and girl-friends wailing, they looked like walking wounded coming out of a war zone, but they said it had been a good flight. We didn't comment. I think it was a regular charter.

[LTNman]

[boeing_eng]

Braathens operated the 767 in a low density config of around 240 seats but couldn't make it work as travellers were not willing to pay the higher prices demanded....

Yes, ZK-NBJ was leased in 96/97 (an ex BY aircraft anyway!)

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/7569324

[Stan Woolley]

Is it true Britannia chose the B767 over the A310 because it could make FL370 by the UK FIR boundary off Luton and miss a shed load of slot restrictions?

No idea about why the 767 was chosen, but I remember the policy when tanking fuel we'd only tanker so that we could still make FL410 direct. Tanking to a Take-off weight of 121 500kgs rings a bell, but if that was figure used, you've witnessed a miracle, as my memory is unreliable!

[kenparry]

On the next stand was a Britannia 767 off-loading. It was packed. They'd come out directly from the U.K. in 26 hours with only a refuel in the Gulf.

Not so. The B767 needed 2 stops between UK and Oz. The first was in the Gulf, initially Bahrain, then Abu Dhabi, finally Sharjah. The second was initially Singapore, later Bataam just across the strait.

They were utterly, totally shattered, like zombies, poor little kids crying, wives and girl-friends wailing, they looked like walking wounded coming out of a war zone, but they said it had been a good flight.

Your description of pax condition on disembarking does not tally with what I saw. I operated a number of these flights, and remember happy but tired people on arrival in Oz. The Oz flights ran for a decade or so, chartered by Austravel, and ended when scheduled fares came down so much that the ticket prices had to fall, and the route became only marginally profitable. The commercial risk was too great: one major tech delay down-route would have wiped out the profit for the whole series of flights.

[oftenflylo]

The OZ flights started with the Britannia 102 in 1969 routing Luton, old Dubai, Singapore - callsign 'Southern Cross' but cannot remember if they were painted as such-only worked em on VHF.

[Allan Lupton]

One of my colleagues used that Britannia 767 sevice to and/or from Oz and what he and his family endured left them pretty well done for. The key point, as described to me at the time, was that the seat pitch was left the same as used on (e.g.) trips to Malaga which would be just tolerable for a couple of hours but not for over a day.