BA LHR-HAM Question

[freddieplanecrazy]

Hi there,
I am travelling from LHR-Hamburg on Tuesday on the BA 964 service. I would really like to know which aircraft type I will be on and if possible the aircraft reg. I have looked on BA.com and it variates between saying an A320 and a Boeing 757.........is there any chance I will be on the BP liveried aircraft?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Freddie

[jack_essex]

Hi,

I just looked on the BA.com website and it says it will be an A320.

Jack

[freddieplanecrazy]

Thanks for looking Jack. But if you put the flight in for a one-way it comes up as a 757...............

[MARKEYD]

Hi There

Its an A320 work for BA and its scheduled for that day

[TopBunk]

At the moment, it is still planned as an A320, and for afficiandos of aircraft it is actually quite a rare one. It's (again I say at the moment, about 90% likely) to be one of the original A320-100 series aircraft, of which only about 16 were built, and possibly only about 10 still fly. Registration G-BUSD.

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by TopBunk

one of the original A320-100 series aircraft, of which only about 16 were built, and possibly only about 10 still fly.

Actually the first 21 A320s built are of this model, and apart from the two lost to accidents (Habsheim and Strasbourg) all are still flying. There's still plenty of life left in them yet, they were only built in 1987-89.

[XSBaggage]

Sorry for sounding ignorant, but what is the BP-liveried aircraft?

XSB

[amanoffewwords]

BP = Blue Peter I guess

see www.airliners.net/open.file/799063/M/

[XSBaggage]

Thanks! It never crossed my mind. In fact the first thing I thought was "no wonder petrol prices are so high when BP get into such things as sponsoring aircraft".

Glad that was put right!

XSB

[747-436]

I went to Vienna the other week on BA and it said A320 on the net but was actually an A319 both ways so I guess they are using A320 to say it could be any one of that A/C family that they operate (A319/320/321)

[WHBM]

It depends on which information source you use. BA have a habit of scheduling different aircraft types on different days/weeks on their short-haul flights (not long-haul where the crews slip, you have to stick to one type then). If you look at the detail schedules you sometimes find a whole mix of 319/320/757/767 in a month. This is done to suit expected demand, maintenance requirements, etc.

Some information sources (the OneWorld timetable is one) are precise and show these different aircraft types for different days, which of course is necessary behind the scenes for booking purposes. Other timetable sources just show the most used type, or some other averaging. To show the full detail takes up a lot more space and can appear a mess, and information presentation editors do not always seem to feel accuracy of the type scheduled is important.

In comparing the OneWorld type detail with actuality I have always found it to be spot on. If it says a given flight from London to Edinburgh, usually a 320, is a 757 just for next Thursday, say, that is indeed what actually seems to turn up. Of course there are sudden subs due to operating problems, but the basic plan is generally stuck to.

[Pax Vobiscum]

I agree the Oneworld timetable here (6MB PDF) is a useful resource. I wonder (and I'm sure someone can tell me) whether it's possible for an operator with mixed fleets to substitute a 320 for a 319 (or 321 for a 320) if a flight gets full (rather than turn away business). AFAIK it's no problem for the flight deck, but at some point you're going to need extra CC - but is the flexibility there to allow large operators such as BA to do this?

Just curious!

[Hand Solo]

I'm sure it's possible, however in BAs case it would require so much time and effort to do the swap that the flight would invariably go late so nobody would bother. Our aircraft planning system is pretty prehistoric and aircraft changes are far more trouble than they are worth unless the original aircraft is completely kaputt.