Vueling returns to LGW due to too much fuel
Only half a speed-brake
Since the legal possibility and authority to do so is not well understood by many pilot managers, can you blame the line crew or dispatcher on duty to err on the cautious side?
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May be they had taken too much fuel to take off higher than MTOW itself. So to be on safer side they didn't want to do overweight landing. There's no fuel dumping in A320.
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Years ago I requested 6,000 kgs fuel for a quick early LON - AMS. Got to the aircraft to find a puzzled refueller waiting to make sure we wanted 9,000 kgs of fuel removed. It had 15,000 kgs on board from the night before, but the flight didn’t operate for some reason. Had we departed for AMS the aircraft would have been well above MLW on arrival AMS. Pity Ops didn’t know the FOB before scheduling that aircraft for a short sector.
Only half a speed-brake
Depsite looking illogical from a purely geographical point of view, if the origin is a not-too-small company base returning there is the optimal choice most of the time. Also for passanger service / customer care.
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Apart from their well intended pesky questions, GPWS warnings and low fuel alarms can spoil the audio comfort as well.
Depsite looking illogical from a purely geographical point of view, if the origin is a not-too-small company base returning there is the optimal choice most of the time. Also for passanger service / customer care.
Depsite looking illogical from a purely geographical point of view, if the origin is a not-too-small company base returning there is the optimal choice most of the time. Also for passanger service / customer care.
Only half a speed-brake
Money talks, yes.
If they manage to get a replacement airplane rolling within 3 hrs of the original scheduled departure, they could save about 2 x 160 x 250 EUR = 80k on delay compensations. That is hard to earn back for LCC without stealing from their employees again.
Offloading mid-point they need to
- send a replacement ship there
- possibly pay hotels without long-term secured rates
- some of the pax will require re-routing back home on a 3rd carrier.
- there could be visa / money exchange / phone charges / language issues.
- the MX team might not have good stock available + you need to pay the outsourced service.
Back at base it will all get sorted out more quickly at a much reduced cost (primary driver) with comparably less painful result for the customer (secondary effect).
Not saying their cutthroat margins allow them to give a flying duck, just pointing out their best economical choice is more easy on the travellers too.
If this was the Orange team perhaps CDG would do equally good or even better. So yes, a large company base enroute will do and a level headed commander who is not allowed to make an overweight landing (😭
would prefer that one, at least put the fuel to a good use.
If they manage to get a replacement airplane rolling within 3 hrs of the original scheduled departure, they could save about 2 x 160 x 250 EUR = 80k on delay compensations. That is hard to earn back for LCC without stealing from their employees again.
Offloading mid-point they need to
- send a replacement ship there
- possibly pay hotels without long-term secured rates
- some of the pax will require re-routing back home on a 3rd carrier.
- there could be visa / money exchange / phone charges / language issues.
- the MX team might not have good stock available + you need to pay the outsourced service.
Back at base it will all get sorted out more quickly at a much reduced cost (primary driver) with comparably less painful result for the customer (secondary effect).
Not saying their cutthroat margins allow them to give a flying duck, just pointing out their best economical choice is more easy on the travellers too.
If this was the Orange team perhaps CDG would do equally good or even better. So yes, a large company base enroute will do and a level headed commander who is not allowed to make an overweight landing (😭
would prefer that one, at least put the fuel to a good use.
