Garuda Indonesia's Boeing planes too heavy to land at Jakarta
 

Garuda Indonesia's Boeing planes too heavy to land at Jakarta


GARUDA Indonesia has been forced to postpone its planned new London service because the runway in Jakarta is not strong enough to take its fully laden Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.

The airline has been heavily marketing a new non-stop Sydney-Jakarta-London flight, due to launch in November but now delayed until May.

However, the airline's vice-president for Australia and the South-West Pacific, Bagus Y. Siregar, said the B777-300ER would still be put into service on the Sydney-Jakarta route between November 8 and December 18.

"The aircraft will then be deployed to another region until our Jakarta to London service begins in 2014, when the aircraft will fly from Sydney to Jakarta and onto London direct," he said.

The airline said Soekarno-Hatta Airport's runways did not meet the required level of strength "typically needed for the operation of a full capacity, heavy duty commercial airline such as the Boeing 777-300ER".


Garuda Indonesia chief executive Emirsyah Satar said that to operate at full capacity serving direct flights between Jakarta and London carrying 314 passengers and a cargo of 30 tons, the B 777-300ER required a pavement classification number, or PCN, of 132 tons.

He said Soekarno-Hatta's 28-year-old runway had a PCN of only 120 tons.

This would mean the airline would have to reduce the take-off weight of its London flight by carrying 39 fewer passengers and less cargo.

"Additionally, the flight would not be able to fly directly to London," he said.

"In this competitive market, not being able to operate with a full payload would severely disadvantage Garuda Indonesia at this time."


The Australian 1/7/2013

Typical of how things operate in Indonesia with no forward planning. It's a bit late to discover this once the aircraft have arrived. :rolleyes:

Muppets. How is that possible though? I saw a SQ A380 at Soekarno-Hatta last year that diverted. Surely that has a higher PCN? (You can assume SQ flight was near capacity as they almost always are).

Not sure what the ACN is for the A380 but it does have two additional main gear boogies over the 777. It wouldn't surprise me if a fully laden 777-300ER had a higher ACN than a 747-400 or A380.

SQ A380 would also have had a low fuel load. 14.5 hours worth of fuel is a lot.

I do think there is probably more to the story than just PCN/ACN issues. However, I can certainly imagine that Angkasa Pura might have said the runway would be strengthened in time and weren't able to the meet the deadline.

They're not very good at marketing either. Non-stop...but with a stop. It's 1984!

Classic, what an absolute laugh!
Run the numbers before you get the plane!
Would have loved to have seen their faces in the Garuda office when they worked it out!

With regards to the PCN / runway strengthening. Is this major surgery?
Is May next year to be operating this flight realistic?

Soekarno-Hatta is already operating way beyond its capacity. Major delays are standard issue now, yet the local airlines based there continue their expansion. Should be another good laugh in the making.

Garbage!! 120 tonnes wont even allow an empty 777 operate from the airport.

Mutt

The A380 at MRW has an ACN on ultra low strength flexible pavement of 110, the 777-300ER is 132.

That means the A380-800 does not have a weight limit on this pavement, in fact it can go up over 600t before it would hit the PCN limit (A380-900).


Jakarta has a ultra low strength subgrade with a flexible pavement with a PCN of 120. This would limit a 777-300ER to a taxi weight of 327t if they cannot get a concession. This means they would need to leave around 25t of payload behind.

Just need to go to visit Singapore and Bangkok to see how the 777 destroys flexible pavement.

Any more detail. Only been to BKK once and everything looked OK in the small area that I operated on. There is a bulleting about BKK having multiple soft spots on the airport and not to come to a stop in those locations.

Somebody told me Frankfurt has a problem with 777 ops as well. Do they have weight limitations at that airport for takeoff and landing.

I jumped on the use of the word tonne.... the PCN for CGK is 120 R/D/W.... so you are right, the B777-300ER would need to have a 25,000 kgs reduction from MTOM.

The A380-800 has an ACN of 111, so it wouldn't be affected.

mutt

Guys, Garuda operates 744s, so I don't understand, the 777 has a higher ACN than a 747 and an A380? :confused:

So I assume the 772 has a lower ACN than a 773. CGK does get many a incoming 772 right? SQ/NH/CX and the rest and what about EVA 773s?

swh covered it well above.

SQ/NH/CX despite I'm sure tankering at times don't take-off with 14 hours of route fuel on board.

:O

I need to study the subject further I guess... :{