Manchester Ethiopian DHC 8-400s delivery
 

Does anyone know why the aircraft eventually went through Dublin today instead of the planned fuel stop at Manchester on Sunday.

Fuel state?

KEF-MAN 893 nm
KEF-DUB 808 nm

Fuel state, possible, but they have been to Manchester before and were planned in for Sunday. After three days of quoting a tech problem they went to Dublin.

Nothing to do with fuel, it's been reported that they have transponders fitted that do not meet the 'new' requirements in some EU countries and had to re-route their delivery flights. I have no idea what these 'new' requirements are!

Given that the two aircraft in question departed DUB and then overflew South Wales and SE UK enroute to their next stop, that doesn't really explain why they couldn't have routed via MAN in the first place.

Hi Dave, I think that you're about as confused as I am about this. It was reported on some spotter's groups as being an 'equipment incompatibility' issue as to why they didn't go to Manchester to start with and it was then reported that some new EU regulations meant that they had to re-route to avoid certain countries.

We'll probably never know the real reason why they were held in Iceland for 3 days in reasonably good weather with 2 serviceable aircraft.

Flight plans KEF-MAN were filed on the 25th but then pulled at last minute. I have seen the same sources quoted as mentioned by others here but haven't heard anything more definitive. The two aircraft made quite short stops at DUB and departed for Rome after less than an hour on the ground each. Today they routed FCO-CAI-ADD to complete their journey.

Expensive stop at FCO then....