Virgin Atlantic

[ethanegcc]

Just to share with the group, a great video (not mine) of the Delta 77L landing and departing:

I find it amazing that you can see AA A330-200 and DL 777-200LR and EK A380-800 in one shot, and then as the Delta departs the Singapore A350 as well!

 

[Dobbo]

Exactly, and particularly for ATL, whose business model depends on connecting to Florida, a massive market from Manchester, which is a popular winter destination. I would go as far to say that ATL and MCO are the least seasonal destinations in our US network, and that is why I am so confused at the reducing of Atlanta. That 4x weekly flight will have very high load factors, for sure.

It may be that this winter they are trying to establish JFK as the secondary "year round" connection option. I'd hoped there would be space for both at daily this year, maybe there is or will be in time. If they are slightly behing where they'd hope to be at this stage, there will always be ups and downs in their journey.

I fancy this is not the last word for ATL and JFK this winter, but if it is let's hope it's the start of something more substantial in the long term.

 

[Dobbo]

Aside from SQ, has a B777 been used on a semi-regular basis on TATL ex MAN before?

 

[rutamkrd]

Both Continental and Delta have used the 77E from Manchester in the past.

 

[David_itl]

Contintal went to 757 to DC10 to 777 before going to 2 757s to EWR. Delta went from 767 to L1011 to A310 to MD11 to 777 on ATL

Forgot the A310 for DL. Pretty sure Continrntal used 764s as well. Memory is going!

 

[Dobbo]

Cheers both. Shows how far the EWR route has fallen, and how ATL may follow...

 

[ethanegcc]

I don't think any carrier has used the Boeing 777-200LR though, so would this be the biggest aircraft type in operation to come into MAN from a US carrier?

 

[Dobbo]

I don't think any carrier has used the Boeing 777-200LR though, so would this be the biggest aircraft type in operation to come into MAN from a US carrier?

I'm pretty sure the B747 in various forms has been used previously.

 

[rutamkrd]

No US carrier has used the 747 in passenger config on schedules services however Air Canada and Wardair have done so.

Northwest Orient flew B747F through Manchester on multi stop round robin flights normally west bound on a routing starting either in Stockholm or Amsterdam to New York/Boston/Chicago and Anchorage where the flight number changed down into South East Asia.

Transamerica operated APEX charter flights for the likes of Jetsave to New York/Los Angeles and Miami

CP Air holidays used three of the four 747s (C-FCRA only ever visited a couple of times as it was dedicated to TPAC and Amsterdam schedules services for most of its carrier) and operated to Vancouver and Toronto for many years, however when they became Canadian and started scheduled they were by then using the 763 fleets.

Both TWA and Pan Am have operated ad-hoc charters in the dim and distant past , and TWA also participated in the Jetsave APEX charters for a number of seasons using the venerable 707-331B models.

747s operated by US leisure charters the long life blood of Manchester have never been that many in number.

 

[User001]

We did also have the AA B747sp divert in too.

 

[Dobbo]

I'm sure I've seen Delta B747s - perhaps they were charters or one offs (quite frankly I don't know enough about this to pass educated comment!)

 

[Aceshigh]

I do, but why sack all DL staff from Manchester? Would they use Virgin staff? I can't believe we are seeing 8x weekly this coming week (3x 77L, 5x 333), yet that goes down to 3/4x weekly under the current plan!

Quite agree.

We seem to be lurching from best summer ever to worst winter ever !
It makes little sense.

 

[Dobbo]

Further confirmation MAN-JFK is going to VS year round.

DL JFK-MAN OCT 0.1>0 NOV 1.0>0 DEC 1.0>0

 

[Aceshigh]

I know this has been asked before but could we show freq as say;

4 a week
Daily
Etc

 

[ethanegcc]

Further confirmation MAN-JFK is going to VS year round.

DL JFK-MAN OCT 0.1>0 NOV 1.0>0 DEC 1.0>0

It really annoys me, as I have seen on certain websites 'MAN-JFK is being cut', 'oh dear, MAN mustn't be doing very well'; it has been passed over to Virgin, not cut. I dare say that VS is still providing the same amount of seats (3x/4x weekly A330-300) than DL (daily/5/6x weekly 757-200)

 

[David_itl]

I know this has been asked before but could we show freq as say;

4 a week
Daily
Etc

If the guy on that site spends time and effort in producing his report chooses to display it like this, we have no choice in the matter. On the other hand, it may be a case of subscribing to OAG and then relaying info in the way you think best.

 

[Aceshigh]

Further confirmation MAN-JFK is going to VS year round.

DL JFK-MAN OCT 0.1>0 NOV 1.0>0 DEC 1.0>0

I'm lost. It wasn't a criticism of the poster or devaluing hours spent producing a "report" , ex OAG.

I'm not even sure I even implied that!

I was simply trying to understand what Oct 0.1> 0 meant ?

 

[Scottie Dog]

I'm lost. It wasn't a criticism of the poster or devaluing hours spent producing a "report" , ex OAG.

I'm not even sure I even implied that!

I was simply trying to understand what Oct 0.1> 0 meant ?

I must admit to being in a simolar position as I don't understand the format either.

Dobo - could you provide a clarification of how the format should be translated?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Yawner]

Those reports are generated by software scanning OAG schedules. It compares this year vs last year. Any changes are reported. It uses OAG info but is not a report they produce.

All it does is divides the number of services to be operated into the number of days in the period.

So, if there are 30 days in the period and 90 return flights then 90/30 reports as 3 or if there are 15 then 15/30 reports as 0.5.

It cannot be directly interpreted as flights per week as there may be different numbers of flights operated at different times within the period. It merely shows a change.

There may be issues with rounding as well.

It requires specific knowledge to interpret the information and a knowledge of factors influencing the numbers.

 

[michael]

Well just as a change of subject VS76 from Orlando this morning was showing as A330 300 G VRAY. Does anyone know if VS are slipping the odd Airbus in to schedule or was it a one off as I thought the route was purely B747-400?