Turkmenistan Airlines

[Brummiegem]

Could it be an onward transatlantic destination???

 

[Ray Finkle]

It sure was.

New York I've heard mentioned mentioned but I thought nothing of it as I'm not sure if Turkmenistan have permissions to fly the route? Toronto has also been mentioned but they announced they were in discussions with Riga Airport about stopping off there, of course things could well have changed.

It'll be interesting to see what, if anything, develops over the coming months.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Turkmenistan have confirmed on Twitter that the Friday flight will be upgraded to a 77L, maybe, as Thunderchild reported, the rest will be upgraded in June?

Great to see another 777 at BHX :s_yes

https://twitter.com/TurkmenistanAir/sta ... 2720490496

 

[Ray Finkle]

The current T5 Friday flight arrives at 12:10 and then departs again at 14:50, the gentleman who first suggested the upgrade on Twitter also states that the times will change to a 04:10 arrival and 05:40 departure. I may be reading more into this than there actually is but could the time change be in preparation for a stop en route to somewhere in North America?

 

[thunderchild]

Whatever the situation I can't imagine T5 would pick up that many pax for New York from here. Perhaps there is more of a case for Toronto - what kind of loads did AI used to get on the BHX-YYZ leg?

 

[Ray Finkle]

I think you're right, especially with Turkmenistan already stating they will be starting YYZ, albeit via Riga but these things can change.

As for the loads it's difficult to work out as there was more than one airline serving Toronto back then. In 2005 YYZ saw 32422 pax, in 2006 YYZ saw 45054 pax, in 2013 YYZ saw 11382 pax.

I can't remember exactly what we had but I think there was more capacity from Air Transat and at one point Thomas Cook were doing weekly YYZ flights.

 

[Brum X]

Timings Confirmed for new 777 Friday Flight.

Starts in April 2015 :hatsoff:



01JUN15-28JUN15 MTWTFSS ASHGABAT /BIRMINGHAM
....5.. ASB BHX 0120 0410 @H15010 777
.2..... ASB BHX 1145 1435 @H15006 752
......7 ASB BHX 1325 1615 @H15014 752

01JUN15-28JUN15 MTWTFSS BIRMINGHAM /ASHGABAT
....5.. BHX ASB 0540 1555 @H15011 777
.2..... BHX ASB 1605# 0225 @H15007 752
......7 BHX ASB 1815# 0435 @H15015 752

 

[thunderchild]

Still curious as to why they've changed the timings? Could be to accommodate the schedules to Beijing and Istanbul but even so I don't believe the 77L's current utility is far stretched by any means. Either way it probably won't turn up on time anyway so there should be opportunities for the spotters to get a glance. Nice to see quite a rare heavy at BHX.

 

[Ray Finkle]

So they're dropping to 3x weekly then (Tue, Fri and Sun), at the moment it's Mon, Wed, Fri and Sun? Makes sense if they're all going to be 777's by the summer and if an extension to Toronto does happen we'll see three per week in each direction

 

[Ray Finkle]

Turkmenistan are sending a 777-200LR tonight, EZ-A778 is due at 20:30. It will be on the ground with the EK 77W, AI 787 and possibly the PIA 772 which just landed

 

[Ray Finkle]

It seems as if Turkmenistan are remaining at 4x weekly, until May at least.

T5-412 MONDAY BHX-ASB DEP1820 VALIDITY06APR-18MAY
T5-422 TUESDAY BHX ASB DEP1800 VALIDITY01APR -23MAY
T5-426 FRIDAY BHX ASB DEP0540 VALIDITY03APR-23MAY
T5-430 SUNDAY BHX ASB DEP1815 VALIDITY05APR-23MAY

 

[Ray Finkle]

Just did a few dummy bookings and only the three flights seem to be available (Tue, Fri and Sun), the good news however is the Friday flight is showing as a 777 right through until the end of October, winter isn't loaded yet.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Tomorrow should see the start of the Friday 777's although FR24 looks to be playing up and doesn't have the flight listed.

The Turkmenistan 737's are also undergoing maintenance checks so the 757's are covering them with the 777's covering the 757's so there's a good chance BHX will see more of them over the next few weeks, as we did on Monday.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Seems as if the change in schedule is for pax connecting to the Far East.

From Turkmenistan Twitter.

Any idea why my flight to atq on 1st April 23.00 hrs been changed?

This is due to change in schedule to provide better connectivity to far east passengers. Apologies.

 

[Ray Finkle]

It's interesting to read that after only two months of operation Turkmenistan have suspended their Riga flight until July. No doubt it's due to the 738's having maintenance but wasn't Riga supposed to be after their Toronto stopover?

 

[Hassaan]

They seem to have been operating 77L's into BHX for a while - do we know what the loads are like?

 

[jfy1999]

Right now most of the flights are being operated by the 738s, if you look at my roundup you'll see EZ-A017 has visited loads of times.

The aircraft type isn't always the best indicator of how well a route is doing because the default aircraft type is the 757, and those often need maintenance, so they have to use whatever is immediately available to cover for them.

 

[justplanecrazy]

Got told today by someone who deals with the T5 flights at BHX they will upgrading fully to the 777 soon no dates were mentioned but I'll will find out dates and post them as soon as I can.

 

[Ray Finkle]

That's good to hear. Looking at FR24 and over the last few weeks their 777's have only been doing Istanbul with one trip to Bangkok. It would be nice to see them permanently used into BHX.

I wonder if they have got wind of a possible return of Uzbekistan?

 

[justplanecrazy]

Maybe especially if they are going to be using the 767