WOW Air

[Jerry]

I wasn't expecting A330 but your wrong about the runway Aer Lingus and BH air have operated them from Bristol in the recent past

Only with restrictions. I believe BH Air used them with A320/321 loads and I'm guessing Aer Lingus used them light and both use the 200 model. If an A330 300 could take off without any restrictions BRS would have a much better long haul network.

 

[Jerry]

I wasn't expecting A330 but your wrong about the runway Aer Lingus and BH air have operated them from Bristol in the recent past

Only with restrictions. I believe BH Air used them with A320/321 loads and I'm guessing Aer Lingus used them light and both use the 200 model. If an A330 300 could take off without any restrictions BRS would have a much better long haul network.

 

[alphagolf]

Air Lease Corporation in the US is supplying 6 A320/321 family aircraft which are due to increase WOW airs fleet to 17 by 2017 so maybe they are coning from them.

Edit:
The aircraft are to be A320-200neo and A321-200neo's to be delivered in Q1 2017

 

[forest1979]

Good news I say whatever the reason. Flying with them on Friday so I will give a little flight report on my return..

 

[Severn]

Jerry, just to play the devils advocate, where does your information on the A330's performance come from? You are stating that an A330 (specifically a A330-300) can't take off without restrictions from BRS and you also claim that if it could, BRS would now have a better long-haul network?!
I'm not sure how you can reach such a conclusion given that you seem unsure on the performance of an A330-300 in the first place!
I'd be interested to hear who you think would therefore operate A330-300s out of BRS if the type wasn't so restricted?

Having said that, it is definitely the case that there are weight penalties to most widebody aircraft wanting to operate out of BRS, however, in previous summers First Choice/Thomson have operated B767-300s on direct long-haul flights out of BRS, not forgetting the 787-8s that will be operating this summer (plus i'm sure others on this forum could mention many other widebody types that have operated out of BRS on longer routes in the past).
One reason these flights have been able to operate non-stop from BRS is that being charter flights they carry little in the way of cargo and the routes operated are not anywhere near the maximum range for those aircraft. This means that even though there are probably restrictions on the weight of the aircraft, they can still operate direct.
I know that charter config A330-300s have operated full out of LGW, MAN, GLA etc on 10hour long trips. It is therefore very likely that an A330-300 of WOW could be able to operate a 3hour flight from BRS-KEF, even with a full passenger load, especially as it wouldn't be carrying much in the way of cargo or luggage (being a Lo-Co)

I appreciate that these forums are for everyone and are mostly based around rumour and speculation (along with sensible discussion), however there are also quite a lot of posters with very good subject knowledge in varying areas..... So please forgive me if you do happen to know the performance of A330s, but unless that is the case, stating that a certain type can't operate, and therefore limiting an airports success is somewhat frustrating to me.

 

[Jerry]

At MTOW the A330 300 needs 9090 feet of runway to takeoff. Bristols runway is 6700 feet? Leaving roughly 500 feet safety margin then that would roughly mean an A330 300 could only go to roughly 65% of MTOW. And yes the short runway has restricted in my opinion as the catchment area is very rich and it's only with the advent of the 787 that Thomson are doing long haul again.

 

[Jerry]

I know this is a WOW but personally I have no doubt if BRS had a long enough runway it would have a daily Emirates 777 service.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

As was said earlier, Thomson used B 767-300s from BRS to Florida and Mexico (TOM had also used the type in earlier years to Cuba and Dominican Republic from BRS). In the latter years of the service it was realised that on nearly every occasion the aircraft could reach Florida (Sanford) non-stop. In theory certain weather conditions would mean it would need a fuel stop. Cancun though needed an en-route fuel stop (at MAN) outbound from BRS.

The aircraft used were the former First Choice 767s with fewer seats (270 from memory) than Thomson's original 767s which meant a lighter load. The reason hinted at publicly for the cessation of Sanford and Cancun after the summer of 2013 was that the former FC 767s were being retired from the fleet in 2014.

Perhaps TUI needed to be comfortable with the thought of operating 787s at BRS, even though the Thomson MD had said in 2010 at Farnborough that BRS would be amongst the first UK airports to operate the type for them, possibly because of the series of hard landings with 767s on r/w 09 that came to light following a AAIB report into one very hard landing. This was after the Thomson MD had made her comment at Farnborough.

I've mentioned this before but I'll do so again. I have it on very good authority that a tour company had spent a lot of time evaluating BRS performance issues and had calculated that on 98% of occasions their 333-200 aircraft could reach Florida from BRS non-stop. I was told they were to begin a service but TUI trumped them by announcing the restoration of Florida and Mexico using 787-8 aircraft.

BRS might have had more charter long haul with a longer runway but I doubt that long haul scheduled routes would have proliferated as the airport admits in its master plan that there is a limited demand for such services, just the USA (three airports suggested) and the Middle East.

Anyway, I'm getting away from WOW. If anyone wants to pursue this the BRS long haul thread is probably the most suitable option.

 

[andrewgreen]

With A321neos could they forget Iceland and operate direct to the States/Canada ?
Not that its part of their business plan but its an intesting option

 

[TheLocalYokel]

With A321neos could they forget Iceland and operate direct to the States/Canada ?
Not that its part of their business plan but its an intesting option

I wonder what is the proportion of BRS-KEF point to point passenger numbers compared with those who fly onwards transatlantic from KEF. easyJet certainly has extremely respectable point to point numbers

 

[andrewgreen]

I wonder what is the proportion of BRS-KEF point to point passenger numbers compared with those who fly onwards transatlantic from KEF. easyJet certainly has extremely respectable point to point numbers

I have wondered that , i suspect most of their passengers are for onward connections as it seems to be marketed towards that. My son has used them for going to Toronto on many occasions ( and will be in the future ) he said most of the passengers seemed to be connecting to onward flights and hasnt talked to anyone who was staying in Iceland .As you say easyJet seem to have that market sown up.

 

[forest1979]

I've asked the same question previously as I'm not sure onward travel would be as much as point to point. They took on the route with no competition from easy and were cheaper in general. Will be interesting to see how they comepare with them both on the route. My personal experience as I previously posted was a difference in ticket price of £130....

 

[Jerry]

This was on the WOW Air website promoting the South West of England.

WOW air ehf (IS) wowair.us/magazine/gems-south-west-england

 

[superking]

the types of aircraft that will be operated will be the A321 and A320. This is on all routes to kef from airports in Europe. the A333 will be used as they are now on routes from kef to destinations in Canada and the u s a.As in previous post the A333 can operate from the brs runway if pax numbers are high.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I've asked the same question previously as I'm not sure onward travel would be as much as point to point. They took on the route with no competition from easy and were cheaper in general. Will be interesting to see how they comepare with them both on the route. My personal experience as I previously posted was a difference in ticket price of £130....

By the time WOW returns in June easyJet will have taken its summer break so WOW (as with last summer from June onwards) will have BRS-KEF to itself. It will be interesting to see if they both return next winter. I suppose it partly depends how they've have both managed this winter competing with each other.

 

[superking]

A news story in todays Weston mercury about wow flights. We were all guessing will the operate or not,the way it reads that they were not due to operate. what changed their minds I don't know as they knew the fleet would be increased. It could have been the EasyJet stopping the route for the summer. We could guess for ever more why it was to be sopped or why they decided to operate the route. I liked the paper headlines it said flights across the atlantic to take off from Bristol airport.Paper talk headline spin.

 

[Aviador]

I can't see WOW using A330 equipment out of BRS to be honest but that's not to say the A330 can't operate out of there. The operational capability of Bristol's runway is frequently discussed on here. People often get confused between the capabilities of an aircraft at maximum takeoff weight (MTW) which often exceed the capabilities of the runway, and the term restricted takeoff weight. The term restricted takeoff weight is often interpreted by many as unable to carry a full payload of passengers and luggage. This is not necessarily the case. An wide bodied aircraft travelling for little over 3 hours to Reykjavik will have more than enough capacity to operate with a full load of passengers and luggage from BRS. Many of the usual destinations we would expect to see from UK regional airports are well within the range of many of the larger wide bodied aircraft. In fact, in many cases, problems are more likely to arise from maneuvering and parking the aircraft on the ground than takeoff and landing restrictions.

 

[superking]

Depending pax loadings and aircraft avability they will use the A320 or the A321 from brs. as I said earlier the A330 are used from kef for onward to canaca or the states as potential more pax for onward from kef.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

A news story in todays Weston mercury about wow flights. We were all guessing will the operate or not,the way it reads that they were not due to operate. what changed their minds I don't know as they knew the fleet would be increased. It could have been the EasyJet stopping the route for the summer. We could guess for ever more why it was to be sopped or why they decided to operate the route. I liked the paper headlines it said flights across the atlantic to take off from Bristol airport.Paper talk headline spin.

I think the newspaper got its story from the BRS press release issued this week (see #173 in this thread) which said in part:

WOW air, the ultra-low-cost transatlantic airline from Iceland, has announced that it will continue its service from Bristol to Iceland and beyond to the US and Canada in June due to the ongoing success of the route.

Though the route was originally planned to cease operations on 24 March 2017, the airline will recommence flights on 14 June 2017 with five new aircraft that will be put into service on the route.

As you suggested, we would speculate for ever on the reasons for the hiatus.

 

[superking]

WOW air, the ultra-low-cost transatlantic airline from Iceland, has announced that it will continue its service from Bristol to Iceland and beyond to the US and Canada in June due to the ongoing success of the route.

This paragraph is total spin,itsays success of route all I can say it nust be bums on seats and not yield. I'm not a lover of contacting airlines as it makes the airport look as thou its got someone else to do their job. But it does wonder with all the tweets and e mails sent to wow that they changed their mind about the route. Each paragraph in the post contradicts it self typical spin. Any way the service will continue which has got to be good news and lets hope it continues with no more hichups.