Bazzare route Aer Lingus MAD-IAD

mayotom

I have just noticed Aer Lingus's EI-LAX cross over Mayo on the Madrid to Washington Route, anybody have any idea why it would travel this route when most other transatlantic routes from Spain/Portugal fly on the more southerly tracks??

highlydebased

Where did you see this? The route I see on CFMU has it crossing the mid atlantic over the azores :?

mayotom

Neon-Circles wrote: »

Where did you see this? The route I see on CFMU has it crossing the mid atlantic over the azores :?

was on flightradar24, but you can look back on http://casper.frontier.nl/eidw/ take the time back to about 15:10 an it will be over East Mayo

xflyer

The jetstream was probably to the south somewhere and traffic was avoiding it???

LOccitane

xflyer wrote: »

The jetstream was probably to the south somewhere and traffic was avoiding it???

Indeed - with some more widespread CB activity across the southern Mid Atlantic and moderate turbulence below 36,000 FT according to the latest WX charts.

EchoIndia

I would guess the routeing was not weather-related.

The original flightplan for today was for a conventional mid-Atlantic route between Madrid and Washington - see here http://flightaware.com/live/flight/EIN6962

It appears from the plotted track on Flightaware that the flight departed about two hours late and routed towards Ireland as if en route to Dublin, but that then a decision was made to continue with the transatlantic flight, perhaps after a technical issue was resolved. No other Madrid-USA traffic seems to have come over Ireland today and from the Casper site the pattern of traffic over the country looks pretty normal to me. More information would be welcome from anyone "in the know".

MoeJay

Twas a non-ETOPS flight...nothing more to it than that!

mayotom

MoeJay wrote: »

Twas a non-ETOPS flight...nothing more to it than that!

thanks MoeJay, is this just the case with EI-LAX or with all of the A330's in the fleet?

MoeJay

Probably just some tech snag which rendered the airplane non-ETOPS that day. As you've spotted, it has a rather large knock-on effect to operate non-ETOPS in terms of fuel burn, keeping with the schedule etc etc so whatever the snag was, it'll be fixed as soon as possible. For the record, all EI A330s are ETOPS 180.

drdeadlift

If he was taking a non etops route would he have to take the none etops routing,south iceland and touch the south of greenland?

Was he below mnps?

Bearcat

maybe they were operating the 90/60 rule which is where a major componant change as in a hyd sys etc renders the aircraft non etops. They then dispatch non etops for the first 90 mins (having changed the faulty componant) of the flight being within 60mins of the nearest suitable airport......if after 90mins all ok re the repaired system they then can go full 180 mins etops. From this I deduce they went north over the bay of biscay, got their 90 mins out of the way and joined the NATS over Ireland and out they went over the atlantic.

this I reckon is the most likely scenario......

ps I'll leave the above up as this is how an aircraft becomes etops post maint. Yes LAX went non etops to KIAD. Operarated KIAD-KJFK-EIDW non etops on ein 108....very little time diff. DAA was swopped with LAX in kJFK, flew KIAD....LEMD.

Bigcheeze

MoeJay wrote: »

Probably just some tech snag which rendered the airplane non-ETOPS that day. As you've spotted, it has a rather large knock-on effect to operate non-ETOPS in terms of fuel burn, keeping with the schedule etc etc so whatever the snag was, it'll be fixed as soon as possible. For the record, all EI A330s are ETOPS 180.

Well they couldn't get it fixed today. I sat on EI-LAX for over 4 hours earlier today while they tried to fix it. They eventually cancelled EI137 DUB-BOS at around 6pm.

Dacian

Bigcheeze wrote: »

Well they couldn't get it fixed today. I sat on EI-LAX for over 4 hours earlier today while they tried to fix it. They eventually cancelled EI137 DUB-BOS at around 6pm.

What were your options after that?

Bigcheeze

Dacian wrote: »

What were your options after that?

a) Go home or to hotel in the case of the Americans and come back tomorrow or b) cancel and get refund.

Bearcat

they delayed the 109 to see how LAX panned out.....

108 now getting into DUB at 11.30am 2m.

Surely some pax on 137 were offered chance to go to NYC on 109?

Bigcheeze

Bearcat wrote: »

they delayed the 109 to see how LAX panned out.....

108 now getting into DUB at 11.30am 2m.

Surely some pax on 137 were offered chance to go to NYC on 109?

US border control wouldn't allow any passengers switch plane as we had cleared immigration and customs and they wouldn't allow any compromise of the security of the aircraft (their words).

137 actually taxied about 30 mins late after some maintenance work and then came back to the stand.

Bearcat

what a #uck up.....i'd say there were loads that would have jumped on the 109. Safe travels tomorrow.

Bigcheeze

Bearcat wrote: »

what a #uck up.....i'd say there were loads that would have jumped on the 109. Safe travels tomorrow.

Cheers.

I would have switched!

Dacian

Bigcheeze wrote: »

US border control wouldn't allow any passengers switch plane as we had cleared immigration and customs and they wouldn't allow any compromise of the security of the aircraft (their words).

Me Arse!!!!.........everyone was already through airport security and sitting in a secure area. The worse that could happen was that a pax who had already cleared would be have to clear again in the US. I'm sure EI just wanted to get their passengers onto a US bound aircraft.

lord lucan

Dacian wrote: »

Me Arse!!!!.........everyone was already through airport security and sitting in a secure area. The worse that could happen was that a pax who had already cleared would be have to clear again in the US. I'm sure EI just wanted to get their passengers onto a US bound aircraft.

As far as i understand it,the USCBP regard you as having entered the US once you've passed through USCBP. It's classed as a sterile environment after their security point and i'd imagine they'd be reluctant to let people already processed leave to go catch another flight. Their luggage would have also gone through the Customs procedure and be secured. All in all it'd be a logistical minefield,hence why i reckon they'd only let people out if/when a flight is officially cancelled.

Bearcat

this border control at Dub airport is turning into an utter nightmare. Most transatlantic flights are delayed on average 30mins. The people working there appear disgruntled and with multiple mid day flights departing there's an average of four individuals manning the stations with numerous lanes being unattended. Business pax are now switching it appears to the later flights and clearing stateside which defeats the whole idea of it in the first place. I wouldnt be suprised that EIN told US customs they can stick up where the light done shine and revert back to the old way. The one big big plus is when you do get to the far side, your done....just bags, no b/s....just straight out of terminal.

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

lord lucan

Plowman wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

At the moment the airlines are advising(and writing on their boarding cards) that passengers present themselves at USCBP 2 hours and 15 minutes on average before their flight. Problem is,you have 2 different types of passenger.

The first one does exactly what the airline recommends and goes down to USCBP early and is ready to go. The second completely disregards the advice and figures they've loads of time and the plane will wait. I've seen people head over to T1X for a smoke an hour before their flight departs. Given it takes 10/15 minutes to get to the beer garden in T1X from T2 and same back,they're only arriving into USCBP about 30 minutes before their flight departs. Given common waiting times of an hour to clear CBP,it's leading to many delays as Bearcat pointed out above.

I'd imagine the DAA are in a funny position. On the one hand they want to keep the airlines happy and get flights away on time. On the other hand they want people to spend their money in T2 and enjoy the facilities!