EI Fuel Diversion

Grandeeod

Nothing serious and not trying to start any big debate.

Last Tuesday 1st October I met a lot of disgruntled EI PAX ex DUB in Tenerife. Apparently the flight was diverted to Portugal to refuel and ran out of snacks and drinks en route. Total journey time was near 7 hours!:eek: What would the reason be?

Bsal

I would guess a massive headwind was the problem, if not then some sort of technical one.

steve-o

If the plane had diverted to Portugal for snacks and drinks and run out of fuel en route then I suspect they would have been more disgruntled!

Tenger

Grandeeod wrote: »

Last Tuesday 1st October I met a lot of disgruntled EI PAX ex DUB in Tenerife. Apparently the flight was diverted to Portugal to refuel and ran out of snacks and drinks en route. Total journey time was near 7 hours!:eek: What would the reason be?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and state that the flight was diverted enroute due headwinds for fuel uplift purposes...........EI are not going to divert a flight for the fun of it....
..and that the lack of snacks was a product of the the DUB-Portugal-TFS passengers buying all the stuff on the way down. The plane can only carry so many sandwichs and drinks.......I expect that they plan based on historical sales history (don't EI use onboard handheld devices?).......imagine a flight with 1-3 hen/stag parties or perhaps a couple of lads/girls holiday groups.......there go your beers/bacardi's/sandwiches before you reach row 8!

FWVT

Charts for 18Z on Tuesday show a southwesterly 140-knot jet streak at FL370 (37,000 ft) off the west of Iberia and Biscay, with at least 80-knot winds extending from FL260-FL450. Winds for FL340 and FL390 show up to around 80-knot headwind component the whole way for a southerly heading.

I've attached a pdf of these files.

EchoIndia

FWVT wrote: »

....a southwesterly 140-knot jet streak....

"jet stream" ;-)

FWVT

EchoIndia wrote: »

"jet stream" ;-)

A jet streak is an area of enhanced jet stream winds

View Profile

Would have thought the pilots would have been aware of the jetstream, as they flew down with it.
The flightplan should have calculated fuel based on this wind so I find it strange that they had to divert due fuel.

Shamrock231

View Profile wrote: »

Would have thought the pilots would have been aware of the jetstream, as they flew down with it.
The flightplan should have calculated fuel based on this wind so I find it strange that they had to divert due fuel.

They would have taken account of it, but the aircraft can only hold so much fuel, and in particular, it can only hold so much fuel if there's a full pax load and cargo or other conditions that would reduce or limit their maximum takeoff weight/ on the day, thus requiring a fuel stop.

billie1b

Another reason could be that the Maximum Take-off Weight (MTOW) of the aircraft being over the limits as the flight could have been full to capacity with pax, bags, catering and fuel, so this could effect the aircrafts trim. First thing to come off would be some bags or fuel and divert half-way to fuel up again. Not a very common practice but it can happen, i've had it twice myself in my ten years dispatching.

shamwari

Something similar happened to me on a flight home from Lanzarote many moons ago. Both our Futura flight and an EI flight were leaving twenty minutes apart. The aircraft were identical 737's and passenger loadings judging by the queues in the terminal were very similar. The EI flight powered home non-stop whereas our Futura bird had to do a splash and dash via Seville in Spain. We got home about 90 minutes later. The reason for our stopover is something I never learned but I guess was down to a difference in take of weight or our aircraft's overall configuration.

Delta Kilo

The boeing 737 holds more pax, 189Y, vs the A320 with 180Y. Thats more payload weight, especially when you include the baggage.

Hope that solves the mystery as to why your futura flight diverted.

the beerhunter

Delta Kilo wrote: »

The boeing 737 holds more pax, 189Y, vs the A320 with 180Y. Thats more payload weight, especially when you include the baggage.

Hope that solves the mystery as to why your futura flight diverted.

probably doesn't since no a320s were mentioned in the post.

Delta Kilo

the beerhunter wrote: »

probably doesn't since no a320s were mentioned in the post.

Considering its Aer Lingus and it has been many years since they operated 737s (2000 / 2001 I reckon), it is most likely an A320 in the post that mentions futura with Aer Lingus.

Bsal

shamwari wrote: »

Something similar happened to me on a flight home from Lanzarote many moons ago. Both our Futura flight and an EI flight were leaving twenty minutes apart. The aircraft were identical 737's and passenger loadings judging by the queues in the terminal were very similar. The EI flight powered home non-stop whereas our Futura bird had to do a splash and dash via Seville in Spain. We got home about 90 minutes later. The reason for our stopover is something I never learned but I guess was down to a difference in take of weight or our aircraft's overall configuration.

You didn't read the post properly.

the beerhunter

Delta Kilo wrote: »

Considering its Aer Lingus and it has been many years since they operated 737s (2000 / 2001 I reckon), it is most likely an A320 in the post that mentions futura with Aer Lingus.

reckoning is an unfortunate thing to do with google a button-click away. ei operated 737 -4 and -5s til 2005 (neither of which carried more than 170 pax). futura operated from 1989 - 2008 so a fine chunk of overlap there.

do i win the internets for this exhaustive research?