Ryanair 737 Classics

L1011

Apparently (this having been posted last night, not this morning!; and it was rumoured on pprune last week) FR are to lease some 737-400s to allow the extra routes ex-DUB to operate this summer:

http://www.routesonline.com/r/news/29/breaking-news/240596/ryanair-set-to-lease-737-400s-to-support-dublin-growth/

Interesting choice although I'd imagine its down to a 734 being cheaper to lease than further depreciation on their more recent 738 sales.

View Profile

Think its a wet lease from Air Explore, a slovakian carrier.

Also Stansted is due to get around 6 737-NGs from Fly Dubai but these will be operated by FR crew. Be nice to experience the nicer "sky" interior in these!

calibratedtool

View Profile wrote: »

Think its a wet lease from Air Explore, a slovakian carrier.

Also Stansted is due to get around 6 737-NGs from Fly Dubai but these will be operated by FR crew. Be nice to experience the nicer "sky" interior in these!

2 734s in DUB for 10 weeks from an Irish company

christy c

What does anyone think of the new livery at the bottom of that article? Looks a bit mix and match to me

MuffinsDa

aaargh - anyone knows:
1. When they are starting in DUB?
2. Do they have the same interior/livery as other Ryanair aircract?

billie1b

christy c wrote: »

What does anyone think of the new livery at the bottom of that article? Looks a bit mix and match to me

I'm not the biggest fan of it, if the tail section was the same colour as the belly it would look great I think

calibratedtool

MuffinsDa wrote: »

aaargh - anyone knows:
1. When they are starting in DUB?
2. Do they have the same interior/livery as other Ryanair aircract?

July
No

Cessna_Pilot

What Irish company operates 400s? Is it Air contractors? I was led to beleive its four 400s from a Czech charter airline starting in May.

highlydebased

Cessna_Pilot wrote: »

What Irish company operates 400s? Is it Air contractors? I was led to beleive its four 400s from a Czech charter airline starting in May.

Indeed Air Contractors have a couple of 737-400 freighters. They operate the contract for DHL out of SNN at the moment.

AFAIK they operate some/a 300 pax version too in Europe Airpost livery?

sully2010

Ryanair have sold 5 800's since October, if they were expecting a shortfall until the new arrivals why not delay these sales. I'm sure its economics but still.

Strumms

Strange. I would have imagined that a few second hand 800's would have been reasonably easy to acquire for a period of time.

christy c

sully2010 wrote: »

Ryanair have sold 5 800's since October, if they were expecting a shortfall until the new arrivals why not delay these sales. I'm sure its economics but still.

Are you sure they're not the leased ones? Would be hard to just extend a lease for just the summer I'd say

billie1b

calibratedtool wrote: »

July
No

I believe the 400's are starting in May in Dublin, its what we're been told anyways

calibratedtool

billie1b wrote: »

I believe the 400's are starting in May in Dublin, its what we're been told anyways

Well the irish ones are starting in July.

billie1b

calibratedtool wrote: »

Well the irish ones are starting in July.

The words 'I believe' meant im not too sure, we are being told different dates and times in work, there's no definite decision yet.

JenKen30

Hope there is more leg room in the new ones

owenc

So will the FlyDubai aircraft utilise the avod?

GTE

Do you guys think that this is Ryanair expanding quicker than their aircraft situation will allow or is it a staffing problem which was unexpected back when the routes were given the go ahead internally?

I heard about the leasing a few weeks ago, curious about peoples opinions.

Preset No.3

Wouldn't be the first time Ryanair leased in aircraft. You have to be of a certain age to remember the European Air Charter BAC 1-11 that operated wet lease flights.

owenc

Preset No.3 wrote: »

Wouldn't be the first time Ryanair leased in aircraft. You have to be of a certain age to remember the European Air Charter BAC 1-11 that operated wet lease flights.

LOL! You have got to be joking!!

Kenny2012

I'm really old I remember when they used Convair 580 LN-BWG.

did a scan and here it is https://flic.kr/p/mGcGMz

Preset No.3

owenc wrote: »

LOL! You have got to be joking!!

It was around 1995/6, shortly after Ryanair had opened the stansted base. They had a fleet of about 20 732's. Sometimes they would sub in the EAC.

billie1b

Preset No.3 wrote: »

It was around 1995/6, shortly after Ryanair had opened the stansted base. They had a fleet of about 20 732's. Sometimes they would sub in the EAC.

The 200's were great, pity they're not still around DUB, loved the noise of them, they were bullet proof and not monitored they way the new 800's are

Preset No.3

billie1b wrote: »

The 200's were great, pity they're not still around DUB, loved the noise of them, they were bullet proof and not monitored they way the new 800's are

From a nostalgia point of view, I would agree with you.

From a business point of view, they were far from bullet proof! If you every get to talk to some of the 732 drivers, each of the aircraft has its own issues which is not surprising on a 20+ year old airframes. It was either CKP or CNT that had terrible hydraulic problems. Its such a long time ago, I cant remember.

Terrible fuel burn and aircraft going tech on a regular basis.

billie1b

Preset No.3 wrote: »

From a nostalgia point of view, I would agree with you.

From a business point of view, they were far from bullet proof! If you every get to talk to some of the 732 drivers, each of the aircraft has its own issues which is not surprising on a 20+ year old airframes. It was either CKP or CNT that had terrible hydraulic problems. Its such a long time ago, I cant remember.

Terrible fuel burn and aircraft going tech on a regular basis.

It was EI-CJC (Hertz) that always had Hydraulic problems, I think EI-CNT and EI-CJE was constant avionics and EI-CNY was just in bits, everything was wrong with it. No matter what was wrong with them they always went back up and took another good beating up there.
All the 800 drivers I know now that were the old school 200 Capts and F/O's still say to this day that they'd love to still fly the 200's instead of the 800's. Such fun days back then in the land of Ryanair

Preset No.3

Ah yeh, totally different type of flying between a classic and an NG.

CaptainSkidmark

christy c wrote: »

What does anyone think of the new livery at the bottom of that article? Looks a bit mix and match to me

Thats the new Livery for just the 800th 800 series one off.

Katunga

I doubt FR will lease 737 Classics. it would a problem for the staff to maintain as they would almost all just have 737NG type ratings. Unless they wet lease them.

billie1b

Katunga wrote: »

I doubt FR will lease 737 Classics. it would a problem for the staff to maintain as they would almost all just have 737NG type ratings. Unless they wet lease them.

The 400's will be wet leased into DUB, the 800's will be dry leased into STN

sully2010

billie1b wrote: »

The 200's were great, pity they're not still around DUB, loved the noise of them, they were bullet proof and not monitored they way the new 800's are

What do you mean by not monitored as much as the 800's? Would they not have had the need to be monitored much more because of their age?

billie1b

sully2010 wrote: »

What do you mean by not monitored as much as the 800's? Would they not have had the need to be monitored much more because of their age?

The 800's are more technology based now, the guys can do a flight from DUB to STN and the engineers can download the whole flight when they land and basically see everything that they did, the 200's not so much

christy c

Did anyone hear anything else about these? What routes, etc.? Jethros has FR down as receiving 2 from Air Contractors and 2 from Air Explore

b757

christy c wrote: »

Did anyone hear anything else about these? What routes, etc.? Jethros has FR down as receiving 2 from Air Contractors and 2 from Air Explore

Based in dublin and stansted I hear.

billie1b

christy c wrote: »

Did anyone hear anything else about these? What routes, etc.? Jethros has FR down as receiving 2 from Air Contractors and 2 from Air Explore

4 400's based in Dublin, doing any scheduled routes starting between May and June, not confirmed yet and 6 800's based in Stansted, also doing scheduled routes, started between May and June

christy c

billie1b wrote: »

4 400's based in Dublin, doing any scheduled routes starting between May and June, not confirmed yet and 6 800's based in Stansted, also doing scheduled routes, started between May and June

Cheers, so the 400's will be swapped from route to route based on demand probably?

billie1b

christy c wrote: »

Cheers, so the 400's will be swapped from route to route based on demand probably?

Basically thats it, there's talks that they'll be kept of the Canary routes as they are usually full to capacity but should be on everything else.

Fagashlil

billie1b wrote: »

4 400's based in Dublin, doing any scheduled routes starting between May and June, not confirmed yet and 6 800's based in Stansted, also doing scheduled routes, started between May and June

Starting June 13 from DUB according to crew operating on the 400's, was initially supposed to operate 6 sector days, but that's since been changed to do as billie1b says to all flights except canaries.

L1011

There's more than 4 total craft based in DUB I presume (even excluding frames used for the Canaries) - so how easy or not would it be to ID a 734 flight on booking? I've somehow never actually been on a Classic, despite many many trips on Jurassics; and they're dying off in Europe at this stage.

billie1b

MYOB wrote: »

There's more than 4 total craft based in DUB I presume (even excluding frames used for the Canaries) - so how easy or not would it be to ID a 734 flight on booking? I've somehow never actually been on a Classic, despite many many trips on Jurassics; and they're dying off in Europe at this stage.

There will be 26 frames based in DUB for the summer, including the 400's, the a/c allocation is done on a daily/nightly basis, so it would be very difficult to tell

L1011

billie1b wrote: »

There will be 26 frames based in DUB for the summer, including the 400's, the a/c allocation is done on a daily/nightly basis, so it would be very difficult to tell

Would have to be guesswork based on how many seats are available to pre-book I guess (if that's even visible on the new booking engine) - loads meaning the smaller craft might go on. I presume they'll move people who'd paid for exit rows to the actual exit row in the case that its subbed over.

Might look for an easier options in that case!

billie1b

MYOB wrote: »

Would have to be guesswork based on how many seats are available to pre-book I guess (if that's even visible on the new booking engine) - loads meaning the smaller craft might go on. I presume they'll move people who'd paid for exit rows to the actual exit row in the case that its subbed over.

Might look for an easier options in that case!

I can keep an eye open and see if they are getting put on kinda the same routes daily, I can personally see them doing UK runs and maybe as far as CRL or France and leaving the 800's on all the main busy routes

christy c

Website now lists these under the flight number

b757

Registrations of the Air Contractors 734's that will be operating for Ryanair this summer will be EI-JRD/JRE. Both coming from ASL's Safair.

Registrations unknown for the Air Explore aircraft.

Locker10a

b757 wrote: »

Registrations of the Air Contractors 734's that will be operating for Ryanair this summer will be EI-JRD/JRE. Both coming from ASL's Safair.

Registrations unknown for the Air Explore aircraft.

Who is to operate these flights ? Ryanair crews or fully wet lease ?

b757

Locker10a wrote: »

Who is to operate these flights ? Ryanair crews or fully wet lease ?

Air Contractors will crew the aircraft.

fr336

christy c wrote: »

Website now lists these under the flight number

'Air explorer' sounds more exciting than it perhaps will be :pac:

fr336

Apologies if already asked - will it be full FR livery?

billie1b

fr336 wrote: »

Apologies if already asked - will it be full FR livery?

Highly doubt it, any other wet lease they had stayed in the company colours the a/c was leased from.

calibratedtool

b757 wrote: »

Air Contractors will crew the aircraft.

Cabin crew will be Ryanair

fr336

calibratedtool wrote: »

Cabin crew will be Ryanair

I think they meant the flight crew - doubt Air Contractors would ever have a cabin crew to offer.

b757

calibratedtool wrote: »

Cabin crew will be Ryanair

Yeah sorry. Meant flight deck crew.