FR113 long delay today

Mebuntu

FR113 9.40am LGW-DUB is on its way after a 12 hour delay. "Technical Fault" per website.

Is FR that short of spare aircraft?

martinsvi

the word on the street is that there are going to be wet-leased A/C joining Ryanair again this summer and what would you know - we might see 2 Airbuses joining Madrid base amongst others..

billie1b

martinsvi wrote: »

the word on the street is that there are going to be wet-leased A/C joining Ryanair again this summer and what would you know - we might see 2 Airbuses joining Madrid base amongst others..

Not the first time, they had an airbus last summer operating out of one of the Italian bases and a 757 too, then the 400's in DUB and 800's in STN

EICVD

4 Air Explore aircraft to be leased this summer & based in their homebase BTS.

martinsvi

billie1b wrote: »

Not the first time, they had an airbus last summer operating out of one of the Italian bases and a 757 too, then the 400's in DUB and 800's in STN

huh, didn't know that... Air Explore and FlyDubai ones where somewhat announced where as 757 and especially airbus is the first time I hear of this.. and there I was thinking I have ears and eyes everywhere...

billie1b

martinsvi wrote: »

huh, didn't know that... Air Explore and FlyDubai ones where somewhat announced where as 757 and especially airbus is the first time I hear of this.. and there I was thinking I have ears and eyes everywhere...

They were last minute jobs last summer for a couple of weeks, they also leased A320's a few years ago for a summer schedule, you may remember the famous Ryanair/Eirjet landing in the wrong airport

Mebuntu

Was checking Aug 2015. Some STN-DUB flights are operated by Air Explore this Summer.

fr336

billie1b wrote: »

They were last minute jobs last summer for a couple of weeks, they also leased A320's a few years ago for a summer schedule, you may remember the famous Ryanair/Eirjet landing in the wrong airport

:D:D Brings a tear to my eye even now

Long Time Lurker

Mebuntu wrote: »

Was checking Aug 2015. Some STN-DUB flights are operated by Air Explore this Summer.

God love the passengers. Noisy old things to fly on.

billie1b

Long Time Lurker wrote: »

God love the passengers. Noisy old things to fly on.

Classic aircraft, pax should count themselves lucky

Long Time Lurker

billie1b wrote: »

Classic aircraft, pax should count themselves lucky

I'm sure they would if they could hear themselves think of those numbers :-)

b757

Long Time Lurker wrote: »

God love the passengers. Noisy old things to fly on.

billie1b wrote: »

Classic aircraft, pax should count themselves lucky

I booked a FR flight last September just to fly on one of those! No problems with seat pitch nor noise, the only problem I had was my camera acting up.

Plan to do it again if they throw them on a few DUB routes.

highlydebased

I think there is an Air Explore b738 involved this year

olive20

Air Explore is all 800s now on the Ryrs

arubex

olive20 wrote: »

Air Explore is all 800s now on the Ryrs

Oh that's a shame. Boring things.

O'Leary's Law of Leases: leased aircraft are only interesting types the first year.

BA have a few B734s soldiering on for their last Summer season before heading to Victorville to become beer cans. And I think Jet2 still have a couple but they may be mail freighters now.

Long Time Lurker

highlydebased wrote: »

I think there is an Air Explore b738 involved this year

Yup here's one of them arriving at their Slovak base before its decked out in their livery. OM HEX. Ex Norwegian. First flight was 2001. The other one they've acquired was built in 1998.

http://www.planecrazy.sk/photos/civilne-lietadla/airexplore-b737-800-om-hex-3124

devnull

Ryanair will have 4 Air Explore aircraft this year.

2 737-800 (OM-FEX, OM-HEX)
1 737-400 (OM-EEX)

Started operating Ryanair flights last week.

There is said to be another 737-400 joining them, most likely to be OM-CEX which returns from last year, but it will not start for a few more days yet since it is in final days of a lease elsewhere.

There is also currently two Airbus A320 from Smartlynx operating for Ryanair

YL- LCM
YL- LCN

Chris_5339762

I flew on one of the old Air Explore ones, not comfortable at all but they did have the old cigarette ashtrays in the seats... glued shut of course.

Long Time Lurker

Chris_5339762 wrote: »

I flew on one of the old Air Explore ones, not comfortable at all but they did have the old cigarette ashtrays in the seats... glued shut of course.

Me too. It really was a rag tag aul yoke. Different coloured panels, different seats, worn carpets etc. And the racket, good jaysus. The aircon was so noisy you had to speak up to talk to the person beside you. You also couldn't hear a single word that any of the crew were saying over the PA. That's not classic aircraft, that's just old. The aircraft equivalent of getting into a 1994 Carina E taxi.

trellheim

I thought FR had a bunch of mothballed 738s .... or am I completely wrong ?

billie1b

trellheim wrote: »

I thought FR had a bunch of mothballed 738s .... or am I completely wrong ?

During winter schedule they do but when summer schedule starts they dont have enough aircraft

Mebuntu

The original post in this thread concerned a 12 hour delay for FR113 at LGW due to a "technical fault" and queried whether FR was short of spare aircraft for when things go wrong. Well, the same thing has happened again today to FR123 from LGW (14.50 due at DUB at 16.10) which is only boarding now at 22.50 and not due in DUB til 00.05, an 8 hour delay. Flight info on FR website indicates "technical fault".

This is quite worrying. You could forgive such a lengthy delay at an airport in the middle of nowhere with maybe only one flight a day but not on such a high profile route. You can only deduce that there isn't, in fact , any spare aircraft available when things go wrong. Passengers will have been at Gatwick since about 13.00.

Cessna_Pilot

Worrying how? 1600 plus flights per day means the fleet is maxed out. Why should a "high profile" route get preference over another? Are the Gatwick passengers more important?

Just asking!

I do feel bad of course for the pax today, an 8 hour delay is very bad for them alright.

FWVT

I wonder if this eagle-strike caused a ripple effect in the schedule...

http://avherald.com/h?article=4864c720&opt=0

A Ryanair Boeing 737-800, registration EI-EST performing flight FR-1836 from London Stansted,EN (UK) to Plovdiv (Bulgaria) with 174 people on board, was on approach to Plovdiv's runway 12 when a very large bird impacted the aircraft near an engine (CFM56). The crew continued for a safe landing on runway 12.

The airport reported, a post flight inspection found feathers of an eagle and some dents on a wing. 

The aircraft underwent detailed inspections before maintenance declared the aircraft safe to perform the return flight FR-1837 to London. The aircraft reached Stansted Airport with a delay of 5:15 hours. The aircraft continued service the following morning after another 5:45 hours on the ground.

Mebuntu

Cessna Pilot, you miss the point which was that there are a multitude of bases within short flying times of LGW unlike far distant fields where it could take several hours for a replacement aircraft to be sourced and to get there. If you're saying that the entire (very large) fleet is maxed out with no consideration whatsoever for aircraft going u/s then, yes, it is now worrying.

fr336

Worrying would assume a danger from my point of view, this represents an inconvenience and possibly a business decision to be made.

markpb

fr336 wrote: »

Worrying would assume a danger from my point of view, this represents an inconvenience and possibly a business decision to be made.

You can worry about things other than danger. There's a life beyond the wingtips. If Ryanair have no available spare aircraft anywhere in Europe, that's pretty poor customer service. It may have been a business decision not to plan for any eventuality, doesn't make it any more palatable for affected customers.

sjb25

markpb wrote: »

You can worry about things other than danger. There's a life beyond the wingtips. If Ryanair have no available spare aircraft anywhere in Europe, that's pretty poor customer service. It may have been a business decision not to plan for any eventuality, doesn't make it any more palatable for affected customers.

Don't book with them so.....if you are so worried Simple as that

any airline can go tech and keep you waiting for the amount it happens I wouldn't be to concerned and il still book cheapest flight which is usually Ryanair so il book with them or any other airline that gives me the best price for what I want

Mebuntu

Quite.

There can’t be many here who have flown FR more times than me since the old 732 days started. It is not just low fares that are important. Reliability and punctuality are equally so and FR have been miles ahead of the others in this regard. In all those years I have experienced very few glitches and, on the very odd occasion where an aircraft went u/s, they always were able to grab another one either locally or from nearby and send us on our way within three hours max.

12 hour or 8 hour delays at London airports or, indeed, DUB, due to technical faults are unheard of, that is, until now. That’s what I find worrying.

sjb25

Mebuntu wrote: »

Quite.

There can’t be many here who have flown FR more times than me since the old 732 days started. It is not just low fares that are important. Reliability and punctuality are equally so and FR have been miles ahead of the others in this regard. In all those years I have experienced very few glitches and, on the very odd occasion where an aircraft went u/s, they always were able to grab another one either locally or from nearby and send us on our way within three hours max.

12 hour or 8 hour delays at London airports or, indeed, DUB, due to technical faults are unheard of, that is, until now. That’s what I find worrying.

I wouldn't find it worrying bit of a pain if it happens but not worrying if it happens me and it has I will assist the aircraft engineers by going to the bar
Sit back relax and wait it's the people who go to the airline desk every 5min shouting who end up the ones who are worried the wind themselves up so much Airplane won't get sorted any faster just sit back and wait life be a lot easier not worrying over thing we can't control