Ryanair all business class config?

irlrobins

Noticed on Planespotters that Ryanair's sole 700 series 737 was recently reconfigured as a 60 seat all business class. https://m.planespotters.net/airframe/Boeing/737/29078/EI-SEV-Ryanair

Previously it was used for crew training and cover. Could this be the start of Ryanair exploring cheap business fares transatlantic? Using the 700's longer range?

Inquitus

irlrobins wrote: »

Noticed on Planespotters that Ryanair's sole 700 series 737 was recently reconfigured as a 60 seat all business class. https://m.planespotters.net/airframe/Boeing/737/29078/EI-SEV-Ryanair

Previously it was used for crew training and cover. Could this be the start of Ryanair exploring cheap business fares transatlantic? Using the 700's longer range?

It's possible, in a business class only config, weight would be down and certainly East Coast US -> Dublin would be potentially feasible, its not feasible with a full load though. The 757-200's have a substantially longer range and even they struggle with the headwinds from time to time.

arubex

If the report is accurate then it tallies with original reports that SEV would be chartered-out on downtime to pay for itself.

It also does AOG support alongside the Learjets and giving the engineers a comfortable seat is polite when slogging them on long shifts around Europe.

I don't think there are any trans-Atlantic connotations.

billie1b

They are planning to use it for business charters, chartering the Irish football and Rugby teams if they can get it and special events, there was talk of St.Johns but I think that has been canned now.

Pat Dunne

billie1b wrote: »

They are planning to use it for business charters, chartering the Irish football and Rugby teams if they can get it and special events, there was talk of St.Johns but I think that has been canned now.

Can't see the IRFU needing it for the next few years

billie1b

Pat Dunne wrote: »

Can't see the IRFU needing it for the next few years

Not til 2018 at least

Tenger

irlrobins wrote: »

Noticed on Planespotters that Ryanair's sole 700 series 737 was recently reconfigured as a 60 seat all business class.

Previously it was used for crew training and cover. Could this be the start of Ryanair exploring cheap business fares transatlantic? Using the 700's longer range?

I seriously doubt it. Once off charters perhaps. But to start T/A ops you would need to move from the FR brand and have 2 aircraft to guarantee operational reliability.
Installing J Class seating has little or now effect on its intended role of crew training and AOG cover. With approx 300 A/C at present having 1 as a crew trainer/J Class config (<0.5% of fleet) has very little impact on business. Compare that to EI, if they had an A318 for training, that would be cloder to 2% of their fleet. (approx 40 A320, 4 B757, 8 A330)
Being able to tender for charter ops is good business sense, opening a new revenue stream for FR.
In addition MoL has repeated stated that any "RyanAtlantic" operation would be a seperate brand.

Irish Steve

irlrobins wrote: »

Noticed on Planespotters that Ryanair's sole 700 series 737 was recently reconfigured as a 60 seat all business class. https://m.planespotters.net/airframe/Boeing/737/29078/EI-SEV-Ryanair

Previously it was used for crew training and cover. Could this be the start of Ryanair exploring cheap business fares transatlantic? Using the 700's longer range?

Hmmm,wonder if the Government should consider it for some of their junkets?
Would be cheaper than finding (and getting approval for) a replacement for the Gulfstream that they don't have any more

Tenger

Irish Steve wrote: »

Hmmm,wonder if the Government should consider it for some of their junkets?
Would be cheaper than finding (and getting approval for) a replacement for the Gulfstream that they don't have any more

Oh. Nice thinking. That hadn't occurred to me. Would pay well to the media.

newacc2015

There is a French airline that does lower cost business from Paris to NYC. There was an article in the Sunday Times about it.

I seen on Bloomberg though. That the Ryanair model is only super profitable due to the short length flights. The longer the flight. The less profitable it is. The whole point of the article is that Ryanair may never do long haul. As it is not as profitable as it seems compared to Dublin to London. Although there might be a time in 5-10 years, where there growth is low single digits and long haul is their only chance of growth

Gaoth Laidir

On a separate note, I noticed tonight that Ryanair fly to Ponta Delgada in the Azores. Never knew they flew there.

Irish Steve

There's also the twice daily BA services from London City (via Shannon outbound) to New York, which is a single class low density (32 seats) service, using A318 aircraft.

newcavanman

I Ws driving round the backmof the airport Friday. Was that the -700 srs parked on the old 29?

mickdw

Irish Steve wrote: »

There's also the twice daily BA services from London City (via Shannon outbound) to New York, which is a single class low density (32 seats) service, using A318 aircraft.

The concorde replacement service

billie1b

newcavanman wrote: »

I Ws driving round the backmof the airport Friday. Was that the -700 srs parked on the old 29?

Yeah she spends most of her days parked up there waiting to be summoned

roundymac

mickdw wrote: »

The concorde replacement service

Yes, and it goes via Shannon outbound.

martinsvi

irlrobins wrote: »

Noticed on Planespotters that Ryanair's sole 700 series 737 was recently reconfigured as a 60 seat all business class. https://m.planespotters.net/airframe/Boeing/737/29078/EI-SEV-Ryanair

Previously it was used for crew training and cover. Could this be the start of Ryanair exploring cheap business fares transatlantic? Using the 700's longer range?

does anyone know how accurate this information actually is? Are we speculating on the basis of a single record on a planespotters website that might be bull? On 10th flightradar has caught it positioning to Hahn and flying a regular flight back - assuming to replace out of service aircraft, I just don't see how a 60-seater would work for this role

highlydebased

martinsvi wrote: »

does anyone know how accurate this information actually is? Are we speculating on the basis of a single record on a planespotters website that might be bull? On 10th flightradar has caught it positioning to Hahn and flying a regular flight back - assuming to replace out of service aircraft, I just don't see how a 60-seater would work for this role

I saw a picture elsewhere- it's correct.

Besides, there's no scheduled flights DUB-HHN on Wednesdays so presume that flight was for Ryanair's own purposes

martinsvi

highlydebased wrote: »

I saw a picture elsewhere- it's correct.

Besides, there's no scheduled flights DUB-HHN on Wednesdays so presume that flight was for Ryanair's own purposes

can you share it with us? google is not cooperating

highlydebased

martinsvi wrote: »

can you share it with us? google is not cooperating

It wasn't in the public domain but I'll have a root around to see if it's elsewhere.

arubex

Has SEV ever actually done a revenue sector? I know people think it does but I haven't found anyone who has actually been on it.

As mentioned above, with 60 seats it really wouldn't be much good for moving pax. Don't Ryanair generally just cancel the sector?

It was up in Derry in September and people were excited that they'd fly on it, but it was an AOG mission and the boring old B738 was patched-up and dispatched.

pepe the prawn

Interior pic of EI-SEV with its 60 seat configuration.

billie1b

The flight on the 10th was for Ryaniar purposes, no revenue pax were on it, no revenue pax have been on it since its re-fit.
It has done lots of scheduled services in the past, people didn't tend to notice the difference between that and the -800's so not many people would know

circular flexing

newacc2015 wrote: »

There is a French airline that does lower cost business from Paris to NYC. There was an article in the Sunday Times about it.

It's called OpenSkies, it's actually owned by BA

http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/partners-and-alliances/openskies

arubex

Also La Compagnie, formed by the same guy that started what is now Open Skies ( originally l'Avion ). Same idea, business-configured B752s. They recently added Luton as a waypoint.

https://www.lacompagnie.com/uk

Growler!!!

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/ryanair-to-offer-all-business-737-700-for-charter-422928/

Some official corporate pics of interior.

Idbatterim

Roy Keane and the FAI may well be interested

AndyBoBandy

Anyone fancy renting the Ryanair private jet (737-700) for a weekend away with 59 of your best mates?

Ryanair Private Jet

Ryanair Corporate

logie101

An interesting move by Ryanair. I can't see the demand being very high.

I doubt they have a devoted aircraft sitting waiting for work. I suspect they have the business seats in a hanger and if/when they get bookings they take an aircraft out of service and change the seating format.

Noxegon

Wonder if the Airliner Experience lad will charter this...

islanderre

Noxegon wrote: »

Wonder if the Airliner Experience lad will charter this...

Wouldn't it be great if he did!!!!!
We were in Exeter @ Flybe base on Monday with Airliner Experience..... great day had and excellently organised.

Seanie_H

Any idea how much they're charging.... for a trip as far as northern France for example.

L1011

logie101 wrote: »

An interesting move by Ryanair. I can't see the demand being very high.

I doubt they have a devoted aircraft sitting waiting for work. I suspect they have the business seats in a hanger and if/when they get bookings they take an aircraft out of service and change the seating format.

They do. It's a -700 series and also used for training and corporate uses

john boye

Idbatterim wrote: »

Roy Keane and the FAI may well be interested

There's something quite apt about the FAI hiring out a Ryanair plane...

jimbis

Noxegon wrote: »

Wonder if the Airliner Experience lad will charter this...

Or some budding boardsie who won't be in on it for profit.... Ie: cheaper prices per head.
Only 60 seats isn't much to spread the cost over though.

Pat Dunne

jimbis wrote: »

Or some budding boardsie who won't be in on it for profit.... Ie: cheaper prices per head.
Only 60 seats isn't much to spread the cost over though.

Sorry folks, but this is one trip I won't be organising

billie1b

L1011 wrote: »

They do. It's a -700 series and also used for training and corporate uses

The -700 is not used for training anymore, it was deemed unsuitable/incompatible for training after a couple of weeks. While not on corporate use O'Leary uses it to jet around Europe.

In reply to the other poster, the 60 business class seats stay in it full time, it has to be ready to go within an hour for unscheduled service.

54and56

billie1b wrote: »

The -700 is not used for training anymore, it was deemed unsuitable/incompatible for training after a couple of weeks.

Why and why weren't they able to determine it's suitability before they started training in it?

christy c

billie1b wrote: »

The -700 is not used for training anymore, it was deemed unsuitable/incompatible for training after a couple of weeks. While not on corporate use O'Leary uses it to jet around Europe.

In reply to the other poster, the 60 business class seats stay in it full time, it has to be ready to go within an hour for unscheduled service.

As insightful as always thanks.

Any idea why they didn't just sell the thing? I would have thought a this type of operation would be more hassle than its worth for someone like Ryanair

billie1b

christy c wrote: »

As insightful as always thanks.

Any idea why they didn't just sell the thing? I would have thought a this type of operation would be more hassle than its worth for someone like Ryanair

The plan was always to have it as a trainer a/c and also for unscheduled operations aswell as hoping O'Leary around, from when they bought it there was a rumour around that it was going to be doing chartered services to St.John's in Canada for the summer 2016 and other destinations of similar distance. After it was deemed unsuitable for training (something to do with it having too many landings and a couple of other reasons) they decided it would be better of as a 60 seater private jet with enough range for NYC and the likes,whether it will take off or not is another thing. As for why they bothered with it, they got it for cheap as chips when purchased with their eye on another couple of them, maybe instead of creating RyanAtlantic this is what they'll do instead, you know O'Leary, unless there is money to be made he wont bother with it.

martinsvi

Ryanair doesn't have ETOPS operator certificate, how do you imagine would they do a charter across the pond?

The only obvious reason to get rid of 737-7 as a trainer is because it's shorter than -800 series and possibly introduces a nasty habbit of cadets rotating plane too sharply which then would lead to tail strikes on 737-800.. on the paper everything looked allright, as both share the same type rating, but once they started training I bet they realized that -700 just doesn't have that elevator dead spot that -800 to -max has

billie1b

martinsvi wrote: »

Ryanair doesn't have ETOPS operator certificate, how do you imagine would they do a charter across the pond?

The only obvious reason to get rid of 737-7 as a trainer is because it's shorter than -800 series and possibly introduces a nasty habbit of cadets rotating plane too sharply which then would lead to tail strikes on 737-800.. on the paper everything looked allright, as both share the same type rating, but once they started training I bet they realized that -700 just doesn't have that elevator dead spot that -800 to -max has

Ryanair have 60 mins ETOPS certificate, they have to be max 396nm from the nearest suitable airport at all times.
Yes you're correct about the landing differences between the -700/-800, thats why I said 'Too many landings and a couple of other reasons'

highlydebased

Good article here with Kenny Jacobs about the corporate 737 venture
https://skift.com/2016/03/11/ryanairs-cmo-says-it-already-knows-the-customers-for-its-new-private-jet/

bkehoe

billie1b wrote: »

Ryanair have 60 mins ETOPS certificate, they have to be max 396nm from the nearest suitable airport at all times.
Yes you're correct about the landing differences between the -700/-800, thats why I said 'Too many landings and a couple of other reasons'

60mins is correct but its not any form of ETOPS approval. 396nm is the single engine flying distance of a 737 in 60mins, the same as for a takeoff alternate if required. An ETOPS approval would extend this to up to 180 mins from a suitable en-route airport.

Westjet use their ETOPS approval for their flights to Dublin and Glasgow, but there wouldn't be anything preventing a 737 operator without ETOPS from flying trans atlantic, expect they would need a more northerly route that keeps them within 396NM of a suitable en-route alternate. This means potentially more fuel.

According to the Irish Independent (http://www.independent.ie/life/travel/inside-ryanairs-corporate-jet-caviar-champagne-and-lots-of-legroom-34531336.html), what would prevent them from even flying a non-ETOPS route is that the AOC for the area of operation is still Europe. Probably just a tick in the box option at the IAA to get that changed though!

billie1b

bkehoe wrote: »

60mins is correct but its not any form of ETOPS approval. 396nm is the single engine flying distance of a 737 in 60mins, the same as for a takeoff alternate if required. An ETOPS approval would extend this to up to 180 mins from a suitable en-route airport.

Westjet use their ETOPS approval for their flights to Dublin and Glasgow, but there wouldn't be anything preventing a 737 operator without ETOPS from flying trans atlantic, expect they would need a more northerly route that keeps them within 396NM of a suitable en-route alternate. This means potentially more fuel.

According to the Irish Independent (http://www.independent.ie/life/travel/inside-ryanairs-corporate-jet-caviar-champagne-and-lots-of-legroom-34531336.html), what would prevent them from even flying a non-ETOPS route is that the AOC for the area of operation is still Europe. Probably just a tick in the box option at the IAA to get that changed though!

Cool thanks for clearing that up, makes a lot of sense

smurfjed

bkehoe, do JAR regulations require that the weather is suitable at the diversion airports during the flight? If this is the case, then 60 minutes can be quite restrictive.

arubex

martinsvi wrote: »

Ryanair doesn't have ETOPS operator certificate, how do you imagine would they do a charter across the pond?

Sterling used to operate Caravelles from Copenhagen to San Francisco! It required three intermediate stops ( because even the Mark 10 was short-legged ) but the lack of ETOPS doesn't preclude crossing the Atlantic.

homerjay2005

would love to see their prices!

bkehoe

smurfjed wrote: »

bkehoe, do JAR regulations require that the weather is suitable at the diversion airports during the flight? If this is the case, then 60 minutes can be quite restrictive.

For pre-flight planning purposes then weather satisfying the planning minima would be required at suitable (i.e. adequate fire cover, runway length) en-route alternates. I've never looked at the map of the blue spruce type routes with 396NM circles drawn around the various airports en-route, but I agree, it could become restrictive if theres some widespread bad weather.