Arsenal charter flight to play Man City

Gaoth Laidir

I found it strange that Arsenal flew to their match against Man City yesterday (STN-MAN), and what's more they only departed Stansted at 5 pm for an 8-pm kick-off. With a heavy thunderstorm affecting the area it was cutting a bit fine had there been any delay. In the end they landed at 17:38 so no harm done.

The plane repositioned from MAN to LPL a short time later and after the match they flew back from Liverpool, departing just before midnight and taking 37 minutes. Below is the flight, a Jota Aviation RJ85. The team all took their own cars home from Stansted.

What would have been the benefit of flying rather than a couple of coaches? Apparently the authorities deemed flying the safest option, but how could this be? Apart from the obvious saving in travel time I don't see how flying would be so much safer to warrant the charter cost, which I assume would run into the tens of thousands? (I know, a it's still probably less than one day's pay for David Luiz)...

EchoIndia

Sports teams (especially wealthy ones) use air transport a lot. Nothing very new here.

john boye

Arsenal themselves regularly fly to domestic away games. They famously took a 15 minutes flight to Norwich a few years ago which got a lot of attention.

dfx-

I think there was one comment saying that flying keeps them in their 'bubble' that allows them to be in close contact to play games etc. Why they flew back from Liverpool - local restrictions in Manchester?

Gaoth Laidir

Out of interest, what would a charter like that cost?

Inquitus

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

Out of interest, what would a charter like that cost?

£10k an hour per here.

scudzilla

When United play in London they usually go by train, think they have a special carriage added on just for them

WHL

dfx- wrote: »

I think there was one comment saying that flying keeps them in their 'bubble' that allows them to be in close contact to play games etc. Why they flew back from Liverpool - local restrictions in Manchester?

Not sure of the answer to the last question but I fly (or used to) regularly enough to Manchester and the Cork flight at about 9pm seems to be the last one (along with one to Dubai which always makes me jealous). Shops start closing at about 8.30pm

The_Wanderer

scudzilla wrote: »

When United play in London they usually go by train, think they have a special carriage added on just for them

You can't add carriages on to a multiple unit train. The trains used between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly are fixed formation 9 or 11 carriages in length.

The team reserve tickets for the amount of seats they require. Probably one or maybe two first class carriages.

finbarrk

Inquitus wrote: »

£10k an hour per here.

Is the per hour fee for 'in the air time', or the total time it's gone for I wonder?

Inquitus

finbarrk wrote: »

Is the per hour fee for 'in the air time', or the total time it's gone for I wonder?

Probably in the air time, I guess there is a flat rate per hour for waiting.

afatbollix

These lads earn £100K a week, 15 main players on that money? thats just 1.5 million a week, spending 20K on a plane to keep them happy is change well spent.

roundymac

afatbollix wrote: »

These lads earn £100K a week, 15 main players on that money? thats just 1.5 million a week, spending 20K on a plane to keep them happy is change well spent.

100K per, thats just the subs your taking about:D quite common for them to fly.