V-Flyer

2nd HKG service will start on the 01 November. 3 times a week until the 01 FEB when it will go daily. Using an A343.

VS328 DEP LHR 2035 ARR HKG 1705

VS329 DEP HKG 0120 ARR LHR 0710

Good News I think.

Many thanks for the info, VITB. [y][y]

Nick

Sounds good - shame they are so close to the existing VS200/201 but I guess the two hour time difference between the HKG departure should ensure the Clubhouse is not too busy.

Bit of a late night for the HKG staff though

Phil

CX have a flight at the same time.

Probably a really silly question but why use such different flight numbers. The original second Hong Kong service used to be VS203 and VS204 didn't it!

Awesome! [y]

Shame its on the A343 though it expect that will shift to an A346 when it goes daily? (and as more aircraft are delivered)

Thanks,
Sarah

I am not sure how flight numbers are allocated. Does anyone know?

There are no plans to put an A346 on the 2nd HKG service.

Originally posted by virgin is the best
IThere are no plans to put an A346 on the 2nd HKG service.

Drat! That wont bode well with the PE travellers [:(]

Cheers for that VITB! I'll earmark those flight numbers as 'ones to suffer in J' then

Agree with the lousy flight number choices, the 300's are India routes for me, surely there must have been two three digit combinations in the 200 bracket left??

Thanks,
Sarah

Originally posted by HighFlyer
[br
Agree with the lousy flight number choices, the 300's are India routes for me, surely there must have been two three digit combinations in the 200 bracket left??

Thanks,
Sarah

It makes you wonder why they didnt satrt at 1 and go along 1,2,3,4,5 e.t.c.

Well no suprise on this front. it was bound to happen sooner rather than later. The 343 is the perfect aircraft for this flight. Not too much capacity but just enough to cover a very busy route. I make this flight out to be the 11th daily between LHR and HKG from the likes of NZ, CX, QF, BA and of course VS

It makes you wonder why they didnt satrt at 1 and go along 1,2,3,4,5 e.t.c.

They did at the start!;)

VS.

I don't understand why they are going to use a different flight number. When the additionl New York service starts next month they are just using the same flight number that this service used, when it opperated from Gatwick and I am sure if they were to restart ORD and YYZ they would just use the same flight numbers that they used prior to 9/11

hi guys, just to update you the flight numbers are not going to be the VS328/329 they are however to be the VS 238/239...Just checked on the company intranet site. This should take some confusion away........ish.

Cheers gpik

Originally posted by djuluvmee
I don't understand why they are going to use a different flight number. When the additionl New York service starts next month they are just using the same flight number that this service used, when it opperated from Gatwick and I am sure if they were to restart ORD and YYZ they would just use the same flight numbers that they used prior to 9/11

The VS025/026 was always a LHR-JFK-LHR service. It was the VS017/018 that used to be LGW-EWR-LGW.

The actual flight numbers for the new HKG flights are VS238/239 which still seem a bit random [?] Oh well, I'm looking forward to some extra opportunities to go to Hong Kong [y]

Originally posted by Jetstreamer

The VS025/026 was always a LHR-JFK-LHR service. It was the VS017/018 that used to be LGW-EWR-LGW.

The actual flight numbers for the new HKG flights are VS238/239 which still seem a bit random [?] Oh well, I'm looking forward to some extra opportunities to go to Hong Kong [y]

Will the Hong kong crew base increase aswell?

Yeah I presume the HKG crew base will increase, its huge just now, our biggest base outside of London. The HKG crew are awesome! Always look forward to flying with them...looking forward to 3 nights in HKG just there and back....carnage. So instead of 4 full crews in hKG there will now be 5 full crews every night in HKG..CARNAGE

Originally posted by Gpik
hi guys, just to update you the flight numbers are not going to be the VS328/329 they are however to be the VS 238/239...Just checked on the company intranet site. This should take some confusion away........ish.

Cheers gpik

thanks - that makes more sense!

Originally posted by Airbus340
Will the Hong kong crew base increase aswell?

I'm not sure. We may just increase the size of the SYD base to reduce the number of HKG crew on the HKG-SYD-HKG flights or put more LHR based crew on the VS200/201 to release a few HKG crew for the new flight.

Originally posted by Gpik
Yeah I presume the HKG crew base will increase, its huge just now, our biggest base outside of London. The HKG crew are awesome! Always look forward to flying with them...looking forward to 3 nights in HKG just there and back....carnage. So instead of 4 full crews in hKG there will now be 5 full crews every night in HKG..CARNAGE

Thanks Gpik, 5 full crew every night dounds fun!:D
How many HKG crew are on a flight? is it 2?

originally posted by jetstreamer
I'm not sure. We may just increase the size of the SYD base to reduce the number of HKG crew on the HKG-SYD-HKG flights or put more LHR based crew on the VS200/201 to release a few HKG crew for the new flight.

WOW i dint realise there was any other crew base out of londonapart from HKG.
That would work well less LHR crew would have to do the long journey that overall takes 9 days from leaving london to arriving back?

There is normally a CSS, 2 senior crew and sometimes 3 Cabin crew aswell on the LHR/HKG sectors, then on the HKG/SYD sectors we lose two HKG nationals and we ten gain a SYD crew member for each cabin.

Airlines have a variety of methods to assign flight numbers, and many different factors are considered when doing so.

The primary factor is flight safety. You don't want to have two aircraft in the same ATC sector at the same time with similar flight numbers, whether it is two aircraft from the same airline, or two different airlines. This leaves potential for confusion between crews and ATC. You have to take delays into consideration as well.

Having said that, I see that Air New Zealand's new EastBound service from LHR via HKG is numbered NZ0038, scheduled to depart only 40 minutes after the VS238. I suspect one of them will be changed before the start, or expect some flight safety reports to be filed in the first few months of operation.

As one of the folks who has tried to make sure the flight numbering system is as safe as possible, I can attest to the fact that you could easily spend your whole working life checking and changing flight numbers to avoid as many conflicts as possible. And when you think you've achieved it, the crews find another conflict!

AF

Thats intresting on how flight numbers are made. It must take ages.

Thank-you AtlanticFlyer for the insight. I guess many of us do not appreciate the many variables that go into deciding what is commonly percieved to be a simple number.

Thanks,
Sarah

Must admit Virgins system seems all over the place... at CX it was pretty Straight Forward

CX2** was Europe
CX25* was UK
CX28* was Germany
CX26* was france etc

CX8** was North America

CX3** was Australasia

etc etc etc.

So from London you'd have CX250, CX252, CX254, CX256.

Still, fantastic news on the extra HKG service, and good to have slots for the key most popular late night departures from Honkers.

Am I right in thinking that VS will have the last direct flight out. From what I can see BA leaves at 12:40 and CX leaves at 12:45am.

Phil