V-Flyer

I was wondering how they got VS Jumbos up and down from GLA. Just saw one take off and I thought... where on Earth is that going.

It's VS4005 and it's off to sunny LHR. It even had a listing on the GLA departures. Imagine flying in a Jumbo to LHR from GLA. [:o)]

It's a beautiful day here. Barely a cloud in the sky. So I could watch the aircraft climb then turn for quite a while. I worked out it was heading south.

I wonder who was on board. Was it empty? Did it have extra VS staff that are based here? There seemed to be quite a few other flights codes attached to the flight.

Have I got anything better to do? Clearly not. [:o)]

For part of the summer season VS are flying GLA-MCO on selected dates. It is my understanding that the Manchester flight to Orlando also calles at GLA but at which point I don't know. It is possible therefore that the flight was a positioning flight to LHR after finishing the trip back from MCO

Yup! Just checked. As you can see the Olrando flight arrived at 9:30 or thereabouts

Originally posted by honey lamb
It is my understanding that the Manchester flight to Orlando also calles at GLA but at which point I don't know.

Is this true? I thought the GLA flight was just a direct flight from GLA and not a MAN flight that stops at GLA[:?]. The dates that the GLA flight operates the 2nd MAN flight does not so I thought it was just in place of that.

Yes I am aware of the Orlando flights and have made other postings as I watched them leave and arrive. It was simply unusual to actually catch the plane head for LHR and see it have a proper listing on departures. I had imagined it would have been like a private flight. Could there have been pax on board then?

Is this true? I thought the GLA flight was just a direct flight from GLA and not a MAN flight that stops at GLA[:?]. The dates that the GLA flight operates the 2nd MAN flight does not so I thought it was just in place of that.

Yeah, I really don't think it stops at MAN. All the PR has pointed to the flights being direct.

It is a direct flight from GLA-MCO-GLA
Crew from Manchester operate the flight. So the chances are the flight will have had flight crew and cabin crew on there but no customers.

Originally posted by mcnaugha
Yes I am aware of the Orlando flights and have made other postings as I watched them leave and arrive. It was simply unusual to actually catch the plane head for LHR and see it have a proper listing on departures. I had imagined it would have been like a private flight. Could there have been pax on board then?

No pax would have been on board, it will just be a positioning flight to get the a/c back were VS need it for it's next flight.

No pax would have been on board, it will just be a positioning flight to get the a/c back were VS need it for it's next flight.

I think there might have been pax. It looks to me like the aircraft had several additional flight codes:

UL2225, UA4817, SK9732, LH6713, BD005, AC6622

The one that excited me and makes me jealous is the BD5. I'm always flying to Heathrow on BMI and I would have wet my pants had that been the aircraft. There was no BMI aircraft lifting off at the time of this flight. It looks to me like Virgin let partners use the aircraft in place of their own for the GLA-LHR flight. Very efficient and exciting for the pax used to boarding a 737.

Is this possibly what happened?

Originally posted by virgin is the best
It is a direct flight from GLA-MCO-GLA
Crew from Manchester operate the flight. So the chances are the flight will have had flight crew and cabin crew on there but no customers.

Ah! That's where I got the MAN bit. Thanks for that

I think the VS a/c taking off must have been going back to MAN or LGW, the flight VS4005 which is a codeshare with flight BD005 is showing as operated by BMI a/c G-DBCF, an A319, arriving into LHR at 12:14pm. The only VS flights showing as arriving into LHR is the 56 from IAD and the 20 from SFO.

Thinking about it, it also seems strange that VS would send this a/c from GLA to LHR, it is an LGW/MAN config and would be totally out of position in LHR, especially when the LGW/MAN fleet are so busy at the minute. Would be VERY strange for VS to use their a/c for this type of flight.

Originally posted by Attitude23
Thinking about it, it also seems strange that VS would send this a/c from GLA to LHR, it is an LGW/MAN config and would be totally out of position in LHR, especially when the LGW/MAN fleet are so busy at the minute. Would be VERY strange for VS to use their a/c for this type of flight.

Unless it was a LHR configured aircraft

Originally posted by virgin is the best
It is a direct flight from GLA-MCO-GLA
Crew from Manchester operate the flight. So the chances are the flight will have had flight crew and cabin crew on there but no customers.

Why would a crew from MAN fly to LHR? We've got flights to MAN from GLA here too. Doesn't make sense does it?

Unless it was a LHR configured aircraft

Yeah, did someone check that they are using the LGW/MAN config for the GLA-MCO flights? Would everyone from LGW/MAN turn green if they knew that GLA was getting LHR configs? [:o)]

BAA definitely reports the aircraft as heading to LHR. The BD5 always flies to LHR. Wouldn't make a lot of sense for this to be a LGW/MAN config. They'd have to move it again. Not efficient.

Originally posted by mcnaugha
BAA definitely reports the aircraft as heading to LHR. The BD5 always flies to LHR.

Flight BD5 def went into LHR, but was operated by a BMI a/c not the VS one, I can't find any info yet on which VS a/c did the VS72 or where it has gone now, but I am pretty certain it was not doing the BD5 flight into LHR.

Originally posted by mcnaugha

Unless it was a LHR configured aircraft

Yeah, did someone check that they are using the LGW/MAN config for the GLA-MCO flights? Would everyone from LGW/MAN turn green if they knew that GLA was getting LHR configs? [:o)]

BAA definitely reports the aircraft as heading to LHR. The BD5 always flies to LHR. Wouldn't make a lot of sense for this to be a LGW/MAN config. They'd have to move it again. Not efficient.

I believe they are using the LGW/MAN aircraft but from time to time a LHR aircraft may be used on these routes.

All those flight numbers are attached to every BMI departure from GLA as we codeshare on GLA LHR flighs, so that was the BD5 heading to LHR operated by BMI as normal, nothing to do with VS really!