V-Flyer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/3674130.stm

The Transport and General Workers Union today announced a strike of Refuelling staff at Heathrow to take place from Friday for 48 hours.

It will affect 40 airlines if it goes ahead, including Virgin Atlantic.

They gotta get it sorted out as we fly in VS19 on Friday!!

Foz )

As long as my BD flight down to LHR on Friday is not delayed I can cope with having to sit in the Clubhouse a bit longer waiting for VS3

Regards

I suppose they will either stop off somewhere to refuel, or refuel in the uSa and carry enough to do two journeys perhaps? (not knowing the range of a 747 fuel tank)

At the moment Virgin have no contingency plans in place for it. But saying that when I phoned them last night they didn't even know the stike had been announced.

Foz )

Hi fozzyo

Was it Operations you spoke to or Res? There are contingency plans but we're still awaiting the result of a meeting today before putting anything in place. It'll be a bloody nightmare if it does happen though [V][V][V]

Cheers
Alan

Can't remember who it was I spoke to - hardly ever phone Virgin. Dean likes to be in control of such matters.

Don't want to think about it if it does go ahead. The reason we are going on Friday is for a big party on the Sunday, any other time I wouldn't mind so much but this is a once a year thing. In a worse case scenario will be gutted if it gets really bad and we can't get out there for it. [:(]

Maybe I should organise a whip round on the flight - everyone puts in a pound to pay the guys to fill up our plane.

Foz )

Well its still going ahead according to Radio 2 news. Talks have broken down.

Not sure what the ramifications would be, cancelled or delayed flights.

Dean

Apparently the company refuels 36% of aircraft at LHR.

Virgin say they are making plans to deal with a stoppage.

Foz )

What impact do you think this will have on Sunday's flights?

I'm flying back to Boston on Sunday and won't like a delay (who does?!?).

I don't think it'll roll over, LHR has such an enormous turnover of planes, but am not in a position of knowing anything about it.

Any thoughts would be most welcome.

James

At the moment we're not sure how many flights this will affect if it goes ahead, but the plan for affected flights will be to depart LHR on time (well, as near as.. ) and route via somewhere that is preferably 1. near LHR and 2. en-route(ish). So for East coast flts probably CWL/SNN/DUB, West coast probably MAN/GLA and south/eastbound flts probably LGW/STN/CDG/AMS. This is just off the top of my head and nothing is planned yet so please no "How about Southend?" etc questions! Obviously flights will need to arrive at LHR with enough fuel to get to wherever they're going (CWL/LGW/etc) and we'll probably need extra crews for the 'hops' on the longer flights as the crew won't be able to do +10hr flights over 2 sectors. I'm sure there will be delays/cancellations [V] but nothing is firm yet.

Cheers
Alan

Latest situation is that the strike is still on, talks having gone on all day yesterday. At the moment we are hoping to run a 'normal' operation at LHR although there may obviously be delays as there aren't many fuellers and they'll be working their socks off. Flights inbound to LHR are landing with more fuel than normal in order to reduce refuelling times and allow for positioning to another airport if necessary. Hopefully the weekend won't be too bad...

Cheers
Alan

Alan

many thanks for the update.

With this on top of all the problems of hurricanes you have had to deal with, you have my utter admiration for bringing it all together.

Good luck for the weekend and hope the threatened baggage handlers strike at LGW does not have any knock on effects.

Buns

Thanks Buns

Things are operating fairly normally at the moment (Foz's VS19 left on time! ) so hopefully it will continue. There's been a lot of effort put in by everybody over the past week to make sure flights get away with the minimum disruption. The biggest pain today is Hurricane Karl right in the middle of the bloody Atlantic [xx(]. No problems at LGW at the moment although I don't know how easyJet etc are coping...

Cheers
Alan

Might be old news by now but can't see any other posts - refuelling strike off (improved pay offer accepted) however baggage handling strike at Gatwick did go ahead from 3.00 BST this morning. Gatwick managers say contingency plans are in place and travellers shouldn't be affected.

I don't think the baggage handlers who are striking service VS so it shouldn't effect too many VS pax, possibly only those with connections if the connecting flight is handled by the strikers company.