Back to normal at LHR

Pleasantly surprised at how smoothly things running in terminal 3 today. Able to check in 4 hours prior to flight, straight through to lounge. Looks like VS 25 running a little late, but after four cocktails who really cares [:p]

Hats off to Virgin staff!

[Nottingham Nick]

Good news.. thanks for the update.

Nick

Hi,

Good news indeed!.

Thanks for the update.

regards

TBS

But when is LGW going to get back to normal? We fly on the VS15 to MCO next Monday, and the performance had been good up until the events of last Thursday, so we were hopeful of spending the evening in Orlando. The flights have been up to 10 or 11 hours late, and today it was 4 hours late. Hope there's some chance of an improvement in the next 5 days!

[Neil]

Originally posted by davemitch
But when is LGW going to get back to normal? We fly on the VS15 to MCO next Monday, and the performance had been good up until the events of last Thursday, so we were hopeful of spending the evening in Orlando. The flights have been up to 10 or 11 hours late, and today it was 4 hours late. Hope there's some chance of an improvement in the next 5 days!

Similar probs at MAN which is obviously linked to the probs at Gatwick, seems that VS are having trouble getting a/c into position for these airports after the probs of last week, hopefully things should sort themselves out towards the weekend.

Seems to me to be a problem with the 744 fleet. Take yesterday at LHR for example.

Non 744 departures varied from 0 mins late, to 1.5 hours (to LOS). All but 2 flights were less than 1 hour late.

744 fleet - shortest delay, 1.5 hours (SFO), longest delay 4.75 hrs (LAX). with the other 2 flights both delayed by more than 2 hours.

Could be 3 reasons for this. (1) 744 fleet is more intensely used and therefore harder to get back on track. (2) There have been tech problems with 1 or more 744s causing the fleet to be even more stretched. (3) Extra search times for the greater number of pax on a 744 are causing more delays.

Or it could be a combination of the above....

Is this VS or more generally?

Just VS - not sure about other airlines. BA have a much larger 744 fleet, and have cancelled more flights, which probably makes it easier for them to get back on track.

The LHR 744 fleet is now pretty small - only 5 aircraft (ROC, WOW, BIG, HOT and FAB), which means there's less slack/room for manoeuvre when things go awry.

Cheers,
Mike