LGW - MCO delays

I am here just bemoaning my luck as the weather appears to be rubbish again in Florida, just like in August when I read this thread.

Looks like I was on the only VS15 (yesterday) that has left on time in a fair while.

Originally posted by ela123
VS15 left at 13.41 today so I'd be quite happy with that extra hour in the Clubhouse [;)]

We did indeed although it was empty and they were turning people away who had gold cards and wanted to bring their wife and little kids in with them which is not one really as they have a kids area and the place was empty!

And its still sodding raining here in Florida.

And I am not a chav but there was an unusually high number of people over 30 wearing football shirts on the plane. What is all that about?

[Decker]

Split the football discussion into an Off Topic thread...

Getting back to the OP

Could someone explain to me whats happening at LGW - VS27 and VS15 were both delayed to after 4pm today !!


What is going on with these flights ?



jj... [:?][?]

We're on the VS027 tomorrow and I've checked it's departure time and it has been changed to 2pm

Flight number VS 027
Departure date 29 Oct 2008
Route London (LGW) to Orlando (MCO)
Scheduled departure time 29 Oct 11:15
Estimated departure time 29 Oct 14:00
Scheduled arrival time 29 Oct 16:40
Estimated arrival time 29 Oct 19:25

not looking forward to this flight! [:(!]

The good thing is that they have made the announcement up front, which means you can arrive at the airport later. The worse thing is getting there without knowing, and then having a 3 hour delay you had n't planned for.

Mark

Interestingly ExpertFlyer shows the stats for the VS27 and VS15 worsening (at least anecdotally since the last time I looked); average departure delays over the last two months now at 64min and 91min respectively. Not sure why VS don't negotiate more appropriate departure slots for these flights and don't disappoint so many people.

There are those on this board who will deny it but VS are overstretched at the moment. There is not enough contingency built into the schedules and it is the MCO flights that are bearing the brunt of the delays. Sort it out VS because your reputation and customer satisfaction levels are going to go down the pan.

[Neil]

Originally posted by upsidedown19
There are those on this board who will deny it but VS are overstretched at the moment

I don't think anyone on these boards (regular members especially) will disagree that the LGW/MAN a/c are very busy a/c and that even the smallest problem can cause knock on delays. The problem VS have a small fleet and they need to keep it active, especially with the current economic problems.

They have cancelled the MAN-UVF service due to low demand and at the moment nothing has been announced to replace this, so this should give a *bit* more flexibility in the fleet.

I however would rather VS have a busy fleet with a few delays then a large fleet which is likely to cripple the airline, something that I am sure nobody wants.

Neil

Originally posted by Neatfeat
We're on the VS027 tomorrow and I've checked it's departure time and it has been changed to 2pm

Flight number VS 027
Departure date 29 Oct 2008
Route London (LGW) to Orlando (MCO)
Scheduled departure time 29 Oct 11:15
Estimated departure time 29 Oct 14:00
Scheduled arrival time 29 Oct 16:40
Estimated arrival time 29 Oct 19:25

not looking forward to this flight! [:(!]

First thing yesterday morning the estimated delay for the 27 was half an hour. Somewhere along the line, that morphed into 5 hours. Things are skewed slightly because we changed from DST this past weekend, whereas the US won't do so until this coming Sunday. I've seen Virgin get things back on schedule pretty quickly in the past, so I'm hoping they do so before we head off to Orlando on the 27 on Sunday. [:p]

Things have really fallen apart on the LGW-MCO route today (and on MAN-MCO too). VS27 was 184mins late departing, VS15 107mins late & VS75 from MAN was 216mins late departing.

I hope things dramatically improve before Saturday when I fly out, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope as they only have two days to make up quite a bit of time.

[RichardMannion]

I'm just popping down to the local Spar to pick them up a 747 with all the right config...

[Scrooge]

Originally posted by RichardMannion
I'm just popping down to the local Spar to pick them up a 747 with all the right config...

Please don't shot anyone [:0]

[RichardMannion]

Look I'm not sure I could stretch to the 747, and £50 a person football shirts.

Looking at this further, the rotation of the LGW/MAN fleet at MCO is compounding the delays further.

Today, all VS flights into MCO are very delayed. When all VS flights into MCO are severely delayed, could VS not stop the planned rotation of aircraft & make it so that 'first in = first out' to reduce delays? The VS76 back to MAN today looks like it using the last aircraft to arrive in MCO, thus delaying it further, despite the fact that the first VS flight to arrive in MCO was from MAN.

I know that if an aircraft needs to be rotated at MCO so it can go 'off-line' for a maintenance check when it lands back in the UK, then this is not possible, but there must be some rotation of aircraft that could be cut back to reduce delays, in theory. I am sure a VS staffer (or maybe Denzil) could enlighten us further.

Thanks
James

Hi Guys!

Just thought I would share the information with you that I have.

I agree, the LGW schedule is fit to burst, busy, full flights, year round with aircraft on heavy rotation however, I have just operated the VS44 home from Las Vegas and had a 4 hour delay.

Once we got to the airport we were informed that the aircraft in question was operating HAV-LGW the day before and due to medical diversion into Nassau, the a/c picked up the delay and is struggling to make time up.

Hopefully this will sort itself out soon like days when we have one less flight from LGW (ie. UVF, ANU, KIN, MBJ, HAV not being daily services).

Good luck to those of you heading out to MCO. I'm sure that if you do incur a delay, we (the crew) will do all possible to make the time spent in the airport a bit more comfortable onboard....go for a large vodka (my personal fave!)

Regards
GV-GAV

[Darren Wheeler]

Thanks for that. Just goes to show that delays are ofter outside of VS's control.

Hi SFL we're on the VS027 is that the same as you ?

7 of us including our little niece and nephew [:o)] ( 34j }

Do you think they'll make up much time between now and then ?

We have a day in London tomorrow yehaa

Thanks G-VGAV [y]

[buns]

G-VGAV & Seats for Landing

Thanks for giving this issue some perspective. Sure, none of us welcome the delays, but when you realise that nobody is going out of their way to make these delays deliberate (especially crew who are anxious to get back home themselves) then we should just go with the flow.

When I next travel out to MCO, I will do my best to keep my cool

buns

What I'd like to know is, if the schedule, rotation et al can accomodate these almost permanently lengthy delays then there's obviously enough time in the day to continue to schedule the flights. Otherwise they'd just back up into insanity.

So what's actually wrong, is it the take off slot timings that are unrealistic?

I flew MCO-MAN on Sep 30th and used OLCI that morning as I usually do. Got to the airport on time to find the flight was badly delayed. I wasn't that bothered (I never am when it's the 'going to work' leg) but what really wound me up was receiving this helpful email informing me of the delay... sent 2 days after we'd landed. To make things worse, they sent six copies of it over the next hour! (There were just two travelling)

From: [email protected]
Subject: Important message from Virgin Atlantic
Date: 2 October 2008 09:08:04 BST
To: ****@*****.co.uk
Reply-To: [email protected]

We're sorry to advise that VS0076 30SEP has been delayed. The estimated departure time is now 2030. Please check in no later than 1915.

***********************************************************************************
Visit the Virgin Atlantic website for all the latest news and fantastic offers http://www.virgin.com/atlantic. This email (and any attachments) may contain privileged and/or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient please do not disclose, copy, distribute, disseminate or take any action in reliance on it. If you have received this message in error please reply and tell us and then delete all copies on your system. Any opinion on, or advice or information contained in this email is not necessarily that of Virgin Atlantic or its owners or officers. Virgin Atlantic shall have no liability (including in negligence) for any loss or damage that may arise in relation to this email (or any attachments to it) including viruses. Virgin Atlantic reserves the right to retain and monitor all email communications. Nothing in this email shall be deemed as forming or constituting a binding contract with, or representation on behalf of, Virgin Atlantic, its representatives, its clients or any member of the Virgin Group, unless expressly specified otherwise in writing. Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited. Registered office: Company Secretariat, The Office, Manor Royal, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 9NU.
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(I've read the terms several times and believe it's ok to publish here!)

If I'd known on time, I could've had a couple more hours by the pool, or even ironed my football shirt ready for the Chav'y flight home! [:w]

[Scrooge]

Also, as an FYI, LAS is down a runway from now until May 1st, they are expecting delays of up to 90 minutes at peak times, however the VS doesn't leave at a peak time, but expect knock on delays.

Hey guys any news on delays reciently on the LGW-MCO route?
Tom

A quick look on Expertflyer.com shows me

VS Reliability stats

VS27 Dep 11:15am - 22% / 68m
VS15 Dep 12:55pm - 25% / 114m

BA Reliability stats

BA2037 Dep 11:40am - 79% / 21m

That's pretty damming, only 22 - 25% leaving on time and between the two flights and AVERAGE delay of over 90mins ! god forbid you turn up when they're having a bad day [:(!]

Definition of those figures from Expertflyer.com is 'The Reliability is the On Time Percentage and the Average Delay in Minutes of the flight over the last two months.'

I'm due to fly out with VS on the 27th of Dec, and you know what - I'm beginning to dread it

I'm not sure that an average performance like that over the last 8 weeks can be put down to anything other than a serious institutionalised problem, no matter how pro-Virgin you may be ?

... or shoot me down in flames if I've missed something here

Ed

[Neil]

quote:Originally posted by teamstorm

I'm not sure that an average performance like that over the last 8 weeks can be put down to anything other than a serious institutionalised problem, no matter how pro-Virgin you may be ?

... or shoot me down in flames if I've missed something here

Ed


The whole LGW/MCO delay thing has been discussed to death in many threads on here including the 6 previous pages on this one. I don't think going over the same issues time and time again will prove anything than a waste of server space.

The MCO delays ex LGW happen for numerous reasons, some out of Virgin's control, some due to the systems they choose to operate. Whilst the delays are not good and I am sure Virgin would love all flights to be on time they seem happy enough with the way things work, the load figures are very good on this route so much so that Virgin have now added extra flights so whilst it might not be the right attitude, why should Virgin fix/change what works?

Neil