Virgin Atlantic - Service changes 2008 / 2009

[Nottingham Nick]

As originally posted by kered, please see the following link that gives the latest details of flight cancellations and amendments involving Virgin Atlantic flights to and from the following airports - IAD, BGI, UVF, ANU, JFK, MCO and BOM.

The flights affected are currently on various dates between September 2008 and the end of February 2009.

Link to Virgin Atlantic website.

Link to list of airport 3 letter codes. [8D]


Nick

Makes sense to start these kind of cuts given the climate.

I wonder if the MCO cuts are partly to do with the upgrade of the MCO fleet to have these extra legroom Y seats done. Currently only one a/c has the extra legroom seats.

[Neil]

Thanks for posting that Nick.

I imagine it is a combination of various factors causing the cancellations, climate, maintenance, config changes, lack of demand on seasonal routes. It certainly makes sense for VS to do this, I would much rather see a reduced service rather than VS putting themselves in financial difficulties.

VS regularly cuts the VS 27 for a couple of weeks in January, they've done it for the last few years.

I read somewhere that the LGW 744s (except LIP), plus WOW (I think it's a total of eight aircraft) are booked for visits to KLM E&M at Amsterdam during the coming months for C or D checks.

It seems to be a big hit of maintenance for the 744 fleet at the moment.

G-VBIG was in AMS for over a month (from mid-May) for what I guess was a D check, FAB was away for about 10-14 days (so probably a C check), and ROC has been out at KLM since the end of July.

Mike

Do you think this is 'all' the changes, or will there be more each month?

I am being just a little selfish, as we are booked LGW > UVF in October, with PE seats booked upstairs!

Hi
I flew home from MCO on March 9th this year and a 744 Captain was dead-heading home on the flight. We had a great chat at the bar, and he was telling me that all the LGW / MAN 744's were due in for at least 4 weeks work at KLM this summer, he had just taken one there the week before.
On a funny note, there was note room for the number 1. He had to go to LGW and was not too happy

35'000 feet and lovin it
bungy

[Nottingham Nick]

A lot has happened since that flight - bungy.

See this long thread that started in June, when the LGW refits were called off because of the current economic difficulties.

Nick

Originally posted by Nottingham Nick
A lot has happened since that flight - bungy.

See this long thread that started in June, when the LGW refits were called off because of the current economic difficulties.

Still wouldn't stop essential maintenance, and by that I mean mechanical, airframe and avionic maintenance, which is separate from cabin refurbishment, needing to take place. It's this essential maintenance which KLM take care of for the VS 744 fleet.

The info I got about the LGW/MAN fleet all cycling through KLM during the Autumn (and probably into 2009) was fairly recent, only a couple of weeks ago, long after the LGW/MAN interior upgrade was temporarily shelved.

Serious interior refit work (suites, IFE replacement, new seating, etc.) on the 744 fleet is more usually done by SR Technics at Dublin, in any case, not at KLM.

Mike

It is quite possible that VS will rather use the quiet season to do maintenance on their LGW/MAN services. It does inconvenience pax, but not as much as the damn things falling apart around their ears (i.e. shoddy insides, technical faults etc) that leaves pax swearing that they'll never ever fly VS again.

Reputations are easily lost on small things (as has been clear in the past), and VS has a hard-earned one.

S.

[Darren Wheeler]

Hopefully this period will mean essential maintenance to keep the aircraft safe will get done, be it a C or D check.

Looking on the CAA Database a number of Certificate of Airworthiness are due to be renewed in the run up to the new year. 5 of the LGW/MAN aircraft are the 747-443's and are much newer then the 41R and 4Q8 models.

As I've pointed out before, neither the Trip Reports here or over on TheDibb indicate the cabins on any aircraft are 'falling apart around their ears'

Interesting to see where there are reductions and where there are not:

BOS - no
ORD - yes
LAS - no
LAX - yes
MIA - no
JFK - yes
EWR - no
MCO - yes
SFO - no
IAD - yes
CPT - no
JNB - no
LOS - no
NBO - no
PVG - yes
DEL - no
DXB - no
HKG - yes
BOM - yes
NRT - yes
ANU - yes
BGI - yes
HAV - no
CRU - no
KIN - no
UVF - yes
TAB - no
SYD - no
MRU - no

I think that shows which ones work best over the winter! Think I got them all too ...

It has been mentioned elsewhere, far east flights to PVG/HKG/NRT been reduced, and slinky09 confirmed this as well.

Where did you find that information? Nothing on VS website, while making quite a number of bookings for the coming months on these routes, I haven't noticed any reductios (any missing dates) at all.

[honey lamb]

Originally posted by Snow
It has been mentioned elsewhere, far east flights to PVG/HKG/NRT been reduced, and slinky09 confirmed this as well.

Where did you find that information? Nothing on VS website, while making quite a number of bookings for the coming months on these routes, I haven't noticed any reductios (any missing dates) at all.

It's on the link on Nottingham Nick's original post on this thread. In many instances the cancellations have been where there is more than one flight a day to destinations or where destination in the Caribbean can be combined

Originally posted by Snow
Where did you find that information? Nothing on VS website, while making quite a number of bookings for the coming months on these routes, I haven't noticed any reductios (any missing dates) at all.

There is some information on the VS Web site, other notes have been posted by staffers and collated by NNick of course.

Hello,

Is the Kingston route summer-only? Also, in general when does Glasgow-Orlando operate?

[HighFlyer]

quote:
Is the Kingston route summer-only? Also, in general when does Glasgow-Orlando operate?


KIN is a scheduled 'year round' route that operates twice weekly.

GLA-ORD is seasonal, if you do a dummy booking it will show you the dates the route is running but essentially it generally starts in April and finishes in October.

Thanks,
Sarah

Glasgow to Orlando dates as follows

3rd Oct 08 / 4th Oct 08 / 11 Oct 08 / 3rd Apr 09 / 11 Apr 09 / 19th Jun 09 / 4th Jul 09 / 11th Jul 09 / 2nd Oct 09 / 3rd Oct 09 / 10th Oct 09

Orlando to Glasgow on the following dates

17th Oct 08 / 18th Oct 08 / 25th Oct 08 / 17th Apr 09 / 25th Apr 09 / 3rd Jul 09 / 18th Jul 09 / 25th Jul 09 / 16th Oct 09 / 17th Oct 09

So looks like only 8 flights planned for next year ..... so far

David

quote:Originally posted by David
Glasgow to Orlando dates as follows

3rd Oct 08 / 4th Oct 08 / 11 Oct 08 / 3rd Apr 09 / 11 Apr 09 / 19th Jun 09 / 4th Jul 09 / 11th Jul 09 / 2nd Oct 09 / 3rd Oct 09 / 10th Oct 09

Orlando to Glasgow on the following dates

17th Oct 08 / 18th Oct 08 / 25th Oct 08 / 17th Apr 09 / 25th Apr 09 / 3rd Jul 09 / 18th Jul 09 / 25th Jul 09 / 16th Oct 09 / 17th Oct 09

So looks like only 8 flights planned for next year ..... so far

David



Actually, when playing about with the dates, there seems to be one or two more ie 4th april, 10th april, so it looks like its the friday and saturday days for departures around the first set of dates [y]

[honey lamb]

quote:Originally posted by David
quote:Originally posted by David
Glasgow to Orlando dates as follows

3rd Oct 08 / 4th Oct 08 / 11 Oct 08 / 3rd Apr 09 / 11 Apr 09 / 19th Jun 09 / 4th Jul 09 / 11th Jul 09 / 2nd Oct 09 / 3rd Oct 09 / 10th Oct 09

Orlando to Glasgow on the following dates

17th Oct 08 / 18th Oct 08 / 25th Oct 08 / 17th Apr 09 / 25th Apr 09 / 3rd Jul 09 / 18th Jul 09 / 25th Jul 09 / 16th Oct 09 / 17th Oct 09

So looks like only 8 flights planned for next year ..... so far

David



Actually, when playing about with the dates, there seems to be one or two more ie 4th april, 10th april, so it looks like its the friday and saturday days for departures around the first set of dates [y]

No doubt because it's Easter [:D]

A number of cancellations and equipment changes for the summer are listed here:

http://airlineroute.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... ation.html

Note that BOS is going to 4 flights a week in August!

[Nottingham Nick]

Saw that on FT.

I have absolutely no reason to doubt its accuracy, but it isn't an official VS announcement.

VS website is still showing 7 flights a week to BOS in August.

Nick