Astraeus

Sad to see them go, I still haven’t seen the Iron Maiden or even Iceland Express, hope they can be resurrected.

some to refresh the memory

rgds
EC

Here’s G-STRW in the blue from it;s blue scheme from when it was with Zoom.

G-STRW Astraeus B752 at Southend EGMC by AeroPics, on Flickr

And G-STRP, with a very friendly crew.

G-STRP Dubrovnik Airline A320 at Southend EGMC 2 by AeroPics, on Flickr

A terrible shame that Zoom, Dubrovnik Airline and Astraeus have now all gone!

Bruce may have a thought or two on the subject

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-15847720

G-STRY about to leave Norwich 10 days ago looking very pale ! It arrived as Iceland Express and left for pastures new ???? :confused:

Most of the issues have been ATC related. The aircraft operated to IBZ on Friday followed by MAH and took a very long routing back from IBZ to avoid French ATC delays. This knocked into the MAH flight but the overall delay was lower than it would have been if the original routing was maintained.

Saturday VRN + ALC flights operated bang on time. LPA was delayed by 35 minutes due to a minor technical snag. A/c got back 20 minutes late from LPA and went to AGP this morning on time at 07:35, using the “buffer time” in the schedule to catch up this delay.

ATC then caused an issue ex Malaga (aircraft was on the ground for 1 hour 37 minutes versus a scheduled turnround of 50 minutes, norm for the 737) and then the AGP-LBA and LBA-LCA-LBA sectors have been delayed as a result.

There is realistically little that can be done about ATC and the delays seem to have worsened over the last two months since some airspace changes two months ago.

Hope this helps to explain what’s happening.

It was last year from manchester (LBA is irrelevant), complaints about delays never make any difference, i did however fill in the feedback form on my return flight. I simply make the decision not to travel with them again. Its just annoying especially when you are stuck in a tiny airport with little seating areas for 5 hours, why they cant just keep you at the hotel till 2 hours before the flight is due to leave is beyond me. The schedule is the problem i.e. the turnarounds are too quick and no real catchup time built between fri/sun with the exception of the odd 10-15mins every 3rd/4th flight. They just need to get their act together, delays happen but their becomes a point when it becomes excessive and thats what annoys people!
Plus its not the number of flights thats the issue its the number of hours they spend in the air i.e. 14 flights to palma isnt excessive, 14 flights to tenerife would be!

MyTravel84
If you feel so angry about Astraeus-tell the company.
Or tell everyone else at – http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/astraeus.htm
They, like all airlines big or small,are in business to make money, oh, and to get you and me from A to B asap as cheap as poss.
They don’t want to be late either!
There will probably be penalty clauses in contracts with tour operators if X% of the flights are late/tech etc.
I’ve just come back from Zante with them – no problem either way.
Maybe I was lucky. maybe you (and everyone else) were unlucky that time.
I recall spending 7 pleasent hours in LBA departures when a little outfit called Mytravel (any relation?), decided to let the crew go down with food poisoning.
Would you rather Astraeus didn’t fly from LBA? or at all?

Yes but next summer there will be 4 extra flights, maybe if AEU also base an extra a/c part the week.

SSH might be operated by them if it goes ahead, where you get the other flights from? All just rumours at this stage.

Personally ive never expierenced them, but i must admit at Manchester, they doing ok, but they do have delays to often, They do have a really rubbish timetable. Im not sure how many planes are based at MAN but if one goes tech the whole Astraeus system shuts down, altough im not going to knock it till ive tried it, 😉

Jon

Yes but next summer there will be 4 extra flights, maybe if AEU also base an extra a/c part the week.

Charter airlines always work their aircraft hard during the summer, thats the time when they earn their money!

AEU currently offer 14 flights a week out of LBA, with only one flight on Wednesdays. I don’t personally think that is too much!

I think if Astreaus take on extra flights next year for Leeds next summer they need a 2nd based a/c, the poor planes airmiles must be constantly clocking up all the time.

Calm down MyTravel84… Geez!!!

LBA has the 737-700 based this summer, still seems to be some punctuality issues, whether that can be attributed to the aircraft I don’t know. Was G-STRH last night.

Astraeus are generally pathetic, flew with them to dubrovnik last year – delayed by 3 hours both ways. The reason they are always late is they use them all day/night between friday AM and sunday PM so any delays have a knock on effect due to short turnarounds. Plus if one plane has a large delay then they start p**sing around with the whole schedule to cover the delay so all flights are late. The 737-700’s are ok its the 737-300’s that cause all the trouble and basically effects the whole operation – i hate them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is the astraeus plane based at LBA covering the MyTravel flight?
If so, how long is MyTravel going to carry on using them? I see from the arrivals boards it is now running 90 minutes late on its 1st sector of the day; this is a common thing and was last year. I would be a little concerned if I were using them.
Why does the plane always seem to pick up delays so often? Any one got any ideas?

lmao

Is the astraeus plane based at LBA covering the MyTravel flight?
If so, how long is MyTravel going to carry on using them? I see from the arrivals boards it is now running 90 minutes late on its 1st sector of the day; this is a common thing and was last year. I would be a little concerned if I were using them.
Why does the plane always seem to pick up delays so often? Any one got any ideas?

Bruce flew the B737 for Astraeus before the B757 came into their fleet. The reason for the transfer (I prosume) is that he his already B757 type-rated from his days with British World.

Flex 35

Mr Dickinson flies the 757-200 based at London Gatwick

i thought Bruce Dickenson, had been transferred to the 757?

Does anyone know if the planned charters from BHD to Malaga are still going ahead – these were to start on 7 July then I read in local travel news that BMI A321s were being used instead due to an increase in capacity being needed – can anybody throw any light?