We had a thread about this a couple of weeks ago, but I didn’t update with the latest. The latest is that VarigLog, the former cargo arm of Varig, bought the airoine for $24m, but assumed its huge debts with that. The creditors didn’t want varigLog to buy the airline, because from their perspective they’d be better off if the airoine was declared fully bankrupt, but in the end the bankruptcy judge overuled their votes and sold the airline. VarigLog wanted to cancle most flights to start again, but the regulator wouldn’t let them. Here…

VarigLog holding company buys Varig for $24m
Rainer Uphoff, Madrid (21Jul06, 01:22 GMT, 429 words)

After overcoming numerous judicial obstacles, VarigLog’s holding company Volo has finally acquired Brazil’s Star Alliance carrier Varig in an auction.

The owner of Varig’s former cargo unit is paying $24 million for the bankrupt carrier, the minimum tender allowed. Volo was the sole bidder in today’s auction.

Volo, which is controlled by the US investment fund Matlin Patterson, still needs authorisation from Brazil’s CAA before the acquisition is effective. However, observers believe the approval VarigLog’s acquisition in 2005 should have resolved the main concern, foreign ownership.

The buyer has committed to invest $500 million in the newly purchased airline, now referred to as ‘new Varig’, including an immediate $75 million cash recapitalisation within 48h and another $75 million investment within 30 days. The remainder will be used to service certain post bankruptcy debts.

Volo has purchased the rights to use Varig’s brand and that of its regional subsidiary, Rio-Sul, as well as the carrier’s recently reduced fleet and route network. Currently, the carrier has only 13 operational aircraft serving a network of 25 domestic and international destinations.

The new owner says its immediate priorities include an increase of this fleet to at least 25 aircraft. Volo also says Varig’s work force will be reduced to less to 2,000 employees, down from the 10,000 employed at the beginning of the year.

Under the ‘new Varig’ recovery plan, all historic debts will stay with the ‘old Varig’, which will continue to be controlled by the carrier’s seller, the Rubem Berta Foundation (RBF), a deal that has been criticized by several creditors.

The ‘old Varig’ will retain an active air operator’s certificate and will fly a single aircraft as Nordeste, the name of Varig’s former regional subsidiary for northern Brazil. To pay off part of the debt, which is estimated at about $3.2 billion, the company will receive an annual royalty payment of at least $20 million for the next 20 years from ‘new Varig’.

A Varig spokesman tells ATI that the airline’s president Marcelo Bottini will continue in his role during the transition to the new owners and management.

According to a source close to Volo, the ‘new Varig’ owner is “well aware that bringing Varig back to its former position as Latin America’s leading airline” will require “huge investments” for which it has already “established contacts” with “important international institutional and industry investors”.

Canadian and Portuguese investors feature heavily in this plan, adds the source, although the source declined to confirm if this included Star Alliance carrier TAP Portugal, which has shown an interest in purchasing a debt free Varig.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news

And here…

Varig forced to restore network early
Rainer Uphoff, Madrid (24Jul06, 09:38 GMT, 211 words)

Varig has restored some of its domestic and international operations despite low load factors, after the Brazilian CAA (ANAC) rejected a request by the carrier’s new owners to ground most of its flights for a week.

The Brazilian carrier’s new owners, the holding company of former cargo subsidiary VarigLog, took the decision to cancel virtually all flights for a week after gaining control of the carrier on 21 July.

This was to avoid an “unnecessary drain on cash” from operating empty aircraft after the carrier’s difficulties prompted a massive migration of passengers to competitors, as well to give it time to restructure its network in line with its reduced operational capacity. During this restructuring period, only flights on Brazil’s busiest route between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro were to be maintained.

But following the ANAC ruling, which prevents Varig from requiring other carriers to endorse its tickets, the airline will operate a core network of domestic flights, as well as the international routes to Buenos Aires and the Venezuelan city of Caracas, albeit with a lower frequency.

Varig says Frankfurt, London, Miami and New York will also be served, although not with its normal schedule. Frankfurt will be the only long haul route which will continue to be served daily.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news

I’m surprised nobody has mentioned LCY. Canary Wharf right beside you on approach (or take-off depending on runway in use), the River Thames, the City of London, its a superb ride, try it.

You will notice for example, a Jet2 737-300 would have a greater payload restriction at LBA than a 777-200.
This is why they had range problems with some longer destinations.

A complicated subject but useful to compare non the less.

Another good example is 767s from MAN, theoretically they should be fine, but when BA operated to LAX they often suffered payload restrictions, wheras the 747s and 777s that operate NS to Asia are generally fine.

Insted of giving balanced field lengths I will give you the ISA sea level take-off and landing distances. All of these distances could increase if the altitude of the airport is greater than sea level (which the majority are to some extent) or the temperature is higher. Similarly though the distances could be less if the aircraft is not to be fully loaded or the configuration is well below those that the standard field lengths are determined from.
Airbus aircraft:
A300B4-200, T/O 2850m, Landing 1625m
A310-300, T/O 2290, Landing 1490m
A319-100, T/O 1950m, Landing 1450m
A321-200, T/O 2180, Landing 1577m
A330-200, T/O 2220m, Landing 1750m
A340-600, 3100m, Landing 2100m

Boeing:
B737-300, T/O 1939m, Landing 1396m
B737-800, T/O 2240, Landing 1660m
B747-200B (I was confused by the 200B(M) designation, I think you mean a 200B Combi, the M designation for Combi’s was only introduced with the 400 series)..
T/O 3190, Landing 2100m (for the combi, or 1890m for the normal 200B, T/O the same)
B747-400, T/O 3033m, Landing 2179m
B757-200, T/O 2347, Landing 1555m
B767-200, T/O 1770, Landing 1478m
B767-200ER, T/O 2600m, Landing 1524m
B767-300, T/O 2545m, Landing 1631m
B767-300ER, T/O 2713m, Landing 1676m
B777-200ER, T/O 3030m, Landing 1630m
B777-200LR, T/O 2898m, Landing 1675m
B777-300ER, T/O 3260m, Landing 1920m

Others:
Embraer RJ135LR, T/O 1650m, Landing 1370m
BAe-146-300, T/O 1585m, Landing 1265m
Avro RJ100, T/O 1535, Landing 1270m
Fokker F50, T/O 890m, Landing 1017m
DC-8-73F, T/O 3048m, Landing 1981m

You’ll probably wonder why some aircraft types listed operate from airports with shorter runways, but its to do with the payload and range, so they may not be flying the full range of the aircraft and so may not be carrying full fuel, and therefore can take-off over a shorter distance. Its all complicated! Were you thinking of any particular airports?

I could give you the balanced field length (taken as an AVERAGE only) for most types on your list, but it’ll have to wait until later/tomorrow and I suspect others may answer your question first. As Jethro says though there are A LOT of factors which dictate the field lengths of aircraft.

Just be warned though, that if you fly with EZY or RYR (in particular, but not exclusively) and you are delayed, you may not be allowed to board and consequently you may find yourself stuck somewhere unexpectedly. Also think about the sector lengths, if you want to have 4 sectors in a day then you’re not likely to want to fly to far up country…maybe you do though, I don’t know. Why not do something exciting and fly LGW-GLA-BRR-GLA-LGW, then you can land on a beach!