SkymonsterThis was, I believe, DHL UK’s 2nd new 767-300 G-DHLF ferrying to Greensborough after handover, for winglet fitting. After handover at Everett, export aircraft are typically ferried abroad for tax/legal reasons and under normal circumstances it might be expected that G-DHLF would have come to the UK, but Boeing don’t fit winglets to newbuild 767s and the work has been contracted to a company at Greensborough NC.
FWIW, the first DHL UK 767 G-DHLE has been at Greensborough for a couple of weeks and should be ferrying to the UK next week.
Andy
SkymonsterIf you’re not into reading Spanish, easiest place if you’re reliant on public transport is the “mound” between the old terminals (T1/2/3) and the new terminal T4 (used by IB and OneWorld carriers) – its the locations on P11 of that pdf.
On arrival at T1/2/3 (easy, Ryan, Spanair, etc), take the metro/underground one stop in the direction AWAY from Madrid city, to Barajas station – IIRC it costs about EUR0.50. Turn left out of Barajas metro station and about a 500m walk will bring you to the mound – just follow your nose and the aircraft noise. No catering, no facilities, but a view over one of the very busy taxiways which is used extensively whichever runways are in use. Fence might be in the bottom of the pics (which are better for sun in the afternoon), but that’s about all the downside. Area is well used by spotters/photographers so shouldn’t create problems.
If you arriving T4, then I’m not sure whether the metro now goes to that terminal or whether you’d need a landside transfer bus to T1/2/3 and then take the metro…
Most other locations at MAD require a car or some Spanish to deal with taxi drivers.
Andy
SkymonsterI think, black kettle, that the issue is that we ARE passionate about the business, and are concerned about what Ryanair is doing to it…
I guess, if you’re a plane-spotter, Scumbag O’Riley’s airline has done some good in bringing hundreds more 737s to this country to “spot”. And, if you’re a champion of cheaper fares over-riding all else, then Ryanair have brought cheaper fares to the masses. Just as you claim (arguable in some cases IMHO) that the “legacy” cartel destroyed the new comers, so you must understand that Ryanair’s objectives are similar. Just look at the wishfull thinking painted on to the side of some of his 737s to realise he and Ryanair are NO champion of a totally level playing field either – Ryanair are simply Ryanair champions. Period.
The issue many have is – at what cost Ryanair? Just as Tesco has been accused of damaging its suppliers (particularly the UK farming industry) in its constant driving down costs and its exploitation of cheap labour (from the far east), so Ryanair is doing much the same by exerting unreasonable cost pressure on its suppliers like airports and handling agents. But I say again, I am no socialist that expects everyone to be paid a certain amount, nor am I a supporter of corporations exploiting their position to make excessive profits, but Ryanair is damaging the supply chain by putting excessive and unreasonable downward pressure on other’s costs (and in leveraging unjustifiably high charges for add-ons itself for that matter), and when things go wrong it is never Ryanair’s faul – it is always either their suppliers or their customers that suffer.
Manchester airport needs to make an honest buck for providing terminals, roads, runways, taxiways, fences, security, lighting and heating, etc, etc. that Ryanair and its customers rely on. So well done MAG for standing their ground and insisting that they can’t provide a service at an unreasonably low price – the price Ryanair wanted probably both not allowing MAG to make MAG any money and also putting MAG into a difficult situation with their other tennant airlines. Taking a different sort of cost, have you ever heard Ryanair being vocal about things like – for example – excessive Eurocontrol charges? No, not often. See, Ryanair can moan about and threaten to throw its toys out of its pram if it doesn’t get its way on airport charges, but things like Eurocontrol charges are a bit more fixed and it knows it isn’t going to make any movement or get much sympathy on those
So I’ll say it again – if £3 is what it is necessary to charge to put a passenger through Manchester airport whilst making a reasonable margin on their operations, then I believe MAG has every right to insist on that price and no passenger really has a right to expect to pay less. Just as I believe Tesco should not exert such downward pressure on [for example] the production of milk that farmers find it impossible to make a living producing milk – milk that cheap is just not a price worth paying – so I believe Ryanair should not be able to do the same with airports and handling agents, etc. And if that means Ryanair’s air fares have to go up, or that Ryanair cannot itself make money on its Manchester operations, then it is not Manchester airport that is wrong but Ryanair’s business model that is wrong.
Andy
SkymonsterVery good words from Interflug62M in posts 30 and 32 – hitting the proverbial nails on the head.
Indeed I flew to Hahn from the very MAN in the news last week…..£12 rtn all in… Seems good to me and I leave it to the commercial outfits called airports to look after themselves.Can’t remember them doing me any favours!
It is quite simple really – aside from selected “loss leaders” (in much the same way as supermarkets sometimes sell selected products below cost), £12 return to Hahn is just not sustainable. I don’t mean sustainable to Ryanair – I care not how they chose to make their money – but not sustainable overall, full stop.
“Commercial outfits called airports” put a roof on the checkin halls, provide car parks and roads, runways and taxiways, piers, fire and other emergency services, security equipment and staff, etc… All are infrastructure needed to operate passenger flights, and the list goes on and on. Other “commercial outfits” provide air traffic control services, etc. Then there’s the direct operating costs of any flight to consider, like fuel. And leave aside for one moment the very valid issues of climate impact (and I’m only leaving that aside as, for now, there isn’t a viable ring-fenced offset for the damage INCREASING aviation will do).
Simply put, you cannot move someone to Hahn and back for £12. Yes, as I said above, there can be occasional loss leaders, but for these sorts of activities to be sustainable to Ryanair, Ryanair has to gouge its own suppliers – oh, and treat its customers badly when things go wrong because there’s no wriggle room to treat customers any better. Clearly, some of the recent problems that have beset Ryanair, including the Stadsted baggage debacle, are down to their forcing down costs and penny pinching – forcing down handling charges means lower staff wages, means less committed staff, means more sickness, means lack of service. Of course, when these things do happen, its NEVER Ryanair’s fault – NOT! So Ryanairs’ operation is effectively subsidised by airports, ground handlers and the like. And when the airports kick back in the name of making a fair buck for themselves – to provide the infrastructure and services upon which Ryanair depends – then Ryanair throws its toys out of the pram (stroller!).
The low-fare model has done some good – yes, there were artificially inflated prices and collusion in the old “legacy” system, and the low-fare sector has done much to end this. However, there are compassionate low-fares, and ruthless low-fares. Having look at many, a Southwest-style model is so much more acceptable than Ryanair’s approach. Fares HAVE to go up in the future in order for the industry to operate on a reasonable basis, where each part of the supply chain makes a fair (not over-inflated, and not loss-making) return for the service they provide – and in future, where environmental impacts of aviation growth are also paid for.
No one has a right to fly for free (or next to nothing) at someone else’s expense, and when the travelling public get used to paying a fair price for a fair service – and that probably means round trip fares to Germany being closer to three figures and one – then some semblance of normality will return. It WILL happen, sooner or later.
If I was putting my minimal life savings on EI or RYR to survive and prosper,it wouldn’t be on EI !!
EI as a brand may not survive, and part of that will be down to Ryanair and its predatory policies. I will bet two other things – (1) if EI go, Ryanair will get more expensive in Dublin, and (2) Ryanair may well out-survive Aer Lingus, but it will have to change over time too.
Andy
SkymonsterIt is amazing that Scumbag O’Riley wants others like MAG to lower their charges, and yet I’ll bet he isn’t lowering his credit card, baggage and checkin charges the poor sods who fly with him often end up paying. Seems like on Ryanair’s terms, only Ryanair is allowed to make/take money. Well done Manchester – here’s hoping that more airports stand firm against the Irish plague on viable aviation.
Andy
PS: Haven’t seen any corresponding new route announcements from EMA, LPL etc yet… Makes me wonder whether its all rhetoric and, like others have said, a way of trying to divert blame from losses to others
PPS: Seem to remember O’Riley pulling all routes except DUB out of BHX too, when that airport wouldn’t reduce its charges… And yet, now they’re back plagueing BHX again (albeit not putting in the amount of aircraft they originally suggested they would)… They’ll probably come back to MAN when they see others making money on routes they could have been operating.
SkymonsterYou’re getting slow Skymonster 😉 check post 124
Too much anti-Boeing/anti-Airbus crap in this topic to wade through it all – I did look, but obviously just missed 124
I don’t think anyone really wants to see a program like the 787 delayed and delayed – or worse, fail. Most of the rhetoric is, if we’re honest, not really against the program but rather is Airbus fanboys winding up Boeing fans, after Boeing fanboys wound up Airbus fans over the A380 fiasco. Teams “loyal” to rivals taunting each other, as in football – that’s all.
Andy
Skymonsterthere goes the neighbourhood.
You know the drift – in the USA, the mantra always used to be “Another full Southwest flight, another deserted trailer park” whereas in the UK it should be “Another full Ryanair flight, another deserted council estate” 😀
Andy
SkymonsterYet more problems just come to light for the “Plastic Pig” – this time fuselage wrinkles and a stop work order from Boeing to Alenia – although it seems it can be fixed with more re-inforcement of the areas concerned
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2009658959_boeing14.html
Andy
SkymonsterSo you all think that the nimbys are wrong. You wouldn’t mind your house/village/street/school/shops/parks etc etc being levelled then!
Eventually the NIMBY’s won’t have a choice – sooner or later infrastructure such as high-speed rail has to be built for the good of the country as a whole. It is the same with many major projects, be they railways, airports & runways, power stations, quaries, whatever… The selfish NIMBY’s always want the economic and social advantages that comes from these projects, but not to have them come nearby. The problem is that in this country successive governments have been too weak-willed to tell the NIMBY’s to foxtrot-oscar to somewhere else if they don’t want a project near them.
Andy
SkymonsterRyanair use ground stairs, usually two sets one at front and one at back (aircraft only has option of front airstairs). Quicker to position and remove than either the airstairs or jetways, less likely to go u/s, allows for offload/onload both front and back, and cheaper than fitting the factory airstairs option. Furthermore, lower aircraft weight without airstairs allows for reduction in landing fees at many airports (at the airline I used to work for we used to remove the 737 airstairs when they were on long-term cheapy work to save money on landing fees).
A
Skymonsterps; I notice Ryanair’s biggest fanboy on this forum has been remarkably quiet on this subject… No doubt there’ll be a view that Scumbag O’Riley’s halo is still intact and its all Swissport to blame, but as I say when you pay peanuts you get monkies – Irish monkies, not Swiss monkies
SkymonsterInterflug62M – sorry then, I’ll clarify my previous post…
I was calling Ryanair monkies, not Swissport. I know how it works at my local airport… Ryanair have gradually constrained the ground handlers more and more – wanting to pay less, reducing the service level, etc. End result is that the ground handling is run on a shoe-string and whilst I accept that the ground handlers need to deliver a certain level of service, with the margins they’re on they pay very very low wages for doing what is in effect a crappy job, and ultimately that isn’t good for staff moral and absence increases. Ryanair consistantly put severe downwards pressure on all of their suppliers, and thus ultimately they only have themselves to blame when things get a little nasty.
Actually, at the end of the day with ANY airline (not that I ever have or will fly Ryanair), passengers should care not who handles the flight – if anything goes wrong, it is airline the passenger has a contractual relationship with and it is the airline that should be held responsible and it is the airline that must drive the fixing of the problem. With Ryanair, this situation is even worse as those inconvenienced the most had paid a PREMIUM to have their bag handled and Ryanair failed to deliver.
Andy
SkymonsterI think C-FETB is the only runner now and that may be on borrowed time if not already down – I believe N720PW has been grounded, N720H has been scrapped, and an SP has recently been registered in Canada!
Andy
SkymonsterAs usual – pay peanuts, get monkies. Why anyone would want to fly Ryanair and run the considerable risk of getting jerked around by those clowns is beyond me – its just not worth it, IMHO.
Andy
SkymonsterAs far as I recall (and I use EMT to London fairly regularly too), all EMT trains have “East Midlands Trains” branding on the sides now. And undoubtedly, the train tickets are endorsed “First Capital Connect only”. Thus, it is largely down to the stupidity of those buying the tickets and getting onto the wrong trains – either that, or the passengers know what they are doing getting onto the better EMT trains and are trying it on, hoping that they won’t get snagged for holding the wrong tickets.
Andy
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