BAA Edinburgh showing nothing happening with or to the flights on live departures, but have just phoned @1 and they told me the flights have started. Odd.

Perhaps AlphaOne has adopted Ryanair-esque policies and are operating from Edinburgh-East Fortune Regional or Edinburgh-Cumbernauld International! :rolleyes: 😀

Andy

PS: Could have suggested Edinburgh (Abbotsinch) but that might start another war! :p

Am I the only one who finds it bizarre that yesterday AlphaOne were supposedly starting flights today, and yet today if the information posted here is correct the flight hasn’t operated? No, I’m probably not the only one who is not surprised by that! Yet more clap-trap from AlphaOne? Probably!

It could have been so different, but for reasons best known to themselves AlphaOne decided to put out one misleading statement after another, failed to deliver on commitments and promises time after time. IF passengers are stranded today, hopefully this will generate sufficient adverse publicity to drown the entire sad affair for good because it has become blantantly obvious that nothing said by AlphaOne can be relied on.

Andy

PS: If AlphaOne was operating today, wouldn’t you have expected the website to be updated with some PR about the first flight? If AlphaOne was operating today, would you not have expected the website to be updated regarding bookings (still says bookings will recommend 23rd November)? Of course you wouldn’t expect either of those things – its AlphaOne we’re talking about

The great spreadsheet shows I did my night rating over just two consecutive evenings, the 9th and 10th January 1998 – wow, nearly eight years ago! Since then, it seems my night total has increased to only 20 hours. Ah well, it was great fun – I hope you enjoy yours Dean – and it remains so even now as I’ve just clocked up my first 55 minutes night flying this winter (including the three landings that are they key to carrying passengers again). Fan hasn’t stopped yet, and if it does c’est la vie (or not, maybe!).

I use my night rating mainly as a “we don’t have to push on to get home before dark” rating – James May on Top Gear eat your heart out – and for that its worth maintaining IMHO.

Andy

The A320 and A321 were used on the Athens routes. It looks that the 320 was based at LGW and the 321 at LHR.

The A320 was based at LGW but operated from both LGW and LHR (one flight from each, each day) until VS got the slots at LHR for both services. The A320 was originally EI-VIR before it was G-OUZO – I flew on it LHR-ATH-ATH in May 1995 VS1002/VS1003 to spend a few days at the famous Emantina in Glafada – ah, happy memories!

Virgin also used several other non-standard aircraft, including several different Viscounts (only one at a time) on the LGW-Maastricht route:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/141879/L/

and several Irish registed 727s (operated by Club Air) on Med charters LONG before Virgin Sun was ever dreadmed of:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/307505/L/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/535265/L/

Andy

A225HVY,

The airport responded vigourously to the erroneous allegations printed in the local press, thankfully. Like I said though, the sad thing is that the long term consequences for enthusiasts are that far less advance “inside” information is going to be so forthcoming in future for obvious reasons. The lessons for here are that I hope none of us let our interests or views from outside of aviation (whatever they may be) contaminate all the good things internet message boards and forums can do for aviation enthusiasts.

Andy

Wish the bloody thing had never been to EMA now. Sadly, a “member” of the enthusiasts yahoogroup that covers the airport decided to use the information on the arrival of the 225 to further his own aims, which basically revolve around anti-airport and anti-noise campaigns. He got coverage in the local press as a result of this. In doing this, not only did he misrepresent the aircraft to the local media (claiming it required a noise exemption and was excessively poluting) but he also knocked the airport, saying it shouldn’t have allowed Primark to operate the charter because he claims it was bringing in cheap clothes made by exploited workers whilst UK textile workers were being made redundant. The long term consequence of this is that far less advance information is likely to be forthcoming if this or other interesting aircraft visit EMA in future.

I hope we all agree that whatever views we hold about the economical, environmental and political impacts of rapid air frieght, we should not allow those views to adversely impact the interest we AND OTHERS have in aviation.

Andy

The real problem with low-fare ops on LON-HKG is the sector times – 12 hours or more each way, plus turn times, means its not possible to do a daily op with one aeroplane. Operating at the same time each day (or every other day, or whatever) means quite a bit of aircraft downtime between flights which wrecks utilisation – this is one of the reasons why Cathay operate 747-400s to places like BKK and TPE, as these short sectors fill in the otherwise unproductive time between longhaul ops. It will be interesting to see whether this upstart can find other shorter haul work to bring its aircraft utilisation up to meaningful levels.

A

Should be fine, the A330 is a nice a/c in BMI config, seat back IFE (as does VS on the 744) including forward/downward cameras, although no VOD. Service and food is fine, just be aware that BMI will be charging for alcoholic drinks in steerage from January 1st.

Andy