Matt-100It’s funny how the family and friends of people like Mr Duggan always make them seem like little angels who would never hurt anybody…
“The inquest was shown police briefings which said Mr Duggan was a senior member of a gang called Tottenham Man Dem, he had previously been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and possession of guns, and on the day that he was shot he was being followed by police.” – BBC
But let’s get into the policeman’s shoes. You have a high reason to believe the suspect is armed (due to previous, and subsequently proven correct, intelligence reports that Duggan had just collected a firearm). The suspect is disobeying police orders. The suspect reaches into his pocket (although it is now believed he was reaching for a mobile phone).
In the split second the police have in these situations, are you telling me that if it were you you wouldn’t shoot him? I know I probably would have done, because the second he can get his hands on that firearm (supposedly in his pocket) you’re dead.
and the use of such ‘civil’ weaponry will drive tourists away.?
Why? You think the police are going to use it on the tourists? 😀 If anything it should make them feel safer when travelling abroad to know the police have this as an option… I can’t remember the last time I said “I’m not going to France, Germany or the Netherlands because their police all use water canons”.
Matt-100It’s funny how the family and friends of people like Mr Duggan always make them seem like little angels who would never hurt anybody…
“The inquest was shown police briefings which said Mr Duggan was a senior member of a gang called Tottenham Man Dem, he had previously been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and possession of guns, and on the day that he was shot he was being followed by police.” – BBC
But let’s get into the policeman’s shoes. You have a high reason to believe the suspect is armed (due to previous, and subsequently proven correct, intelligence reports that Duggan had just collected a firearm). The suspect is disobeying police orders. The suspect reaches into his pocket (although it is now believed he was reaching for a mobile phone).
In the split second the police have in these situations, are you telling me that if it were you you wouldn’t shoot him? I know I probably would have done, because the second he can get his hands on that firearm (supposedly in his pocket) you’re dead.
and the use of such ‘civil’ weaponry will drive tourists away.?
Why? You think the police are going to use it on the tourists? 😀 If anything it should make them feel safer when travelling abroad to know the police have this as an option… I can’t remember the last time I said “I’m not going to France, Germany or the Netherlands because their police all use water canons”.
Matt-100The Embraer E-series is fast becoming yesterday’s aeroplane, and I’m guessing this has something to do with the tiny CF34’s they have hanging under the wings – I’m guessing low air pressure and high fuel burn?
Matt-100I wonder how they get the funding for this deal? Kuwait is hardly a large airline… or a profitable one. It makes me wonder what kind of competitive financing Airbus offers to small middle eastern airlines that Boeing doesn’t? MEA and Royal Jordanian also operate all Airbus (plus a few Embraer) fleets. Or is it that Airbus have better performance figures in the hot arid desert areas?
Matt-100Knock yourself out
http://www.airbus.com/aircraftfamilies/passengeraircraft/a380family/specifications/
Google’s a marvelous thing.
Matt-100Can we expect Ryanair to be doing this?
I actually think Ryanair has had a change of heart of late and dare I say they’ve become more ‘easyJetish’. They’ve slashed baggage fees in half (to £35 per bag) and raised the limit from 15kgs to 20kgs, you can now take on-board duty free bags bought at the airport as hand luggage plus their websites had a clean up too.
Not sure if these superficial changes are enough to make me fly Ryanair, and in answer to your question not until hell freezes over so long as MOL’s in charge 😉
Matt-100It might be worth considering what your break even point is and work out an average ticket price from that, rather then setting a price and then trying to make the numbers work around that figure.
Load Factor
It’s probably reasonable to assume you can hit load factors of 95%+, many flyers look for the cheapest option and if you are that option you’ll get the business. I’ll use myself as an example, when I fly to New York or Washington I often use Icelandair – even though I have to stop off for 1:30 in Reykjavik, the return fare’s usually £200+ cheaper compared to the legacies.
When Norwegian Air announced it’s transatlantic service at the start of this year sales went through the roof, I think at it’s peak the airline was receiving a passenger booking for one of its transatlantic flights every 3 seconds… With this in mind, 95% isn’t far fetched and may actually be an under-estimate.
Just last month they extended that service to cover Gatwick with one-way fares to New York starting at £149… (an additional £30 option entitles you to 1 hold bag, a meal, and seat allocation). Although bare in mind this is the super off-peak fare booking over a year in advance, looking at a return flight in August 2014 you’ll be paying around £630 return (including the 2 x £30 option)… Which is still around £300 cheaper than BA for the same dates.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/10/17/us-norwegianair-expansion-idUKBRE99G0EY20131017
Getting back on track, 95% of 290 seats is 276. I’ll use this figure for the basic calculations.
Fuel
I gave a figure of £29,000 previously, I’ll just give a run-down of how I got that. It’s very crude I’ll admit, but I’m sure it’s an accurate rough estimate.
The range of the 767-200ER is 6385 nautical miles. A 4000 nautical mile trip to the south east coast of the US is 63% of this.
The fuel capacity of the 767-200ER is 24,140 gallons. 63% of this is 15,208 gallons (presumably how much you need to do the 4000 miles?)
Currently the price of Jet-A fuel per gallon is around 302 cents ($3.02), which aquatints to 185 pence (£1.85).
http://www.iata.org/publications/economics/fuel-monitor/Pages/price-analysis.aspx
15,208 gallons x £1.85 per gallon = £28,134.80 (the price of fuel must have fallen since I last did the calculation :rolleyes: )
This works out at around £102 per passenger (based on the 276 load factor figure).
Lease
The 767 is probably one of the least demanded wide-bodies around at the moment (along with the A340), it’s fuel burn per passenger is simply too high for airlines to consider it as a viable option. However, this does mean you can lease them out on the cheap. I’d estimate a ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance & insurance) wet lease to be in the region of $400,000 a month, now assuming the aircraft can perform 60 sectors a month (2 a day). It’s around $6667 a flight, or £4080.
Per passenger around £15 (again based on the above 276 figure).
Airport Fees
£275.86 for an aircraft between 55-250 metric tonnes to land at Stansted (off-peak).
Fixed fee of £137.52 per departure.
Estimated parking charges; £225.
Miscellaneous ground charges; £400 (covering everything from removing waste-water, to paying for check in desks).
http://www.stanstedairport.com/media/4167/stal_conditions_of_use_%202013_14.pdf
(I’ll assume the fees are similar for your arrival airport in the US). Total fees: £1038.38
Average per passenger (276) = ~£4
Administration
All the behind-the-scenes work that goes into operating a flight, flight operations is a huge part of any airline – yet one of those things no passenger will ever see.
I’m going to throw it out there and say I don’t know! :stupid: Maybe £3000 per flight as an guesstimate including ground staff salary?
I’ll add another £4000 for the numerous little things I’ve bound to have neglected during my calculations along the way.
So forgotten entities + administration = £7000 (per passenger ~£25).
Totals
£28,134.80 + £4080 + £1038.38 + £3000 + £4000 = £40,253.18
Per passenger = £145.84
After including the £97.50 discussed in my first reply (APD etc.) that brings the grand total per passenger per sector to £243.34 (or £486.68 return).
You can bring this break-even price down as cloud_9 says through the sale of on-board products and luggage etc. So maybe a break-even price of £420 return isn’t unreasonable?
A 5% profit margin is reasonable, so sales price will be around £441.
British Airways LHR-MIA for October 2014 (I assume this is off-peak ish?) £698.75, obviously charter airlines will fly you there for less but it would appear I’ve just knocked £260 off the flag carrier’s price.
EDIT: I’ve just realised an error in my calculations; you don’t need to pay APD on the return leg. I believe the US equivalent is around £20. So instead of £441, the return fare will be around £394. Cheap as chips! 😮
Matt-100Nice idea, and at £99 (or even at an average of £170) a pop I expect that is within the consumer’s “ignition price”. Stelios has a theory that it doesn’t matter between which two airports you fly between in the world, if the price is low enough (the “ignition price”) then the demand from passengers will always be there.
However, you can’t make a profit on a transatlantic ticket of £99 – no matter how stingy you are on the in-flight amenities or how many sardines you fit into your sardine can. By law, airlines registered within the EU have to show all passenger charges and surcharges on advertised tickets – so that £99 has to include the £67 UK Air Passenger Duty. Say you fly from Stansted? They have a £10.50 passenger handling fee. Arriving in the USA? Then you’re looking at another £20 once you pay all the federal security and immigration taxes and fees.
After paying all that you then have around £1.50 towards operating the flight…. you don’t need a masters in accounting to realise that’s not going to cover it.
Even with the average fare, after you’ve paid all your taxes and passenger fees you’ll have around £70 per passenger. The 767-200ER has a maximum capacity of 290, so you’ll have around £20,000 in revenue to cover your costs. Sound like a lot, but once you take away your estimated £29,000 fuel bill, lease, staff costs, administration and landing fees you’re financially screwed.
There’s a reason why low cost transatlantic travel hasn’t taken off, and that’s because the competition between the legacy carriers already offer rock bottom fares.
Matt-100“Still, Daley stops short of using either the term “gay” or “bisexual.” “Of course I still fancy girls,” he says. “But I mean, right now I’m dating a guy and I couldn’t be happier. It makes me feel safe and just really does feel right.”
Sounds as though he doesn’t know what he is….
Sounds like the kind of thing his publicist made him say to ensure he keeps his young female fan base. I’m happy for him, young LGBT’s need more gay role models, so hopefully with the broadly positive response Tom’s had more will start poking their heads out the closet.
Matt-100“Still, Daley stops short of using either the term “gay” or “bisexual.” “Of course I still fancy girls,” he says. “But I mean, right now I’m dating a guy and I couldn’t be happier. It makes me feel safe and just really does feel right.”
Sounds as though he doesn’t know what he is….
Sounds like the kind of thing his publicist made him say to ensure he keeps his young female fan base. I’m happy for him, young LGBT’s need more gay role models, so hopefully with the broadly positive response Tom’s had more will start poking their heads out the closet.
Matt-100I can only assume with the likes of Emirates they’re stealing a march on the Asian carriers.
It’s no secret that demand for air travel in Asia will soar over the coming decades, I can only assume the Middle Eastern carriers are setting up shop early to swallow up the market before the lumbering Asian airlines have a chance to catch up… That’s fine, assuming the Asian governments just stand by and let the Arabs walk in and take their home-grown airline’s customers from their hands.
I doubt it will be that simple though, let’s not forget who buys (or will buy) the majority of Arabian oil over the coming decades. Best not bite the hand that feeds you… Politics, politics and some more politics are the order of the day, and the key to the Emirate airline’s growth.
Matt-100The borrowers need to travel too 😉
Matt-100Unfamiliar with the local area, plus night-time conditions, plus poor visibility, plus a bad case of “getthereitus”, it’s really not that surprising this happened. You only have to look on the maps to see all 3 airport runways run parallel to each other, if you’re making a visual approach and not looking to hard at your GPS I can see where the error occurred.
Matt-100Hilarious! The pilot sounds very embarrassed when he announces he’s just landed at the wrong airport http://www.buzzfeed.com/passantino/massive-plane-mistakenly-lands-at-a-tiny-kansas-airport-and
Thankfully they managed to stop in the available landing space, otherwise this might not have been such a laughing matter.
Matt-100I’m aware that airlines wet-lease their aircraft to other airlines, but I didn’t take into consideration the fact that the operating carrier’s flight code is used.
I should have known better (feeling :stupid: & 😮 now).
I’m actually as surprised as you are about the flight codes! I’m guessing it has something to do with the fact the flight crews are from Jet?
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