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mongu

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August 12, 2004 at 10:40 pm in reply to: Boeing's response to A380 #700147

mongu
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Do you know anything about the 7E7 or the A380? How can you call them competitiors! You say Boeing should only concentrate on one project at a time, as Sandy says, I think they have the resources to concentrate on more than one, and if they cant they wont.

Off course the 7E7 and A380 are competitors. Sure, they are very different products with different abilities. But they are both aircraft!

An airline probably won’t buy both 7E7’s and A380’s. The capital cost is just too high for most carriers. But it is possible the same carrier would decide to (say) opt for the 7E7 to replace their 757/767 fleet and persevere with their 744s. Conversely, they could persevere with the 757/767 fleet if it’s new enough and replace their 747s with the A380.

They are competitors. They compete for the same dollar of airline capital expenditure.

August 12, 2004 at 10:20 pm in reply to: Qantas proposal for Boeing's non-stop 777 is still up in the air #700148

mongu
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19 hours is a very, very long time if you’re stuck in cattle class. That’s only a few hours less than the current 1-stop route. And at least by stopping, the journey is broken up.

I recently had some pretty miserable flights to Australia – both ways on a 777-300. The amount of personal space is derisory, and the 777 cabin cross section is just plain wrong. 3-4-3 or 3-3-3 seems too tight. This was with Emirates; my previous 777 flight was with BA and that also, was uncomfortable.

By contrast, 2-4-2 on an Airbus feels more spacious and is certainly more bearable. OK, it’s still very stingy in terms of personal space, and the legroom still sucks, but the elbow room and hip room is an improvement. And if you have a window seat, or the one next to the window, there is only 1 person next to you rather than 2, which helps.

I would probably pay a small premium in order to go the whole way on an A330/A340 rather than a 747/777.

August 4, 2004 at 12:02 pm in reply to: Pressurised Containers #714798

mongu
Participant

I always take deodorant in my cabin baggage, for long flights. Never had a problem with security or anything.

August 3, 2004 at 5:58 pm in reply to: Jetstar in the Sh*t again #716440

mongu
Participant

I seriously doubt there are any safety issues with Jetstar. There’s a fair amount of Qantas/Jetstar cross marketing and I would imagine a lot of the technical/engineering people are ex-Qantas.

August 3, 2004 at 5:55 pm in reply to: Russian Regional Jet – RRJ #716445

mongu
Participant

They badly need one or two high profile Western customers.

Russian aircraft still have a poor reputation for safety/reliability. Whilst this may be partly untrue, only by witnessing a reputable major western carrier place a large order will other carriers even start to consider the RRJ.

The makers will need to offer somebody a deal with vary good terms, as nobody wants to be first!

I don’t know who that could be, although BA will I think need to replace their 146/ RJ100 fleet before too much longer. Will they stick to Embraer and add more ERJ 145s and some 170s / 190s, or take a chance on Russia?

August 3, 2004 at 12:39 pm in reply to: IOM-MEL trip part 1 #430157

mongu
Participant

part 2

We were flying on Emirates Manchester-Melbourne via Dubai. Originally, the flight was DXB-MEL non-stop on the A340-500. That’s the main reason I booked Emirates, instead of SIA.

Unfortunately, Emirates cancelled our flight DXB-MEL and re-booked us on the next days flight. That was a 777-300 with a refuelling stop in SIN.

Anyway, all this involved having to have our tix revalidated at the Emirates ticket office at MAN. It also meant changing my connecting IOM-MAN flight with BA, as our trip now commenced on a Sunday rather than a Saturday. This resulted in a near 7 hour wait at MAN. I asked Emirates if, considering all the hassle they had caused by cancelling our flight, we could use their biz class lounge at MAN. I wasn’t asking for an upgrade, just somewhere to sit away from the crowds. They said no, because there was no lounge at MAN.

Are they REALLY saying that their Biz class passengers have no lounge to use? I find that a bit hard to believe!

The actual MAN-DXB flight was an A330-200 and we enjoyed it. What can I say – olde worlde IFE, albeit no worse than BA. The 2-4-2 seating is very good. Meals top notch. Cabin crew courteous.

The DXB layover was an anti climax – too crowded. We had time for some shopping (in flight survival gear – evian, choccies and nurofen!) but there was a lack of ATM’s to obtain cash.

DXB-MEL was unpleasant. I am not a fan of Emirates 777’s. The layout was 3-4-3 which was too tight. There was no personal space at all. The flight seemed overlong, probably due to refuelling at SIN. Is it not possible to fly direct, even on a “classic” A340, A332 or 772ER?

Again, meals were good and cabin crew attentive. IFE was better than the A330, due to a larger screen.

Conclusion: would do it again only if DXB-MEL was non stop. Otherwise, it is SIA next time. Would never again use Emirates if a 777 was scheduled.

August 3, 2004 at 12:14 pm in reply to: BA LHR-MIA #430161

mongu
Participant

BA are very dominant at T4. By moving some services to other terminals, they are still dominant at T4 but they increase their presence at the others.

I believe the management of the terminals is partly controlled by an “airline council” consisting of the carriers using that terminal. By having a greater voice in T3, BA can try to move things in their direction.

Just a hunch, but I guess that when T5 is ready BA will abandon T4. They will move a lot to T5, but also T3.

April 21, 2004 at 11:29 am in reply to: Bankrupt airlines. #675033

mongu
Participant

Going back to the original question:

1. The US has different laws to most other places. There is certainly no UK equivalent to chapter 9, 11 etc. Once a company is insolvent it must either take steps to secure the position (eg. getting creditors to agree to be nice) or it will be liquidated. This can be voluntary (members’ voluntary liquidation) or compulsory, if a creditor asks a Court to so order it. In that case, the Court will appoint a receiver, who essentially does the same job as the Liquidator would if the whole thing was voluntary.

2. The Liquidator has to pay off the creditors:

No. 1 – the tax man
No. 2 – anyone else, depending how they rank

3. Individual investors and customers generally get NO protection or pay outs at all. In the case of airlines, there is indeed a limited protection through ATOL or IATA or even the CAA – but that’s just airline industry regulations, not an instrument of legislation.

March 7, 2004 at 11:37 pm in reply to: Jetstar news #641831

mongu
Participant

So if Jet* inherit some of the Qantaslink 717’s, where does that leave Qantaslink?

March 5, 2004 at 11:29 pm in reply to: Will it ever be profitable a non-stop flight between London Heathrow and Sydney? #643716

mongu
Participant

Very interesting topic.

Personally I think that such a route would be viable, provided it were technologically feasible (which it isn’t).

Don’t make the mistake of confusing “Australia” with “Sydney”. It is only one city and personally far from my favourite.

LHR-SYD and LHR-MEL are roughly the same distance, but flights to other cities (eg. Perth) are closer – LHR-PER may be possible. A routing LHR-PER-SYD would be handy.

As for Euro airlines pulling out…

1. Lauda still flies to Australia using the 772.

2. The service ethic of some Euro airlines in the 80’s was a bit dated, compared to QF anyway.

February 28, 2004 at 10:56 pm in reply to: Your Longest Flight??? #651928

mongu
Participant

Longest non-stop was probably LHR-SIN (B 744)

Longest alltogether, was LGW-LUN via HRE where we weren’t allowed to disembark. About 16 hours gate to gate (B 742)

I’m flying MEL-DXB in July which will be the longest non-stop. (A 345)

February 28, 2004 at 10:40 am in reply to: SQ to Operate Longest Ever Flight #653330

mongu
Participant

I’m flying MEL-DXB in a few months, and I think it’s nonstop on the A345 (Emirates). How long will that take?

February 28, 2004 at 10:36 am in reply to: Ryanair…grrr #653337

mongu
Participant

Originally posted by Mark L
Sorry yeah, the guy next to me was going to LHR.

BTW I would expect the 146s to move on soon, BACX want to get rid of the 2 single ac bases (IOM and INV) but the problem lies in the fact that CX and BA ARE 2 seperate companies, and they have never ever exchanged routes before. However like you say the IOM flights from LGW (although not LTN I gather) are full, as are the INV ones pretty much, and the jump from a 146-300 to a 737-500 is not that great and would make for a more sensible business plan.

The LTN flight is wierd – only once a day, and I don’t think BA actually serve LTN from anywhere else do they? They pulled out of LPL ostensibly for that very reason (ie. silly to keep a base open when you only fly to one destination) so I would imagine LTN can’t last much longer.

People in the IOM genuinely believe that BA dislike them. If you’re ever at LGW or MAN, watch how the IOM flights are always the ones that get delayed. Then, there is the perception that BA use their C-grade cabin crew and D-grade aircraft on the IOM runs. Although you say it is really BACX and not BA, the fact remains that from a customer’s perspective its all the same thing, ie. mainline BA.

The preferred solution amongst the Manx travelling public and even the Manx Government, would be for BACX to close the IOM base and for mainline BA to serve IOM from only MAN and LGW. I believe BA think the same, and this will eventually happen.

5 flights a day to MAN is good, but sometimes there is only 3 or 4 and it is only a little Dash 8.

LGW only has 2 or 3 flights, which is nowhere near enough. It just about eliminates and connecting traffic, as nobody wants to hang around 7 or 8 hours at Gatwick! As I said earlier, go to 4 or 5x with a 735 and the bottom line will transform itself for BA.

February 28, 2004 at 10:25 am in reply to: LHR-MAN-IOM-MAN-LHR Flight report. #653356

mongu
Participant

About a mile after that EGNM. My fiancee is a teacher at a school in Ramsey and I was giving her a lift in.

February 28, 2004 at 10:22 am in reply to: BA for A330/A340 #653361

mongu
Participant

Excluding N Atlantic runs, every BA 744 flight I’ve been on has been more or less full.
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