Andrew,

As Mark said the taxes/charges cover a wide range of items APD tax, Fuel Surcharge, passenger service charges, Insurance Surcharge, Security Surcharge.

Apart from APD (Air Passenger Duty), each operator’s charges are different. In the case of the pax service charge, these are different from airport to airport. Several of the large lo-cost operators have done ‘deals’ with airports to either reduce or negate passenger service charges, which is one of the reasons why their charges are generally lower than other operators.

There was a video somewhere on the net, showing the Capts side window opening, on a 737, during the take-off run. There was a camera on the flightdeck following the crew’s action during the event and another camera outside following the takeoff.

The video looked as if it was produced by Boeing as a training aid.

The Portugalia 145 (CS-TPJ) had the thrust reversers locked out when we had the aircraft on dry lease. For a short period (approx 6 weeks) prior to the UK authorities approving the dry lease, we operated TPJ as a wet lease with Portugalia crews. During this 6 week period the thrust reversers were still operative.

As for deliveries, the only one currently on the horizon is an ER3, which I understand was originally destined for Jetmagic. Although a ‘new’ aircraft it has been sitting at Embraer for quite a while, and requires a number of mods to bring it upto the current production standard. Delivery date is still TBC, but at the last update there was talk of it being delivered early next year (Jan/Feb).

If LCY ops did eventually start for our ER3’s I guess XJ and XK will be modified accordingly to give us a bit more flexibility. There are still a few hurdles to clear before we get to that stage.

Re the Jetmagic ER3’s, I don’t know if they were already modified prior to delivery or not. I can’t remember if Jetmagic had ER3’s in service prior to Embraer getting the ER3 approved for LCY ops.

WD,

To operate ex LCY, an ER3 will require thrust reversers, A1/3 engines and the steep approach mod.

I’ve sent you a pm with some of the current performance numbers. The ongoing work is with regards to such items as ‘grooved’ runway performance for takeoff/landing, restriced CG for takeoff and landing screen height (steep approach to a 35ft screen height instead of 50ft).

Even with the above, the landing performance will still be worse than take-off performance. Worst case would be a max-landing weight that would allow 30 pax, yet max take-off weight would allow 37 pax under the same conditions.

I understand what you say regarding take-off performance and generally that is what causes problems for us, especially when operating 1000nm+ sectors from runways that are under 2000m (6600ft) long.

If all goes well, the ATR MAY be replaced with an ER3 next Summer, but there are still a number of issues to be resolved.

Although the ER3 has been certified for LCY ops, as soon as the temp increases above 10°C and/or the runway is declared as wet, the performance takes a serious hit, especially landing performance – 99% of the time an ER3 would have to divert. It looks as if there are a number of solutions, which could resolve the performance issues. The company is currently working with the CAA, EASA and Embraer on these solutions.

On a side note the ATR is getting a very interesting bmi livery, it will be advertising the new bmi Carribean routes.

Explaination here: http://gassundertrykk.com/movie/index.html

There was a lively debate on PPRUNE, several months ago, about this video.

LCY runway lengths:

Rwy 10
TORA – 1199m
TODA – 1319m
ASDA – 1319m
LDA – 1319m

Rwy28
TORA – 1199m
TODA – 1385m
ASDA – 1319m
LDA – 1385m

Mark – There is a big difference – payload (8 seats for the Legacy V 37 seats for the ER3). The ER3 has serious performance issues at LCY, so serious that it is currently impossible to offer commerically viable ops ex LCY with an ER3, despite the type being certified for LCY ops.

If it was direct and operated by BA then maybe yes, but it is operated by a airline that people in Aberdeen will never of herd of and i cant see them doing much advertising.

It’s a very naive view, to assume if it isn’t BA then it will fail. We’ve been competing with BA for the past 12 years+ on routes ex-ABZ, with little or no advertising and we are still going strong.

People up here know that there are other airlines, apart from BA, that operate out of ABZ.