Andaman From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Posted (7 years 6 months 3 weeks 2 days 6 hours ago) and read 12144 times:
This winter AY flies MD-11 twice a week HEL - AGP (in Southern-Spain).
The flight takes about 4,5h.
My shortest flight (3h) on AY's MD-11 was HEL - STN in early 1990s, that time London was a relatively inexpensive destination for Finnish shoppers... those where the days.
At Christmas (24. and 25. Dec) Finnair's MD-11s from Japan will make extra stops in RVN in Lapland, before arriving in HEL. I assume they won't take new passengers from RVN, just bringing Japanese tourists to meet Santa.
Ahlfors From Canada, joined Oct 2000, 1318 posts, RR: 5 Reply 1, posted (7 years 6 months 3 weeks 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 12014 times:
AY quite often uses MD-11s to the sun destinations in Southern Europe, especially AGP, but sometimes also the Canaries, southern Italy, and southern Greece.
Levg79 From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 989 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (7 years 6 months 3 weeks 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 11990 times:
Andaman From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (7 years 6 months 3 weeks 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 11977 times:
Actually AY use MD-11 for the European holiday flights rarely any more, they are needed more in Asia. This winter all MD-11s will get new angled lie-flat seats for C-class, will be difficult to use them for holiday flights.
UpperDeck79 From Finland, joined Feb 2005, 1139 posts, RR: 2 Reply 4, posted (7 years 6 months 3 weeks 2 days 3 hours ago) and read 11956 times:
Quoting Andaman (Thread starter): My shortest flight (3h) on AY's MD-11 was HEL - STN in early 1990s, that time London was a relatively inexpensive destination for Finnish shoppers... those where the days.
I flew that same sector on AY DC-10-30 in 1993, IIRC.
Quoting Andaman (Thread starter): At Christmas (24. and 25. Dec) Finnair's MD-11s from Japan will make extra stops in RVN in Lapland, before arriving in HEL. I assume they won't take new passengers from RVN, just bringing Japanese tourists to meet Santa.
At least last year they DID take new passengers from RVN, but only the ones connecting to HEL-NRT.
Orion737 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 5, posted (7 years 6 months 3 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 11787 times:
I am suprised to hear that Finnair no longer use the MD11s on busywinter charter flights. Las Palmas is very popular with Finns in winter and their DC10s and later MD11s were very frequent visitors.
I know the 757s do the holiday flights for AY but I would have thought destinations like LPA and TFS would demand a larger wide bodied aircraft in winter.
RedChili From Norway, joined Jul 2005, 2053 posts, RR: 2 Reply 6, posted (7 years 6 months 3 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 11723 times:
Quoting Orion737 (Reply 5): I am suprised to hear that Finnair no longer use the MD11s on busywinter charter flights. Las Palmas is very popular with Finns in winter and their DC10s and later MD11s were very frequent visitors.
A few years ago they had one MD-11 configured as a leisure airplane, and 3 MD-11s as long-haul. But they needed extra capacity for their long haul fleet, so they put the leisure MD-11 on the long-haul flights, and bought two 757s to replace that one MD-11. Those two 757s actually had more capacity than one MD-11, and the change also meant that their leisure fleet became standardized at one type only.
Matt From Canada, joined May 1999, 679 posts, RR: 2 Reply 7, posted (7 years 6 months 3 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 11715 times:
On a related note, can anyone explain why, in economy class, the Finnair MD11s have 9 seats abreast from rows 21 to 30, and then 10 seats abreast for the rest?
Kiwiandrew From New Zealand, joined Jun 2005, 8435 posts, RR: 14 Reply 8, posted (7 years 6 months 3 weeks 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 11688 times:
Quoting Matt (Reply 7): On a related note, can anyone explain why, in economy class, the Finnair MD11s have 9 seats abreast from rows 21 to 30, and then 10 seats abreast for the rest?
10 abreast on an MD-11 - that must be tight - how do they cope on their JFK flights with "generously-built" American backsides . Does anyone else out there have 10 abreast on MD-11 ? This is the same fuselage cross section as the DC-10 which originally was designed as 8 abreast economy - and people thought it was getting tight back in the late '70s when most airlines changed from 8 to 9 across .
Moderation in all things ... including moderation ;-)
RedChili From Norway, joined Jul 2005, 2053 posts, RR: 2 Reply 9, posted (7 years 6 months 3 weeks 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 11666 times:
Quoting Matt (Reply 7): On a related note, can anyone explain why, in economy class, the Finnair MD11s have 9 seats abreast from rows 21 to 30, and then 10 seats abreast for the rest?
Austrian is doing the same on the 777. 9 abreast between rows 11-31, and 10 abreast between rows 32-47.
Maybe they put frequent flyers and full-fare economy passengers on the 9 abreast rows? Just my guess.
LordHowe From Finland, joined Jan 2003, 728 posts, RR: 1 Reply 11, posted (7 years 6 months 3 weeks 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 11573 times:
Quoting Matt (Reply 7): why, in economy class, the Finnair MD11s have 9 seats abreast from rows 21 to 30, and then 10 seats abreast for the rest
It dates back to the time when AY planned to have economy plus cabin on rows 21-30. I do not know if they ever actually did have or not. But the truth is that AY has a lot of "charter passengers" - ie. holiday package passengers - on their long haul routes, especially HEL-BKK-HEL which is to become once again (partly) twice daily route during the peak winter schedule. The charters were planned to get their seats in the back. Nowadays its not like that - you can get your seat where ever.
Ten abreast is real pain during a ten hour flight to BKK.
On HEL-JFK-HEL route there are more russian passengers than "generously built" americans.
Magyarorszag From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 13, posted (7 years 6 months 3 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 11390 times:
In fact, AY first MD-11 flight was an intra-European (that flight was also the very first commercial service by an Eleven). It was HEL-TFS on the 20th December 1990, and from what I remember, AY had a MD-11 in an all Y-configuration, seating something like 410 passengers, before getting its B752.
Lufthansa747 From Philippines, joined May 1999, 3174 posts, RR: 47 Reply 15, posted (7 years 6 months 3 weeks 1 day 14 hours ago) and read 11281 times:
Quoting LordHowe (Reply 14): I would say much less than 400 pax - earlier (1980s) AY had a DC-10 in only charter use and it had 345 seats all economy.
LGD seated 403 or something, but definitely over 400.
JAGflyer From Canada, joined Aug 2004, 3321 posts, RR: 4 Reply 17, posted (7 years 6 months 3 weeks 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 10945 times:
Are a good amount of pax on AY's JFK-HEL flights origin/destination pax. From what I heard last HEL is a main gateway for pax travelling to Russia and the former USSR.
Supported the beer and soda can industry, recycle old airplanes!
Andaman From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 18, posted (7 years 6 months 3 weeks 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 10632 times:
Quoting JAGflyer (Reply 17): Are a good amount of pax on AY's JFK-HEL flights origin/destination pax. From what I heard last HEL is a main gateway for pax travelling to Russia and the former USSR.
Don't know the situation now but AY used to have problems with the Russian passangers on board, to make them use safety belts, to not smoke etc.
GlobeTrekker From Netherlands, joined Dec 2003, 851 posts, RR: 16 Reply 19, posted (7 years 6 months 3 weeks 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 10453 times:
3 weeks ago I flew HEL-PEK and PVG-HEL on an AY MD11. This gave me the opportunity to compare AY's MD11 ro KLM's MD11. At my station we mostly handle KLM MD11's and I flew that aircraft more times than I can count, both in Biz and Eco. KLM has a configuration of 2-4-3, while AY has 3-4-3.
Seems to me that in the end you get about the same amount pax on the aircraft, but because the 3-4-3 configuration you get more legroom than KLM.
Globe Trekker / AMS
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