Tobias2702 From Germany, joined Sep 2008, 503 posts, RR: 0 Posted (1 year 7 months 2 days 8 hours ago) and read 15929 times:
Hi guys, sorry if this should have been posted before. I just came across an announcment in a German aviation forum suggesting that LH will use a 747 on some domestic flights during September:
dennys From France, joined May 2001, 695 posts, RR: 1 Reply 6, posted (1 year 7 months 2 days 4 hours ago) and read 14996 times:
Dear Tobias Many thanks this very good news ! I remember LH using 747 Fra Haj for the Haj fair , but also remember some 747 and A340s locally used Fra-Muc locally from Time to Time . anyway LH is suite right to use thé 744 on short flights for very huge capacity as nô other aircraft can carry up to 500 pax on our days . I do wish LH Will mâle thé same flights when they havé received their 747-8i
kind regards
dennys
pylon101 From Russia, joined Feb 2008, 1389 posts, RR: 2 Reply 7, posted (1 year 7 months 2 days 2 hours ago) and read 14567 times:
Why can't we imagine that it's first signs of using widebodies on intra-European routes?
They do exist - but mostly unnoticed.
Say, Iberia has A-342 on MAD-Tenerife Norte route every day - for years.
lufthansi From Germany, joined May 2002, 449 posts, RR: 2 Reply 8, posted (1 year 7 months 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 13714 times:
Currently they don't have enough A320 Pilots. A few months ago they offered those pilots part time jobs because of the economic crysis. Now they're short of them. Quit many of them started to study and are not willing to give it up just because LH "is not able to plan ahead". That's what I've been told by the crews. Of course all other pilots (737, 747 etc.) fly at the maximum too right now. I heard a lot of pilots moaning around about a lot of "5 leg days". And they have to do 5 of them in a row. That's not peanuts. I also know some student pilots are currently at SunExpress and Air Berlin to keep their licences current. I don't think that LH can order them back before those contracts ended. By the way: LH pilots don't want LH CityLine pilots flying "their" routes. But AB and SunExpress have to accept LH pilots in their cockpits. Quite interesting. LH owns nearly every airline over here
mbe0002 From Germany, joined Feb 2007, 22 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (1 year 7 months 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 12831 times:
Quoting dennys (Reply 6): huge capacity as nô other aircraft can carry up to 500 pax
A Saturday morning flight FRA-MUC at 7.05h is usually not that kind of flight on which you need 500 seats...
Quoting pylon101 (Reply 7): Iberia has A-342 on MAD-Tenerife Norte route every day - for years.
IB serves also FRA-MAD once a week by A340 (cargo space needed) and BA comes to FRA with B767 regurarly. But you are right: I also miss the A300s and A310s on many european routes...
flyinTLow From Germany, joined Oct 2004, 487 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (1 year 7 months 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 11637 times:
Quoting lufthansi (Reply 8): Currently they don't have enough A320 Pilots. A few months ago they offered those pilots part time jobs because of the economic crysis. Now they're short of them.
Well to be honest, that makes absolutly no sense to then send a 747 that way. Yes, there's a slight shortage of pilots, but September is not one of those 150% months anymore. Shortage is most notable June to August, as that is the peak summer holiday time in Europe.
And also, the 747 pilots don't fly that much less overtime either. They have the same shortage, and "wasting" work-days, which are regulated in the labor contracts as well, on such short hops is just a waste of time. And not too much from the pilots point if view, but much more from the cabin point of view.
It cannot really be the aircraft status either. LH has and still is taking delivery of many new A320 family aircraft. They have enough spares, and judging by their rotations, their utilisation could be increased.
Vanguard737 From United States of America, joined Aug 2001, 647 posts, RR: 5 Reply 16, posted (1 year 7 months 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 8892 times:
Is it just me, or does Oktoberfest not seem like a logical answer? I assume loads will be quite heavy for the entire domestic system, with many connecting flights to Munich warranting the added capacity.
Tobias2702 From Germany, joined Sep 2008, 503 posts, RR: 0 Reply 18, posted (1 year 7 months 1 day 13 hours ago) and read 8137 times:
Quoting Vanguard737 (Reply 17): Is it just me, or does Oktoberfest not seem like a logical answer? I assume loads will be quite heavy for the entire domestic system, with many connecting flights to Munich warranting the added capacity.
Quoting bohica (Reply 18): I was thinking exactly the same thing as soon as I saw the thread title.
But only three of these 30 flights are going to MUC... Berlin and Hamburg are linked with MUC by LH on a high-frequency schedule (and there are competitors like AB or 4U), so I just cannot image that there are thus many additional pax who need to be routed through FRA.
--Tobias--
PA, AF, UK, BA, AB, DL, LH, FR, BD, A3, EZY, DY //// A319/320/346, B733/735/73G/738/744/763, AT4, 146, CR2
columba From Germany, joined Dec 2004, 6355 posts, RR: 5 Reply 19, posted (1 year 7 months 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 7234 times:
Quoting lufthansi (Reply 8): Currently they don't have enough A320 Pilots. A few months ago they offered those pilots part time jobs because of the economic crysis
But why the 747 then and not the A330/A340 ? It has to be either pilot training or capacity. I am also curious how they will handle a regular 747 flight with passenger in TXL.
Quoting Vanguard737 (Reply 17): Is it just me, or does Oktoberfest not seem like a logical answer? I assume loads will be quite heavy for the entire domestic system, with many connecting flights to Munich warranting the added capacity.
There also FRA-HAM and FRA-TXL flights so Oktoberfest is unlikely. Also if Oktoberfest would mean heavy loads we would have seen A346 and 747 used every year on these routes.
Another idea, the first A380s are replacing 747s so these aircraft are free for other flights. Before pilots and aircraft sit around in FRA without work it is better to use them on some domestic flights.
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans - John Lennon
Burkhard From Germany, joined Nov 2006, 3808 posts, RR: 2 Reply 20, posted (1 year 7 months 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 6818 times:
Quoting lufthansi (Reply 8): LH owns nearly every airline over here
Just to make sure, Air Berlin does have some contracts with LH, but LH does not own Air Berlin.
Of all the explanations, the hiring of new cabin crew and training of them on 744 before they go long range, given that the 744 is less stressed due to the arrival of Her Majesty the Empress of the Skies may combine to let this make sense.
Of all the explanations, the hiring of new cabin crew and training of them on 744 before they go long range, given that the 744 is less stressed due to the arrival of Her Majesty the Empress of the Skies may combine to let this make sense.
Quoting stylo777 (Reply 14): dont forget they currently hiring cabin staff again, so this might be a familirasation flight
Yes, they are hiring like crazy. But again, training cabin crew on a full-house 30 minute flight from FRA to MUC, makes absolutly no sense. New cabin crew with LH fly only long-range first, familirizing with the service procedures on their long-range aircraft, where they have enough time to receive feedbacks and extra crew to look over their shoulder.
The Oktoberfest doesn't start untill 18.09.2010, so the first flight to MUC would not really make sense there. On the other hand, that is the last day of summer vacation in Bavaria I think.
airbazar From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 5959 posts, RR: 9 Reply 22, posted (1 year 7 months 1 day 6 hours ago) and read 5683 times:
Quoting flyinTLow (Reply 22): Yes, they are hiring like crazy. But again, training cabin crew on a full-house 30 minute flight from FRA to MUC, makes absolutly no sense.
Excuse me? That's exactly how you train new crew. That's what LH did for the A380 crew training. AF sent their A380 training flights to LHR from CDG. SQ performes their crew training on SIN-KUL and SIN-CGK.
LHFADUS From Germany, joined Apr 2007, 98 posts, RR: 0 Reply 23, posted (1 year 7 months 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 5627 times:
Quoting airbazar (Reply 24): Excuse me? That's exactly how you train new crew. That's what LH did for the A380 crew training. AF sent their A380 training flights to LHR from CDG. SQ performes their crew training on SIN-KUL and SIN-CGK.
flyinTLow was referring to cabin training. A380 training flights were for pilot training only, not for cabin. And they were only necessary because the A380 is brand new to the fleet. These B744 flights are in no way training flights.
So far, nothing has been made public within LH about these flights. However a coleague of mine remembered, that LH was intending to do testflights with bio-fuel on one of their B744s.
robffm2 From Germany, joined Dec 2006, 1055 posts, RR: 0 Reply 24, posted (1 year 7 months 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 5466 times:
Quoting LHFADUS (Reply 25):
flyinTLow was referring to cabin training. A380 training flights were for pilot training only, not for cabin. And they were only necessary because the A380 is brand new to the fleet. These B744 flights are in no way training flights.
In another forum it was said that some 747 cockpit crews will move to the A380 and therefore the September runs might be trainging for new 747 cockpit crews.
Whether this is true or not I don't know. I would think it would be more logical to train the A340/A330 crews for the A380. But what do I know.
25 LHFADUS: LH has had new cockpit crews on 747 before, but never did they send 747s on domestic for training them. New cockpit crew members always fly with expe
26 LHFADUS: This is the correct answer! I started a thread in an internal forum for LH employees, hoping to find out why the B747 is going domestic from Septembe
27 Tobias2702: Are you implying that the domesitic 747-usage of LH is to stay beyond September?
28 LHFADUS: No, it was not my intention to imply anything...! But I personally could imagine, that this is not going to be the only month with higher-than-A321-c
29 Birdwatching: How safe is it that the exact flights mentioned in the original post are going to be op by 744? I'm about to book myself on a FRA-TXL trip for one nig
31 LHFADUS: Probably yes, depending on each fleet's capacity throughout the next months or so.
32 Birdwatching: Could anybody give me an opinion about how safe it would be to book one of these flights, and how probable an equipment change is? I know it is alway
33 PHKLM: Ehm, but why would you want to do that? There's easier ways of booking yourself on a (LH) Boeing 747-400 flight...
34 robffm2: Because it's fun to be on such a short hop on a widebody? And it's much cheaper and takes less time than any other regular flight on Lufthansa's 747.
35 stylo777: and if you guys are lucky enough you gonna get the 747 with AVOD and the new intercont seats in Economy
36 lh526: why should they? It all went good without domestic widebody training flights over the last decades ... all pure speculation.
37 PHKLM: Why would it be more fun to fly a wide-body on short hops? On a small plane you get the true sensation of flying, and to experience all the comfort o
38 330lover: If it is scheduled with a few hours on ground in FRA, why not deploy it on these services. Better than parking it. But Have to agree on this point. T
39 FlyingAlex: I'll agree on the time aspect, but I'd personally rather grab one LH's 299€ specials to TLV (where you're all but guaranteed to get a 744) than a 9
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