Moderators: jsumali2, richierich, ua900, PanAm_DC10, hOMSaR
FLALEFTY wrote:CarbonFibre wrote:VNAP at LGW today going nowhere.
Photo: Chris Doggett.
I'm going to miss these beautiful, elegant planes. We used to see these here in MCO on occasion as temporary substitutes for the usual B744's.
Now the coundown starts to the eventual retirement of the B744's. It has been great seeing these big, old planes coming to our town every day. Does anyone have any insight when these Y-heavy 744's will be retired for the A350-1000's?
blacksoviet wrote:Why did Richard Branson prefer four engine aircraft?
crownvic wrote:So with the announcement today that Virgin is finished with their 747's what happens to a city like Orlando which had 5-6 747 visits a day?. I realize that it will never be the same again at least not in the forseeable future, but there was an article in the Orlando Senitnel that the Brits are still itching to come back to Orlando as soon as possible and that despite what is happening now in Great Britain some still have money saved for that Florida dream vacation...Is it possible they may reinstate them down the road?
FlyerTalkUserNa wrote:Just hoping the GLA flight makes a return at some point.
oldJoe wrote:crownvic wrote:So with the announcement today that Virgin is finished with their 747's what happens to a city like Orlando which had 5-6 747 visits a day?. I realize that it will never be the same again at least not in the forseeable future, but there was an article in the Orlando Senitnel that the Brits are still itching to come back to Orlando as soon as possible and that despite what is happening now in Great Britain some still have money saved for that Florida dream vacation...Is it possible they may reinstate them down the road?
No ! Keep in mind the UK have now the highest number of COVID19 deaths in Europe !
I think a survival mode is actually more important than travel to Orlando !?
crownvic wrote:So with the announcement today that Virgin is finished with their 747's what happens to a city like Orlando which had 5-6 747 visits a day?. I realize that it will never be the same again at least not in the forseeable future, but there was an article in the Orlando Senitnel that the Brits are still itching to come back to Orlando as soon as possible and that despite what is happening now in Great Britain some still have money saved for that Florida dream vacation...Is it possible they may reinstate them down the road?
oldJoe wrote:crownvic wrote:So with the announcement today that Virgin is finished with their 747's what happens to a city like Orlando which had 5-6 747 visits a day?. I realize that it will never be the same again at least not in the forseeable future, but there was an article in the Orlando Senitnel that the Brits are still itching to come back to Orlando as soon as possible and that despite what is happening now in Great Britain some still have money saved for that Florida dream vacation...Is it possible they may reinstate them down the road?
No ! Keep in mind the UK have now the highest number of COVID19 deaths in Europe !
I think a survival mode is actually more important than travel to Orlando !?
OMAAbound wrote:The 747’s to MCO were so low yielding, that without them going full, or 90%, they struggled to make any money. Only 14 Upper Seats are hardly going to turn much profit, when the majority of people are looking to ‘jut get there’ in economy.
I’d say going forward, Virgin won’t send any aircraft to MCO, let alone an A330 or a return of a 747.
Just my 10 cents
OMAA
OMAAbound wrote:I’d say going forward, Virgin won’t send any aircraft to MCO, let alone an A330 or a return of a 747.
DobboDobbo wrote:OMAAbound wrote:I’d say going forward, Virgin won’t send any aircraft to MCO, let alone an A330 or a return of a 747.
I’d be very surprised if VS disappeared from MCO - I was anticipating they would use a leisure configured A350 from MAN and LHR.
Kudos if your prediction is correct!
jomur wrote:oldJoe wrote:crownvic wrote:So with the announcement today that Virgin is finished with their 747's what happens to a city like Orlando which had 5-6 747 visits a day?. I realize that it will never be the same again at least not in the forseeable future, but there was an article in the Orlando Senitnel that the Brits are still itching to come back to Orlando as soon as possible and that despite what is happening now in Great Britain some still have money saved for that Florida dream vacation...Is it possible they may reinstate them down the road?
No ! Keep in mind the UK have now the highest number of COVID19 deaths in Europe !
I think a survival mode is actually more important than travel to Orlando !?
Without going off topic but its the way things are reported that make a huge difference in numbers.. the UK puts down as Covid19 any deaths that have been or suspected of having it whereas other countries put down the original ailment regardless of the person having Covid19.
OMAAbound wrote:The 747’s to MCO were so low yielding, that without them going full, or 90%, they struggled to make any money. Only 14 Upper Seats are hardly going to turn much profit, when the majority of people are looking to ‘jut get there’ in economy.
I’d say going forward, Virgin won’t send any aircraft to MCO, let alone an A330 or a return of a 747.
Just my 10 cents
OMAA
jfk777 wrote:The beach fleet 744 had only 14 Upper class seats but about 50 premium economy seats. a different market than JFK or LAX but not the dog some male out to be. What airline would send 5 744 a day to a city not making $$ ?
LTU330 wrote:I don't ever see them operating MCO out of LHR, and it will be very interesting to see what happens with MAN in the long term.
Boeing74741R wrote:jfk777 wrote:The beach fleet 744 had only 14 Upper class seats but about 50 premium economy seats. a different market than JFK or LAX but not the dog some male out to be. What airline would send 5 744 a day to a city not making $$ ?
Indeed. The config was 14 Upper, 66 PE and 375 Y. PE is a popular cabin and prices are normally double that of Y. I know this isn't reflective of all year round, however the last few times I've flown MAN-MCO they have all been outside the school holiday period and the 747's were over 90% full. On one flight, nearly every seat was occupied. I also see lots of reports of FC members travelling to MCO going via ATL etc. because they can't get any reward seats in Upper or PE on the direct flights. Clearly they wouldn't make reward seats available if VS could sell it instead to somebody paying with money and clearly they wouldn't have ordered as many A350's as they have to replace the 747's if it was low yielding and they can't profitably fill the plane - something that should theoretically be easier on an A350 anyway compared to a 747-400.LTU330 wrote:I don't ever see them operating MCO out of LHR, and it will be very interesting to see what happens with MAN in the long term.
I do. Last year they had up to 3 flights operating LGW-MCO. Combined with the immediate withdrawal from LGW, I would say MCO is too big of a market for both VS and Virgin Holidays to turn their backs on if their London ops are consolidated at LHR for the foreseeable future. I suspect MCO will be safe, albeit with less frequencies in the short-term. There's a few slots already available with EWR permanently cancelled and GRU launch aborted, plus I suspect they may also reduce the multiple frequencies to JFK and other places to reflect weakened demand in the short-term. It's probably one reason why they decided to withdraw from LGW as there will probably be enough slots available to serve the LGW destinations from LHR.
As for MAN, I did fear we would be back to the early-2000's when it was a solitary MCO route (anybody remember the two 747-200's VS sold to Air Atlanta and leased back specifically for this route?) or worse a total withdrawal, but after yesterday's announcement it was good to see a commitment to the MAN market. There is a Clubhouse due to open this year, one major competitor in the MAN-US market is not around anymore and I saw last week the DEL route launching in October on a seasonal basis is now going to be a year-round route, so if VS do survive they're going to have a good go at it.
What will be interesting is how long it will be before they ever return to LGW given they're holding on to the slots. I presume they will be leased out in the meantime.
simonriat wrote:Well that was lucky for us then. And a big thank you to all a netters, who helped my family choose.
Last Marchish, I came on here to ask for our trip to Orlando, in October (2019), which we should choose. Virgin 747 upper deck, or Tui 787. We chose the 744 upper deck. Looks like that experience will never be repeated again.
Once the UK is back flying again properly, it will be interesting to see numbers from the UK returning to the USA. I wonder how much Trumps handling / comments on the crisis, has hindered tourism?
jomur wrote:So who would be interested in leasing slots when its highly likely they would be able to get slots free from the airport itself considering Norwegian would be in the same situation re slots as they are not due to fly again from LGW until April '21 at the earliest if the survive that long. And BA would have slots to lease out/give back as well.
Ishrion wrote:Virgin Atlantic's news release shows it only flying GLA-MCO next year? Not JFK, ATL, and LAX?
https://corporate.virginatlantic.com/gb ... edule.html
Nicknuzzii wrote:Interesting move in my opinion,. They are planning GLA-JFK/MCO/ATL/LAX.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thesco ... bados/amp/
Polot wrote:Ishrion wrote:Virgin Atlantic's news release shows it only flying GLA-MCO next year? Not JFK, ATL, and LAX?
https://corporate.virginatlantic.com/gb ... edule.html
Yes, the Sun misinterpreted the COO’s quote, which was referencing all of GLA, Belfast, and MAN.
GLA can’t support MCO, JFK, ATL, and LAX, even pre-crisis.
aemoreira1981 wrote:The only one that would make sense is GLA-MCO on an Airbus A330-300. The others can be fed through JFK, which can be served on a B752 or A21N (even a standard A21N if with at least 1 aux tank should make it).
usdcaguy wrote:I see GLA-MCO being feasible maybe twice a week next year. Since the Brits are getting 80% of their salary if they are unemployed during the pandemic, they might be able to make up for the shortfall Disney and Universal will have next year, when millions of Americans will still be unemployed.
jfklganyc wrote:They should concentrate on staying in business...
JannEejit wrote:jfklganyc wrote:They should concentrate on staying in business...
Doing business seems a reasonably good way of staying in business to me, these GLA-MCO flights have traditionally been very well taken up and booked heavily in advance. I don't know the stats exactly...