How Do European Football (soccer) Teams Travel?

MrHMSH · Tue Apr 26, 2016 4:43 pm

So I noticed today that FC Bayern Munich travelled to Madrid today on an LH A346, and it's a fairly regular occurrence that they fly LH.

But what I'd like to know is how do the teams regularly competing in Europe get around, whether that's a specific airline or a specific method (e.g. charter).

Regards,

Martin

Gazdon121 · Tue Apr 26, 2016 5:25 pm

Most of the British teams use Titan Airways

33lspotter · Tue Apr 26, 2016 5:32 pm

LFC used a private 767-200 when they came to the U.S. in 2014, but from what I've read they mostly use Titan 737s and 757s for matches in Europe.

One interesting one we saw in the U.S. was when the Spanish national team came to the Northeast in 2011, flew an IB A346 into PVD. It stood out, that's for sure!

LSZH34 · Tue Apr 26, 2016 5:43 pm

Quoting MrHMSH (Thread starter):
So I noticed today that FC Bayern Munich travelled to Madrid today on an LH A346, and it's a fairly regular occurrence that they fly LH.

Because they have a partnership.

zkojq · Tue Apr 26, 2016 6:07 pm

My beloved OGC Nice seems to regularly charter Dorner 328 Jets from Sun Air:

OY-NCT:

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Photo © T.Laurent
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http://www.instagram.com/p/vIq9r_r7C4/

OY-NCJ:

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Photo © Jacques Lienard
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OY-JJH:

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Photo © Kas van Zonneveld
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They also seem to use the occasional Air France Hop flight:
http://www.instagram.com/p/BAU0Yn0L7Oc/
http://www.instagram.com/p/wQr6ukL7F_/

Not sure what this one is:
http://www.instagram.com/p/ruO-4Gr7Ho/

LH748 · Tue Apr 26, 2016 6:21 pm

The German national team is flying exclusively on LH as Lufthansa is one of the main sponsors.
When they won the world championship they got the 747-8 "Siegerflieger" (winner's plane) for their flight from GIG to TXL.

I believe Spain is usually onbaord IB.

AirbusA6 · Tue Apr 26, 2016 6:31 pm

England used a charter plane to get to the Brazil World Cup in 2014. (BA said they couldn't spare any planes... VS flew to team to South Africa in 2010)

33lspotter · Tue Apr 26, 2016 6:42 pm

Obviously some of the planes used by clubs have unique configurations, but what is the standard class of service for teams traveling on, say, a standard BA, VS, or LH plane? My inclination is to say J, simply because most planes don't have enough F seating for it to be feasible for everyone to have their own F seat — even the BA 747/777/A380s have a max of 14F if I'm not mistaken. (Picturing Hodgson sleeping in his suite while the rest of the lads "suffer" in J.)

flyingturtle · Tue Apr 26, 2016 7:07 pm

Most often, by bus. No need for planes in many cases.

Bayern München: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...egen_FC_Bayern_M%C3%BCnchen_03.JPG

http://www.bus-bild.de/name/galerie/...chaftsbus/digitalfotografie/1.html shows many, many other team buses.

David

b747400erf · Tue Apr 26, 2016 7:51 pm

By coach, or by train sometimes. Or the cheapest private charter aircraft available.

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Photo © Darren Wilson

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Photo © Stewart Andrew

Gazdon121 · Tue Apr 26, 2016 8:35 pm

How many people travel on the flight , soon could be seei g Ryanairs 737-700 doing this

Speedbird2012 · Tue Apr 26, 2016 9:07 pm

No idea, I'm a West Ham season ticket holder

FlyingHollander · Tue Apr 26, 2016 9:16 pm

PSV Eindhoven usually flies HV from EIN for European matches, but not always. Several years ago they flew CGN-OVB on some all business German charter. For a winter training camp in Bangkok they flew AMS-DXB-BKK on EK.

Sooner787 · Tue Apr 26, 2016 9:18 pm

I remember when AT&T Stadium opened in the DFW area back in 2009.
The 1st event there was a soccer match featuring Chelsea.

I'll never forget driving thru DFW Airport the day of the game and seeing
the VS A346 parked near Terminal D that Chelsea had chartered.

Definitely don't see one of those at DFW every day.

[Edited 2016-04-26 14:18:48]

flyingturtle · Tue Apr 26, 2016 9:24 pm

Quoting B747400ERF (Reply 9):
or by train sometimes

No big deal to book one or two coaches of a German ICE train. A 1st class car of a ICE3 trainset has 46 comfortable seats, enough to carry all the people of a major soccer team.

During the world cup in Germany (2006?), the German national team made a point of travelling to each match by train.

I faintly remember reading about a major Swiss team that travelled to Florida for a week of training. They did so with Sun Wing (?), and they needed a refuel in Iceland. Cutting costs...

David

airbazar · Tue Apr 26, 2016 11:00 pm

It really varies based on competition and distance. For domestic league games, most countries are so small that the teams travel mostly by bus or train. For European competitions they usually charter a plane, often multiple planes actually for all the media and supporters. Away game tickets are allocated to teams which then package them and sell them with transportation included, to their fans.

eurowings · Wed Apr 27, 2016 12:06 am

Quoting Gazdon121 (Reply 10):
How many people travel on the flight , soon could be seei g Ryanairs 737-700 doing this

Yes, soon the answer to the question will be Ryanair.

tmoney · Wed Apr 27, 2016 6:34 am

Real Madrid used to have an MD-83 they own.

But I think it's scrapped now. I saw Cristiano Ronaldo and co pictured on a VY jet for their ManCity game today.

My favorite team ManU charters Monarch for their intra-europe matches. And TK (their sponsor) flies them on tours.
Same deal EY flies ManCity, and Barcelona also flown by TK.

bralo20 · Wed Apr 27, 2016 6:46 am

In Belgium most teams just charter a plane to travel abroad.

Our national team, The Red Devils, fly exclusively with Brussels Airlines, since SN is a sponsor until 2022. SN had planes with Red Devils decals and since about a month the Red Devils have their "own" plane, OO-SNA, an Airbus A320:

https://www.airliners.net/photo/Bruss...irlines/Airbus-A320-214/2812702/L/

The plane is commercially used by SN but when the Red Devils need to travel this plane will be used for those purposes (like the EK2016 in France for example).

bwest · Wed Apr 27, 2016 6:54 am

This is how the Belgian Red Devils fly around Europe...

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Photo © Alan Lippitt

Brussels Airlines signed a contract with the Belgian football association, making them the official carrier of the national team. When they went to Brazil last year, Brussels Airlines also did a special livery on one of their A330's.

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Photo © Björn Van Brussel

Other teams usually charter a plane, or just fly on a scheduled flight

RRTrent · Wed Apr 27, 2016 6:57 am

Its not football, but its on the topic of sports team travel. Leinster Rugby often us this to travel to matches in England and France. WX are one of their sponsors.

Gazdon121 · Wed Apr 27, 2016 7:12 am

Quoting eurowings (Reply 16):

My bet will be Leicester city FC

LJ · Wed Apr 27, 2016 7:24 am

Quoting MrHMSH (Thread starter):
But what I'd like to know is how do the teams regularly competing in Europe get around, whether that's a specific airline or a specific method (e.g. charter).

The flights are almost all charters. Dutch teams (including the national team) seem to use Transavia for European destinations (unless driving is more economical) often.

Quoting Gazdon121 (Reply 10):
How many people travel on the flight , soon could be seei g Ryanairs 737-700 doing this

I don't know exactly how many but often the flight contains the players, technical staff, management, sometimes sponsors or other invitees and journalists.

Quoting airbazar (Reply 15):
Away game tickets are allocated to teams which then package them and sell them with transportation included, to their fans.

However, they usually fly on scheduled flights (except for the Final).

EIDL · Wed Apr 27, 2016 7:29 am

League of Ireland teams, which would not have much money, have used some utterly inappropriate aircraft - Derry City flew to Sofia in a chartered ATR for instance.

euroflyer · Wed Apr 27, 2016 7:39 am

I know at some point the Parisian team of PSG used to lease N720MM.

migair54 · Wed Apr 27, 2016 7:54 am

Real Madrid usually flies with IB for the European matches, and for last year tour to Australia they charter an A380 from Malaysian, I think FC Barcelona also charter the A380 for the Clubs world cup this year.

UX used to have an E-190 painte with the LFP, Liga de futbol profesional, colors and many teams charter UX planes also. Some teams also use high speed train in Spain for some matches, specially when travelling to Madrid from Valencia or Sevilla.

I am not sure now, but before teams always charter planes for the players and the entourage, even some guys from the press travel usually with the team.

Quoting Gazdon121 (Reply 10):
How many people travel on the flight , soon could be seei g Ryanairs 737-700 doing this

It could be a very good option in the future, 60 seat should be more than enough for a regular match, maybe not for a big final when they travel with family.

CrimsonNL · Wed Apr 27, 2016 7:55 am

At my job we once had FC Barcelona fly on a chartered aircraft from a certain MAD based carrier. There is apparently a major rivalry between the two cities' football teams as the captain from MAD "joked" that he would crash the plane with the BCN team on board.

This was before the Germanwings crash but I still thought it was a very strange remark..

Martijn

LGAviation · Wed Apr 27, 2016 7:58 am

Quoting airbazar (Reply 15):

It really varies based on competition and distance. For domestic league games, most countries are so small that the teams travel mostly by bus or train. For European competitions they usually charter a plane, often multiple planes actually for all the media and supporters. Away game tickets are allocated to teams which then package them and sell them with transportation included, to their fans.

That certainly is true for Germany's Bundesliga where historically teams all had their signature buses with Mercedes or MAN priding themselves as sponsors. I'm not sure how Berlin's partnership with DB German Railways plays out, but at least Dortmund and Bayern have solid partnerships with TK and LH respectively. I guess Hamburg's EK partnership isn't that much of a factor domestically.

sq_ek_freak · Wed Apr 27, 2016 8:43 am

Quoting Gazdon121 (Reply 1):
Most of the British teams use Titan Airways

Arsenal use Titan 757s for their Champions League matches around Europe and mostly travel by either their customized bus or 1st class train within the UK unless scheduling or other issues necessitates them to fly. I've seen everything from a Titan 757 or 767 to Istanbul to a bmi regional EMB145 back home to London from Newcastle. Not too long ago Arsenal got a lot of stick for flying over to Norwich from Stansted, flight time of I believe 14 minutes - this was due to road works I believe.

When Arsenal went over to Singapore last summer they used a chartered out EK 77L direct from London, painted in special Arsenal colours with stars Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Aaron Ramsey, Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere painted onto the fuselage. Judging from photos it seems like coaching staff got seated in F, first team players in J and the rest of the entourage spaced out in Y.

In other years they've used a chartered MH 772 when they did KUL and China or a Titan 767 with a tech stop in AUH before landing in Jakarta and continuing on to Hanoi, Nagoya and Tokyo. A Titan 757 did their trip to New York two summers ago.

Quoting LH748 (Reply 5):
The German national team is flying exclusively on LH as Lufthansa is one of the main sponsors.
When they won the world championship they got the 747-8 "Siegerflieger" (winner's plane) for their flight from GIG to TXL.

Isn't there a Fanhansa 748i flying out there for LH? I remember that spectacular flyby before landing back on home soil (was it Berlin?) with the German NT onboard after winning the World Cup.

vfw614 · Wed Apr 27, 2016 9:07 am

For regular away matches, the typical aircraft provider are regional carriers that have a network heavily geared towards business travel. They usually have aircraft sitting idle on the ground when football teams need them most and make them available for those well-paid charter flights - and with 30-50 seaters they also have the right size of aircraft, whereas larger jets would be an overkill on a national level.

Examples are MHS Aviation in Germany, Sun Air in Denmark, Eastern in the UK.

foxdelta · Wed Apr 27, 2016 9:08 am

Spain's Air Nostrum flies several teams every weekend around Spain using CRJs (any of the 3 types) during La Liga and other tournaments as well (Champions League, Europa League, etc..).

Cheers

N1120A · Wed Apr 27, 2016 9:09 am

Quoting LSZH34 (Reply 3):
Because they have a partnership.

That isn't always a determining factor. For example, Southwest is frequently the "official airline" of a league or even a team, but doesn't do much of any major league sport charter work. Delta is the "official airline" of the Detroit Tigers, yet the Tigers fly on a custom MD-80 owned by their owner, Mike Illich, and used by the Tigers and Red Wings.

zkojq · Wed Apr 27, 2016 9:16 am

Quoting euroflyer (Reply 25):
Parisian team of PSG

They also flew in Emirates' A340-500 A6-ERG recently:

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Photo © Charles Yu

oly720man · Wed Apr 27, 2016 11:09 am

Man City have used HiFly's A345 CS-TFX on recent jaunts

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Photo © Jens Breuer

and Real Madrid came to Manchester in the Privilege B772 EC-MIA that's also used by Benfica, according to comments in the photo below.

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Photo © Miguel Martin Cordeiro - Iberian Spotters
http://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/ec-mia/

Otherwise, the transport can vary with sponsors. Man Utd went on a US tour using a TK B77W

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Photo © Stewart Andrew

axelesgg · Wed Apr 27, 2016 1:20 pm

Swedish squad uses this one of course:

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Photo © Axel Bjoerk

Toni_ · Wed Apr 27, 2016 1:32 pm

Looks like an IB A320 to me?

I always enjoy checking FR24 a couple of hours after final whistle on Champions League nights to see how the teams travel. From what I've seen in the last few years. Real Madrid and Barcelona tend to travel a lot on chartered IB jets.

The other Spanish teams I've seen using Air Europa, Albastar, Privilege Style and even Portuguese company White Airways. They have an ACJ319 that gets chartered by football teams a lot.

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Photo © Fabian Lührs

In Portugal, Benfica have been travelling on the Privilege Style 777 a lot lately.

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Photo © Miguel Martin Cordeiro - Iberian Spotters

My own beloved Sporting and FC Porto use to get around Europe in chartered White Airways, EuroAtlantic or SATA aircraft.

Bayern indeed mostly flies LH. The other German teams get on whatever German LCC is available.

Juventus is mostly seen on Alitalia flights. Other Italian teams are often on Blue Panorama, Air Dolomiti, Meridiana and Neos charters.

BaconButty · Wed Apr 27, 2016 1:51 pm

Quoting airbazar (Reply 15):
It really varies based on competition and distance. For domestic league games, most countries are so small that the teams travel mostly by bus or train.

You'd think so
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...ne-flight-to-norwich-a6752486.html
Arsene might not be one to splash the cash come the transfer window, but he'll be damned if they have to slum it on anything as common as a bus.

Bongodog1964 · Wed Apr 27, 2016 2:56 pm

Quoting airbazar (Reply 15):
It really varies based on competition and distance. For domestic league games, most countries are so small that the teams travel mostly by bus or train.

In England top teams regularly charter aircraft to fly them for even short distances. A few months back Arsenal flew to Norwich, its only 116 miles from their training ground to Norwich.

bobdino · Wed Apr 27, 2016 3:32 pm

Quoting Speedbird2012 (Reply 11):
No idea, I'm a West Ham season ticket holder

You have my sympathies.

Airontario · Wed Apr 27, 2016 4:08 pm

In France, Olympique Lyonnais regularly flies to matches domestically on ERJs.

ahmetdouas · Wed Apr 27, 2016 5:23 pm

Don't forget TK has deals with some major european teams and fly them to major matches.

TurnaroudUK · Wed Apr 27, 2016 7:08 pm

During the Ash Cloud in 2010. Liverpool had an interesting journey to play away at Atletico Madrid in the Europa League.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/...0/liverpool-atletico-madrid-travel

Gazdon121 · Wed Apr 27, 2016 9:00 pm

Looks like Liverpool used Titan today for the European match tomorrow

migair54 · Thu Apr 28, 2016 6:51 am

Quoting Toni_ (Reply 35):
Looks like an IB A320 to me?

Actually 2 years ago when Real Madrid won the Uefa Champion league they used the same plane and same crew for few trips, apparently the Captain have some words with players and they felt he is their lucky captain and request him for the flight to LIS to play the final and also for a flight to MUC I think.

Quoting ahmetdouas (Reply 40):
Don't forget TK has deals with some major european teams and fly them to major matches.

They have the agreement but I am not sure if TK flies the team regularly I think they do for some publicity and that's all, they also sponsor the Basketball Euroleague. Few team in Europe are sponsor by Emirates, Etihad and Qatar, but they don't fly either, Garuda sponsors Liverpool also.

RRTrent · Thu Apr 28, 2016 10:25 am

Quoting migair54 (Reply 43):
Garuda sponsors Liverpool also.

They flew an A330 into Liverpool to transport the team to Jakarta for their pre-season tour in 2015. It had a big decal of the LFC crest just aft of L1 on it for the flight.

blacksoviet · Thu Apr 28, 2016 10:57 am

If i owned a team they would fly in a DC-9-40.

Toni_ · Thu Apr 28, 2016 11:19 am

Sevilla FC are playing Ukranian side Shakhtar Donetsk in Lviv tonight. Judging the images I could find of some Spanish journalists in the back of a wide body with Sevilla FC logos on the headrests of a 2-3-2 config'ed cabin, I reckon they chartered the same Privilege Style 767 that they have been using the last couple of (very successful European) years.

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Quoting migair54 (Reply 43):
Actually 2 years ago when Real Madrid won the Uefa Champion league they used the same plane and same crew for few trips, apparently the Captain have some words with players and they felt he is their lucky captain and request him for the flight to LIS to play the final and also for a flight to MUC I think.

Given the level and amount of superstition football players walk around with, can't say I'm surprised with that.

AirbusA6 · Thu Apr 28, 2016 1:10 pm

I trust the chartered IB planes have better legroom than normal IB planes, though at least Lionel Messi would be able to cope ok

33lspotter · Thu Apr 28, 2016 1:21 pm

Quoting AirbusA6 (Reply 47):

I trust the chartered IB planes have better legroom than normal IB planes, though at least Lionel Messi would be able to cope ok

Maybe that's why he's 5-time World Player of the Year — the legroom doesn't have an adverse effect on his legs as it does others.

Gazdon121 · Thu Apr 28, 2016 4:40 pm

its great tho, get to see birds that you will not see often at these airports when charted

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