Volcanic Ash Cloud

[VAflyGal]

Does anyone know what US is doing with the aircraft that are normally flying these runs. Have they taken the opportunity to complete any deferred smaller maintenance issues, or perhaps cleaned the inside of the planes, or fixed cabin issues that only affect passengers? Have they taken this opportunity to fix 251's exhaust/intake in the cabin issue? Or have these planes been used elsewhere where deman is needed.

Idk what they are doing with the planes but I do know 251 has been disassembled and reassembled and has been back in service with no known issues.

 

[JayBrian]

Impact to airlines of cancelled flights to Europe.

Article here

 

[Furloughd4now]

Impact to airlines of cancelled flights to Europe.

Article here

Why don't you tell us something we don't know ........... 🙄

 

[notquiteUS]

Other Star Alliance airlines AC and CO are sending out extra flights to areas that are clear to fly. Is US just waiting for the upcoming merger before it decides to follow suit???

 

[JayBrian]

Why don't you tell us something we don't know ........... 🙄

Sorry, I didn't know that the revenue and loss estimates for USAirways had been posted somewhere else already.

 

[Furloughd4now]

Sorry, I didn't know that the revenue and loss estimates for USAirways had been posted somewhere else already.

And I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound snippy.

I have a FA friend who's been out in Europe waiting to get home and the company has been taking realy good care of the crew. That's good to hear!

 

[flyin2low]

Does anyone know what US is doing with the aircraft that are normally flying these runs. Have they taken the opportunity to complete any deferred smaller maintenance issues, or perhaps cleaned the inside of the planes, or fixed cabin issues that only affect passengers? Have they taken this opportunity to fix 251's exhaust/intake in the cabin issue? Or have these planes been used elsewhere where deman is needed.

They are all just sitting there on the maintenance ramp.......

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Other Star Alliance airlines AC and CO are sending out extra flights to areas that are clear to fly. Is US just waiting for the upcoming merger before it decides to follow suit???

How about upgauging some of the 757 runs to a 767? Lots of people trying to get on the TATL flights that are running.

 

[JayBrian]

They are all just sitting there on the maintenance ramp.......

I saw a few widebodies lined up near the deicing pad.

 

[HP2USFA]

I don't think it would be that easy to simply toss the widebodies on a narrowbody route. You couldn't just upgrade the crews working the narrowbody domestic flights as the pilots aren't 330 or 767 type-rated on those flights. So even if you moved those crews off to the sidelines to have the widebodies take over you'd still have planes sitting on the tarmac and crews without places to go. 🙂 Not to mention that there are planes flying to Europe on certain routes to certain destinations... it won't be long until routes US flies are cleared for travel.

 

[nycbusdriver]

I don't think it would be that easy to simply toss the widebodies on a narrowbody route. You couldn't just upgrade the crews working the narrowbody domestic flights as the pilots aren't 330 or 767 type-rated on those flights. So even if you moved those crews off to the sidelines to have the widebodies take over you'd still have planes sitting on the tarmac and crews without places to go. 🙂 Not to mention that there are planes flying to Europe on certain routes to certain destinations... it won't be long until routes US flies are cleared for travel.

I think the poster made it clear that the suggestion was to upgrade 757 trips to 767 trips if the airframes were simply sitting around anyway. That is an excellent idea, and since ALL transatlantic 757 crews can also fly the 767 (and vice versa,) it would be a simple scheduling non-event to to exactly as the poster suggested.

 

[HP2USFA]

We can't just add flights at the drop of a hat. They have to be submitted to the DOT and available for purchase well in advance of their travel date, which would mean we'd have to remove a domestic aircraft/crew to use an international aircraft/crew and then they're sitting on the tarmac doing nothing. Not exactly saving much of anything and it's a great deal more work than just leaving them on the ramp.

 

[BoeingBoy]

We can't just add flights at the drop of a hat. They have to be submitted to the DOT and available for purchase well in advance of their travel date

Really you could with the open skies agreement with the EU. Any U.S. carrier can fly to anywhere in Europe and vice versa. The only limitation is at slot controlled airports, and I don't think the European airports that remained open have those. For example, yesterday I read that MAD has been operating at something liike 25% of capacity.

which would mean we'd have to remove a domestic aircraft/crew to use an international aircraft/crew and then they're sitting on the tarmac doing nothing.

Nope - just use the international front end crews that are sitting home. With all the people sitting on both sides of the Atlantic, US could definitely fill up an extra section to/from the airports that have been open throughout this mess.

All that said, I don't thing any U.S. carrier flew a lot of extra sections to/from Europe, presumably because of the uncertainty of airports staying open.

Jim

 

[HP2USFA]

Yes, but Jim, they were referring to sending those Widebodies onto Domestic routes... not extra routes to open EU cities. I.e. Putting a 330 on a CLT-PHX run.

Which is what I was responding to.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Yes, but Jim, they were referring to sending those Widebodies onto Domestic routes... not extra routes to open EU cities. I.e. Putting a 330 on a CLT-PHX run.

Gotcha. I thought you were replying to the posts about upgaging or adding extra sections to the TA flights. If I remember correctly, the TA crews can fly domestic flights under some conditions, so it would just by paying them to fly instead of sit home while paying the domestic crew to sit home (although there's also some restrictions about getting paid for canceled flights unless it's the last trip of the month). What I don't know and you mentioned is selling the extra seats if it was just subbed domestically on a day-to-day basis.

As I mentioned, I think a better use of the planes/crews would have been to fly extra sections on TA flights.

Jim