Aircraft scheduling

Flying to MBJ five weeks today so I was just checking todays delays. Several LGW flights are delayed, yet only one 747 (VS16) appears to be late in. How long does it take to " turn around" a 747. I ask because today's 65 is VGAL which arrived for time from LAS yet 65 is delayed. Is VS running operation so tight that there is no room for the slightest delay with the knock on effect. I ask this because it's seems that over the last few years Everytime I fly with VS there are delays and personally speaking this has been a major factoring why I stopped flying VS a my preferred airline. I was gold for several years and this year will be back to red. I have returned to VS for this flight because I heard things were getting better and I have purchased 8 UC tickets for my family. I hope they dont let us down.

[Nottingham Nick]

Unfortunately delays are a fact of life in air travel - not just for Virgin, but all airlines.

Whilst all delays are frustrating, is it really worth getting too worked up about them? When you are on holiday, does EVERYTHING have run like clockwork? If the delays run into four hours plus, then yes- plans have to change, but for less than that, especially when you are flying in Upper and can chill in the Clubhouse during the delay, why fret over it?

To me, poring over the flight schedules in the weeks leading up to your flight is a bit like reading the online self diagnosis medical sites - you can get yourself worked up into a frenzy over nothing if, after all the previous poor performance, your flight is on time.

Also, if your flight is delayed, there is absolutely nothing you can do to change it.

I accept we are all different in out outlooks, and YMMV

Nick

Also remember we were saying about wheelchair passengers 65 is mbj if I'm right takes a long time to get off - on the plane . Unless they have miracles ! Flew j recently and esp if your on the lgw with 8 out of the 14 seats it should be really nice enjoy your holiday - True tho landed into lhr nice and early the other morning - only our stand was occupied by a delayed departure so we then waited longer to disembark resulting in from landing 1.30 early to getting off on time so anything happens that has a knock on effect does not necessarily mean its vs fault - once on a mco all flights diverted to mia cos it couldn't land so resulted in 4 hr delay so enjoy the clubhouse the staff in lgw are great And have a good holiday!!

I accept things can go wrong, but we fly AU with Monarch which requires 16 sector per annum and over last three years other than one snowy morning not one delay. Just feel that Virgin schedules are a little tight. Also fly with Emirates, and again not experienced any delays. My last flight was last year on VS5 and this was delayed 2 hours because the crew had been delayed by extra security checks. Let's face it if I as a passenger had arrived late due to the same reason the plane would have been long gone without me.

i was on holiday in st lucia and an accident had meant the roads had been blocked - they were expecting a full plane. and we delayed 2 hours to allow people to make their way to the airport which was annoying as the airport was soo hot but, i thought was nice as it would probably have been a bigger headache rescheduling 2-300 people on a different flight. but the flight did wait for them.

[honey lamb]

On the Golden Jubilee weekend in 2002 LHR was heaving as was the VS check-in area. It took an hour and a half to use the PE line and at the time of departure there were still 120 people still to be checked in. The captain announced that and the flight was held back for them and left an hour late. Although I had been on board on time I certainly didn't have any quarrel with that given the mayhem in T3 that day

One one of those airport programmes a tour party of 50 pax was delayed getting to LHR and the airline decided to delay the flight as it wasn't a daily service.

When the coach arrived they were told to check-in and go straight to the gate to stop any further delays as other people were being delayed especially for them. Yet some of the intrate passengers complained about not being allowed to go duty free shopping !

The original point I was trying to make is hat if 4 out if the 5 747's arrived into LGW on time then if sufficient time is allowed for in he scheduling they should be able to leave on time unless they go tech. It appeared that delays were showing long before any issues with boarding. I was trying to establish whether VS have enough time to turn the planes around not withstanding problems caused by outside factors

Spanishvirgin

It is typical to allow 2-2.5 hours to turnaround a 747. It can be done in less time, but bear in mind that the planes need a half-decent clean and quite a big refuel, plus other things -- and all this needs to be timetabled. It does not take too much to throw out the schedule. VS does work its fleet hard and the departure times from LGW are fairly compressed -- which I guess, given that its a small fleet, doesn't help.

Over 50 LGW departures since I started flying VS, and only once can i think of a delay of over 1 hour. Perhaps you were just on a bad run Spanishvirgin, but I have never experienced bad delays personally, although I know they do happen occasionally.

Not just LGW. MCO DXB LHR MBJ MAN EWR I must be there unlucky charm. On positive note had over 200k fc mile in compensation