V-Flyer

Last trips for G-VSUN and G-VELD to Shanghai are slated for the end of March before they head to airplane valhalla.

http://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/ ... r-march-29

Beat me to it. Flew on G-VELD five times, mostly ORD and IAD, and V-SUN only twice, one BOS and one IAD trip. I'll be sadder when the 600s go, they remain my favourite type.

My parents came home from Dubai on G-VELD a couple of years ago and their comment were along the lines of "that is a queen that Africa is welcome to". Apparently the Upper Class suites were "knackered".

I came back from Shanghai yesterday on a 340-300 (V-SUN) and was very pleasantly surprised. Smaller forward cabin on upper class is more private and the group of 9 seats at the back also offers greater privacy which the 340-600 does not possess.

Video was VOD although the crew still had to reset the entire plane and that operation lasted 45 minutes though!

In the past I have been on some dreadful 340-300's - Dubai and Delhi stick in my mind - and in today's competitive market, old stock simply has to be replaced. But a little surprised that V-SUN will go as this plane offers flight capacity options - incidentally, yesterdays flight was very nearly full, around 220PAX

VELD has it's last flight tomorrow to JFK.

I too flew on both at least twice. VSUN on both of my trips to Chicago, VELD on both times back. VELD is indeed knackered, still using the old Vera Reel...
I was thinking of this last night and I'd dread to think what (if any) Chinese VS regulars make of our fleet if they are only ever subjected to our tiredest planes...

I know that Pete is very busy, but hopefully the 787's will get into the database soon, so that the flights they operate are shown...

Flew on G-VELD and G-VSUN to DXB last year and they both looked terrible inside, it's weird how VS painted the a343 and a few a346 with the new livery even though they were going out of service? G-VNAP left service a few days ago I think which is sad to see an a346 go. Behind the 747 the a346 is second favourite for me.

What was so bad about the interiors of the planes? The worst I've had it, is when the controls for the remote and headphone jack don't work.
I also had a seat which kept on reclining back one time, but only during take off and landing.

I know she's a -600 but Sleeping Beauty is off to Chennault from LGW I guess for storage.

Sad to see the A340's going, less variety in the skies

Won't be sad to the see the 300's go, IMHO it was unacceptable to still have planes without AVOD in the fleet. My most expensive Virgin ticket ever was to YVR... on a 300 with entertainment that might as well not have been there. Luckily we got VSUN on the way back.

The 600's though, a different story. My favourite longhaul aircraft in the VS fleet.

I may be wrong, but I believe that the 5 LHR 747's will be gone this year/early next.

That's odd Fr24 was displaying Sleeping Beauty as going to the scrapyard and now it has instead gone to Tarbes in France.

Will be terribly sad to see lady Penelope to go eventually. She is the aircraft that got me into flying and i was supposed to fly her home from NYC, but there was a last minute aircraft change

I don't think I'll get to fly on her before she leaves.

clarkeysntfc wrote:I may be wrong, but I believe that the 5 LHR 747's will be gone this year/early next.

The lease ends in 2019, but it's reported that VS will announce their replacement sometime this year. I think it was either the 787-10 or the A350 XWB.

I cant see any 744's going until another order for something is placed. VS seem to need 37-38 aircraft in total for their level of operation, unless they are showing a net loss. I know dropping Sydney saved 1 a/c but on the same no of UK departures. 16 789's, 10 330's and 12 744's seems to be where they are heading, if any 744's go, surely they would have to keep a 346 or two, which wont happen I am sure...

The LHR 744s are going before the rest of the 346s

Oh Lauren H you scared me about G-VNAP. She was my favorite as she reminded me of my late granddad. His surname was knapp. When I read you saying going to the scrap yard my heart sank. Thankfully she is going into storage. But I do miss her. It is a real shame they are starting to withdraw the A340-600's

I have a 1:200 scale model of G-VNAP on my desk. Sad, I know.