V-Flyer

The following flights are cancelled in January:

Monday 30th VS007/VS008
Tuesday 31st VS007/VS008/VS045/VS046

Pax on VS007/VS008 will be moved to VS23/VS24 which will be upgraded to a A340-600. Pax on VS045/VS046 will be moved to VS3/4 or VS9/10.

The reason Virgin have given is due to fuel shortages at LHR following the Bruncefield fuel depot fire, however I think the loads are light so they are trying to save money!!

Blimey!

Thanks for the heads up!

Originally posted by vscss
The reason Virgin have given is due to fuel shortages at LHR following the Bruncefield fuel depot fire, however I think the loads are light so they are trying to save money!!

Well makes sense if so, though mildly irritating for passengers.

Are any other carriers doing the same (I have heard friends being shifted around on BA flights) or is VS unusually light?

Funny that it has taken this long for fuel shortages to hit VS, I remember straight after when BA where having to jump to Stanstead to re-fuel

Paul

There was a period after 9/11 when loads were light on the VS7/8/23/24 when VS were trying to pass off cancellations as technical faults with the planes. So here we go again, it seems.

BC

Airport low on fuel, not sure I buy that[:?]What's that smell?

There has been talk of fuel shortages - with aircraft from all airlines bringing back as much as they can carry from abroad.

But this time of year is always dead - i'd combine flights if i was running the company - it makes business sense!

Originally posted by Lipstick
There has been talk of fuel shortages - with aircraft from all airlines bringing back as much as they can carry from abroad.

Looking at the wing droop (and length of takeoff roll) on G-VBIG on my flight back from BOS last weekend, I'd say we were tankering some additional fuel.

We had a belting tailwind, so it probably helped the economics of carrying extra gas.

I'd expect that these operational cancellations would allow pax the ability to get a full refund of a normally NON-REF fare - for example, if the later arrivals are not suitable?

Cheers,
Mike

To be fair to VS - Singapore Airlines have had a warning about flights leaving LHR for quite some time now...

Are compensation/cancellation rules different if Virgin make a claim that it's outside of their control?

^ If it's out of their control they can give nothing.

VS are tankering fuel into LHR on many flights. Airlines at LHR are restricted in the ammount of fuel they can uplift, (the ammount depnds on the airine) so by tankering into LHR it gets aroung this problem. The downside is of course the extra cost in carrying the extra fuel and often the need to de-ice the wings at LHR due to the ammount of cold fuel in the wing on arrival, the ice never gets a chance to melt before the next flight, as the new fuel added is not enough to warm up the existing fuel nd wings.