V-Flyer

I don't imagine many of you would consider it, but unfortunately my parents (who live in Lancashire) just did, since they wanted to fly MAN/CPT. My uncle lives there and over the years my parents have always gone via London or Amsterdam and this was a direct

Anyway I haven't got all of the details yet, they only got home yesterday lunch and were so tired they went straight to sleep so I will let you have more info later if you are interested.

What I do know is that, not only were they delayed by 27 hours on the way out there, most of the people they met and spoke to who flew with Flyglobespan had similar delays on the way out (on different flights to my parents)There was a 3 hour delay coming home too.

The plane wasn't great either with lots of things broken - only one screen working and no music available.

Parents paid for premier economy @ around £800 each and Dad says they will never fly with them again.

Apart from the journeys they had a great holiday

Thanks
S

Sounds like a nightmare journey! Glad they had a good time CPT is a FAB city! [y]

Flyglobespan really do need to get their act together and sort out their long-haul fleet.

At the moment they only have one 767-300 in the fleet (t'other one was sent out on sub-lease to Air India for a few months) and it is with that aircraft that GSM are relying on to fulfil their Winter long-haul schedule of GLA-SFB and MAN-YYZ/CPT. If this aircraft is delayed or goes tech then it messes things up.

In fact it is not uncommon for GSM to send out one of their 737-800s on long-haul flights with fuel stops at Keflavik (for YYZ) or St. Johns for SFB [:0] (I remember seeing G-SAAW land at MAN after completing the company's first MAN-YYZ circuit via KEF!)

The a/c on loan to Air India is due to return, along with the leasing of a few 757s to facilitate their long-haul expansion.

Would I fly with them long-haul...no [n]

When I first saw this title I thought it was going to be someone asking if they should use them and I was going to reply with a big massive NO!

Alas its a case of a small Scottish airline getting way too big for its boots too quickly. They were fine with EDI-PMI routes and even when they started STN services they were ok- new 737s and all that.

75 I have even heard that they have flowen a 737 down to CPT via PMI and TFS/LOS not sure if there is any truth in that! They are starting up a MAN-JNB service and its look like that will be with a 757 via PMI.

The other problem is that NZs 763s havent been given over as quickly as first thought. Now looks like Liverpool-JFK (yes you read right!) will be started with a 757 from Icelandair.

They need to get their act together and fast.

I've seen my parents now so I've had the full sorry tale, it seems they were given some story about CPT airport being shut for maintenance hence the delay! Strange how other airlines managed to fly in and out of there without problem.
One of the arms on mum's seat was wobbly and at an angle, there was no music available in flight and the one screen showing the movie kept losing the picture.
There were around 63 seats in the premier economy part of the aircraft, and one very loud and disruptive passenger who was allowed to keep drinking until he started hurling abuse at the rest of the cabin, finally the cabin crew told him they would have the flight land at the next available and have him arrested (at which point mum and dad were just praying they could get to CPT asap) he finally calmed down and went to sleep and mum and dad were secretly pleased to see he looked like death (and not particularly warmed up) when he left the aircraft the next morning.
Never ever again, any time they may have saved by flying direct was totally lost anyway. [:(] Still they look really well and had a fab time so it didn't ruin their break.

Cheers
S

Originally posted by willd
Alas its a case of a small Scottish airline getting way too big for its boots too quickly...They need to get their act together and fast.

I said exactly the same comment back in August and got flamed for it, someone agrees with me [^]

It is becoming clearer now that GSM are not doing a good job in some areas of their long-haul ops. As we all know the long-haul market is a risky market and just because they did well running short-haul routes doesn't necessarily mean that it will work long-haul. And if they are going to break in this market successfully they need to sort themselves out fleet-wise. Sending 737s across the pond and to CPT vice 767s is just not good enough [n][:0]

And if I wanted to fly to CPT from MAN I would go via LHR and fly wonderful VS instead [y]

Just had a look on Jethro's and it seems that they're not getting any more aircraft this year apart from 2 737-800s and the 767-300 on loan to Air India.

Oh dear what is going on and is their over ambitious long-haul plans going to happen at all this year?

VS075,
Am I right in reading that they will get a 787 in March this year then?
Depending on the model, that should do the long haul routes?

EDIT: Whoops! missed the fact that theyb wont be delivered until 2010! Duh!!

Update on GSM....the deal with FI for the 757s has been cancelled- Scottish aviation sites are suggesting that 737s will be used for all SFB and YHM services this summer [:0]

Originally posted by willd
Update on GSM....the deal with FI for the 757s has been cancelled- Scottish aviation sites are suggesting that 737s will be used for all SFB and YHM services this summer [:0]

[:0][:0][:0]

They CANNOT be serious! [V] God help the people booked onto those flights.

I take it the routings via KEF/YQX/YYT will continue for the transatlantic flights then...if they ever do run that is.

I am 100% serious.

GLA
5 B738
1 B752ER
1 B763ER
1 B763ER - shared with LGW/MAN on YVR and YYC routes

EDI
4 B736

ABZ
1 B737

MME
1 B733
1 B737

STN
1 B733
1 B752ER

MAN
1 B752ER shared with LGW on YHM
1 B763ER shared with GLA/LGW on YVR and YYC routes

LPL
1 B752ER

LGW
1 B752ER shared with MAN on YHM flights
1 B763ER shared with MAN/GLA on YVR and YYC routes

Looks like Zoom may offer some support.
Questions still remain though because 757 sold as 3 class service, 737s dont have this.
Who will operate their routes from airports such as EXT and the other regions they promised- Zoom?!?

[:0][:0]
All I can think of is those poor b*ggers in the west of Ireland who will think that it will be great to travel to JFK or BOS without the hassle of going to DUB or SNN. They are in for a rude awakening!

Where's the 757-200 coming from to serve LPL?

Shaz, sorry to hear your mum and dad had such awful experience. Thanks for sharing it with us, methinks yet another nail in the Flyglobespan coffin.

Originally posted by VS075
Where's the 757-200 coming from to serve LPL?

ILFC- currently at Keflavik in Iceland being prepared- I think it is an ex FI bird (TF-FIK) that has been returned to ILFC.

Both 763s are now on lease to Air India and two Neos/Tui 763s have been brought in for the summer season.

Originally posted by willd

Originally posted by VS075
Where's the 757-200 coming from to serve LPL?

ILFC- currently at Keflavik in Iceland being prepared- I think it is an ex FI bird (TF-FIK) that has been returned to ILFC.

Both 763s are now on lease to Air India and two Neos/Tui 763s have been brought in for the summer season.

Caught me out on this one wiild [:I]

Looking at the GSM fleet list on Jethro's they're also sourcing the market to wet/damp lease two more 757s. So maybe there's not gonna be many 737 flights across the Atlantic after all then...phew!

75! I saw that as well- but question is will they get them and if so where from? Cant think of any operator who will be keen- other than maybe Finnair who have done some XLA work in the past.

Apparently XL are not providing 757-200s to GSM this year...well at least according to my mate whose taking PPL lessons at Liverpool.

When we arrived at Cape town on 12/2 the Manchester flight was just about to board but they then announced an indefinate delay. I don`t know when it actualy left. A couple on our return flight said they had flown "business class" on Globespan and it was not very good. Food was in their opinion like ecconomy and seats like premium. Said they would not use them again. Also see my photos of the tyres on their 767 at Capetown. They may have run over something like paint, but they did not look good.
Our travel agent had mentioned a new company travelling to Cape town direct from Manchester before we booked with Qatar. This must have been Globespan and they were not cheap.

GLOBESPAN UPDATE:

Stay clear at all costs......

Watchdog are now involved following so many complaints from travelers.

Biggest complaints:
[list] Non stop flights having to stop to re fuel due to smaller a/c being flowen on route
Paying for business and getting a seat with 36 inch legroom and no business service
[list]

Times are so tight at GSM that 737's are being used to SFB and YHM.

Neos 767's are being brought in for summer but are needed so urgently they may not be fitted with the business seats.

An interesting side is that GSM have done this before. They brought Excallabur- a very good short haul charter carrier in 96- launcehd LH operations to MCO as soon as they brought it. The planned a/c never arrived in time for LH operations and the airline had to lease in two MD11's that were so old they almost always had 48 hour delays. Excallabur went bust 9months later. Seems like they havent learnt.

I had a gut feeling that this was all going to go tits up for GSM. They really do not know what they are doing. Expanding their network without having the fleet to support this is a disaster waiting to happen!

Therefore I feel that my theory that they have expanded into long-haul too quickly has been supported!

After all it is a market that has to be tackled perfectly, it is a whole different ball game compared to short-haul ops.

Originally posted by VS075
I

75- I agree 110%. Its the same old story of a good Scottish LCC getting too big for its boots and playing with the big boys.

Interesting comment on another thread. Guy flew out in Buisness 767, 50" seats, good food, came back in a 757, 34" pitch, food economy, plus the Buisness personal IFE's were not available as Globespand have removed them from the 757's to reduce weight, had to watch main cabin screen instead. On Globespand web site personal IFEs now removed from the descriptions!

yesterdays 18:45 flight from Glasgow to Sanford still not took off.
Incoming flight scheduled for arrival at 13:10 still not showing any est time of arrival.
Two plane loads of unhappy FGS pax I would imagine....

Originally posted by AlanA
yesterdays 18:45 flight from Glasgow to Sanford still not took off.
Incoming flight scheduled for arrival at 13:10 still not showing any est time of arrival.
Two plane loads of unhappy FGS pax I would imagine....

I can tell you why. Its because they are so dumb they have gone and sent BOTH of their 767s to Air India so now they are stuck with 757-200s as their biggest a/c in the fleet.

http://www.jethros.i12.com/fleets/fleet ... bespan.htm