346s head off to Tarbes

Miss Kitty & Indian Princess rumoured to be heading off to LDE (Tarbes) next week.
Seems rather a young age to be sent off to PAMELA

[Scrooge]

WTF ???

That makes no sense at all, surely it should be the 343's heading that way first ???

Storage only, VCV must be full with all the B744's parked up...

[Scrooge]

Not even close, VCV has lots off space.

Well I guess with routes getting cut for the winter it makes sense to park them, however I would of thought keeping them closer to home so they could cover any disruptions due to a plane going tech......

quote:Originally posted by Scrooge
Not even close, VCV has lots off space.

Well I guess with routes getting cut for the winter it makes sense to park them, however I would of thought keeping them closer to home so they could cover any disruptions due to a plane going tech......


Yeh that could be a reason or LDE is just a lot cheaper.

Does any one know how long it would take to get a 346 out of storage? Is it a case of just whipping off the engine covers, pulling back the covering on all vents and off we go?

[honey lamb]

Perhaps they're going to Lourdes to pray for a miracle [:w]

Odd, when you look at Tarbes on Google Earth it has hardly any stands ...

Supposedly they will be sitting in front of the PAMELA hanger - booked for 18 months which will be about the time the A333s will replace them.
PAMELA = Process for Advanced Management of End-of-Life Aircraft, funded by Government and Airbus as part of sales package.
'End-of-Life' does not seem a good description for a 5yr old!

[Scrooge]

I guess this could blow my whole 346's replacing the LGW 744's theory out of the water [:#]

Are we sure they're not just ferrying a large group to Lourdes?

quote:Originally posted by Bill S
'End-of-Life' does not seem a good description for a 5yr old!


Indeed - I read in lots of places that 346s are just not that desired when a 777 can do the same job more cheaply [?].

Previously mentioned that 2 x A346 plus 1 x B744 going into storage for 18 months.

Slinky that's a touchy subject & not just a Boeing vs Airbus argument. History would appear to show that the B777-300ER is more efficient than the A346 hence CX returning their 3 aircraft to ILFC after the 5 year lease was up. The route CX acquired the aircraft for (HKG-JFK-HKG) & which it never performed well on (payload restricted depending on weather) is now operated by B777-300ER. IIRC a few years ago Airbus reduced the price of the A346 to take into account the extra operating costs over the B777, didn't do much for A346 sales though.

With ref to time it takes to reactivate, depends on level of storage & what maint checks due. Take a look at some of the VCV pictures & you'll notice that CX have even removed the engines from some of their stored B744BCF's.

Slightly off topic, but when/if VS returns these planes (assuming that they are leased), do they strip out all the VS stuff first ie the new premium/upper seats, vport, bars etc, or are they just returned as is.

thanks

David

With the exception of the IFE that is classed as BFE (Buyer Furnished Equipment), seat's, bar's etc could be removed to use on other aircraft, perhaps 'Y' class would be left on as newer seats are available. Thinking back to the the B742's that went to Air Atlanta, then Transaero they went pretty much as was.

[Scrooge]

Well it looks like the 744 GVAST Ladybird is heading to Mohave....road trip !

And just looking at my records, there are 4 346's older than the ones being stored, so I am guessing that the ones heading to storage are coming up on D checks, the timing is about right for that.

And a D check is what now?

cheers

alex

quote:Originally posted by Alex V
And a D check is what now?

cheers

alex


D Check

cheers tinks

[Darren Wheeler]

D checks are either end-of-life time or full refurb time.

quote:Originally posted by Tinkerbelle
quote:Originally posted by Alex V
And a D check is what now?

cheers

alex


D Check



Interesting read. Thanks.

quote:Originally posted by Scrooge

And just looking at my records, there are 4 346's older than the ones being stored, so I am guessing that the ones heading to storage are coming up on D checks, the timing is about right for that.


According to A.net the two 346's we are talking about were actually Airbus prototypes, numbers 2 and 3 off the line. They were delivered later to VS as Airbus were still using them.

[Scrooge]

Oh, well that explains a lot then, let me go hunt for the A'Net thread.

How long do the LGW 747s have left on their leases? Surely these A346 could be replacements for these?

quote:Originally posted by MrSquare
How long do the LGW 747s have left on their leases? Surely these A346 could be replacements for these?


They would have to change the seat configurations for the A346 - far too many J seats on them for a B&S route. Thus it would cost too much I guess - cheaper to renew (or carry one) with the lease as is.

Picture of G-VGOA landing at Tarbes.

quote:Originally posted by MrSquare
How long do the LGW 747s have left on their leases? Surely these A346 could be replacements for these?


They were renewed last year I think. IIRC VS did put a tender out to Airbus and Boeing to battle it out to provide VS with a replacement for the LGW Fleet. This was of course before the credit crunch, the order of the 787 and 330's so a lot has changed at VS.


quote:Originally posted by Hackney Guy
They would have to change the seat configurations for the A346 - far too many J seats on them for a B&S route. Thus it would cost too much I guess - cheaper to renew (or carry one) with the lease as is.


Not necessarily. Must remember that VS have the 'inside info' on exactly how the 346 performs for them. There will be numerous factors that will go into deciding if they renew leases(not all VS aircraft are on leases, some are done through asset financing), including the costing of the lease, the aircraft performance on that route (e.g. the 340's are much better suited to high altitude airports), amount of cargo uptake on the route and so on.

VS have in the past changed configs on aircraft when moving them over to LGW. I am not so sure that VS would take out a new five year lease on aircraft (and an older a/c at that) just because it was cheaper to not reconfig another aircraft. There will be numerous other factors involved.

I would not be surprised if we see some of the 330's ending up at LGW and serving the 'smaller' leisure routes in the Caribbean, thus freeing up 744's for more popular LGW routes (BGI, LAS, MCO) and open up newer routes that would not work with the 744.