Flying through/around the ash?

Am flying to MCO tomorrow (didn't want to post on the Dibb as didn't want to freak any others out), as the 'cloud' is still very much around the atlantic was wondering how airlines are dealing with this - are they flying around it, i.e. different routes to normal?

Thanks

Clare

Depending on where it is they will try and fly around it or over it !

I hope they can fly around / above it - I head out to MCO on Sunday. It looks like the "no fly" ash cloud has got a lot bigger & higher over the Atlantic, up to 35,000ft. I know the 744 can go higher than this with ease - just want the ash to ease off a bit so I can get out to Orlando!

James

I must admit I looked at the ash concentration chart tonight and thought OMG - I guess planes don't fly if not safe, but even so, it doesn't help my nervousness.

On the plus side I was reading a report from an Icelandic volcanologist who said even though the ash is denser than earlier this week it's nowhere near as dense as the episode a couple of weeks back.

We were at 40,000ft flying over Ireland on Wednesday morning before landing at MAN, but obviously it's a constantly changing situation.

Semantic differences with dense and concentrated.

The latest ash is more dense - which is a good thing - being heavier it drops out more quickly. One of the problems with the early ash was it was very light and remained in the upper atmosphere.
In the last few days large amounts of the ash have been injected much higher into the atmosphere - more into the regions aircraft fly.

Tomorrow's flightpaths are either above the ash (above 35,000' or FL350) or around to the south.
They can be seen on Jeppeson if you select
North Atlantic High Lvl Sig. (EB) or
North Atlantic High Lvl Sig. (WB) from the middle of the menu.

Thanks Bill, trying to remain calm but feeling better today than yesterday.

We came back from MCO to MAN last Thursday and took a notably Southern route (flew East into the Atlantic from Florida and over the Southern tip of Ireland and up over Dublin. 35,000 feet most of the way over the Atlantic but up to 38,000 for the last hour or so.

VS19 today is predicted to take 2 hours longer than normal - I wonder if it is going to have to fly round the ash causing the delay ...

Crispin

Compare the great circle route in Flight Status with the ATC routes shown here and you can see quite a large deviation - surprised it is only 2 hours!

Compare the great circle route in Flight Status with the ATC routes shown here and you can see quite a large deviation - surprised it is only 2 hours!

Actually, from what I can see, the VS19 (along with some other West Coast flights) seems to be routing significantly to the North of the cloud, heading up to the Shetlands and then passing to the North of Iceland, rather than following the OTS.

Mike

we are also flying LGW to MCO tomorrow on VS015

Compare the great circle route in Flight Status with the ATC routes shown here and you can see quite a large deviation - surprised it is only 2 hours!

Actually, from what I can see, the VS19 (along with some other West Coast flights) seems to be routing significantly to the North of the cloud, heading up to the Shetlands and then passing to the North of Iceland, rather than following the OTS.

Mike

Yupp!
Looks like they took the northern scenic route.

v19.jpg (18.09 KiB) Viewed 2201 times

Interesting divert to KEF perhaps?
I knew there were some advantages to 4 engines

Looks as though firsttimer got the southern detour via portugal.

v27.jpg (15.65 KiB) Viewed 2199 times

Interesting divert to KEF perhaps?

Doubt you would want to plan on going to KEF unless you had to, in case of ash problems?

More likely would be BGSF - Sondre Stromfjord, or potentially Thule if you track far enough North, then the larger fields in the far North of Canada such as Iqaluit or Yellowknife.

Mike

the returning v76 and v74 are running late inbound to man , 2 3/4 delay , yeah , kids will be happy ,

looks like we are both in the same boat ! got up at 6 to cram in some last minute work and V15 has been put back from 1300 to 1615

guess there wont be a rush today , but a lte arrival in MCo, so its a stop off in tampa and hit our house sunday morning instead

Interesting to see if/how they route round this:

Ash to FL350 and both N & S options straight into the jetstream (luckily not to strong at the moment)
Long expensive flights.

Spain shuts down airports:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8669610.stm

as long as we get out today i couldnt care about getting back. not planned for 3 weeks anyway but a couple extra would be nice

Todays VIR33 flight plan from fboweb rotuing towards Southampton then south towards Lisbon then Going accros to Antigua...

SAM.UN621.MARUK.UM195.LORKU.UN866.TITUB.UN864.ARE.UN864.NEA.UL14.ELVAR..ESP..BUSEN..NAVIX..3500N/02000W..3100N/03000W..2600N/04000W..2400N/04500W..2200N/05000W..2100N/05500W..2000N/06000W..1800N/06100W..ANU..TAPA...

This also departed on time today..

VS12 from BOS to LHR on Sunday night was two hours late taking off due to late arrival of VS11. Wife got an email about five hours before the flight to let her know of the delayed departure. Flight went via Portugal rather than Northern route, which added another 90 minutes.

Noticed that VS21/22 schedule is completely out of whack (increasingly so) for the last couple of days or so - is this down to the ash or other operational reasons?

Got a week to go before I fly so I know things can change and change again ...

Got a week to go before I fly so I know things can change and change again ...

Similarly so... ?| lets see a change in that weather ASAP

Never thought I would miss the usual Low pressure systems and wet weekends