Virgin Delay

[Bozza]

The more we demand cheaper and cheaper flights, the worse these problems are going to get. Virgin simply doesn't have the money to re-invest in order to run the quality operation it once did, whilst still satisfying the stock market.

...but Virgin Atlantic is majority owned by Virgin Group Ltd. And Virgin Group is a privately held company (ie no stock exchange involved)

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Good news for CHEK!
The VS76 came in on time this morning, I take it that an additional plane was used as VS 75 only got in after VS76 took off!

This should mean that CHEK and the rest of the passengers on VS75 today will get off on time (Well, within a close approximation).

Bozza,
Because a company does not list on the Stock Exchange does not mean it has no investors. SQ are a major investor in VAA and will want a return, secondly, VAA still have to find vast sums of money to re invest in new aircraft, new airport slots etc etc.
The more time an aircraft is not flying the higher the costs are for that aircraft, so the optimum situatiuon is not to have aircraft sitting around doing no flights.

 

[Beth__WDW23/6/02]

Great news for CHEK.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Great news for CHEK.

Just to close it all off, VS75 with (hopefully! ) CHEK on board departed at 10:35 today.

 

[Beth__WDW23/6/02]

Just to close it all off, VS75 with (hopefully! ) CHEK on board departed at 10:35 today.

Fingers crossed.

 

[Elise79]

Good news for CHEK!
The VS76 came in on time this morning, I take it that an additional plane was used as VS 75 only got in after VS76 took off!

Hi Obi

I think one of the LGW planes must have been used to fly back to MAN as VS76 as this is from the VA website on the VS28:
Flight number VS 028
Departure date 30 May 2007
Route Orlando (MCO) to London (LGW)
Scheduled departure time 30 May 17:50
Actual departure time 30 May 21:16
Scheduled arrival time 31 May 06:55
Actual arrival time 31 May 10:26

So looks like they have moved the delays from MAN down to LGW unless it was to return the LHR plane?? Any ideas?

Elise

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

No not really.

The VS27 departed on time this morning, back to Orlando

The VS15 was delayed by 91 mins today, so the VS16 is delayed by 60 mins, but yesterdays VS16 was 60 mins late leaving anyway.

 

[kristieuk]

I just wanted to add to this thread that we were staying at the Radisson SAS at Manchester Airport on the 26th May into the 27th.

Virgin had put the delayed passengers into that hotel, so a nice choice. Most people were taking the delay in good spirits, but it was awful to see all of those disappointed faces, and the small children who couldn't understand why they weren't at Disney yet. It's a lost day of a holiday, and although these things happen to any airline, I can understand the concern people have about every day of their precious holiday.

Hope not too many others affected from the knock-on

 

[lizzysmith]

Perhaps Virgin and TCD should join forces on the Florida route. They both seem to specialise in delaying hundreds and thousands of people.
Strangely we went to Florida on the 19th May setting off back on the 26th and everything was on time. There again we never use the Florida flyers favourite airlines.

 

[SimonV]

Although it may not seem like it, the number of delayed flights overall is still only a small percentage (less than 10%) of the overall number of flights. Most get away within an hour of their takeoff time, and land within half an hour of their arrival time (as most airlines build in some extra time on the journey to account for small takeoff delays). Obviously there are times when there are mini-epidemics of delays, but these are still rare and are often due to circumstances beyond the airlines' control (like hurricanes, when aircraft need to be moved around at short notice). The bottom line remains that flight prices are still pretty reasonable but very few airlines on the direct routes can operate hassle-free these days.

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

Firstly, Apologies for the "bad" formatting. Over the past few weeks I have been monitoring the take-off times for Virgin and BA from Gatwick. These are the times I've managed to pick up. I'm unable (and also have to work) to collect them all.

Please note: These are the reported times from BAA Gatwick, not the "optimistic" times given by the airlines.

The following are my "rules":

1) As said, reported take-off times by BAA Gatwick (leaving the "hub" and then sitting on the runway does not count as "departure" for me - airlines like to report "early" for their metrics).

2) 15 minutes "grace" to taxi to the runway

3) Anything up to 15 minutes past departure time counted as "on-time".

4) 15 minutes to 30 minutes - counted as 15 minutes late.

5) Up to 75 minutes counted as up to 1 hour late.

6) Above 75 Minutes over 1 hour late.

What the following list gives us is this:

VS027

On-time 2 (6.1%)
15mins late 12 (36.4%)
60mins late 16 (48.5%)
over 60mins 3 (9.1%)

VS015

On-time 0 (0.0%)
15mins late 8 (32.0%)
60mins late 5 (20.0%)
over 60mins 12 (48.0%)

BA2037

On-time 4 (12.5%)
15mins late 18 (56.3%)
60mins late 10 (31.3%)
over 60mins 0 (0.0%)

Hope they sort it all out by October, I'm flying the VS027 (which doesn't look too bad).

Flight VS027 VS015 BA2037
Departure Time 10:45 12:45 11:05
17-Apr-07 11:08 -23.00 16:31 -226.00 11:38 -33.00
18-Apr-07
19-Apr-07 11:35 -50.00 17:45 -300.00 11:41 -36.00
20-Apr-07 11:51 -66.00 11:24 -19.00
21-Apr-07
22-Apr-07
23-Apr-07 11:17 -32.00 11:28 -23.00
24-Apr-07 11:12 -27.00 13:01 -16.00 11:35 -30.00
25-Apr-07 11:02 -17.00
26-Apr-07 11:29 -44.00 13:10 -25.00 11:33 -28.00
27-Apr-07 11:42 -57.00 11:35 -30.00
28-Apr-07
29-Apr-07
30-Apr-07 11:12 -27.00 13:37 -52.00 11:22 -17.00
01-May-07 12:08 -83.00 13:08 -23.00 11:24 -19.00
02-May-07 11:22 -37.00 13:11 -26.00 11:40 -35.00
03-May-07 11:19 -34.00 13:07 -22.00 12:04 -59.00
04-May-07 11:20 -35.00 11:27 -22.00
05-May-07
06-May-07
07-May-07
08-May-07 11:06 -21.00 13:16 -31.00 11:19 -14.00
09-May-07 11:23 -38.00 13:04 -19.00 11:35 -30.00
10-May-07 11:21 -36.00 13:36 -51.00 11:18 -13.00
11-May-07 11:06 -21.00 11:16 -11.00
12-May-07
13-May-07
14-May-07 11:07 -22.00 15:02 -137.00 11:33 -28.00
15-May-07 10:59 -14.00 13:41 -56.00 11:30 -25.00
16-May-07 10:56 -11.00 13:11 -26.00 11:26 -21.00
17-May-07 11:31 -46.00 16:17 -212.00 11:33 -28.00
18-May-07
19-May-07
20-May-07
21-May-07 11:32 -47.00 15:33 -168.00 11:28 -23.00
22-May-07 11:04 -19.00 14:36 -111.00 11:40 -35.00
23-May-07 11:04 -19.00 14:31 -106.00 11:37 -32.00
24-May-07 11:26 -41.00 13:15 -30.00 11:21 -16.00
25-May-07 13:31 -166.00 14:26 -101.00 11:37 -32.00
26-May-07
27-May-07
28-May-07 11:17 -32.00 11:29 -24.00
29-May-07 11:13 -28.00 13:54 -69.00 11:33 -28.00
30-May-07 11:59 -74.00 14:49 -124.00 12:01 -56.00
31-May-07 11:07 -22.00 14:52 -127.00 11:23 -18.00
01-Jun-07 13:31 -106.00 14:04 -79.00 11:47 -42.00
02-Jun-07 11:21 -36.00 11:37 -32.00
03-Jun-07
04-Jun-07 11:33 -48.00 15:03 -138.00 11:19 -14.00

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Richard,
Whilst I see where you are coming from, as you have put tighter time limits than are actually accepted by the industry, you won't be able to get it much better.
You can be more than 15 mins late leaving the gate due to inconsiderate passengers who like to stay in the bar too long before going down to security, holding up the other passengers, this again is not the airlines fault.
The point of departure is the gate as no airline has contriol over the waiting time in the stack for take off.
The only truly accurate figures for Take Offs and landings are the ACARS figures from the aircraft and ATC, gatwick and other BAA airports can be innacurate with their information.

In my opinion, anything within 1 hour of actualy take off time is acceptable, as its an airline, not a production facility, or even a TV programme

By the way, the industry figures show the VS27 on time 51% with an average delay of 51 mins

 

[Joanne_in_London]

My parents were on a 4 hour delay on Tuesdays VS16 flight to Gatwick. Seems to be more of a regular thing these days... Im going on 24th, hope we dont get any!

 

[UKDEB]

I know what you mean, Jo - we had the same worry last year when the flights were scarily late in the run-up to our trip. In the end, ours wan't delayed too badly.

There are been several discussions on this topic recently. I'm going to add your post to the current discussion which is still on the first page of this forum.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

It depends on which flight you are on.
VS 15/16 is consistantly later than the VS27/28 flights

 

[Joanne_in_London]

We are on the VS16 coming home which I dont mind if we have a delay on, as we will just stay at our house longer as long as we know before hand (which we normally would doing the downtown Disney check in, and they called my dad to let him know of further delay)
On our flight out we are on the vs27 so hopefully we'll be ok - The quicker we get there the better