Here's a great aviation video. 

"Svend" (svend) 03/02/2019 at 17:51 • Filed to: None

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It’s a narrow body aircraft Airbus A318 (registration G-EUNA, British Airways number BA001 which used to belong to Concorde).

T hat flies from the small London City Airport (LCY) to Shannon Airport (SNN) in Ireland to fuel up and do the U.S. customs and immigration checks for U.S. pre- clearance to then fly onto New York, JFK Airport (JFK) .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

I don’t know if I’d want to fly something so small or such a long route.

But it’s still fantastic none the less. 

ttyymmnn > Svend 03/02/2019 at 18:06

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Shannon was one of the important destinations for transatlantic travel in the early days. Hard to tell on a Mercator map, but that’s just about the narrowest part of the Atlantic, especially if you fly into Gander. This flight maps at 3,081 miles. Wiki lists the A318's range as 3,100 miles. I can’t imagine they’d do what with only 20 miles of elbow room. Lots of places to stop once you get across the ocean, though.

Chinny Raccoon > Svend 03/02/2019 at 18:09

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With the low density I think I could manage.

The cockpit approach videos into City are fun. Must take a while to get used to the steep approach angle and short runway.

ttyymmnn > Svend 03/02/2019 at 18:16

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Not crazy about the A318? You could have flown the Vickers Vimy like Alcock and Brown did. They made the first non-stop transatlantic flight in this. I bet it was cold.

Svend > ttyymmnn 03/02/2019 at 18:20

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Ye’, it’s a close one.

Ye’, a one hour stop off in Ireland, great, grab a bottle or two of Teeling whiske y. One for the flight, and one for post hotel check in after your arrival at JFK.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Svend 03/02/2019 at 18:21

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I look at seats on aircraft this way: a seat is a seat is a seat. It doesn’t matter if you’re in an A318 or an A380 - if the seat width and pitch sucks, the flight will suck no matter the length of the flight. On this particular flight there are only 32 seats so it’s incredibly spacious, and similar to flying on a long-range bizjet like a Falcon 7 or G650, and unlike the 100+ seats they’d normally cram on an aircraft of this size.

Back when I worked at LAX one of my customers, Singapore Airlines (SQ), would bring in an A340-500 that they used for non-stop flights. Normally an airline would cram in 300 seats into an aircraft of this size but they only had around 180, later reduced to just 100 seats. The aircraft was marginal for these long routes; it could do them, but it meant fewer seats, no cargo (the real money-maker in this business) and the use of special lightweight baggage containers. Like Concorde, it was a prestige aircraft, priced accordingly, and never had much hope of actually making money but instead was a treat for those who could afford it (or fly it via frequent flyer miles or other perks). Sure, it saved a few hours compared to making a stop in Taiwan or Japan, but the tremendous increase in cost for the minimal time savings wasn’t worth it to most people.

They should have been using the Boeing 777-200LR which would have been a better fit for their fleet, an aircraft that could do the same range whilst carrying more pax and some cargo, but the 345 was available sooner than the 77L. SQ did have A340-300s in their fleet so it wasn’t a completely incompatible sub fleet, but they wanted to be first with these ultra long-range flights and bought the first aircraft that was allegedly capable of such a flight. I’m sure they would have switched aircraft if Boeing took the 345 fleet in trade, but in the past Airbus had threatened a lack of support for aircraft traded in like that (not a great move on their part) and I think Boeing knew that the used market for an aircraft like that was rather small. Hopefully the A350 ULR that SQ is now flying is a little more capable than the 345.

Svend > Chinny Raccoon 03/02/2019 at 18:21

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I’ve not landed at London City for many many years so I can’t really remember. 

Svend > ttyymmnn 03/02/2019 at 18:23

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I’ve been on A318s before but they were short hops and seemed to be more susceptible to turbulence but that may of just been on the routes I was on rather than the aircrafts fault.   

f86sabre > Svend 03/02/2019 at 21:38

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Huh, might have to give that one a try. 

Svend > f86sabre 03/02/2019 at 21:45

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It’s perfect, quick check in, fly to Ireland, get some Irish whiskey, continue rather unique flight to America, get security issues with TSA, etc..., dispare, get coffee , get back on flight, land in Ireland on way back, get Irish whiskey and fly back into London, got to train station and go home. Brilliant. 

f86sabre > Svend 03/02/2019 at 22:03

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I can zed fare on BA, it might be worth $100 to give it a run just for novelty.

What still kills me is early in my career I could have taken Concorde from London to NY for $1000 even.  I didn’t have the money to do it then. 

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > ttyymmnn 03/04/2019 at 13:29

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The A318 range is 3100 nautical miles (~ 3567 statute miles), and using Google Earth I get a flight distance of 2678 nautical miles (3082 statute miles) between Shannon and JFK. That leaves 422nmi (485 mi, 15.8%) reserve fuel if they brim the tanks in Shannon.  Gotta keep an eye on the units, otherwise you might crash your Mars orbiter into Mars on accident.

ttyymmnn > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 03/04/2019 at 13:42

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Thanks. I definitely did miss that.