RichL

I’ve seen a few threads on here in the past asking what will be on the plane operating on my route and its always met with the answer that nobody knows until the day when you can check the reg. number and refer back.

Over the past two weeks I have been looking at flights 412 and 434 just out of mooted interest.

Since 13/2/17 when I started keeping a tally, 412 has had one of the newer EU* frames every day, in a row, with none missed as demonstrated here below.

By comparison, 434 has had a mixture of ED* and EE* with not one new frame on the route.

Is there something special about Sydney or is it purely coincidence that for 12 solid days running now, it has been serviced by the newest 380s in the fleet? I could understand if there was a gap, but there isn’t.

Its certainly a big coincidence if EK schedulers decide on the day out of what is available and funny how in all of that, they always manage to find a new one to operate that route.

skywardhunter

Frames are scheduled up to 2 months in advance. The recurrence of new frames on 412 was already discussed in another thread on here yesterday or the day before (the airframe delivery thread I think, I don't remember now)

m3red

Scheduled but then random - I'm on a6 ect to Hnd right now

Should have been a 777LR it's now a 77w

DYKWIA

There's something missing from that picture!!!

m3red

The second bottle is in my hand

RichL

Yeah, by me however as that was the delivery thread I didnt (personally) feel it was supposed to be in that thread.

Please close if anyone thinks it should be left in there.

blagger

Your data isn't exactly complete. If you look at the data on flightradar24, it's clear that the plane operating EK434 DXB-BNE-AKL then operates EK419 AKL-SYD-BKK-DXB, which indicates no shiny plane bias in favour of SYD over BNE. But EK412 goes to CHC, so it might in fact be a CHC bias!

RichL

I never thought of the return journey - that could indeed be the reason.

The ignorant part of me presumed that it would do DXB-BNE-AKL and then the return, but of course with more than one frame in AKL at any one time, it doesn't specifically do the same return.

Interesting, thank you.

Its more than likely got something to do with MTOW from CHC but I am not that clever to work such things out in my pea brain.

Firemansam

I noticed this for the 77W that flies Adelaide, it's nearly always EC.. EB.. with the occasional EG.. but never the newer EN.. EP.. etc.
Yet other flights into Australia often get the newer 77W's

ZRHMD11

This is easy to explain:

Flights to ADL requires a frame with the Crew Rest Area since is a ULR flight.

All 77W A6-EN.. are two class or 3 class without the Crew Rest Area.

Bravo2K

Spoke with the purser on EK434 regarding this a few weeks ago as I had noticed the same thing from around the time EK448/449 and EK418/419 switched to an A380.

SYD and in particular EK412/413 are receiving the newest A6-EU* ULR frames due to having the extra seats in economy as a result of the crew rest being relocated to below the main deck from the rear economy cabin. As EK412/413 DXB-SYD and SYD-DXB have the highest load factors it is the most advantageous route to assign them.

EK448/449 generally is operated by one of the newer ULR frames with increased MTOW from A6-EEM onwards.

The turnaround of the inbound EK434 frame to operate the outbound EK419 and vice versa is just to facilitate the later arrival of EK418 into Auckland. EK434 is used because in the event of a delay ex AKL, BNE has no curfew restrictions.

Hope this helps.

RichL

Very interesting, thank you.

champair79

The RR A380s seem to be used to BKK and KUL almost exclusively. A6-EUM for example always seems to operate EK374/375. It strikes me as a little odd. I wonder if EK are trying to gauge accurate aircraft performance by getting an average of many different parameters over a few months.

Champ

CaptainEKAirbus

Might be due to the availability of spares for the RR engines, since both Thai Airways and Malaysia have RR powered A380s. With that said, you could ask why they aren't then flying the aircraft to LHR/SIN/SYD...

RichL

With that said, it looks like they don't have much cofidence in their RR product, they could also fly their 2 class RR powered 380s to BHX where they could get a new engine part from RR down the road in Derby if needed...

Find it hard to believe they are using it on routes where they can get parts - are they expecting it to break down?

I know RR had to do something to the fan blades to cope with the desert however that was all I thought?