Originally Posted by
bd95
This is something the BHD regulars will have noticed. In the past when BD had a base in BHD, half the rotations were run as a BHD shuttle and half as LHR based shuttle. Now it’s obvious that the crew operating a flight around lunchtime leave and form the early morning departure next day, while a “new” crew take up that aircraft back to LHR. One would assume there are 2 or 3 nightstopping crews in Belfast at any time. While hotels in Belfast are cheap there comes the point when one wonders when it would become economical to set up a base again, especially as some local crew commute to LHR or LGW.
Unfortunately, that will probably never happen again. 2 years on from Heathrow Cabin Crew (the merge of the three fleets) and they are still tinkering about and implementing things that were agreed with the union, and the plan doesn’t include opening/reopening any new bases.
The only 2 mainline services that night stop in Belfast are the lunchtime flight from LHR as that crew will operate the early flight the next morning and the last flight that arrives into Belfast as that crew will operate the 3pm flight back to Heathrow. On average both flights are operated by an A320 so 2 sets of flight crew and 2 sets of cabin crew. At the minute we are operating the Aer Lingus wet lease so add another 1 set of flight crew and 1 set cabin crew for hotels. Cityflyer also overnight in Belfast but its only 1 crew as they operate the early flight back to LCY. I am not sure what time they arrive in Belfast. That adds a further 1 set of flight crew and 1 set of cabin crew for hotel rooms. From April the number of rooms will decrease as the Aer Lingus wet lease ends.
BHD is probably an average station on the short haul network for rooms needs inline with GLA/EDI/BER etc and compared to Singapore/New York/Cape Town/Joburg its a tiny station for hotel rooms.
The EI trip is a 4-day trip with 3 nights in Belfast. As a Belfast commuter I was delighted to see this trip on my roster for February as I will be able to go home every night. The crew operating the EI flights are on the following rotation:
Day 1 LHR-BHD (afternoon flight)
Day 2 BHD-LHR-BHD (first flight out and the return at 11am)
Day 3 BHD-LHR-BHD (Same as day 2)
Day 4 BHD-LHR-BHD-LHR (finish around 3pm)