CKBA

Any thoughts on the string of delays to BA228/229 from/to Baltimore over the last couple of weeks?

The (UK) inbound BA228 seems to be affected more than the outbound, with several days being 2+ hours late.

Can I help you

Have you looked at the punctuality of all our flights in the last few weeks, the BWI route is no different to any other our routes.

CKBA

... a long-term follow-up...

Checking BA228 (BWI-LHR) flights at the moment for a future trip and noticed that this flight (G-ZBJE) went technical on Saturday - eventually leaving on Sunday evening (22+ hours late) as BA 9607.

One question is whether re-numbering the flight ever counts towards any lateness/cancellation statistics?

Oh, and cancellation-wise, BA228/229 seems to have more cancellations for long-haul than others at around 4%.

Globaliser

I see that the BA Source suggests that the aircraft was operating Saturday's BA228, but it seems a bit odd that the aircraft should have been using a BA9xxx flight number for that.

CKBA

BA source is "Following the technical issue it encountered yesterday, British Airways Boeing 787-8 G-ZBJE departed Baltimore-Washington this evening operating yesterday’s delayed BA228 Baltimore-Washington – London Heathrow as BA9607." ('this evening' being Sunday - 'yesterday' = Saturday).

Flightaware has an incomplete entry for BA228 on Saturday - but BA9607 provides full details.

CKBA

BA229 (LHR-BWI) on Sunday 11 March had to turn back over southern Ireland (again - any reason for southern Ireland?). It seems to have finally taken off today (12/3), with today's flight still appearing to be booked to fly a couple of hours later. The BA228 BWI-LHR today (12/3) appears to have been cancelled - although there will be two BA planes at BWI with, presumably, a rested crew from Saturday who didn't make the return yesterday...

Pilot37

Most flights that turn back over Southern Ireland are because that is one of the entry points into the North Atlantic tracks which the flight will follow over the next few hours while out of radar scope, so there are specific checks the flight crew perform to ensure the aircraft is compliant to enter the track and cross the Atlantic safely and legally. Obviously in this instance this B788 had an issue that wouldn't make it compliant and thus it couldn't enter or it may have been fine for a one-way flight across the Atlantic, but an issue could have prevented it from returning and the crew may have decided it was better to fix the issue in LHR rather than have it stuck at an outstation.

Pilot37

mjh0

Usually you turn back over Southern Ireland because you have a problem that you don't want to take over an extended ocean crossing, or would prevent you from operating in the Shanwick or Gander OCAs - for instance defective HF radios, or some sort of nav equipment problem that means you can't meet the requirements of operating in the OCAs. For an ETOPS aircraft such as the 787, it could also be something gone defective that is required by the ETOPS Minimum Equipment List.

In some cases, the flight crew will communicate with company maintenance to try to remedy the problem while still flying toward their OCA entry point, but if the issue can't be resolved by then, the aircraft has to turn around - which would usually be over Southern Ireland, for OCA entry points off the Irish Coast.