LCY E190 operating limits
Jul 23, 2019, 12:38 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 198
LCY E190 operating limits
Maybe a question for pprune, but I'm flying to Mykonos on what looks like a basically full flight and I cannot help but notice the short runway at LCY + high load + long flight + (potential hot weather) might make the operating conditions out of LCY difficult (specifically, using every inch of that runway to take off). Do BA E190 operations at LCY in these type of situations ever cause operational issues (e.g. having to undersell; difficulties with extra baggage; having to turn people away at gate etc.) or is it always 100% smooth?
Jul 23, 2019, 12:54 am
#2
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: London
Programs: Ba Silver ( for now!)
Posts: 776
I know 2 separate incidences of this. Last summer a father of my daughter friend was off loaded on a flight to Mallorca and a few month prior to that a friend was offloaded on a flight to Malaga. The reason in both cases was given as aircraft performance not overbooking
So yes it happens.
So yes it happens.
Jul 23, 2019, 1:00 am
#3
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA GGL
Posts: 1,578
+1 in May BA sought two volunteers to offload from LCY-PMI because the plane was too heavy for the takeoff conditions. Offer was 250 per pax, an overnight hotel and a seat on the first flight out in the morning.
Jul 23, 2019, 1:06 am
#4
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: London, UK
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 2,286
Happened on two flights I travelled on last summer LCY-IBZ. Both occasions it was a warm day (although morning flights so not peak heat). From memory I think they wanted 5-7 pax to volunteer to offload. £250 and put on the next available flight.
Jul 23, 2019, 1:22 am
#5
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 516
It happened about 3 weeks ago on a flight to Split that I was waiting for the return of in Split.
My understanding from the crew was that the full outbound flight had boarded, during that process the wind shifted and the airport changed the runway direction to taking off to the west. This for some reason resulted in a few passengers having to be offloaded to reduce weight, due to the high fuel load required for the route. This caused the flight to be an hour late.
My understanding from the crew was that the full outbound flight had boarded, during that process the wind shifted and the airport changed the runway direction to taking off to the west. This for some reason resulted in a few passengers having to be offloaded to reduce weight, due to the high fuel load required for the route. This caused the flight to be an hour late.
Jul 23, 2019, 1:23 am
#7
Join Date: Dec 2014
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Yesterday at LCY, the gate staff for a flight to IBZ announced they may need volunteers to offload, due to the heat causing weight restrictions. In the end it appeared not to be required, but clearly it was a possibility. I heard the turnround manager say that she “only had 70kg left”, but since I don’t have technical knowledge of such matters, I don’t know the context of that.
Jul 23, 2019, 1:41 am
#8
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If you got the impression of "full flight" from zeroes on an availability display, that's another illustration of the fact that availability displays can sometimes tell you very little about how many bodies will be on board the aircraft. Trying to work out one from the other is (as I am frequently saying here) like trying to read tea leaves.
Jul 23, 2019, 1:51 am
#9
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
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That is my impression, and when I did some of these Greek routes last year they (for example) blocked off the second seat for Club Europe single passengers regardless of status, and I watched J9 drop to J0 in line with this; and there was about 8 seats at the back left empty until OLCI, at which point there had been Y0 (but G9 for some reason!) for some time. Talking to a Skiathos captain he said that they blocked the minimum number of seats for "normal conditions" but on the day - depending on a wide range of factors - they would sometimes need volunteers or look at the baggage payload to see what they could do. It was less problematic at the Greek end, since take off from there generally was well within tolerances, but if they had to do something it would be problematic since it wouldn't be easy to tell a passenger to wait 4 days for the next BA flight. If they did, it would be staff travel that would be hit first, though there wasn't a lot of that.
Jul 23, 2019, 2:18 am
#11
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 90
The Greeks are sales capped to 72 (out of 98), although on extreme weather days, they may still ask for volunteers.
The longer Spanish routes are supposed to be capped at 95, but they'll still oversell that, often resulting in all 98 seats sold.
There are about 3 or 4 bad days each season, where they can remove upto 50 people across all of their weight restricted services. Most other days, it's 1-2 people per flight if needed.
They'll rebook to an alternative flight from LHR or LGW if available, provide transport and issued a debit card loaded with compensation. It's 250 for most routes, but AGP and the Greeks are long enough for 400.
The longer Spanish routes are supposed to be capped at 95, but they'll still oversell that, often resulting in all 98 seats sold.
There are about 3 or 4 bad days each season, where they can remove upto 50 people across all of their weight restricted services. Most other days, it's 1-2 people per flight if needed.
They'll rebook to an alternative flight from LHR or LGW if available, provide transport and issued a debit card loaded with compensation. It's 250 for most routes, but AGP and the Greeks are long enough for 400.
Jul 23, 2019, 2:23 am
#12
Join Date: Aug 2015
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Is this 250/400 amount BA proactively offering EC261 compensation, or is it a separate gesture?
Jul 23, 2019, 2:47 am
#14
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If you are a genuine volunteer then you are actually free to accept a lower figure than 250 or 400. As it happens these are the EC261 figures, which is due to involuntary denied boarding.