Hartmann

My guess is that people who had flights cancelled for the last few days have been put on the flights that are able to go out.

sbm12

There aren't all that many EWR-Europe flights on 772s that are being canceled. And CO needs those birds to stay in operation to be able to run the longer flights (Asia, TLV, India). The risk of having one stranded is WAY higher than the risk associated with a 764 getting stuck on the ground in Europe.

Vulcan

Looks like the planes CO sent lat night have all made the turn and are heading back, some with significant delays

39 OSL 2 hour delay
41 FCO 75 min delay
63 MAD 90 min dleay
65 LIS 0 delay
69 ARN 0 delay
120 BCN 40 min delay

rkkwan

Currently, the flights listing to go tonite are similar to last night, but with smaller planes for ARN and BCN:

CO38 OSL 764
CO40 FCO 764
CO62 MAD 764
CO64 LIS 752
CO68 ARN 762
CO80 ZRH 764
CO120 BCN 752

In fact, the 762 to ARN has fewer overall seats than the regular 752.

thaliajen

I'm rebooked through Birmingham, England on Friday. (Don't know the airport code for that city- 1st I've heard of it but am glad to.) I'm waiting till Thursday to take the train there. If THAT doesn't work, I'm going LHR Tuesday. If THAT doesn't work, I just don't know.

kilgore75

Does anybody have a clue, why CO46 IAH-FRA is cancelled today (20/4) while LH flies all long-haul flights in/out of Frankfurt? I'm booked on this flight in couple of days, I would better know, if trying to change to LH would be a better option.

martinfoss

The crew that are stranded in Europe, flew in on 757's. According to a friend who works for CO here in OSL, the same crew are certified for both 757 and 767, but not for the 777. Therefore, sending a 777 to, let's say, Oslo, would require the 777 to "rest" in Oslo for 24 hours, so the inboud crew could take the same bird back again.

buckeyefanflyer

Once flights are allowed at LHR due you think CO will run 777's to EWR instead of 757's because of the demand at least for awhile.

cwf

Just curious, but what's the best way to figure out which flights have availability? I did a one way flight search for LHR->IAH which gave me the option for Friday (4/23) but when I called the elite desk they said those flights are full.

I did get a flight one day earlier, but it still means I'm stuck in the UK another week.

sbm12

No, because they don't have that many spare 777s. The other long-haul routes are still running normally so there aren't may extras sitting idle.

flyingwheels

Haven't got a clue what is going on, but something definately is going on. CO also cancelled all of it's flights from AMS for both today and tomorrow. Yet AMS has been open for normal operation since early this morning (things started up for KLM yesterday), which includes airlines other than the EU carriers flying back in.

I can imagine some flights still being cancelled if CO doesn't have the right plane at the right airport. But even than, it should be very doable to fly in an aircraft and start operating again on the 21st.

Just had a look at CO website, which clears up a lot. They do not fly on most of the airports that have reopened, state they will keep applying for aproval to fly on those airports, but it's up to EU authorities and they will give Eu carriers preference. While that preference was still the case earlier today, this preference is not noticable for flights scheduled tomorrow. Also CO still allows free flight changes for all travel dates April 14, 2010 - April 23, 2010
. Would that implicate CO isn't expecting to fly on any of these airports until the 24th?

thaliajen

cwf- have you looked into Birmingham? When my flight was cancelled for tomorrow my husband conference called me with a CO rep. She is the one who said I should fly from Birmingham on Friday, but I didn't do the searching, she did. Also, there's nothing really going on here in London- I am not even sure I believe CO will fly a week from today, though that was the original rebook.

I just hope there is a plane IN Birmingham so Friday works out. I don't trust waiting on flights coming in to the city, or any UK space. I'll believe it when I see it.

Good Luck!

cwf

Oddly enough I'm actually in Birmingham, the flight times are better (and non-stop) from Heathrow to Houston normally which is why I chose that.

DYKWIA

When roughly do Continental cancel the flights? I've got a EWR-MAN on 4/22 which I suspect will be cancelled. If that's the case, then I want to book a long weekend in Florida, as I can't take another weekend in NJ

Cheers,
Rick

Non-TypiCAL F/A

That is not true, a vast majority of F/As are certified for all the planes we fly. However the minimum crew for the 777 is 9 F/As and the 757 is staffed with 6 (minimum crew on the 752 is 4). So if ops was to send a 777 to a 752 destination there might not be enough F/As to work the flight back.

Edited to add: I just realized you were probably talking about the pilots!