FedEx at the SNA terminal?
Jul 14, 2000 | 9:00 pm
#1
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FedEx at the SNA terminal?
I was driving southbound on the 405 today around 6PM and when I glanced at the SNA terminal, I noticed a FedEx A310 which stuck out (because of its size) but was parked around Gate 6 (That's a guess... I was going 65 mph at the time). Anyone have a plausible reason for this? Doesn't FedEx usually park their metal in their cargo area?
Jul 14, 2000 | 11:03 pm
#2
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Wasn't FedEx going to start charter passenger service on weekends by converting their metal to passenger friday nights and then back again to cargo on Sunday nights? Or was that UPS?
Jul 15, 2000 | 9:29 am
#4
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Can't say I've ever seen FedEx flying an A-310. Must not have too many of them.
Jul 15, 2000 | 2:39 pm
#6
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I checked the airline fleet site. I stand quite corrected:
http://www.geocities.com/~aeromoe/fleets/fedex.html
FedEx has 25 active A-310's, and 28 A-300's. They appear to have quite a number of additional 310 and 300's "on order"; which I suspect means they are being bought from another party and converted. Based upon the registration data, many of the 310's were orginally German domiciled, and the 300's from France. Actual previous owner is not disclosed, although some of the 310's were American owned, with a "PA" (PanAm?) suffix.
http://www.geocities.com/~aeromoe/fleets/fedex.html
FedEx has 25 active A-310's, and 28 A-300's. They appear to have quite a number of additional 310 and 300's "on order"; which I suspect means they are being bought from another party and converted. Based upon the registration data, many of the 310's were orginally German domiciled, and the 300's from France. Actual previous owner is not disclosed, although some of the 310's were American owned, with a "PA" (PanAm?) suffix.
Jul 16, 2000 | 5:12 pm
#8
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The A300 is still in production (or was as late as March of this year when a brand new A300-600R was delivered), and based on Airbus' order numbers for both the A300 and A310 their numbers are either wrong or their both still in production (delivered aircraft is less than ordered in both cases, and cancelled orders are typically taken out of the order totals).
I seem to recall reading recently that those aircraft are still in production, but Airbus is not really taking orders for them. Also, the problem is Airbus just doesn't have a replacement for these aircraft, they are looking at shortening the A330-200 to do this, but that aircraft may not be very efficient compared to the 767. Shortened aircraft tend to have problems with being too heavy to be efficient ...
I seem to recall reading recently that those aircraft are still in production, but Airbus is not really taking orders for them. Also, the problem is Airbus just doesn't have a replacement for these aircraft, they are looking at shortening the A330-200 to do this, but that aircraft may not be very efficient compared to the 767. Shortened aircraft tend to have problems with being too heavy to be efficient ...
Jul 16, 2000 | 8:02 pm
#9
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I know the A310 is the only widebody that can be flown into SNA. Supposedly, DL used to fly them to SNA when they had the Ex-Eastern (or maybe it was PanAm?) ones. But I still have no explanation as to why a FedEx one was at the terminal...
The charters are indeed UPS. Does anyone have any other information (or is there a website?) on these planes? I assume the seats are on a plane that slides in on the track. But what about overhead bins? I take it there are no windows? A lot of fake light in the cabin, then?
The charters are indeed UPS. Does anyone have any other information (or is there a website?) on these planes? I assume the seats are on a plane that slides in on the track. But what about overhead bins? I take it there are no windows? A lot of fake light in the cabin, then?
Jul 16, 2000 | 9:21 pm
#10
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The UPS charter planes are 727's ... they do have windows and overhead bins, and actually from the video of the plane I saw when they introduced service here in New Orleans recently the seat pitch looked very good ...