April 21, 20206 yr Hello Everyone! Figured this could be an interesting topic. Virgin Atlantic appear to have been operating hops from St Lucia to Tobago and Granada in a widebody A333 from Gatwick. Wondering why they would have done this, is it a PSO? Surely there's quite a low passanger rate for a widebody on that route? From a pilot's perspective it's super fun as these airports are quite small. Oh, and there's good freeware out there for St Lucia, Tobago and Granada. All thoughts welcome!
April 21, 20206 yr This has been a common way for the British airlines to serve the Caribbean - basically, they're covering two destinations with one flight. For example, British Airways flew from Gatwick to St Lucia and then on to Grenada on some days and Piarco (Trinidad) on other days. The flight from St Lucia to Grenada in a B777 took 26 minutes wheels up to wheels down. IIRC, it wasn't possible to fly just between the Caribbean islands on those flights, it was only carrying passengers to/from London. Fun? It has been repeated many times in P3D!
April 21, 20206 yr When I went to Cuba in 2008 my Thomas Cook flight was direct from Gatwick to Holguin. When it was time to return I boarded in Holguin and the plane took a very short flight to Varadero further up the coast. This was to let some passengers off who were actually going to Varedero from the UK and board the people there who were heading back to the UK. We then got going again after an hour or so. I believe CavalierDuck is correct in what he says. The flights you mention are doing the same thing which makes economic sense. There is no profit in flying empty. 5800X3D - Strix X570-E - 32GB 3600Mhz DDR4 - AMD RX 9070 XT- Samsung 980 Pro x2
April 21, 20206 yr We used to do these short Caribbean hops using the 747 a few years ago. You’re quite right they were a lot of fun with visual , NDB or VOR approaches , which over the years were eventually replaced by RNAV approaches. The planes were normally very light and their power to weight ratio was starting to approach that of a heavily armed previous generation fighter/bomber, pretty extreme climb rates. My favourite route used to be BGI-ANU-BGI with enough time in the cruise to grab a quick drink and enjoy the scenery. I think it was Tobago which had a slope in the runway which made it look like you were reaching the stop end on landing very quickly, then you’d go over the brow of the hill and the rest of the runway was revealed. 787 captain. Previously 24 years on 747-400.Technical advisor on PMDG 747 legacy versions QOTS 1 , FS9 and Aerowinx PS1.
April 21, 20206 yr Author Wow thanks for all the replies. Gonna do this when I get my first long hauler tomorrow, looks super fun! Anyway thanks for all your great comments. 744 into Tobago looks pretty daunting... respect. They look pretty tight for the widebodies, I feel like a read a story of a Virgin A330 getting stuck in the dirt somewhere..
April 22, 20206 yr On 4/21/2020 at 8:41 AM, Canine Crew said: Hello Everyone! Figured this could be an interesting topic. Virgin Atlantic appear to have been operating hops from St Lucia to Tobago and Granada in a widebody A333 from Gatwick. Wondering why they would have done this, is it a PSO? Surely there's quite a low passanger rate for a widebody on that route? From a pilot's perspective it's super fun as these airports are quite small. Oh, and there's good freeware out there for St Lucia, Tobago and Granada. All thoughts welcome! hello. I work for them and your slight incorrect, we actually operate the a330-200 on it not the 330-300. We used to operate on the 744s. If you want a copy of the original flight plans for the sectors send me a pm , I cant upload them here as they have telephone numbers on.. they look like this, its an old one from my last trip down there Ps. look how young and fresh our cabin crew are, compared to that Spanish national airline of ours Edited April 22, 20206 yr by fluffyflops
April 22, 20206 yr Author lol thanks so much @fluffyflops our resident Gatwick expert. True about the Cabin crew though..... My bad on the A333 aswell!
April 22, 20206 yr 2 hours ago, Canine Crew said: lol thanks so much @fluffyflops our resident Gatwick expert. True about the Cabin crew though..... My bad on the A333 aswell! No worries. Any time you need a FP give me a shout.
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