Frontier Airbus 318 - Denver to London City...

[P_7878 6,653]

OK, you must be already wondering...A318...Denver to London City...Really...🙂...? Now, the A318 is indeed capable of transatlantic flights but under certain specific conditions. The classic (and probably sole) example of such flights was the British Airways' (premier) A318 service between London City Airport and John F. Kennedy Airport. BA was operating these flights for over a decade. This prestigious business-class flight was given the legendary number "BA1" which was once the flight number reserved solely for Concorde flights between London and New York...the difference was that the new "BA1" flight was operated with a tiny aircraft - the smallest member of the A320 family, the Baby bus A318, safe to say it was the smallest...commercial transatlantic flight of modern times. EGLC to KJFK has a flight distance of ~3,500 miles just within the range (3,600 miles) of the 318, while KDEN to EGLC is ~4,600 miles well out of its range (so, my 318 here would literally...as we say colloquially around here... run-out-of-gas...🙂...long before it sees London City). 

EGLC (London City) has a short runway (<5,000 ft), so, for the (London->New York) flight, the (BA) A318 could not be loaded with enough fuel to reach NYC non-stop (though for no fault of the Baby bus...🙂...). So, it had to first make a re-fueling stop in Shannon, ~60 mins away. However, on the return (New York->London) flight, the A318 was able to take off with a full tank of fuel, fly non-stop, and by the time it arrived in London, it was light enough to land on the short runway of EGLC.

A bit more about this (BA) A318 service:

1. Only 32 max business-class seats (actual pax # might be ~20) per flight (each seat convertible to a "lie-flat" bed...so, no kid (or adult as the case maybe) pushing against the back of your (economy) seat...🙂...).
2. 3 Cabin Crew for ~20 pax.
3. At EGLC, the check-in time was only 15-20 mins (this is surely no Heathrow that I recall...)
4. In Shannon, while the jet was being re-fueled, the pax were pre-cleared for their U.S. immigration and customs, so, when they arrived in JFK, the jet could land as if it had flown (domestically) from e.g., Newark...🙂...i.e., the pax could simply walk straight out of the airport in <5 minutes. No need to grapple with NY Customs and Immigration lines...!
5. So, what's the catch...? Each flight costed 6,000 GBP or 7,500 USD... (Oh well...time then to look for that sardine class ticket in the BA 777 instead...you know where one filters first the flight availabilities per lowest to highest price order...🙂... (through bustling and busy Heathrow airport) ...which I've done a couple of times, and the Terminal 5 is nice though which these guys would not get to see on their flight...)

Here, I have picked Frontier and Denver, because Frontier was not only the launch customer for the A318 but was also the first to deploy the type into service, with an inaugural flight, 2 decades ago, in 2003, out of its hub Denver. I've picked London City because of the (above) A318 BA service out of EGLC. More significantly, A318 is the largest commercial aircraft certified by EASA for steep approach operations such as into EGLC (Note: The BAe 146/Avro RJ are also permitted into EGLC, but are actually smaller than the A318, and they cannot do non-stop transatlantic flights like the A318). 

If we equate the A318 to B736, and the A320 to B738, as competitive peers in the same niche, we may note that the 738 first flew in 1997, the 736 just a year later in 1998, while the A320 first flew in 1987 and the 318, 15 years later in 2002. So, A318, in that sense, is the one with most advanced technology of the time, in the entire A320 family.

Anyway, please find below a what-if set of images of Frontier's Baby bus lifting off Denver in the morning light, in the livery of a lovable "Fawn" (a young deer in its first year, please see the tail art). Likewise, another of Frontier's Baby bus is touching down into EGLC in the evening light, flying past the London City cityscape (and the scintillant River Thames), in the livery of a bit more ferocious "Elk" (the second largest species within the same deer family, and one of the largest ground mammals in North America, see the tail art). Frontier brand is well-known for painting animals (and birds) on its fuselages and tails. Frontier no longer flies A318, and A318 is no longer in production, nor is BA operating those (unique) A318 (LCY-JFK) flights anymore (suspended since Covid days).

So, this is your chance to see the Baby bus 318 landing into London City...thanks to yours truly...🙂...

Hope you enjoy this collection of images (do look when the little deer transforms to a big deer...). 

Thanks for viewing...!

Edited April 13 by P_7878

[Alaska738 8,421]

Nice shots! I also travel long distances with my 737, i do 8 hours of flights every day in order to acquire my 2000 flight hours in order to be ready for my 777. 😉 

[pmplayer 9,502]

Great shots P_7878, i love that Frontier animals liverys, they have a lot different of them..

cheers 😉

[jankees 2,070]

I've always liked those Frontier tails, nice shots

[P_7878 6,653]

22 hours ago, Alaska738 said:

Nice shots! I also travel long distances with my 737, i do 8 hours of flights every day in order to acquire my 2000 flight hours in order to be ready for my 777. 😉 

Thanks, Will, for the feedback...So, you will be surely more ready than most of us for the big one when it drops on our desktop...🙂...

 

22 hours ago, pmplayer said:

Great shots P_7878, i love that Frontier animals liverys, they have a lot different of them..

cheers 😉

Thanks, and agree, pmplayer...birds and animals...who will not like...🙂.... good branding strategy.... I was looking at their (tail) birds yesterday a bit...quite fascinating...

 

8 hours ago, jankees said:

I've always liked those Frontier tails, nice shots

Jan: I know you're not too fond of "Advertisements" of merchandise on a/c fuselages...🙂.... but these are not...yes, indeed, they look nice...I've scanned most of Frontier's animals and birds when creating this post...The airline seems passionate about it focusing often on endangered species...

[Alaska738 8,421]

2 hours ago, P_7878 said:

Thanks, Will, for the feedback...So, you will be surely more ready than most of us for the big one when it drops on our desktop...🙂...

Yeah! 😉 

[andiflyit 454]

Nice shots of the Frontier Airbus P_7878!

[P_7878 6,653]

3 hours ago, andiflyit said:

Nice shots of the Frontier Airbus P_7878!

Thanks for the note, Andreas. Appreciated...!

[bernd1151 5,883]

Very interesting post, P_7878. I had no idea about BA1 as A318, so thank you for this info!

[Phantom88 3,287]

Gorgeous Shots...Love the lighting

[P_7878 6,653]

On 4/17/2024 at 3:09 AM, bernd1151 said:

Very interesting post, P_7878. I had no idea about BA1 as A318, so thank you for this info!

Thanks, Bernd. I did know about the BA 318 Service, but didn't know either that it was assigned that prestigious call-sign once it was de-linked from the Concorde...

 

On 4/17/2024 at 6:32 AM, Phantom88 said:

Gorgeous Shots...Love the lighting

Appreciated the comment, Patrick, and thanks for the kind words ...!