I am flying from LHR-SYD with Virgin, on a A430, apparently.My flight is listed as "non-stop", is this even possible?.If not, I assume they must stop and refuel somewhere, if this is the case, do the passengers have to disembark whislt refuelling is taking place?Cheers

Lol, don't know where non-stop came from ;). No, this is the famous LHR-SYD "Kangaroo Route" flown by BA, VS, and QANTAS. There's a fuel stop in Hong Kong. From Virgin's schedule: Flight VS200: Outward: London - Sydney via Hong Kong International Airport

Hi,To answer the second part of your question, it's called gas and go with the PAX in place. After a ball busting flight like this one, you never let then off the aircraft, cuz you will never get them all back. Besides gas, you run the t#rd hearse by the latrines if you get a chance. Been there...done that.Bob I.

Thanks fellas, I didn't think it would fly non-stop, every though my tickets are advertised as non-stop, maybe their idea of non-stop just means to don't depart.I assume it's safe, this "gas and go with pax in place"!!!!

It is a convention to say non-stop if the flight makes no stops to embark or disembark passengers.For a couple years working on a project in Melbourne, I regularly took a "non-stop" United flight out of LAX that refueled in Auckland. We actually got off the plane for 30 minutes, but were confined to a transient area, not to enter New Zealand. Sometimes the Sydney non-stop out of LAX refuels on one of the Pacific islands. Or stops somewhere else on the east coast of Oz if it misses its noise abatement window for Sydney.

>>I assume it's safe, this "gas and go with pax in place"!!!!I was sat in an Air France B777 whilst they were re-fulling. They made a point of telling us not to fasten our seatbelts during re-fulling due to 'safety regulations' - this was at KIAD

Also known as a "quick turn" in the corporate world. A good quick turn on a small or medium size biz jet takes about 15 minutes and may consist of 1000 gallons of Jet-A, taking a bathroom break, refill the ice and drink bin, dump the lav, get some more catering, clean up some of the mess the pax have made, check the weather, get the clearance, load the FMS/GPS, calculate V-speeds, reorganize the charts and then get underway again.

Yes, the A340 will take you all the way there without a stop.

>Yes, the A340 will take you all the way there without a>stop.Hi DaveWhich model of the A340 can presently fly LHR-SYD non-stop? The info I have seen from Airbus indicates that at present none of the A340 family can do this, and the A340E (which was intended to do so) has not yet been built.http://www.airbus.com/en/aircraftfamilies/a330a340/a340-500/Best regardsJohn

I think the A340-500 can fly from London to Perth non-stop, but from Perth to London a fueling stop is required (as it's all uphill ;))Cheers, SLuggy