JAF Embraer Problems

[EBAW]

Embraer JAF1963 Palma de mallorca (JAF) Diverted to EBOS
Scheduled time of departure in EBAW 17u now 23u15 in EBOS
My parents are on this flight. They have to wait for a bustransfer to EBOS.

[sean1982]

Why cant they land at EBAW?

[EBAW]

The broken embraer landed at EBAW from Berlin. My parents and all the other pax are on their way with the bus. The flight will be operated by an Boeing 737 EBOS-PMI

[KriVa]

Depending on how the fleet is utilised, that sounds like a rather reasonable alternative, to be honest.
Granted, the delay might be rather long, but finding an alternative outside the JAF fleet at this time of year would probably have cost them at least the same amount of time, if not more.
Depending on the alternative the company decides on, a bus transfer, to either EBOS or EBBR, is probably the best option.

While I'm not sure on specific numbers, I can imagine not a lot of companies have jets standing by that are capable of carrying the capacity of an E190 out of ANR. Having a small-ish subfleet in the same company doesn't improve this position.

Just to make sure I understood your post correctly:
The E190 did not divert to EBOS, but landed in EBAW as normal. The only difference is the AOG in EBAW, forcing a bus transfer to EBOS as alternative?
While not ideal, I'd say that's a rather good solution by JAF.

[AAI]

it's a pity, they did't bring over the 737 to ANR!

[KriVa]

They would be able to put it down in ANR, but getting a 737 out of ANR with a reasonable load is not an option, sadly.
From time to time a BBJ (737 Boeing Business Jet) lands (and takes off, of course) in ANR, but a BBJ is lighter in comparison to an airline-configured 737 with pax, cargo and fuel.
I may be able to do a rough calculation of the allowable masses at ANR, in comparison to for example BRU, in the following days.

[sn26567]

Let me try to understand. JAF1963 from TXL landed normally in ANR, but had mechanical problems and is AOG. Hence it cannot depart to PMI (with the same flight number!) and therefore, passengers are transferred by bus to OST where a B737 will take them to PMI, still with the same flight number JAF1963. Do I understand correctly? (Sources: websites of ANR, OST and FR24)

[ironspan]

It is not only a matter of 737 performance, there have been a few 737 operating out of ANR commercially (SAS, Jettime), but the issue could also be that the crew is not trained for short runway operations. Since nr of pax to PMI id probably 100 or less, this would mean 737 load factor would be 60% or less, which could make it possible from ANR, I guess...

[Passenger]

Let me try to understand. JAF1963 from TXL landed normally in ANR, but had mechanical problems and is AOG. Hence it cannot depart to PMI (with the same flight number!) and therefore, passengers are transferred by bus to OST where a B737 will take them to PMI, still with the same flight number JAF1963. Do I understand correctly? (Sources: websites of ANR, OST and FR24)

If FR24 is correct, the aircraft is not AOG in Antwerp, but flew to Ostend shortly after landing in Antwerp (from Berlin).
http://www.flightradar24.com/reg/oo-jem

Oh boy: an empty flight from ANR to OST? If that is true, the green party will demand a special session of the Parliament tomorrow...

[DIBO]

a positioning flight to EBOS with a rather strange routing (or maybe it was a testflight?): http://www.flightradar24.com/data/airpl ... m/#699609d

[KriVa]

Having done a back of the envelope calculation for the current conditions at ANR (OAT 10C, wind 250/6), I arrive at a MTOM of about 62 tonnes, with a "no bleeds", max thrust take-off. Depending on the aircraft, that gives you about 20 tonnes of usable load (pax, fuel and cargo).
In a "bad case scenario", though not worst-case, I get about 9-10 tonnes of fuel needed at release. That gives about 10-11 tonnes of usable payload (pax and cargo).

If I remember correctly, the standard weight used for an adult is in the neighbourhood of 80-85 kgs. Let's say there are only adults on board (once again, worst case scenario), and we arrive at a possible max number of passengers of around 130, without having taken into account their luggage. An educated guess of 90-100 actual passengers is more likely.
Depending on the load, it may very well be possible to get a satisfactory result, but if the temperature climbs by a few degrees, you may well be outside the operating window.

Once again, these are back-of-the-envelope calculations, take them with a pinch of salt. The actual results may sway quite a bit in either direction.

However, even though the results seem to confirm that this flight would (just) be possible on a 737, I think the calculations show that's it's not a viable alternative to use the 737 on ANR. As mentioned above, the 737 pilots are probably not trained for ANR, so it's probably going to be a no-go anyway.

EDIT:

Taking the previous rotations into consideration, I have a feeling the aircraft is scheduled to fly from EBOS tomorrow/tonight anyway. They may have ferried the aircraft from EBAW to EBOS (without pax, of course) and use the (extended) window of ground time at EBOS to fix the aircraft. The regulations on ferry flights are somewhat less strict, with an approval by the regulating authorities. During the positioning flight, the cruising altitude was FL100. They spent about 4 minutes at that altitude. FL100 is the same level used during pressurisation failures.
Of course, this being a very short flight, that part may just be a coincidence, and it probably is just that.

[ironspan]

Thanks KriVa, you are probably right, anyway there is no JAF-737 crew trained on ANR. Only other viable option is to get a 737 in from Jettime (I believe JAF uses them in BRU), I was told their crews are uses/traines for short field ops.