Problem with SNBA A330-300 in Africa?

[etihad]

That's why certain passengers got priority, and were able to fly the weight restricted A319.

how can you claim that this particular a/c was weight restricted, if you don't know what the exact tow was for these flights?

An A319 can optionally fly up to 3700nm/6850km, with a mtow of 75500kg.

[Sabena_690]

@etihad: this came from an inside source

Frederic

[LJ]

Or, send some good maintance staff to africa, even KLM and Martinair have a maintance base at Nairobi.......

However, KLM and Martinair fly daily to NBO hence basing a maintenance crew would be economical. The fact that most of KLM's other African destinations can be reached easily from NBO is an extra bonus..

[sn26567]

SN BA flies to NBO 6 times a week, to DKR 5 times a week and to FIH 4 times a week. Maintenance bases there could certainly help alleviate some problems. But at what cost?

[Avro]

I'm sure AF also have some maintenance bas ein DKR where they are certified ofr A330. WHy doesn't SN make an agreement with AF. This would cost them less money.

Greetz
Chris

[bravo767]

Hi everybody,

Stop some fantasies about payload, 330-300 versus 330-200, disadvantages of 319, maintenance crews etc... Neither you nor I have enough information to discuss this, so we can only guess.

There is on each African flight a ground engeneer from SN Technics. He is there to perform the inspections, fueling and repairs when needed. For that there is a kit on board with a list of spare pieces (that I don't know the specifics!!!) and spare wheels. That engeneer is also there to contersign the ATL and certifies the ETOPS capabilities of the aircraft. Naturally you cannot have all the spare pieces you want or you need on board nor at the different stops. There is also sometimes some collaboration between airlines (but no need to say that everyone wants to protect his assets....).
When a more important technical problem arises, it is necessary to send spare parts and in some cases additional technicians. Depending on the problem, this can go fast or take longer in case of an engine change for example.
I would like to insist that the overall reliability is good. Naturally we don't have the luxury of the major companies having the possibility to reschedule their aircrafts easily.
I hope this helps to a better understanding.

Be safe in the air.

L

[blackhawk]

Thanks for the information, bravo767, I didn't know there is a ground engeneer on board on each Africa flight. Very interesting!!

[sn26567]

I hope this helps to a better understanding.

It certainly does. Thanks for setting the record straight.

But please understand that most of our readers have only limited knowledge about the technical background necessary to operate a flight.

[Sabena_690]

I would like to insist that the overall reliability is good. Naturally we don't have the luxury of the major companies having the possibility to reschedule their aircrafts easily.

It's very simple: when a BA/AF/LH/... aircraft goes technical, they just take another one, while SN only has 3 aircraft, flying every day (except Thursdays where only 2 flights are scheduled).

The Africa-operation of SN is too small to justifie a maintenance base or a 4th aircraft.

There is indeed a technician on board of SN flights to Africa, but of course, those people can't solve everything.

Frederic

[Sabena_690]

Just a small addition: the above only counts when aircraft of BA/LH/... go technical in LHR/FRA/...

Also those airlines have to cancel flights when the aircraft goes technical in Africa, but still than, they have back-up planes to transport the pax home while SN has to use Air Plus etc

A disadvantage for SN indeed...

Frederic

[etihad]

However, KLM and Martinair fly daily to NBO hence basing a maintenance crew would be economical. The fact that most of KLM's other African destinations can be reached easily from NBO is an extra bonus..

Don't forget that KLM has a good solid African partner: Kenya Airways.

SN Brussels surely lacks an African partner who can feed the SN flights, and can help out whenever an SN a/c goes technical.

[Avro]

But wasn't SN's deal with RAM consisting of such a backup system in case one A330 has a technical problem ?
I once heard or read somwhere that the deal consisted of more than just a codeshare agreement. RAM would namely operate flights to Dakar and Banjul for SN in the case there is a technical problem with the A330.

Wasn't this true ?

Chris

[SierraFoxtrotMike]

I'm sure AF also have some maintenance bas ein DKR where they are certified ofr A330. WHy doesn't SN make an agreement with AF. This would cost them less money.

Greetz
Chris

NO agreement ! they are concurence so no agreement, at all they will never help SNBA in case of problem it already happened and they did the same. This is PURE concurence. It normal that you'll never help your concurent ! It could happened if SNBA had agrrement with AF. But there isn't such a thing and it's better like that !

Regards

[sn26567]

But wasn't SN's deal with RAM consisting of such a backup system in case one A330 has a technical problem ?

If this is really the case (which I doubt), I would not be very reassured. When you see all the problems that RAM itself had this summer... Yesterday again one of their 735s was delayed for more than 12 hrs in BRU.

[rwy25r]

Small correction : there are of course also only two flights on Tuesdays. Nevertheless, the SN A330's are having a well above average daily utilisation at 13.2 hrs per day, when compared to the world fleet. However the number of sectors flown per day is way above average, the leg between DKR and BJL takes ie on average only 25 minutes.
In spite of this, the Dispatch Reliability is at par or slightly better than the world fleet with a Dispatch Reliability of 98.5 to 99 %. Taking into account that these are the oldest flying A330's that is not too bad.
There is indeed an SNT ENgineer on board of every flight, he's called the ASE Accompanying Station Engineer. These people are part of a small tema of appox 25 people who work day in day out on the A330's. Eg when they are not planned on a flight, they do the line maintenance, or the checks. Do not underestimate these engineers
And of course, there are NO A330's available any more, anywhere in the world. Neither -300 or -200. Production has been sold out for years to come.

rwy25r

[etihad]

And of course, there are NO A330's available any more, anywhere in the world. Neither -300 or -200. Production has been sold out for years to come.

Why does SN only limit themselves to A330-301s?

There are plenty of a/c available to be ACMI-, wet-, damp- or dry-leased.

And I am certainly not referring to brand new a/c, on the contrary.

To give an example: the dry-lease of the last Emirates A310-324 (A6-EKL) will come to an end in March 2005.

This a/c is only 11,5 years old and is in very good shape, it even has all the Emirates in-flight features installed, PTVs included.

Wouldn't that a/c make a good 4th widebody for SN, to be used as back-up when an A333 goes technical again, or to fill in when the A333s are being refurbished one by one, or even to expand the fleet up to 4 widebodies instead of 3?

My point is: an affordable solution can always be found, whatever the circumstances may be.

[sn26567]

I guess that buying or leasing an A310 as a reserve aircraft is just beyond the financial possibilities of SN BA. Plus you need additional crew that have an A310 licence.

[Avro]

Wasn't LH goig to "dump" some A330's after getting all A340's they ordered ???

Chris

[liebensd]

Avro,

I think you are right about that. They took delivery of some former Sabena and Swissair A330-200. Former OO-SFT and OO-SFU are operating for Lufthansa.

Greetz,

Dave

[Sabena_690]

It was rumoured some time ago that Condor was interested in those A330's (or at least some of them).

Any updates on this?

Frederic