[SimonS1]

British Airways Pilot Describes Florence Flight as an ‘Absolute Shambles’ After Passengers Were Offloaded to Get On a Bus

I love the bit about the plane making it to Pisa while the passengers hadn’t left Florence.

Also I thought aircraft commanders were supposed to be smart enough to work out weights etc, so 3 hours on the phone to London sounds a bit surreal.

[FDOS]

That is a fast bus. “15-minute drive to Pisa,”

Florence ot Pisa is about 50-65 miles, depending on the route.

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fatbear

[SimonS1]

Indeed FDOS. Although let’s be honest BA wouldn’t pay for a fast bus if a cheaper/slower option was available.

The plane got to Pisa before the bus left, perhaps someone was busy ‘calling company’ to get directions.

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FDOS

[AMcWhirter]

Travellers taking this flight suffered something similar on the day the inaugural Heathrow-Florence service was launched.

The A320 was unable to take off from FLR (Florence) and some passengers had to be offloaded.

The flight then had to operate FLR to PSA (Pisa) to refuel before continuing to London LHR.

Arrival into LHR was late and some passengers missed their onward connections.

BA – initial Florence-London LHR service encounters problems

[DavidSmith2]

There’s another Florence/Pisa shambles going on here as i type. I am in the B Gate Lounge and they have just announced a new departure time (now to Pisa I think). The response was a mix of groans and laughter.

[CathayLoyalist2]

So what is the answer .a smaller aircraft?. How can you operate a flight that consistently is subject to delays for the reasons stated?

[FDOS]

The only LHR based aircraft that BA can use into FLR is the A320Neo, for performance reasons.

[AMcWhirter]

Major delay to BA525 FLR-LHR today (September 18).

According to Flight Status on Ba.com the arrival into LHR was scheduled for 1310 but the current status (at 1640) shows the arrival as being at 2047.

[cwoodward]

This problem has rumbled on for too long already

As outlined in a previous thread the solution has been there from day one – fly the slightly smaller aircraft as do 90% of other carriers.

What is wrong with these dopes ? Frankly I wouldn’t trust them to even buy my newspaper

[ASK1945]

Alex wrote “According to Flight Status on Ba.com the arrival into LHR was scheduled for 1310 but the current status (at 1640) shows the arrival as being at 2047”

Actually Flight Radar 24 shows that the Florence departure point was cancelled and the PSA-LHR leg due to depart at 2100 hasn’t currently left (at 2200 European time) was due to arrive at 2154 (BST) which means that the PSA passengers will be at least 10 hours late at LHR.

[CathayLoyalist2]

10 hours. That is a hefty chunk of compensation!!

[FDOS]

“What is wrong with these dopes ?”

They don’t have an alternative LHR based aircraft that has the performance to deal with FLR.

So it is a commercial decision to live with the risks.

[FDOS]

“10 hours. That is a hefty chunk of compensation!!”

And I bet they try to avoid paying compensation, by blaming bad weather!

[AMcWhirter]

BA is operating FLR-LHR to gain sixth-freedom passengers. Lots of North Americans travel to Florence.

So compensation would also have to include accommodation for those missing same day connections.

Just now (at 1255) I checked the status of BA525 for today,

Ba.com says that today’s flight is cancelled.

BA says the flight is being re-routed to depart Pisa at 1355 and arrive LHR at 1510.

That’s a delay of two hours and I expect some connections will be missed.

[cwoodward]

But it seems that they do in fact have the aircraft FDOS

In looking at the fleet there are certainly aircraft that would be of the correct size for the airport and conditions that are being used on other routes that don’t have the demanding conditions of Pisa.

One would have thought that this fundamental issue would have been sorted prior to flying the route with aircraft that are not suited to the airport conditions.

[Author]

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