Aer Arann milestone at LCY

vulcan57

Just read in the Galway Advertiser that Aer Arann recieved approval to fly their ATR 72-500's into London City Airport on Tuesday. This is the first commercial company to operate ATR 72-500's into the airport. They completed their steep approach trails last week. Having been spotting at LCY, I know how steep they come in, some of them drop like a stone on approach. Great news, wonder if they will expand their services to London City, as at the moment, they are only flying to and from Isle of Man. Would be nice to fly direct into the heart of London.

Run_to_da_hills

One up on O' Leary.

Fratton Fred

vulcan57 wrote: »

Just read in the Galway Advertiser that Aer Arann recieved approval to fly their ATR 72-500's into London City Airport on Tuesday. This is the first commercial company to operate ATR 72-500's into the airport. They completed their steep approach trails last week. Having been spotting at LCY, I know how steep they come in, some of them drop like a stone on approach. Great news, wonder if they will expand their services to London City, as at the moment, they are only flying to and from Isle of Man. Would be nice to fly direct into the heart of London.

do they not fly into Luton as well? Good news this, hopefully it will help drive down the cost of flying into LCY.

It will be even handier for me, all i need to do is work from my companies Canary Wharf offices on a friday and lean out of the window at about 4:30.....:D

vulcan57

Fratton Fred wrote: »

do they not fly into Luton as well?

They do but, Luton is a 45min train journey into centra lLondon.

Tabnabs

Absolutely love LCY, my favourite airport in London

ATR 72 debuts at London City with Aer Arann



February 10, 2009

The first ATR 72 commercial service into London City Airport (LCY) arrived this morning (10 February) with a service operated by Aer Arann from the Isle of Man. The ATR 72-500 touched down shortly before 10 a.m. (GMT).

The aircraft received UK CAA certification for the airport’s steep approach on 2 February, adding to the EASA certification it received in 2002. The airport requires all aircraft operating there to have UK CAA certification.

Final trials were carried out on 30 January with a test aircraft conducting three approaches plus stand manoeuvring. These rounded out a process begun 12 months ago, but one which stepped up in October last year when the airline announced the launch of the service.

The 68-seat ATR 72-500 is payload limited is in one runway direction when subject to inclement weather, so the airline has opted to cap sales at 60 seats maximum.

Although Aer Arann chief executive Paul Schütz had hoped the aircraft would be ready for route launch on 19 January, he paid tribute to ATR, LCY, the UK CAA “and all concerned for pulling out all the stops”.

Schütz noted that the route has been performing to expectations. “It was a slow burner until we launched. Now it’s building towards delivering the 75,000 passengers a year we targeted,” he confirmed, noting that the extra capacity the 72-500 brings will aid the process. Aer Arann currently operates four of the type with more to come from an order placed in spring 2006.

Gary Hodgetts, the airport’s director operations policy and planning, welcomed the new type to the airport. “The majority of passengers at London City fly on out-of-production aeroplanes,” he noted, “so this is important to our future.”

Hodgetts confirmed that, from getting the process under way, the ATR 72-500 has been the quickest certification of any aircraft at the airport. It joins the ATR 42-500, Bombardier Q400, Embraer 170 and Airbus A318 as in-production aircraft certified for the airport.

From the other end of the route, Isle of Man airport director, Ann Reynolds, remarked that the business community on the island have been delighted with the three-times daily service. Aer Arann is to give those passengers even better travel times in its summer schedule, with the first flight to LCY advancing from 0825 to 0805 and the last flight back moving forward from 1945 to 1930.

Bernie Baldwin, editor, Low-Fare & Regional Airlines/LARAnews.net

http://www.shephard.co.uk/news/1716/atr-72-debuts-at-london-city-with-aer-arann/

pclancy

Excellent news for Aer Aran. Ive only ever flown on them once to Cardiff but I was extremely impressed with their service and performance. To fly direct to the heart of London will hopefully give them plenty of needed revenue and business clientelle.

Red Sleeping Beauty

I also only flew with them to Cardiff but had no problems at all. Lovely service all round and it was an experience being on the propellor plane

I'm glad they're still going, they're needed I think.
Good news this is

pclancy

Yep. I dont know if they still do it but the fact I got a free coffee, muffin and newspaper in this day of practically being charged to breathe air was a welcome change.

And yeah the turboprops are a different experience. Quite enjoyable if you like flying and dont mind the extra noise and vibration. Being at a lower cruise altitude makes for interesting views.