Gulf Air start Dublin-Bahrain

dowlingm

Equipment is apparently three class A330-200, starts in December. Opens a lot of one stop access to south asia destinations but only two stop to Sydney as at present they stop in Singapore.

Thomond Pk

It looks interesting and could be an interesting stopover on route on route to either Asian or South Africa. It also means that you can fly long-haul without having to transit it through often very crowded European Hubs, anything that involves avoiding Heathrow has to be a good thing.

Our man in Havana

1 stop Dublin to Sydney is already available, via LAX.

Victor

Bond-007 wrote:

1 stop Dublin to Sydney is already available, via LAX.

Yeah, but thats the long way around.

Victor

http://www.rte.ie/business/2005/0715/mibusiness.html

Morning business news

July 15, 2005 11:10
Gulf Air announces new Dublin service - The Dublin Airport Authority has secured a major coup with the announcement expected later today that Gulf Air is to launch a service from Dublin. The airline will run a three times weekly service from Dublin to Bahrain and then on to Johannesburg in South Africa from December.

Dublin Airport Authority's Director of Communications Vincent Wall says that news of the new route is a boost both for the airport and the Irish economy in general. He says the long-haul service is a first for the airport, and admits that it has been trying to attract such services for the past ten years. He adds that it is hoped the service will increase to five times a week in the near future.

He says that Aer Rianta International has had a long association with Bahrain through its duty free shops, and says this existing relationship had helped the airline secure the deal.


On security fears, Mr Wall says that Bahrain is not seen as a risky destination and that Dublin Airport's stringent security procedures will deal with the new route. As Bahrain is a non-EU destination, he says that duty free sales will also get a major boost from the new route.

...

dowlingm

DUB-LAX-SYD only makes sense if you want a long stop in LA.

Flukey

Hopefully this will lead to more destinations being added direct from Dublin, that can link us to other further destinations, instead of having to go to London for so many of our longer trips. Links to further intermediary points would be a better alternative, or even one day direct flights from Dublin to some of those popular distant locations. This is a good coup for Dublin; now they should look for more of them. More direct destinations outside Europe and North America would be good. We may not have the population to fill those planes, but we might be able to attract some of the London traffic as Heathrow is so crowded. It might suit some people, in Britain and even in parts of Europe, to fly to Dublin and onward rather than going to Heathrow if we could put the right routes, deals and prices in place.

thejollyrodger

with the 2nd terminal getting the nod, and a third in the pipeline Dublin airport should be really pushing all these destinations. Dublin Airport can become another major hub

Thomond Pk

The second runway in planning isn't any longer than the existing one which means no A380 and probably no major hub status unless remedial action is taken. 280m for a piece of infrastructure that offers nothing new.

Victor

Thomond Pk wrote:

The second runway in planning isn't any longer than the existing one which means no A380 and probably no major hub status unless remedial action is taken. 280m for a piece of infrastructure that offers nothing new.

The new runway will be something like 300m longer and is being designed to be capable of adaption for larger aircraft (presumably build the thickness but not the width just yet.). New runway is 3110m.

http://www.dublin-airport.ie/AR_Dublin/Live/Lv_pres_GenTemplate.asp?strPage_Name=DN_Rmessage

dowlingm

Victor -

60m is enough for A380 (even 45m will do) - my understanding is that the later work required would be the taxiways and stands.

Thomond Pk

http://www.airbus.com/en/aircraftfamilies/productcompare/

At 79.8m the A380 is 4.8m wider than the proposed runway, I am going to check the specification in the plans I am sure I read somewhere in the EIS that Class A aircraft cannot be accomodated and from examination of the maps the existing runway looks longer, I'll have to get the scale-rule out.

Occidental

Thomond Pk wrote:

http://www.airbus.com/en/aircraftfamilies/productcompare/

At 79.8m the A380 is 4.8m wider than the proposed runway,

But the wheels aren't.

Lennoxschips

60 m is wide enough for an A380.
3,110 m is also long enough.

The taxiways are also strong enough already, seeing as the A380 has a lighter wheel footpring than the B747. The only thing that would need to be looked at is the wingtip clearance on the taxiways.

MarkoP11

The question is can you take off a A380 with a full fuel tank and a full cargo load from Dublin, answer no, even smaller aircraft can't currently

Our man in Havana

Dublin airport is a joke. It can't handle a 747-400 ffs!

Occidental

Lennoxschips wrote:

60 m is wide enough for an A380.
3,110 m is also long enough.

The taxiways are also strong enough already, seeing as the A380 has a lighter wheel footpring than the B747. The only thing that would need to be looked at is the wingtip clearance on the taxiways.

Wingtip clearence isn't a major problem, as it was built to fit into much the same box as a 747. Airbridges and service vehicles are a much bigger issue. TBH I can't imagine an A380 coming to Dublin within the next 10 years unless it's a diversion, or for Maintenance with SR Technics.

dowlingm

It would probably be worth having one (and only one) A380 cleared stand for rugby charters and the like.

As has been mentioned, taxiway wingtip clearance is the problem - an A330 sawed the tailplane off a Dash 8 taxiing at Vancouver a week ago!

Victor

dowlingm wrote:

60m is enough for A380 (even 45m will do)

I think they are building to 45m for the moment, but I get the impression the preferred width is 60m, just in case someone screws up a landing.

http://www.airbus.com/en/aircraftfamilies/productcompare/

A380
Wheelbase 30.4 m.
Wheel track 14.3 m.

Is wheelbase length and wheel track width?

I wonder if 10L/28R can be lengthened/widened (this would have to wait for the other runway to be built)? Or if this is meaningful?

dowlingm

Victor

the Aer Rianta page you linked is still saying 60m plus shoulders unless that has been superceded and not updated.

Sarsfield

Victor wrote:

I wonder if 10L/28R can be lengthened/widened (this would have to wait for the other runway to be built)?

Won't the existing runway be designated 10R/28L?

Victor

Sarsfield wrote:

Won't the existing runway be designated 10R/28L?

My brain hurts. I mean the existing runway.

ScanMan

Afternoon guys, I happened upon your bulliten board by accident, while looking for a paln of the new runway. I was doing a circuit of the airport during the week and observed a planning notice which gave the dimensions of the proposed runway '10L/28R' to be 3110M X 75M, which is longer than the existing 10R/28L which is only 2637m X75M, hope this is of some help. PS: Any1 have any freqs for sharing? Cheers :-)

ScanMan

OH YES indeedy the old or existing runway currently named just '10/28' will indeed become '10R/28L' when the ribbon is cut & champagne flows to designate that the new paraller '10L/28R' is opened

Capt'n Midnight

Occidental wrote:

But the wheels aren't.

Unless some low cost airline starts refitting seats in second hand B52's