WillTravel

American Airlines has just started flying to Stansted. But if you don't want to use Stsnsted, you'll find many budget airlines that fly to other London airports.

I have to correct something above - Germanwings has been around longer than I thought, because I just got an email from them "celebrating" their fifth anniversary.

In short - flying budget airlines generally does not mean flying old, reject planes. Whether or not you use out of the way airports with a budget airline depends entirely on your choices.

RM67

'American Airlines has just started flying to Stansted'

That's interesting. They had a Stansted-Chicago route back in the late 90's which lasted literally just a couple of months.

Maybe they've been spurred on by the success of Maxjet and Luton's Silverjet though - is it New York this time?

rkkwan

Continental also tried STN in 2001, but 9/11 did it in. Of course, CO now flies to every little landing strip in the UK (OK, I exaggerated. They only do that in Mexico). But no STN.

Eric_S

I've taken probably over one hundred flights with at least ten different european low cost airlines (off the top of my head: Ryanair, EasyJet, Clickair, Vueling, TUIFly, Germanwings, Monarch, ...) and except in maybe one occasion the planes were brand new. Many of those don't fly to out of the way airports.

In my last three transatlantic flights with american carriers (Continental, AA) the planes were at least 20 year old, looked shitty, and twice stayed on the ground for hours for "technical problems".

ira

>Stansted is at least 45 minutes by express train from London

How far are LGW and LHR from London?

alanRow

30 & 15 minutes respectively

chimani

RM67 -

again, it's simple. Those of us who want cheap as possible, and don't care about service - like we just want to go from A to B - we fly budget.

We are savvy enough, usually, to factor in the cost of getting to those out of the way airports. And if the total cost outweighs the benefit then we look elsewhere, or, wow, believe it or not, go elsewhere.

That's how I do it anyway.

You are obviously more concerned with the sort of aircraft they fly - frankly I couldn't give a d**m, and being European don't have the usual American hang up of thinking that if it's not American it must be dangerous.

Jeez - I feel sorry for you guys with all the artificial restrictions you place on yourselves.

Best stay at home, I reckon.

altamiro

>flying budget airlines generally does not mean flying old, reject planes

Flying budget airlines means that they cherry-pick the most profitable connections and don´t give a damn about building up a network, like the "major" airlines do. Plus, they often use secondary airports (or in case of Ryanair, quaternary ones) with lower landing fees.

rkkwan

I don't know when Eric_S made his last three trans-Atlantic flights, but Continental and AA have retired its DC-10 for a few years. Nowadays, the oldest 757-200 that flies across the pond was delivered new in 1994. Newest in 2000.

767s are delivered new between 2000 and 2002. The oldest 777 was delivered in 1998, newest two this year.

And while AA has one of the oldest domestic fleet, and some of its 767-300ER for trans-Atlantic were delivered in 1988 (19 years old), there are some that are as new as 2003. Their 777s are delivered between 1999 and 2006.

RM67

Chimani - I'm English and live in England.

Thanks for feeling sorry for me without knowing the first thing about me or bothering to check any of my previous posts, which show I've actually travelled the world fairly extensively. Oh, and I live right by Stansted airport, went out with a pilot and have helped out with various BAA surveys and consulations on airport expansion etc. But despite all this, you obviously know far more than me (I'm just a girl after all, fluffy kittens and all that) so will bow out of this one now that I've been put in my place.

Eric_S

rkkwan, those flights were in the last 12 months. I'm no expert on planes but believe me, the Continental plane I took from Barcelona to Newark had to be way older than 1994. 5 hours on the ground because the radio wasn't working, then some other problem.

And the AA plane I took from JFK to Paris two weeks ago was really old too (tiny TV screens on the roof every 10 rows or so).

rkkwan

Eric_S: Your CO 757 cannot be older than 1994. But that's beside the point. You mean the communication radio has to be fixed, right? Mechanical issues can happen to all planes, new and old. If you're saying that CO's planes are poorly maintained and you always have mechanical issues with them, then it's a different story.

In fact, CO's 757-200s are holding up very well (even the older ones). They just added AVOD and power to the front cabin, and they will replace all economy seats with AVOD and power in the next 18 months on those planes.

Eric_S

I'm just saying that that plane looked way older than 1994 to me, inside and out. Again I'm on expert, so if you say it *cannot* be older than 1994, I don't know what to answer. Maybe that day they had to use an older plane. There was a mechanical problem on the way back too, maybe it was just bad luck.

In any event, those planes were certainly a lot older than any plane I've been on in my 100+ European low cost airline flights, which was my original point (intended to counter someone who wrote that these airlines use old planes).

rkkwan

Eric_S: You're entitled to your opinion about a plane's age, but I'm just stating the facts that neither AA nor CO use 20-year old planes across the Atlantic.

If the 757 your take to BCN says "Continental" on the outside, then the oldest one it can be is registered N58101, delivered new to CO on 5/12/1994.

Anyways, while I totally agree with you that most European low-cost airlines use new planes, I don't see the point of comparing them to US airlines flying across the Atlantic. Because if you look at domestic US low-cost airlines, most use brand new planes too - like Airtran, Jetblue, Virgin America, Skybus, etc. Most of Southwest's planes are very new 737-700.

And European airlines use fairly old planes across the Atlantic too. BA's oldest 747-400s are 19 years old, LH's 18, and so on.

And I also agree with others that many low cost airlines (regardless of where it's based) start off with old planes. For example, Maxjet, which gets favorable reviews here for its low cost business class across the Atlantic uses 767s that are 19-23 years old.

Eric_S

ok, I checked CO website, they do state that the oldest 757 was delivered in 1994. But they sure need that interior refurbishing!

I compared with those US airlines to show how ridicoulous it is to say that low-cost airlines fly old airplanes, a rumor I hear often.