Bru.Air.AVGEEKTRIP SXB -REG REQUEST / small TR

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

As our fifth AVGEEK TRIP to SXB comes in sight; this thursday..
make 9 avgeeks happy and one partner ( 3 cancellations indeed - medical.. get well soon ! )

Flying from and back BRU - SXB - BRU on SN this thursday, if anyone can dig up the regs.. THX

11/10 BRU -SXB SN3653 ETD 09:00 sheduled D8Q400 ( operated by FlyBe )
11/10 SXB -BRU SN3662 ETA 19h55 sheduled D8Q400 ( operated by FlyBe )

Hope it will be SN livery offcourse..
Just heard that there are operating Dash8 from FlyBe in their own livery with stickers
Can anybody confirm this possibility ?
Tought there was one Austrian Arrow with sticker, and FlyBe's in fully painted livery..
At least let the morning flight in SN livery for our pics..

As always, thx in advance ,guys !!!

Grtz

CX-B

[Inquirer]

I can confirm that there is indeed a Q400 in full FlyBe colours operating for Brussels Airlines, alongside 2 other ones in full colours.

I happened to fly on it a couple of days ago and I promissed to do a Q400 trip report in prep of your AvGeek trip: will try to write it tomorrow, as it was actually quite an interesting flight...

[airtrainer]

Saw one at MAN yesterday and it was in SN livery

[HighInTheSky]

I happened to fly on it a couple of days ago and I promissed to do a Q400 trip report in prep of your AvGeek trip: will try to write it tomorrow, as it was actually quite an interesting flight...

I flew with the Q400's this week, outbound with the Austrian, inbound with the Flybe. I was very curious about those flights as it would be my first flights with the Q400's. I must say, what a disappointment... Especially the Austrian one is very unpleasant ride: absolutely no legroom whatsoever. On a positive note: the propellor noise in the cabin is not bothersome. But the vibrations... My god, I was so glad that my flight was only 1h15 long!

Anyway, sorry to hijack your topic

Enjoy your trip to SXB, visit the city if you can! Bon voyage!

[air belgium]

Any reg. for tomorrow?
BRU-SXB 09.00 10.05
SXB-BRU 18.50 19.55
Thanks!

[sn26567]

Anyway, sorry to hijack your topic

No, that's just what we want to hear in anticipation of our own trip. Thanks for the feedback.

Of course, there will be a trip report of this AvGeek trip as well, but I will have to designate a volunteer

[Inquirer]

Here's my trip report of the Q400 flight to BSL from last week.

As said, it was on a flybe painted Q400 and on the inside as well, no reference to Brussels Airlines was to be found: even the inflight magazine was the flybe one.

I have been on the Q400s painted in Bru.air colours and there the inside is made to look like a regular sn flight as much as possible, including the grey/blue/red head covers and the inflight magazine.

Our load was rougly 30 passengers and although I had checked in online just prior to going to the airport, I was called to the desk to give me another seat shortly before boarding, together with a few other fellow passengers: apparently the plane had trim problems and we had to be redistributed through the cabin to make it work: must say this is the first time this happens to me.

Meanwhile, all hand luggage was tagged and taken off right at the door of the plane because even with such a light load there was just not enough space to store everything in cabin: okay, business passengers love trolleys iso checked luggage, but remember this was on an evening flight, so no African connecting passengers on board. Wonder how they do it on the morning flights????

Leg room was okay (the flybe inflight magazine mentions 30 inches), but the seats are very narrow and because of the balance problem, they all propped us together despite there being several empty rows left in cabin, meaning I was rubbing sholders with my neighbour all the time. Okay for a 50 minute flight, but I definitely wouldn't want to go to BUD like this for instance!!!!

Speaches are done in English (live) and French (from a tape recorder), but no Dutch.
Maybe somebody should tell flybe Belgium is not just a french speeking country? I appreciate they also want to use the local language, but please use both then...

Service on board is somewhat different than on the normal flights as they give a complimentary drink and a small snack to the b.light passengers, probably because they don't want to bother with the cash money they would otherwise get from their passengers, so b.light passengers get a bit more than usual: on the other hand, premium passengers seem to be getting a bit less as they don't seem to be able to offer the same kind of (hot) items as otherwise.

Service is done by 2 cabin attendants in flybe uniform, but wearing a scarf or a tie from brussels airlines and finished off with their signature product: the neuheus chocolates, which I find a really great item to set the airline apart from the rest: in the end, belgium = chocolates and Brussels Airlines is Belgium's carrier.

Noise levels in cabin are okay, also during take-off, but as mentioned already: at some times the engines produce a very uncomfortable vibration in cabin which gets really annoying.

All in all, the plane is okay for the kind of flights it is currently used on, but I wouldn't want to be one one for a flight of more than 1 hour, and definitely not when it is full! Let's hope they never get the idea to introduce it on the main routes of their network, because i can tell you they will not see me much then: I'll prefer to fly through FRA or ZRH in that case.

[Flanker]

The Flybe's are in a high density configuration so no legroom is normal.
The legroom is still comparable to what you have on the B737's.

Using these aircraft in a high density configuration would not be comfortable for longer trips.
If they expand this fleet, they need to install a decent business class as with Ethiopian.

Noise is fine, vibrations... ladies love them
I love them too, at least it makes you feel like you're on a real airplane, as opposed to a boring aluminium tube with some high pitching noises. I prefer the low rumbling of the good old turboprop, it always makes me fall asleep.

As to the narrow seats: They look narrow because of their triangular design, and the spaces between the headrests, which makes you notice the shoulders of the person in front of you and how close you are to your neighbor. Take your measure with you avgeeks and compare it to other aircraft, you won't notice any difference in width, it's only a perception. When seated on most aircraft in economy, even on widebodies, your shoulders will touch but you won't notice it that much.

I don't like the design because you can see between the two chairs into what the guy in front of you is doing, which in turn makes you realise that the guy behind you might be looking at what you're doing. The private space is not well protected, its' fine when travelling with kids and family but disturbing in all other cases.

The newer seats have a better design that kill this perception, increasing the personal space.

[Inquirer]

On the flight I talked about above, the crew had problems putting away all of our coats, hats and other stuff passengers wanted to take off once on board after a rainy busboarding and that was after all of our handluggage was already taken away prior boarding, so the bins are definitely very small.

You may very well be right and seats itself might be just as wide as on other planes as you say flanker (also on the avro?), but the Q400 does have a very narrow corridor and the fuselage is definitely sloping inwards quite a lot too at sholderhight already, both meaning passengers will lean inwards towards eachother and thus rub sholders much more than on another plane, sitting in the same seats.

Enjoy the flight guys, and let us know what you all think of it: on a short flight to SXB, you should be just fine.

[OO-ITR]

I flew last Saturday on a Dash-8 from Brussels to Prague with SN. The first time on a turboprop and I must say not the most comfortable flight of my life. Very narrow seats and a lot of noise. Luckily I had a very friendly Flybe- crew

[sn26567]

Very narrow seats and a lot of noise.

If everyone seems to agree on the narrow seats (is it like an Avro RJ with 6 seats abreast?), the information on noise is contradictory.

We'll see tomorrow!

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Back from our daytrip !

A very little TR :

Outbound : Flight was in Brussels Airlines livery .. G-ECOI ..
LF 25% ?
Noise level was acceptable in the back, very remarkable speed/nice G-force take-off !
Seat-pitch was very good, no backpacks were withdrown.. all backpacks could be placed above..
Free drink and snack in bLight also... ( Hey SN ! , introduce this on all-flight ! -raise youre fare for 4 euro/ticket .. it don't cost too much and people will remember this next time they have too choose FR/EZY/SN.. , offer a little more and replace your brand to the other side..think different ! everybody is going too LCC nowadays... IMHO )
Nice flight.. SN seats red/grey .. SN bThere magazine and bag.. FlyBe safety card and an SN card telling how good eviromentally good and what a good noise level the Dash8 has..
Nice landing.. bit crosswind..

SXB nice little german town in france..

Returnflight with G-JEDV in FlyBe livery,same remarks..
Hard landing ! LF 33%

Friendly crew..

Remark :
You can travel WITHOUT passport from BRU to SXB .. without any hassle..
You can't travel without passport without any hassle from SXB to BRU !!!
be aware that you must identify yourself or be prepared to improvise and make a story to get home

It were nice flights ( on-time ! ) , it was a nice day !

THX guys.. hope to see you all on our next trip in 2013..

and..euuhhh.. bring your passport by then hahahahaha

Greetz..

CX-B

[airtrainer]

Thanks a lot to you all for making this daytrip a very enjoyable one, it was a pleasure to meet you guys. Also thanks to you, Lex, for being our tour guide during the day And many thanks to Brussels Airlines for the gift package, that was a very nice gesture !

[air belgium]

Thanks Lex & Co...we had a GREAT DAY!!!

[sn26567]

Outbound : Flight was in Brussels Airlines livery .. G-ECOI ..
LF 25% ?

35% (25 pax for 80 seats)

Seat-pitch was very good, no backpacks were withdrawn.. all backpacks could be placed above.

.
Seat pitch 30", just the limit to be comfortable with long legs. And since none of us at the window seat had a neighbour in the aisle seat, there was no shoulder rubbing. I thin k the seat is comfortable enough for a 1 hr trip.

Free drink and snack in bLight also... ( Hey SN ! , introduce this on all-flight ! -raise youre fare for 4 euro/ticket .. it doesn't cost too much and people will remember this next time they have too choose FR/EZY/SN.. , offer a little more and replace your brand to the other side..think different ! everybody is going too LCC nowadays... IMHO )

In b.there it is written that if the b.light menus for sale are not available, a free drink and snack will be provided. This is exactly what happened.

Nice landing.. bit crosswind..

...and a walk from the plane directly into the terminal. On departure in Brussels we had a long bus trip from Gate A37 to a remote parking behind the former satellite.

Return flight with G-JEDV in FlyBe livery,same remarks..

.. except that we were bussed to the plane.

Remark :
You can travel WITHOUT passport from BRU to SXB .. without any hassle..
You can't travel without passport without any hassle from SXB to BRU !!!
be aware that you must identify yourself or be prepared to improvise and make a story to get home

It means that, for once, identities were not controlled and matched with name on ticket in Brussels. A rare occurrence, since it could have prevented later problems in Strasbourg. We will not mention the name of the member of the group who forgot his ID card at home, but in Strasbourg there was actually an ID check, and our friend narrowly escaped a hitch-hiking return trip home when Lex showed with his camera that he embarked in Brussels with the rest of the group.

Pictures to follow.

[SpottairBRU]

Joining the train to thank you all for the nice trip, and especially Lex (CX-B) for the organisation, and the rescue of our comrades in Strasbourg

TR and pics is currently being written, and will be posted soon...

[sn26567]

My pictures of the two flights and the visit to Strasbourg are posted here:

https://plus.google.com/photos/10706635 ... 272IqbqNUQ

[Flanker]

Nice pictures. Has this trip changed your perception of modern turboprops? In what way?
If a turboprop was the only possibility to have a direct flight to Naples, would you prefer to have the direct flight or would you prefer a connection in Rome even though it would be quite a hassle to deboard, wait and reboard, making you lose an entire day?

[cathay belgium]

Hi Flanker,

I stay with my opinion after this trip, if they can make money with these on short haul, very short haul SN had to buy them instead then to lease them, altough I still prefer a small jet...
I personally prefer the ATR.. as a prop..it feels like they offer more space..
Is a EMB 170/175 so more expensive ? btw

To answer your question, businesspeople ( frequent flyers ) will adapt the prop on short business routes..
They are used to fly.., they don't care for more on short routes..
But could they make money with even this LF ?
Guess if the nine of us weren't there.. better scrap these routes.. or leave them to FlyBe Benelux or so.. like Finnair? Fly Be Nordic ? How can they survive with these and not SN ?!

To Naples,I don't know, but holiday,not aviation minded people ,.. will still always think .. prop ..is old .. isn't safe and they will go to another company with stop or a FR jet..
I guess it will never work, a brand new prop and the old Virgin B737.. they will go for the 737, wanna bet?

Give a random pic to anyone on the street...

I personnally will go for the stops..haha..even five are better then two but I'm part of the avgeek species...

Conclusion for me : why making an effort for this tiny routes with props? I would focus on better markets,.. offcourse the parlement wasn't here this week.. but why fly then ?
Props yes,but only on short haul..
Guess they will need the avro 100 until the Cs arrives..

The answer won't be given easily,..

CxB

[sn26567]

For me, I think I'll fly the Q400 to Naples, but this is about the maximum I could stand in that plane.It looked larger than I thought: I could stand in the aisle without touching the ceiling with my head! The seats were comfortable enough, but I didn't have a neighbour. I also didn't have any baggage to stow in the rather small overhead bins; to Naples it would be quite different.