SN to Africa - one cancellation per day

[nordikcam]

Everyday SN is cancelling one flight to Africa ...does someone know the reason ?

[papysn]

An old,tired aircraft with new seats remains an old tired aicraft....

Regards.

K.

[RTM]

Eventhough it is an older fleet, it is far from tired. But it is off coarse a bit juicier talking the product down. Typical Belgian mentality actually, being overly critical towards Belgian products. What's up with that?

Can you please come with facts that the aircraft that is missing from service actually is having age related issues? It might just as well be a string of bad luck.

[lumumba]

Eventhough it is an older fleet, it is far from tired. But it is off coarse a bit juicier talking the product down. Typical Belgian mentality actually, being overly critical towards Belgian products. What's up with that?

Can you please come with facts that the aircraft that is missing from service actually is having age related issues? It might just as well be a string of bad luck.

Hi RTM.
I use to fly with SN to Africa and yes there is a problem,last time (ferbruary) in years a took a SN flight.
What happens,the flight is canceled!!!!!! I'm a frequent flyer but I take Sky team with no canceled flight in 10 years there are delays but that's it.
It's pity that's all.
Regards
Patrice

[convair]

As I mentioned under another topic, SN has had problems for weeks with its l/h fleet. And, IMHO, they should have secured OO-SFU as a back-up weeks ago.

[convair]

I forgot to add that I don't know at all if the current problems have anything to do with the age of the fleet.

[RTM]

Fair comment Lumumba. No problem there. Based upon a fact, and personal experience. Sorry to hear it though.

But the comment that everything is to blame to the "old and tired birds", is a bit out there. Especially as no one has come up with facts yet as what the cause is.
It's just an attempt to put SN down and stating they fly old unreliable junk. I'm sorry, that just isn't true. Yes the A330 fleet is older, but by no means old, and definately not tired yet. They are actually very well maintained. So please, lets stay a bit fair in the comments.

@convair,
You cannot just rush an aircraft like that into service. It must be very frustrating to SN, but you have to take your time to get it certified and accepted by the BCAA. Get it on the AOC, and get it up to standard. It is a different case alltogether. They have made a planning to have it up and running by the launch of Washingon, so they will have to stick to that. You don't want to cut corners just because there is some bad luck in the fleet.

[lumumba]

Fair comment Lumumba. No problem there. Based upon a fact, and personal experience. Sorry to hear it though.

But the comment that everything is to blame to the "old and tired birds", is a bit out there. Especially as no one has come up with facts yet as what the cause is.
It's just an attempt to put SN down and stating they fly old unreliable junk. I'm sorry, that just isn't true. Yes the A330 fleet is older, but by no means old, and definately not tired yet. They are actually very well maintained. So please, lets stay a bit fair in the comments.

I'm agree with that a fly KQ or ET and they also have older planes but these are good airlines.
Regards
Patrice

[RoMax]

As I mentioned under another topic, SN has had problems for weeks with its l/h fleet. And, IMHO, they should have secured OO-SFU as a back-up weeks ago.

As mentioned by RTM, OO-SFU is in the planning to be ready by June (for IAD and extra AFI upgrades). If that's the planning, you can't change that on short notice, there's way too much that has to be done to get that done. And on the longer term, you are not going to make sure a widebody aircraft is ready weeks or even months before you need it, just because one of the other aircraft may get some troubles.
Yes it may have been sitting idle in ZRH for some time, but if that's in the planning you can't change that on short term (lack of maintenance capacity in Malta, paper work, arrangements with the lessor,... various reasons that may 'force' OO-SFU to have some rest in ZRH before going to Malta).

[brusselsairlinesfan]

Since when do they suffer from an everyday cancellation on the AFI flihts?

Which of the A330 is involved?

[Flanker2]

But the comment that everything is to blame to the "old and tired birds", is a bit out there. Especially as no one has come up with facts yet as what the cause is.
It's just an attempt to put SN down and stating they fly old unreliable junk. I'm sorry, that just isn't true. Yes the A330 fleet is older, but by no means old, and definately not tired yet. They are actually very well maintained. So please, lets stay a bit fair in the comments.

To be fair your PR attempt will not help SN, nor is it accurate.

SN will see more and more of these issues as their A330 fleet gets older. The age plays a role because a lot of structural and non-structural matters start to see more issues more with age.

Corrosion is usually the major issue and no matter how well-maintained your aircraft is, you can't prevent it even with all the Ardrox AV8 in the world. With the A330's, SN is walking into uncharted territories because they have the leading fleet in terms of serial numbers. That also means that whatever ageing issues the A330 will see in its operations, SN will be the first to experience them before anybody else.
So it's useless to close the public's eye, the only thing the public will see is more and more cancellations. The remedy is IMO, not to try to close the public's eyes but to actually fix this issue, for instance by expanding the fleet or finding alternative solutions.

SN's A330's are maintained 'to standards'. To say that they're well-maintained is marketing and is untrue. Please don't make me say more than what I want to say about this.


The best thing for SN, PR wise, is to admit that there is a problem and that it needs to be fixed.

[SFM]

Since when do they suffer from an everyday cancellation on the AFI flihts?

Which of the A330 is involved?

SFO is in Malta for a C-check.
SFY has been out for a couple of days as well, don't know the reason.

[papysn]

Hi,

It is not juicy for me to constat that....The a330 SN fleet is one of the oldest in the industry (ref: http://www.airfleets.fr/listing/a330-1.htm) whith a middle 17,4 year old long haul aircraft (ref:http://www.airfleets.fr/ageflotte/Bruss ... rlines.htm)
Furtermore they are operating those aircraft without any backups and at very high frequencies...

I am not "overly critical"about SN...i'm just critical...
yes ,technicals are common on SN Afr routes...
And no, leasing "euro atlantic" or "white airline" aircraft is not a good alternative for passengers.

I'm very sorry to mention that...
I have not said anything here about the quality of the "commercial"product or the maintenance ,the seat are good and the staff is the only reason i still love the company, only i mentionned a fact that seems logical...

Old aircraft,even well maintained tend to give more technical issue...

Maybe they had a bad luck, ok if you want...


Regards.

K.

[golf1411]

Since when do they suffer from an everyday cancellation on the AFI flihts?

Which of the A330 is involved?

SFO is in Malta for a C-check.
SFY has been out for a couple of days as well, don't know the reason.

SFY had an engine stall just before take off in Brussels, engine has te be replaced

[b720]

and a few cancelations on the JFK service beginning of the year.

[convair]

According to flightradar24, OO-SFY has been idle since May 2.
4 days to replace an engine! Is this normal?

@RTM, @RoMax
I fully understand and appreciate your explanations; however, some flexibility in the planning often pays off.
This situation must indeed be very frustrating for the SN people.

[tolipanebas]

According to flightradar24, OO-SFY has been idle since May 2.
4 days to replace an engine! Is this normal?

Yes it is, especially if it is unscheduled.

As others have pointed out before, an engine stall has nothing to do with the age of the plane either, these engines literally get hammered during the AFI ops all the time and may thus degrade fast in between overhauls. Nothing you can do about that except accept the fact and change the engine when it is due.

Last year, we had an engine stall on an engine which was on the wing for less than a week; If you see the condition of some runways we operate to in AFI, it should come as no surprise. With a fleet of just 7 planes, any unscheduled outage will have network consequences: one can only hope our long haul fleet will grow to double digit numbers quickly so as to act as each others back up more easily.

[convair]

Thank you for giving the views of an "insider" (at least I presume so) tolipanebas, and I fully agree with you, specially with your last sentence.

Just a question then: how long does it take to replace an engine under "normal" circumstances?

[convair]

One more word: in the airfleets listing, mentioned by papysn above, of airlines operating "old" birds, SN is in good company!

[rwandan-flyer]

Kigali flights reduced from 5 to 4 per week (no flight yesterday) until end of may and today sn465 canceled. No TK flights today to KGL, and Ethiopian leaves BRU at 8.00 p.m. So probably some pple are transfered on Qatar Airways or KLM.