Condor (Thomas Cook) Manchester flight just landed in Lanzarote

[djk99]

Must be a bit bumpy on the way into Fue this morning.The Condor Manchester - Fue flight due to land at 10:10 seemed to drift as he approached the runway. Rather than attempt another landing here they have diverted to Lanzarote.

[woe10]

Hmmmm ...   It's not that windy.

[gattaca66]

It didn't seem particularly windy this morning, but humidity was causing visible vortices on the larger planes as they came over Caleta to land.....may have caused turbulence or whatever? Saw this one go over and heard it accelerating again over the airport, quite distinctive sound. Condor are using the Boeing 757-330, the stretched version of the 757, one of the largest planes landing (or not, in this case!) on Fuerte, and maybe conditions were just wrong for this particular plane? Strange one though, and my guess is that having aborted landing there was no ready 'slot' to go around and try again, but there WAS at  Lanzarote. Maybe someone on the flight will let us know what they were told?

[djk99]

It returned from Lanzarote 90 mins later for an uneventful landing at FUE. Apparently experienced 'wind shear' on initial attempt. As gattaca66 said it's one of the largest planes landing at FUE and perhaps conditions / runway length at ACE were more favourable on this occasion. 

[janandpaul]

 8)wow,we will be on the same flight next week,bumpity bump,,,,,

[Mr Boo Boo]

We will be on it in jan

[woe10]

It returned from Lanzarote 90 mins later for an uneventful landing at FUE. Apparently experienced 'wind shear' on initial attempt. As gattaca66 said it's one of the largest planes landing at FUE and perhaps conditions / runway length at ACE were more favourable on this occasion.

They wasted Millions "extending, improving" the runway at FUE, but didn't quite get it right.

[Snowdrop]

Was said in airport by t cook rep there was not enough fuel to attempt a second landing and as such they had to go Lanza to refuel before trying again as apparently it does use as much fuel to land over there.

[djk99]

That's a surprising admission by the T Cook rep. There were no headwinds on the way down so they shouldn't have been eating into their reserve fuel after one 'go around'. That said, they would have been perfectly positioned for a landing at Lanzarote following the initial 'go around' procedure without using much more fuel. The runway at Lanzarote is substantially longer than FUE so perhaps they decided to monitor the wind conditions from the safety of the ground in ACE. Costly exercise  tho'.......they must have had good reasons for doing it.

[Magoo]

I doubt if charter flights carry any more reserve than is legally required.  It may have already  eaten in to its fuel for other reasons. If the captain had gone for the go around & failed to land again, he might have been in the last chance saloon. The ACE option would have been the most fuel efficient option. I wonder if he had to shell out for landing fees in this situation?

[Archer]

We had to go around on a Norwegian flight, earlier this year, when a muppet decided to get out of his seat just as we passed over Ikea on the final approach! It then took another 20 mins before we landed. I guess waiting for a new slot etc.

[paully]

The nonsense spouted by the TC rep is sadly rather typical of the bull that comes automatically from these people..They feel the need to palm customers off all the time, with any sort of story...The aircraft at the time of arrival would be carrying both holding fuel and Diversion fuel with a further margin for holding at the diversion airport. If his fuel margin had , for whatever reason, deteriorated below minima the crew would have had to declare a `Pan Pan` emergency..Thats how it works..

  What is odd is that they opted to go to Lanzarote where the runway is much shorter than Fue, with a larger aircraft...still must have had some sort of game plan, but it would`nt have been communicated to the travel reps......not that any of them would have understood it anyway 

[Elite of the forum]

http://airportguide.com/airport/Spain/Canary_Islands/Lanzarote_Island-GCRR-ACE/runways.php

http://airportguide.com/airport/Spain/Canary_Islands/Fuerteventura_Island-GCFV-FUE/runways.php


Wouldnt say it make that much difference myself

[superkev61]

an extra 650 metres, quite a difference

[F1REFLY999]

I see it as only 4 metres 

[superkev61]

Ah right, didn't see the other runway  only seen the 1440m one

[djk99]

I read somewhere that the first bit of the runway at FUE is for take-off only. The whole runway is available for take-off, but, the landing section begins a few hundred yards past the threshold . If you are driving past the Nuevo roundabout , towards Mattoral, you'll see the first bit with red lights and a flashing beacon denotes the earliest touchdown position. I've often wondered why, perhaps someone knows the answer ? Might be relevant to the present discussion if the total runway available is not 100% landing?

[Mr Boo Boo]

The nonsense spouted by the TC rep is sadly rather typical of the bull that comes automatically from these people..They feel the need to palm customers off all the time, with any sort of story...The aircraft at the time of arrival would be carrying both holding fuel and Diversion fuel with a further margin for holding at the diversion airport. If his fuel margin had , for whatever reason, deteriorated below minima the crew would have had to declare a `Pan Pan` emergency..Thats how it works..

  What is odd is that they opted to go to Lanzarote where the runway is much shorter than Fue, with a larger aircraft...still must have had some sort of game plan, but it would`nt have been communicated to the travel reps......not that any of them would have understood it anyway 

You are very lucky to see a TC rep, we used to always go with TC, and only on 2 occasions out of 10 visits did we see the rep, first time we visited Caleta (and in the days when we used to get the coach transfer) we were passing the Atlantico shopping center on the way to the Barceló,  when the rep advised that there are numerous UK stores based there including  M & S + Next etc... my wife's eyes lit up, sadly to be disappointed once we went there....(at least my wallet didn't take a bashing)

[woe10]

The nonsense spouted by the TC rep is sadly rather typical of the bull that comes automatically from these people..They feel the need to palm customers off all the time, with any sort of story...The aircraft at the time of arrival would be carrying both holding fuel and Diversion fuel with a further margin for holding at the diversion airport. If his fuel margin had , for whatever reason, deteriorated below minima the crew would have had to declare a `Pan Pan` emergency..Thats how it works..

  What is odd is that they opted to go to Lanzarote where the runway is much shorter than Fue, with a larger aircraft...still must have had some sort of game plan, but it would`nt have been communicated to the travel reps......not that any of them would have understood it anyway 

You are very lucky to see a TC rep, we used to always go with TC, and only on 2 occasions out of 10 visits did we see the rep, first time we visited Caleta (and in the days when we used to get the coach transfer) we were passing the Atlantico shopping center on the way to the Barceló,  when the rep advised that there are numerous UK stores based there including  M & S + Next etc... my wife's eyes lit up, sadly to be disappointed once we went there....(at least my wallet didn't take a bashing)

There are no British Clothes Stores in Fuerteventura,
There is no M & S or Next. M & S is Swedish. The is a C & A in Rotundas but that is Dutch owned.
There is a Zara in Rotundas which is owned by the richest man in Spain, who is know to use child labour in Brazil to make their products.

[Mr Boo Boo]

Basically the TC rep lied or didn't have a clue what stores wherein the atlantico

[woe10]

Basically the TC rep lied or didn't have a clue what stores wherein the atlantico

I've been here a long time, Reps make things up as they go along. I can't believe that some people still listen to them 

I've heard them blame the Ice in Bars ( which is bagged ) for dodgy bellies, when everybody knows it's the rubbish food in the Hotels.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

I remember about 10 years on a coach transfer to Corralejo when the TC rep made some very disparaging remarks about the naturists on the beach as we went past. When we got off the coach I had a quiet word and said that a number of her clients were naturists and that she would be better not to say anything rather than offend and she just said to me that perverts and paedophiles deserved to be pointed out! I wrote a complaint to TC when we got home and they replied and said that I must have misheard the rep! Next time, different rep, almost word for word the same comments as we went past Grandes Playas. Didn't bother speaking to the rep but another letter went to TC who just ignored it - unbelievable.
Didn't travel with them again.

[paully]

This is the same Thomas Cook who didn`t reply to bereaved parents who had lost their children due to alleged incompetence by this outfit...Frankly TC could`nt run a whelk stall..You would`nt want to have to rely on them in an emergency..