FLUG REVUE June 2005: LTU special charter to the Amazonas

June 2005

LTU AD HOC CHARTER SALES

By Sebastian Steinke

Iquitos, Peru, one Saturday in the middle of March. Thick veils of rain hang at midday above the infinite labyrinth of thirsty vegetation in the upper course of the Amazon. The deep green jungle stretches out as far as the eye can see in every direction of the compass. LTU Captain Peter Steinbach lands special flight LT 9924 from Frankfurt am Main to Iquitos, a A330-200 with registration code D-ALPD, gently on the 2,500m long single concrete runway of the little seaport which otherwise sees nothing bigger than A319's or 737's on domestic flights.

It is a race against the clock, for the aircraft has been chartered as a special flight just for this weekend to the Bremen-based tour operator, Plantours & Partner, which is bringing a planeload of cruise passengers from Germany to the Amazon and collecting their predecessors for transportation back to Germany. Return flight LT 9925 has to be back safe and sound on the apron in Düsseldorf by noon on Sunday so that “Papa Delta”, returned once more to its regular LTU flight schedule, can take off punctually on its next Atlantic crossing to Fort Myers in Florida.

The extra weekend roundtrip to the wilderness has been planned by Karsten von dem Hagen, head of Adhoc-Charter Sales/Special Flights at LTU. “We have two central objectives: first, we want to increase the commercial usage of our aircraft and, second, we want to place capacity that is surplus to requirements due to cancellations on the market in the short-term. In 24 hours we can earn Euro 250,000,” says the enthusiastic planning expert, who is travelling on today's flight. He originally learned his trade as an agricultural aviation manager with Interflug, then later moved to Deutsche BA when he was offered the opportunity of joining LTU.

The Düsseldorf company earns as much as five percent of its revenue from special flights such as this one to the Amazon. Especially in the winter months which are lean on tourists or when there is a regional collapse in demand, such as occurred after the tsunami disaster in Asia, the additional flights are welcome as a way of increasing the utilisation of the LTU fleet which, as of 1 May, consists of nine A320-200's, four A321-200's, seven A330-200's and four A330-300's.

Von dem Hagen and two colleagues spring into action with a mixture of general staff-like planning and improvisation talent as soon as a customer, for example, a cruise company, issues an industry-wide e-mail request for quotations (RFQ) for a particular transport requirement via a broker. The range of jobs extends from one-off packaged tours for very small organisers to the transportation of car test technicians to the snow-covered north of Sweden, the collection of VIP guests from Finkenwerder for the A380 reveal in Toulouse, the transportation of prominent football clubs and their fans to away games or even members of expeditions who are to be carried to the most exotic places on earth. The repertoire of special flights carried out to date has ranged from Greenland to Spitsbergen, from Kabul to Wellington in New Zealand or from South Africa to Tierra del Fuego, and often extreme conditions are involved. Sometimes it is so cold that the parking brakes freeze up, while on other days the A330 has to carry its own towbar in the cargo bay.

After the RFQ has arrived, von dem Hagen checks the fleet roster to see if he can get hold of a free aircraft of the required size for the specified time. Smaller narrowbody aircraft are sometimes used as well as the A330-200 and A330-300. Amongst these, A321 registration code D-ALSD is especially popular as it has two extra fuselage tanks. The LTU performance experts know every individual aircraft and, for example, its fuel consumption figures, which depend on ever-changing replacement engines, so intimately that, with the “right” aircraft, they can sometimes transport an extra 500 kilograms of payload. The precise flight route with all the intermediate stops is then worked out in collaboration with the Performance and Handling departments. The main questions then are whether all the airports can handle the type earmarked for the job and have facilities for unloading baggage in containers.

While the tireless A330-200 can manage up to 12,300km of range non-stop, the planners have to bear in mind the maximum permitted duty hours of the cockpit crew. By law, the maximum permitted number of hours' flying between “blocks off” at the departure airport and “blocks on” at the destination airport is twelve-and-a-half hours in one day. One-and-a-half hours of preparation and post-processing are allowed on top of this. At night-time, the permitted flying time is reduced to ten-and-a-half hours, plus the extra 90 minutes' preparation and post-processing time. Only exceptionally is the captain allowed a two-hour extension and he has to then submit his reasons to the German Civil Aviation Authority afterwards. As Karsten von dem Hagen points out, “No one can afford to plan in half a day's buffer time any longer. But we don't plan anything that isn't feasible.”

To avoid having to look for hotel rooms for an exhausted crew in the jungle, the departmental head prefers to route his ad hoc flights with intermediate stops at regular LTU stations where possible. For the Amazon trip, this means an intermediate stop in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Von dem Hagen explains, “It can be more practical to fly a small detour if that means that the need to transport crew to and fro can be avoided. We can't send four to five crews around the Earth for such a flight.”

The first time a special flight is flown to a new destination, it is always assigned to a particularly experienced check captain. For most LTU pilots, who otherwise all move freely between the A320, A321 and A330, the special flights, which are often to polar, desert or jungle regions with very small runways, are a welcome change from the bread-and-butter flights of the airline ranging between Germany, the Mediterranena, South Africa, USA and “Domrep”.

Captain Steinbach expects the tensest moment in Iquitos to actually be after the aircraft has landed, since, according to plans drawn up using current maps, he will have to turn his 59m long widebody jet, which has a turning circle of 43.5m, directly on the runway's 45m width in order to taxi to the terminal. Before the early morning takeoff after the intermediate stop in Punta Cana, Steinbach had made a point of practising turning round in a minimal radius on the equally narrow runway there, exercising his intuitions, and had deliberately avoided using a turn-around area. The tight 180º about turn is only practised in exceptional cases, the captain explains, as it places a strain on the landing gear. However, his taxiing skills are not required in Iquitos after all, as the Peruvians have placed a convenient, brand-new turn-around area, which is still not yet shown in the maps, at the end of our runway.

The next challenge comes after we have parked on the hazy, humid apron in such a way that we can get away again without a tow vehicle: at this little airport, only one set of passenger steps is available for the 256 passengers to disembark from the main deck of the jet. The passengers want to get to the 121m long MS “Vistamar”, which is already lying in the nearby River Amazon, as fast as possible. But due to the low tide, the 7,500 gross register tonne cruise liner, which accommodates up to 300 passengers, cannot moor directly on the bank today. Instead, the passengers and their luggage have to be taken out to it by boat, which is time-consuming. The LTU team has a maximum of three hours available for the complete Airbus turnaround in Iquitos. Only if it can stick to the tight schedule will LTU make any money out of this planeload charter from Friday evening to midday Sunday.

Our first crew from Germany is now off duty in Punta Cana after nine hours and 50 minutes' flying time, while here a fresh crew led by Captain Peter Steinbach is coming on board to take over the onward flight to Peru, which will last at least three hours. If the ship is punctual and everything goes according to plan, the same crew will also handle the return flight to the Caribbean, before a fresh third crew completes the Atlantic crossing back to Germany. For every job the number of “crew days” required is carefully calculated and these, together with the block times, form the basis of costings.

No economies are made as regards additional staff. On the final leg to Peru, we are accompanied by an LTU engineer who is normally based in Punta Cana but could help immediately if any minor problems were to occur, thus ensuring that the aircraft is not forced to stay on the ground due to some trivial matter. An LTU station manager who speaks fluent Spanish and has been flown in separately is already waiting in Iquitos where she helps the well-prepared Peruvians and the tour operator's local staff to get the plane rapidly loaded for the return journey.

Only in February the “Adhoc” sales team had had cause to worry over its midday Iquitos flight: a notice to airmen (NOTAM) had warned that until further notice “IQT” airport could only be flown to at night due to huge flocks of birds. Luckily the ban had been lifted again by the time of our arrival. But another problem had emerged instead: the water level in the Amazon had fallen. This is the second time that von dem Hagen has been tasked with picking up cruise customers here. On the other occasion, because the ship was late due to low tide, the plane which was due to collect the passengers had been forced to wait for hours on the ground while the legally permissible duty hours of the crew expired. But luckily, everything goes smoothly today. This time von dem Hagen has already telephoned the captain of the ship from Germany and implored him to be extra punctual, so everything proceeds without a hitch.

The charter specialists also like to provide a customised onboard product. Today, for example, as an exception a three-class product with upgraded “Economy Plus” is offered to the cruise passengers, who are used to top-class service: behind the 18 seats in the normal First Comfort Class section in the nose is an apparently under-utilised Economy section. Passengers in these seats pay a surcharge over the normal Economy fare and in return enjoy the First Comfort Class menu plus an empty seat next to them. In this way LTU can earn extra revenue if the plane is not completely full. Sometimes the extensive cargo bay is also marketed on special flights through LTU subsidiary Leisure Cargo. Mombassa, from where up to ten tonnes of fresh fish can be carried on flights to Germany, is particularly popular. On the other hand, passenger vehicles are often carried in pallets in the lower deck on flights to Windhoek or Cape Town. But Karsten von dem Hagen puts this in perspective by adding, “We are first and foremost a passenger airline. We only carry freight as a sideline.”

The regular LTU Economy Class is relatively luxurious, as international charter aircraft go. Word of this has reached England, where shipping companies are increasingly calling on the extra capacity of the Düsseldorf company to meet the needs of the booming cruise sector. However, to take up these offers, the German airline needs a “non-objection” declaration from its UK competitors confirming that the domestic airlines cannot or do not wish to undertake the flight themselves. To suit British palates, on request the onboard menu can even be changed to Tandoori chicken recipes or all the glasses can be served with beer mats advertising British shipping companies.

The planning for each individual flight includes a stowage plan, a detailed “map” of the cupboards in the galley with details of their contents so that the flight attendants know where to find the food and drink for LTU's extra-curricular flights, which is always different. It is also agreed precisely with the customer which drinks may be served free of charge and which ones have to be paid for by the passenger.

Naturally fresh food has to also be provided for the return flight from remote locations without the passengers having any idea of the difficulties of catering these special flights. Trolleys stacked with used trays are stowed in the cargo bay until the next intermediate stop, while the cabin gets a quick basic clean and recent newspapers brought over from Germany. To speed up the cleaning process, on the outward flight today von dem Hagen had even deliberately avoided serving rolls which might generate crumbs in favour of softer, “crumb-free” sandwich bread.

Long before the 298 returning passengers are punctually on board, Captain Steinbach has been planning his take-off in Iquitos. In order to be able to use the new turn-around area by the runway, which is available only on one side, he is even prepared to accept a slight tailwind and take off from runway 24. But for the A330 with its powerful engine and tanks only half-full, that is no problem today.

Three hours and twenty-five minutes later we are back in Punta Cana. Here we quickly refuel and take on fresh meals so that our special flight can land punctually in Frankfurt on Sunday morning in the “normal” way. After a short ferry flight to Düsseldorf, “Papa Delta”, our A330, sets off again for Fort Myers as planned.

From FLUG REVUE 6/2005

Last updated 13 May 2005

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