That ship has sailed. The local community failed to support it. A ressurection of such a service is futile as the market was, and is even more, covered now with EK. Their product is inferior and connection opportunities are unlikely to attract anyone else except those with close links within Pakistan. I would have thought GLA management would have had other priorities than trying to restart this dead-duck. I suppose the only thing that could perhaps save it would be a freedom right stopover at ie FRA ( but a likely once/twice weekly is not really going to attract transit or business pax through FRA). Overall, albeit sketchy speculation only, its an odd turn of events...
I remember when a Japanese gent was signed by Celtic.. the speculation of a possible service to Japan boomeranged around the egpf private online forums. :-)
and the direct EDI China flights just because of a panda ? "China flights - or any new long haul flights - will be hotly competed for by new EDI owners"
Last edited by CabinCrewe; 28th Jan 2012 at 18:24.
here's hoping your pension is generous enough to facilitate
EK's "You are going the wrong way" alienated a lot of business pax whose disposable incomes and expense accounts ensured the only way meantime was connectivity from EDI.
2 x Daily very shortly with 1st Class Cabins suggests otherwise, much better to support the excellent EK service from Scotland than bankroll LHR etc, after all, Glasgow Airport is so much more accessible these days with the completion of the M74, 50 mins max from Edinburgh to GLA these days, and in a luxury Limo to boot Well done "Team GLA" for bringing this 2nd EK flight to Scotland rather than it going elsewhere.
To think that EDI/GLA may get China service before Manchester is ridiculous.
Having said that, Chinese outbound tourism is the fastest growing in the world, and I am sure that they could fill both cabins out of Edinburgh. Chinese tourists would have EDI on their travel plans over GLA for sure.
If Hainan can make it work at Budapest, there is certainly some potential there.
was in Edinburgh last week and it was full of Chinese. Dont know the ratio of residents to tourists though. Fancy some would come via Glasgow and Emirates.
I'm sorry but if there's a long haul route to be made, it's not going to be dictated by BAA. The airline wants yield. If that is to be found at EDI (which I personally believe it would be for China), then that's where they'll go. This isn't fiddling the loco market, it's LH.
I'm personally skeptical of the demand for a China flight from either EDI or GLA and have little desire to get drawn into the usual nonsense from the usual malcontents, however it's been suggested to me that the real demand/yield for any service might come from cargo which would mainly comprise a tasty fish with pink flesh. Given this fish is almost exclusively farmed on the W coast and islands this might actually point to GLA as a better destination given its superior road/air connections to these regions.
Wrt to Chinese tourists, I doubt many would be visiting on a short city break - most will be touring and hence it probably won't make much difference which central belt airport they arrive at. I doubt they'd be that bothered either given the distance between the cities of less than 50 miles pales in comparison to the distances between cities in China.
Menzies Gla lost easyjet contract to SMART ground handling!!! TUPE almost certain rumours SMART undercut Menzies by atleast 20%...however rumours menzies in for Brittish Airways Handling Nationwide at non inhouse stations...only time will tell.
If you'd come all the way from China for tourism surely you wouldn't just visit Scotland but also cover more of the UK, at the very least London. I'd be staggered if a direct China - Scotland (any old airport) schedule was a commercial success but I'd be delighted to be proved wrong.
