Of course you are allowed to voice your own opinion, as am I, however, I'm struggling to understand why it was such a sad day for the UK when SZ got shut down, although I'm intrigued to learn more...........
Clearly you arent from Cornwall or Plymouth ! Or someone that used SZ to travel between the now unserved routes and PLH/NQY
If you were you would consider the loss of SZ to be a huge loss, why not find the Plymouth thread and see what people think of Eastern on that thread ?
I'm struggling to understand why it was such a sad day for the UK when SZ got shut down, although I'm intrigued to learn more...........
I have to say that it is quite astounding that, despite the patronising tone of your 'teary eyed memories' post, you can't understand this. But please do please allow me to help you learn more. Parts of Devon and Cornwall are not blessed with excellent infrastructure, with road and rail journeys generally taking a lot of time. This means that travel by air has been a very popular option - in 2008 over 450,000 people were using Newquay Airport each year, with the bulk of those passengers carried by SZ.
Imagine, therefore, the consequences for such an area when it loses most of its air links. They are significantly greater than those faced by areas with good overland transport, and Plymouth has lost its airport entirely. SZ services have for the most part only been replaced seasonally by Flybe, with the result that routes like NQY-LBA remain totally unserved although previously very popular. Businesses are far less likely to invest in an area with poor transport links, and by consequence the economy suffers - and therefore the people suffer. That is the ultimate result.
And that is why the closing of Air Southwest was indeed a tragedy for many thousands of people in this country. If you are intrigued to learn even more, I recommend you purchase a copy of Airline Scams and Scandals (available here), which documents the orgy of back-stabbing and conflicts of interest fairly extensively.
Sutton Harbour and Eastern were both partially responsible, and it didn't require the most farsighted investor to see that SZ had potential. But instead they shut up shop, at the expense of the Cornish and the Devonians. The south-west remains one of the poorer areas of the UK, and poor transport will only blight them further when it comes to economic development.
Just to add to that, ex NQY compared to when SZ operated, we now nolonger have services at all to: LBA ABZ DUB ORK GCI JER BRS
And we now only have seasonal services to: GLA MAN
Add to that, PLH is now closed
I would say that the closure of SZ was a huge loss to the country and Devon and Cornwall especially. To an area that relies so heavily on tourism not to have links to these places is terrible.
With an effing great bulldozer probably. And while I don't necessarily agree that this will happen, the arguement bares examination. Exempli gratia:
Look at the real estate that HUY commands, and right next to a main road five minutes from the M180. A ready made logistical dream for any business requiring large scale surface movement.
The expanding petro-chemical industry ten minutes up the road at Immingham, I've no doubt, would love to get their hands on a peice of it.
More houses.
Agriculture (some prime pasture land here). Et cetera et cetera.
Anyway, thats all academic. Humberside serves quite a large area, even if Finningly is just down the road. If RL can get his ducks all lined up, he'll be able to turn a buck for sure. Whatever you think of the man, he's very good at that. It just won't be particularly pleasant for his employees.
hallo, i noticed many people are talking about this company but no one replied to my simple questions i posted some weeks ago, is there anyone who could reply please?
JimNinch, I dont think HUY is a prime piece of development land based on the failure of the current business park from getting off the ground. There is a large piece of development land close to the Humber and the A180 which has yet to get off the ground. But then Eastern are an airline, with their HQ at HUY, so unless they intended to fold themselves then I dont see why they would close down their own operating base.
Pedantics aside, I cant make a comment on what Richard lake and Bryan Huxford intend to do with the site in the long term, but I would suggest building on the runway will be a non-starter. I feel that they have seen an opportunity due to the possibility of a significant increase in helicopter passengers and demand for business flights when/if the offshore renewable energy sector takes off in the Humber region.
There were some rumours sculling around a short while ago, that he was going to turn HUY into some sort of a charter/corporate hub. This would fit with his attempts to take on more charter-type work over the past couple of years. Supposedly there are major changes coming in the new year too. We shall see.
It is very sad what happened to ASW - and it must be a terrible shock to those who joined T3, to experience the 'Eastern Way' - but at least they are still employed. Given RL's business acumen, I would have thought that he would have covered the ASW routes if they were capable of making him money. He obviously thinks that he can make more money using the aircraft and crews elsewhere. This would seem to be confirmed by the lack of anyone else jumping in, to provide a regular service.
I have never met any member flight crew at Eastern who has anything other than sympathy and best wishes to all those at ASW.
I couldn't see ASW fitting into the EZE business plan which seems to be niche business routes at relatively expensive fares which seems to fit in with the current aircraft fleet.
I presume ASW was losing money on its operating network using a fleet of fuel hungry aircraft and maybe operating some "seasonal" routes as "all year" routes and losing a lot of money out of season.
Sutton Harbour probably wanted to close Plymouth airport, maybe because of its restricted size and lack of development potential.
Profitable routes are usually seized on by the survivors in this dog eat dog business.
a significant increase in helicopter passengers and demand for business flights when/if the offshore renewable energy sector takes off in the Humber region
I wouldn't bank on it. There is a significant expansion in this industry off the Humber but it's not clear that they will use helicopters to any significant degree and if they do they're more likely to be EC135 size, carrying 1s and 2s for winching on to turbines. And these small helicopter maintenance activities have far less need of an airport than the current oil/gas flights, so may locate somewhere else entirely. At the same time the gas fields off the Humber are ageing and many will be closing in a few years. So the future for HUY is more likely to be - at best - replacing current offshore helicopter activity rather than expanding it.
On the positive side the future seems to be bright for employers who treat their UK workers like s**t so maybe Eastern will do well as an airport owner.
I wouldn't bank on it. There is a significant expansion in this industry off the Humber but it's not clear that they will use helicopters to any significant degree and if they do they're more likely to be EC135 size, carrying 1s and 2s for winching on to turbines. And these small helicopter maintenance activities have far less need of an airport than the current oil/gas flights, so may locate somewhere else entirely. At the same time the gas fields off the Humber are ageing and many will be closing in a few years. So the future for HUY is more likely to be - at best - replacing current offshore helicopter activity rather than expanding it.
There are new oil fields to be opened up within range of HUY (Cygnus Field shortly), and the offshore wind developments will supposidly require some helicopter transport for workers to a degree. I wouldnt rule out growth in helicopter traffic just yet.
So the parent Company of Eastern Airways, 'Eastern Group' have acquired Humberside Airport.
Does this mean that Eastern will open some route that would sustainable with Jetstreams or Saab? Any chance we might see a London City with them now flying from their with BA IOM route? Or Dublin which attracted good number with Ryanair on their daily 738 route. (only 50% load but that 90+ pax, so a portion of that on J41 would seem workable.
EI BUD, doubt T3 would start any routes ex HUY under the Eastern brand.. Theyve been based there for years, and not paid for landings for years either supposidly, so I doubt they would start new routes now.
JamesAir and others...... re Air Southwest. The company was perfectly viable but SHG lost interest way back beyond 2009 and pressure from their shareholders forced the board to put it up for sale. Such was their lack of investement and interest (when head office were sent the stationery order via email it usually resulted with a phone call within 5 minutes and we had to barter for pens or bottles of tippex - quote ''well don't make so many mistakes''). That's how rediculous it became. WOW became a basket case to the point where SHG had to pay EZE to dispose of the airline. There was a veiled initial interest in WOW from EZE but soon waned and RL lost interest and disposed of the remaining assets. Who would want 5 elderly but reliable Dash-8's on their books? The rest is history.
