I think Flybe have been throwing in slot applications at all sorts of places to cover the real intent of the Gatwick expansion. Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels - you name it, they applied for slots there for next summer for a four-times daily service from Gatwick with a 195!
Real plan is to take over the BA domestics (except for Jersey) but nothing said publicly about that yet, and supposed to be hush-hush. However you'd have thought that BA wouldn't make it quite so obvious that they were giving up on the domestics. Their on-line timetable for Summer 2009 shows Gatwick-Edinburgh with four flights a day leaving at 0910, 1215, 1855 and 2045 and ex Edinburgh at 0615, 1115, 1415 and 2100! Just great for the south-east business market. Great.
I've heard that also, it also provoked the question in my mind as to when (or indeed, if) they are going to make LGW into a base. Flybe already has a large presence at Gatwick and if this is due to increase, surely they must be thinking about it. It'll be a strain and will become increasingly inefficient to operate all of these flights from other bases...
Their on-line timetable for Summer 2009 shows Gatwick-Edinburgh with four flights a day leaving at 0910, 1215, 1855 and 2045 and ex Edinburgh at 0615, 1115, 1415 and 2100! Just great for the south-east business market. Great.
Isn't this roughly what it ought to be? The market early is Southbound driven, going home North late. The oddball is the easyJet LGW-EDI / GLA which operate from the LGW end (!)
Isn't this roughly what it ought to be? The market early is Southbound driven, going home North late. The oddball is the easyJet LGW-EDI / GLA which operate from the LGW end (!)
No - Gatwick domestics always used to do OK on morning departures ex Gatwick. If you look at where a lot of the higher-yield passengers who work in London during the day actually live (and 50-60% of the traffic originates from home, not from the office) then Gatwick historically did reasonably well on this traffic. BA has systematically trashed the schedules by moving morning departures much earlier (to 0610-0625) and evening return flights much later. There is a market and a lot of the morning southbound traffic into Gatwick was connecting onwards rather than point-to-point.
Heard murmurings of a 4th based Q400 in IOM for summer '09. Whether this will happen we kwill have to see but it would be great for IOM to get another based a/c.
According to a German forum, Flybe has requested slots for LGW-DUS (E95) for summer 09. Given the desperate slot situation at DUS, it seems to be very unlikely that they will get any useful slots, but interesting anyway.
Just saw this announcement on the front page; apparently, BE is making a major announcement on Wednesday, apparently to do with LGW; possibly taking over more BA routes; BA pulling out?
The Flybe on-line timetable wont let you go any further than MAR 09, any idea of or chance of new routes to and from Dublin. Someone needs to fill the shiney new T2 that no one wants!
Any news on rumured announcement around 1.30 today, all over bhx about an announcement but nothing as yet........
Possible just the rumour mill in overdrive.
Probably want to dump the 737-300/500s and replace with more fuel efficient E195s. The E145s would likely go too (just like with BRAL). Focusing on Q400s and E195s makes more sense from a scale perspective. Not sure if they can order more E195s fast enough if that were the case. Personally, I'd rather fly the E195 than a junky old 737-300. Looks like they are trying to buy more market share (article mentions consolidation).
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