Happy to accept Expressflight's over enthusiastic championing of SEN as a direct result of his former employment there and not because of any commercial interests he may now have.
Easyjets per seat profits are public knowledge. Their average cost of their airport utilisation is approx 26-27% of seat revenue. As the majority of their summer flights out of SEN have been discounted to attract the pax we know that either 1) Easyjet are operating out of SEN at a loss right now or 2) SEN are paying Easyjet to be there. As these are relocated units (not new units) why would Easyjet make a loss to be at SEN? The answer is, they aren't making a loss. SEN are making a loss to promote their airport.
It will be interesting to see what happens when Easyjet have to pay the going rate for a landing and handling. If the pax loads don't support the £2.50 per seat profit margin they will relocate the aircraft. However I have pointed out that until meaningful time has passed all this is pure speculation. Let the spotters ooh and aah for now, it keeps them happy and the rest of us can put a distant date in the diary for a "I told you so" discussion in a few years time.
The driving purpose surely of EZY’s SEN operation is not simply to cannibalise their STN traffic but to give themselves a competitive advantage by offering an alternative departure point in south east England and ultimately to grow their business in this way.
The use of introductory discounts or loss leaders seems an absolute no-brainer in this situation. We can make inspired guesses as to which party is bearing the brunt of the start up costs but none of us are privy to the contractual details between SEN and EZY and how these will pan out in the longer term.
The passenger figures are telling us that SEN works and that people are prepared to use it after years in the doldrums. That is an important first step. Jacking up yields can follow. EZY are not exactly inexperienced in that area. And by the way SEN fares are not necessarily that cheap at present - check EZY's website.
Certainly EZY will have their own projections on the growth of traffic and revenue and they will have assessed the reality of the situation already and how actual performance compares to the plan. Consistently since April, EZY’s public statements about their progress at SEN have been extremely positive.
Thomsons/First Choice and Stobarts have not officially confirmed their twice-weekly flights to Palma yet because contracts need to be signed, but it got leaked out via the broker dealing with the Germania aircraft used by Fords.
Thomson put the info into the public domain via their brochures
To be honest, I getting a bit tired of all this to and fro number exchange and meaningless speculation, so until something more interesting comes up I'm giving this thread a rest.
At 18:48 Expressflight replied
Quote:
Solely to avoid any possibility that my contributions here might be interpreted as anything other than my honest opinions
Well that didn't last long did it
The problem is that you don't like other honest opinions if they are not seen by you as 100% pro Southend even when they are posted as pro Southend.
There are a few other usual suspects here with the same mind set. What a shame that this thread is welcoming only for a select few and where a post by me predicting Southend doing so well that it could be maxed out in a couple of years is seen as being negative.
I see that SEN-PMI is shown in the Thomson online brochure as operating on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 4/5/13 until 22/10/13, but I cannot find reference to it on the booking engine. It will be interesting to see how prices compare with other airports when they become available.
I for one appreciate your posts express so keep them coming, looking at the figures for the AMS and BFS routes they look good with load factors between 70-75% and these are not summer holiday routes which bodes well from a standing start 5 months ago!!
Very encouraging figures indeed. SEN-WAT flight really doing well also. Leads me to believe that other regional Irish routes might do well - some that used to have direct London links from Ryanair with their ATR-42 a long time ago could do well. I'm thinking of Donegal, Sligo, Derry & Kerry
I for one appreciate your posts express so keep them coming, looking at the figures for the AMS and BFS routes they look good with load factors between 70-75%
Having a quick look at prices for Monday it is clear to see that yields are very poor on the Belfast route. I did hear a while back that this route was already under review.
My understanding is that the holiday routes to ALC FAO and AGP are doing exceptionally well on all fronts ie loads and yield.
Perhaps these are the types of routes where we will see capacity focusing on in the near future. BFS will be in the mix for the longer run as competition intensified in the Belfast Market for London routes. Easyjet may like to have the biggest area of London covered as a competitive advantage.
Ryanair out here at Frankfurt-Hahn are often stopping and starting routes. I don't pretend to know the reasons, but it makes sense to drop those that lose money and find alternative options. EasyJet will no doubt do the same. Personally I was amazed when they announced Belfast from SEN twice a day, and yet the total pax carried so far is amazing (for me, I mean). I believe next year we will see more new destinations to the east, like Berlin, Prague, Budapest, etc. They make fine places to go to for a short-break holiday. I believe EasyJet will always have an operation at SEN and hopefully a very profitable one for airport and airline alike.
Oh no, that must mean the SEN operation is a complete disaster
I know you are only joking but no one is saying that but Easyjet has put its toe in the Southend water and needs time to see which routes work for this airport and this one doesn't despite being the airports top selling route.
GLA & EDI, why would easyJet go for this? STN routes to these 2 airports are very successful and would be canibalised, and if were withdrawn in favour of SEN it is almost a cert that Ryanair would join STN EDI...?
