Lpl-lhr

[cumberland]

Anybody know anything about this?

How about you dwlpl?.

Info I have sounds a bit like this. 26 flight a week starting late summer, aircraft will ether be a 737/500, Foker 100 or a CRJ500.

apparently operating of peek. Look for the aircraft type sat around a London airport all day!!

Any takers......

[dwlpl]

I have heard something similar that this route is to be launched from Liverpool.

Surely the route can be viable when you consider that all the MAN/London routes combined carry 2 million pax per annum.

[xyz_pilot]

I am sure that if done right you could make money operating an aircraft from LPL to LHR. This includes all the costs at LHR.

BUT

The big problem is the value of LHR slots. An in and out pair of slots at a civilised hour are worth more than £10,000,000 (based on what BE got).

The question is will a LPL LHR flight make a profit when the capital cost of the slot is put into the equation?

[fimbles]

I think that a route LPL - 'a London airport' would indeed be feasable, EZY was filling a/c to LTN but the revenue generated was increased by using the a/c elsewhere. So the numbers are probably there for a well marketed route. That said LPL-LHR off peak is unlikely to work as the only real reason to go to LHR would be conect to long haul, city centre shopping or business - the latter two being catered for already by a LPL-LCY and off peak may miss the connections to a number of destinations!

[dwlpl]

Re Heathrow, what hours would be considered off-peak and what would be peak?

[BahrainLad]

Peak - 0600 to 2200
Off peak....all other times.

:D

[dwlpl]

Well in that case all the slots to be used will be in the peak periods :p :ok:

[fruitcake]

Well, since a few weeks VLM is operating a fokker 50 from liverpool to London City. Its not a jet but will take you downtown london.

regards

[worldwidelad]

who is rumoured to be interested in running this route? Citiexpress?

[dwlpl]

CitiExpress are cutting back on routes and have recently dropped its Liverpool/IOM route, its only route from LPL.

[worldwidelad]

oh so no chance of expansion for them at liverpool then!!

Liverpool has gone from strength to strength, but only really thanks to easyjet really. No other airlines have the staying power it seems..... maybe theres just no call for another regional airport????
what ya think?

[dwlpl]

maybe theres just no call for another regional airport???? :confused: Que:confused:

[worldwidelad]

sorry, what i meant was, maybe theres not enough room for both manchester and liverpool airports....

[dwlpl]

Why not?

Most conurbations throughout the world have at least 2 airports serving the population.

[no, no, no]

the only ones who could really do Heathrow and make it work with everyone would surely only be BA or bmi.

BA have shown over the past few years that they aren't really interested in the short-haul, especially the domestic from LHR, arena so it would be a bit of a change for them.

bmi however have just launched Aberdeen and Inverness from Heathrow, and used to have flights from LPL - but would they really go back there with them having 7 flights from Manchester - wouldn't this just steal some traffic (especially connecting) from themselves? And wouldn't VLM still get the business traffic on their LCY route?

[Caslance]

maybe theres just no call for another regional airport???? I disagree strongly with this.

Manchester and Liverpool both seem to be doing quite nicely, thank you.

Whether by chance or by design each serves a different market within the same conurbation -not unlike Glasgow and Prestwick, for example.

[dwlpl]

Last year the planning ceiling set by Liverpool City Council on the airport was raised to 4.5 million pax per annum. This total is set to be reached by 2006.

There are plans for either an extension to the current terminal or a new terminal to take the throughput to 6 million pax per annum.

This proves that there is the demand. Something that will, hopefully, be borne out further if the rumours are true re airlines coming to Liverpool.

[bmiboyz]

Well i can tell you that bmi's business class loads go from strength to strength on the man-lhr route, averaging on the 1st flight ex MAN of between 40 and 70 business class pax alone and that's with a VLM flight 10 minutes later (I think). Loads this am were 51C and 86Y. Liverpool I think should work! Good luck to the airline that launches the route. Finding out how many people take the train from Liverpool to London and would prefer to travel by air would be a good indication of the success of this possible route.

[dwlpl]

bmi's business class loads go from strength to strength on the man-lhr route This, as well as 2 million other pax, confirms my point.

Not all passengers are going London to Manchester point-to-point. A fair percentage will be better served to fly into Liverpool.

[Caslance]

I know I've said this before, but the Euston-Lime Street trains always seem to be absolutely rammed at pretty well any time of day.

In the light of this, I've always found it more than a little odd that no operator has ever made LPL-LHR pay, although I have to say that VLM to LCY is a better bet for anyone travelling from Liverpool or Manchester to the centre of London.

[dwlpl]

the Euston-Lime Street trains always seem to be absolutely rammed at pretty well any time of day They are but its always this route that gets dumped on from a great height.

The frequency is nowhere near enough and the SRA's solution for the delays incurred on the route was to reduce the service frequency. The logic behind this was that the gaps left by the reduction allowed more time for other trains to run to schedule!

[cumberland]

I think that LHR may well be a bogus destination!

[dwlpl]

cumberland

Was it not you that started this thread with
Info I have sounds a bit like this. 26 flight a week starting late summer, aircraft will ether be a 737/500, Foker 100 or a CRJ500
What have you found out thats made you think differently?

[cumberland]

LGW has been thrown in to the pot on the back of a request for rates for a differant A/C type at LPL! Airlines do this from time to time to keep anonymity.

[dwlpl]

So in order to get rates for a different type of aircraft to operate from Liverpool, this unknown airline said they may operate it into Gatwick as opposed to Heathrow?

[brabazon]

dwlpl

I think LPL is currently running at just over 3 million pax p.a. Traffic increased enormously since easyJet arrived, but do you think it will increase by another 50% in a couple more years?