Air Wales: PLH-CWL-NCL

[stolport]

FIRM DOUBLES UP NORTHERN FLIGHTS


12:00 - 31 March 2004

Air Wales have added an extra daily flight between Plymouth and Newcastle because of strong demand for the route.

The addition of the extra flight means Air Wales now has services for Newcastle departing every weekday at 7am and 3.10pm with return flights leaving Newcastle at 9.40am and 6.10pm.

The announcement has been welcomed by airport lease holders and operators Sutton Harbour Holdings and is a boost for Plymouth City Airport, which now has scheduled services to eight destinations.

As well as the Newcastle route, Air Wales flies to Cardiff, Cork and Dublin with Air Southwest, the low fares regional airline owned by Sutton Harbour Holdings, providing services from Plymouth to London Gatwick, Bristol and Manchester.

And from this Friday, Air Southwest will introduce a new daily return flight to Jersey, with fares from as low as £29 one-way, including all taxes and charges.

Nigel Godefroy, managing director designate of Sutton Harbour Holdings, said: "The second Air Wales flight to Newcastle and the start of our own Jersey service on Friday is further good news for air travellers and confirm Plymouth's increasingly important role as a regional airport, offering a wide choice of scheduled services."

Roy Thomas, chief executive of Air Wales added: "The Newcastle route is one of the most popular in Air Wales' expanding portfolio. Indeed the time and cost savings of travelling to Newcastle by air, as opposed to road or rail, means that there is increasing demand for this link from local leisure and business travellers.

"It's because of this demand that we've launched an additional daily service, which means that our customers in Plymouth can now travel to Newcastle and back within a day, without the need for an overnight stay. We've already taken passenger bookings up to the end of October and are confident that the added convenience of a twice-daily return service will make the route even more popular."

ANOTHER BOOST FOR BUSINESS TRAVEL

GRAEME DEMIANYK

09:00 - 31 March 2004

Business travellers in the Westcountry received another boost yesterday as Air Wales introduced a second daily flight between Plymouth and Newcastle. The Cardiff-based carrier, which also operates flights linking Plymouth with Cardiff, Cork and Dublin, now operates two services to the North East departing from the Westcountry at 7am and 3.10pm.

Roy Thomas, chief executive of Air Wales, said: "We're delighted to be working with Plymouth City Airport to offer this additional service. The Newcastle route is one of the most popular in Air Wales' expanding portfolio. Indeed the time and cost savings of travelling to Newcastle by air, as opposed to road or rail, means that there is increasing demand for this link from local leisure and business travellers.

"It's because of this demand that we've launched an additional daily service, which means that our customers in Plymouth can now travel to Newcastle and back within a day, without the need for an overnight stay.

"We've already taken passenger bookings up to the end of October and are confident that the added convenience of a twice-daily return service will make the route even more popular."

With the new Air Wales flight to the North East, in addition to the air links provided by the Westcountry's newest airline, Air Southwest, Plymouth City Airport now has scheduled services to eight destinations.

Air Southwest, the low fares regional airline owned by transport and regeneration specialist Sutton Harbour Holdings, provides services from Plymouth to London Gatwick, Bristol and Manchester.

From this Friday the Plymouth-based airline will begin a new daily return flight to Jersey, with fares from as low as £29 one-way, including all taxes and charges.

On Monday, low-cost carrier FlyBE said it was close to opening a route from the firm's headquarters at Exeter International Airport to Newcastle later this year. The airline is also looking to Manchester, Paris and Amsterdam as possible destinations for early 2005.

Nigel Godefroy, finance director of Sutton Harbour Holdings, which owns Plymouth City Airport, said: "The second Air Wales flight to Newcastle and the start of our own Jersey service on Friday is further good news for air travellers and confirms Plymouth's increasingly important role as a regional airport, offering a wide choice of scheduled services."

News of the increasing services follows a commitment last week from Plymouth City Council to safeguard land around the airport for a possible runway extension. Sutton Harbour is now working with regional authorities on a detailed masterplan for Plymouth City Airport.

gdemianyk@ westernmorningnews.co.uk

[MerchantVenturer]

Good news for the far southwest, although I believe the second PLH-CWL-NCL is an extension of the existing CWL-NCL rotation, which already flies twice each weekday from the Welsh capital to Newcastle.

The Air Southwest PLH-JER is an extension of the morning BRS-PLH which now gives BRS four airlines flying to JER each weekday when there was only one (BACX) before.

Flybe and Aurigny (the latter using its morning outbound from BRS to GCI and its late afternoon inbound to BRS from GCI to route via JER).

Suddenly there is a lot of extra capacity on all sorts of domestic routes round the southwest of England.

If the prices are right I see no reason why people won't use the serices.

[johnwalton]

On Monday, low-cost carrier FlyBE said it was close to opening a route from the firm's headquarters at Exeter International Airport to Newcastle later this year

How random, surely this isn't true?

[JobsaGoodun]

johnwalton

Flybe have indicated their intentions to expand their destinations from Exeter later this year with the introducton of daily flights to Newcastle, Manchester, Paris and Amsterdam.

Predictably there will be changes before any announcement is made, but if the past week is anything to go by then things are looking very good indeed for both Flybe and an expanding Exeter Airport

[MerchantVenturer]

JobsaGoodun

I think Flybe have adopted an interesting strategy in the southwest. They have started routes from EXT to such places as EDI, GLA, AGP and ALC using Q 400s and/or ARJs presumably because the usual Boeing 737 equipment of locos would be too big for these routes.

They have also started from BRS on 'secondary' low cost routes to such as Toulouse and Bergerac which might also not support 737s and which might not be supportable from EXT at all.

The CAA provisional stats for February show 3625 scheduled pax used the BRS-TLS route that month. Assuming there were 58 flights (29 in each direction) this gives an average loading of 62.5 which I suppose is not at all bad. Especially when one considers that Flybe was in competition with the ski charters from BRS to TLS that carried 3700 pax in February.

So, given EXT's apparent excellent start, it appears that Flybe might be on to something.

On the other side of the coin I wonder how they will make money on BRS-JER now that BACX have been joined by Aurigny and Air Southwest on this route. Seems overkill on the face of things.

[Jamesair]

An Exeter - Newcastle route could be made to work if the fare level is right and considering the long and tedious car or train journeys between the two cities. Devon is a popular leisure destination from the North of England and Newcastle is an important business centre and gateway airport and port to Scandinavia.