Planetair LBA to LAHORE

[LBAir]

Planetair are now in the final stages of starting up a service from Leeds Bradford to Lahore in Pakistan. Further details to follow shortly!!

[Fandango71]

When is the route likely to start? Should prove popular and save the trek over the Pennines.

[hatsoff]

There have always been idiots in this industry ready to throw money away , so who knows?

To my mind , the airfield constraints at Leeds make economic long haul operations unlikely and the lead post of this thread a work of fiction.

[BOEINGBOY1]

A 757 or similar, could more than adequately cope with this. A single fuel stop in the Middle East, DXB, BAH, etc would suffice. (Nobody mentioned it had to be non stop).

Good catchment area for typical pax

[Jack Ruskin]

Loads of B757's seem to be heading down to Amiritsar at the moment....tech stop LCA / DXB / KWI are just a few tech stops for the various operators...usually out of BHX so don't see why this should not be a success...

[KAT TOO]

It will be `tech` stopping in Cyprus

Two class layout, economy & cattle

[WHBM]

To my mind , the airfield constraints at Leeds make economic long haul operations unlikely and the lead post of this thread a work of fiction.
Haven't Canadian charter operators done nonstops from Leeds to Toronto in past years with widebodies, let alone 757s ?

The market changes. The days when Granny took a flight to visit the kids who had emigrated to Canada are now replaced by the kids visiting Granny back in Pakistan.

[Flightrider]

Hatsoff, congratulations for the most arrogant and overbearing post I've seen here for some time. It would appear as though you have no idea on the potential market for the operation in question and WHBM summed up the situation well.

Does anyone know whose aircraft this is going to be. I am assuming that it will have to be run on a scheduled service basis and are we sure that this is Planet Air's operation rather than Air786.com's launch?

[LBAir]

Initial plans look likely to start with AIR SCANDIC eventually with Planetair livery and/or equiptment.

[jmc757]

Air Scandic hey? I would imagine that will be on the Finnair 757s? This will be a very similar operation to the PooUk/Flyjet contract at BHX and the Monarch/Whoever it is from EMA. Pretty succesful by all accounts down here so why shouldn't it be up North...

[galley-wench22]

Initial plans look likely to start with AIR SCANDIC eventually with Planetair livery and/or equiptment.

Own equiptment....... huh!! I will only believe that one when I see it! Those guys wil never be able to pull an AOC together! Remember all the talk about MD-82's last year!!

Planetair will always be a glorified tour operator pretending to be an airline! :p

[Flightrider]

galley-wench 22, Planetair will indeed never be able to pull an AOC together. They never intended to try. The MD82 at initial start-up was to be operated by Flightline on behalf of Planetair under a virtual airline agreement like Palmair and European at Bournemouth. It would indeed have been a glorified tour operator pretending to be an airline - that was the whole objective, a point which you seem to have missed.

LBAir, jmc757 - prospects of Air Scandic operating the 757 service to Lahore evaporated several weeks ago so I'm afraid this is an old rumour. Finnair 757 crews said "no way" about operating to Lahore and an option to use Scandic's A300s has also fallen apart. Some way to go yet, me thinks, although there is potential for this to work.

[nibor]

Surely the most cost efficient idea would be to charter an aircraft from an operator who already have a base in Lahore or nearby.
Anyone know who has charterable aircraft available in the sub-continent? None spring to mind.

[HOODED]

Maybe Jet2 could buy a second hand 757ER and sell some seats to one of their rivals. Just a thought. Other routes could be a summer Florida and maybe a New York. Oh well we can all dream.:hmm:

[Going loco]

Have been checking www.planetair.co.uk for some time now to see if any announcement has been made of the Lahore service.

For well over a week now, the booking engine for their ACE, TFS and MLA services has been disabled. At first I thought this might be an indicator that they were re-hashing everything to build in the new service but this downtime really seems to be dragging on and is odd at what is traditionally a busy time of year for bookings. I think they pick up a lot of their business through local independant travel agencies, so perhaps they've decided to can the idea of running an on-line booking system on the grounds of low-volumes through that particular sales channel?

[KAT TOO]

What joke this outfit are, they must get off on `we run an airline`last time i flew with them we didn't even come back to Leeds and it wasn't the weather........:8

[Going loco]

LBAir - good to see you've still got your finger on the pulse of goings on down LBA way! Just a week between your breaking news about the Lahore service and the company going under is quite an achievement!!

Any news on Jet2's 7th aircraft, or are you still sticking with a delivery date of 14th January?

Keep up the good work

loco

[hatsoff]

Well it looks like it was a ruse after all.

I haven't seen any successful long haul operations out of Leeds and although an earlier poster mentioned Canada , I can't remember it.

However , with Finningley's runway coming on stream there is a genuine opportunity for cheap direct long haul travel from the North - competition for Manchester's ( and possibly Birmingham's ) Asian links.

[WHBM]

I haven't seen any successful long haul operations out of Leeds and although an earlier poster mentioned Canada , I can't remember it.
First Canadian charter was by Wardair in November 1984, the day the runway extension opened.

[hatsoff]

Was it a successful direct flight fully loaded with pax or just a stunt ?

Leeds is a great regional airport but given the short , out of wind runway and hilltop site there are some limits to natural growth.

In the last 14 years I haven't seen one viable long haul operation from Leeds.

[LGWAlan]

LBA-YYZ operated for quite a while - usually via BHX on the outbound - I know of Odyessy and Air Transat (on B757) have certainly operated the route - along with the aforementioned Wardair service.

[ACE Dispatcher]

Looks like they ain't gonna be doing the Lahore service now unfortunatly!!

Planetair
19 April 2004

Yorkshire’s independent low-cost flight operator Planet Air has been placed into voluntary liquidation.

But the Company says that all customers currently booked on flights will receive a full refund, and alternative flights have already been arranged for passengers currently in Tenerife.

Planet Air was launched in February last year with weekly services from Leeds Bradford Airport to Malaga, Alicante, Faro and Tenerife. But in the Autumn they announced they were cutting back on flights to the first three destinations and concentrating their resources on providing a winter programme to Tenerife.

Company Chairman Mike Firth said that whilst they deeply regretted any inconvenience caused to customers, the decision to put Planet Air into liquidation was unavoidable.

“Although the market analysis had demonstrated a large demand for the flights we were offering, two factors dramatically changed that situation,”he said. “Firstly Jet2, a much larger operator, commenced flying from Leeds Bradford to three of our destinations; secondly the travel industry as a whole suffered its worst time for more than thirty years as a combined result of the Iraqi War, a hot summer in the UK and people deciding to spend less on their holidays.”

Like all tour operators, Planet Air operates under a licence granted by the Civil Aviation Authority which is subject to review every six months.

Mr Firth said that at the latest review in March the CAA had demanded “certain financial requirements” before agreeing to any renewal of the licence.

“Considering the future prospects for the business, the potential profits are not sufficient to justify the extra investment needed to satisfy the CAA and very reluctantly we decided voluntary liquidation was the only sensible decision.”

Letters were sent out last night to all customers booked with Planet Air informing them of the decision and explaining how they can receive a full refund of any payments already made.
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Sad to say "another one bites the dust!"