Flybe. EXT-NCL

[aeulad]

According to the Exeter Airport website, Flybe will start a new Exeter-Newcastle service in October.

Regards

Mike

[fuzzbear01]

hmmmmm FlyBe announce routes nearly daily but whether or not they decided to fly them remains to be seen .
Referring to an earlier post on Pprune FlyBe's MD who was offering assistance to FR's Michael O'Leary on how to run a LoCo- what a joke ! . The only reason for the profit was made was because of the sale of the LHR slots and no other . Load factors on all FlyBe's network has annually decreased , was this meant to be a joke ? - FlyBe can hardly call itself a LoCo anyway !

I doubt very much whether the NCL route will be profitable. Despite the lack of competition in the Exeter area, the Air Wales service from PLH-NCL twice daily has been running for nearly a year now and must have a large group of loyal customers however since flying with them a number of times up north it appears that Air Wales themselves have some low load factors ( ie due to the CWL touchdown ).

I give it 6 months !

Cheers :O

[skyrabbit]

actually fuzzbear....CWL-NCL is a very succesful route.....pax originating at CWL outnumber those originating at PLH by around 2.5:1

believe me........I know

Rabbs ;)

[shark1]

and no more information about the rumour of a Exeter-Toulouse route ?

[fuzzbear01]

SkyRabbit - read the message properly !
It says that due to the small numbers originating in Plymouth it makes it necessary for the stop in Cardiff .Hence loads from the South west are low and not worthy of another service from the same area .
I totally agree in what you say,Cardiff-Newcastle I believe is the most successful route of 6G .

Believe me , I know !

A little hasty in your reply - something to learn for next time !

Cheers

:ok:

[MerchantVenturer]

According to the CAA provisional statistics the NCL-BRS-NCL easyJet route carried just over 20,000 passengers in March or, put another way, an average of just under 650 pax per day.

It seems amazing that PLH- NCL (even with an intermediate stop at CWL) is not more popular, because the land journey between Plymouth and Newcastle is worse that that between Bristol and Newcastle, and that is bad enough.

Perhaps with a direct flight to NCL from EXT there might be more of a market.

[skyrabbit]

Fuzzbear....the PLH departure was never intended to be a direct service to NCL....the short runway would greatly restrict offered loads (especially in the temperatures we are currently experiencing) and I'm not sure that the demand would be there.

As for EXT-NCL.........the Southwest is probably adequately served on NCL routes as EZY do a number of rotations from BRS so it would be a bit of a gamble to offer the Flybe service which would have to be a min 2x daily service to gain any credibility.

The PLH to CWL continues to NCL, but also offers the opportunity to connect with LCY which a number of PLH pax use as they find LCY more convenient than the Air Southwest LGW service.

All catering and re-fuelling (way cheaper) is done at Cardiff.

cheers

rabbs


:}

[Trislander]

Merchant & Sky rabbit

I agree with you. Sounds like someone doesn't really know what they're talking about!

Tri :ok:

[fuzzbear01]

Skyrabbit , flew Air Wales on a number of occasions and compared to loads that I fly , a price of 85.00 ow Plymouth-Dublin with only 10 pax on a AT42 doesn't make sense in my books ?

This may suggest the low pax loads of 2 and 3 on each sector ? Who is responsible for this mis-management ? Adrian Thompson ?

It's time Air Wales got the professionals in !

[witchdoctor]

I was under the impression that AWW were now also stopping in BRS on the NCL-CWL-PLH route. Pax numbers still not especially high, maybe half an a/c or less, with only the final flight out of NCL on an evening generating decent numbers. Hope those numbers are high enough to justify the route as it would be a shame to see it close.

Not convinced Exeter could generate enough traffic on its own to make it viable. After all, you can't hook a caravan up to a Q400.;)

[MerchantVenturer]

witchdoctor

Air Wales have never flown scheduled services from/to or via BRS, except for the occasional diversion or, as today, when one of their aircraft was standing in for another carrier (I presume that Air Wales ATR 42 G-KNNY, seen at Lulsgate at lunchtime today, was operating the delayed Air Southwest flight from MAN via BRS to PLH and JER. Anybody confirm? I was just driving past the airport).

I think that easyJet have got NCL-BRS-NCL tied up with three 737 rotations per day (2 at weekends) which seem to be averaging 80% loads. I read that this was the busiest route between two English provincial cities.

[10 DME ARC]

Come on Boys as the cliché goes lets ‘think out of the box’!

You don’t need twice a day when it’s not aimed at the business market; this I think you’ll find will be aimed at the leisure market!
Who would have thought Easy would have done so well on the Bristol? 45k with BA to well over 200k with Easy!
Up until a month ago who would have thought you could fill a 735 three times a week to Hanover from NCL; but HLX are!
Low cost totally change the rules!

This part of the country is awful to get to from Newcastle, so if Air Wales can do well with Cardiff even with Easy at BRS what’s wrong with Fly Bee and Exeter having a go?
:)

[skyrabbit]

Merchant Venturer...recent sightings of the Dragon at BRS are due to us operating for Air Southwest while they have a/c in scheduled maintenance (PLH-BRS-MAN).

Fuzzbear...I really do not understand your point (if you have one)

rabbs :}

[EGTE]

Indeed gentlemen, the Flybe services from Exeter to Glasgow & Edinburgh bring people IN to the southwest. They are, therefore, not dependant on a large local travelling public. The Newcastle service will be exactly the same so a once daily leisure service will do well. Surface transport from the southwest to Scotland and the north of England is painful!

The new Scottish services seem to be doing well. I rarely see less than 65 pax getting off the Q400s. OK, not enough to fill an orange '737 - but a good start methinks.

Other Flybe routes often mentioned in the local press for 2005 from Exeter include Paris, Amsterdam and Manchester.

[MerchantVenturer]

EGTE

I said earlier that I thought there might be a market for EXT-NCL. However, acting as devil's advocate for a minute, if people will want to fly into the far south west, why are they not doing so in greater numbers at present to PLH via CWL?

Plymouth is a larger city than Exeter and nearer to Cornwall. And would there be a leisure market into the southwest in the winter?

I would think a daily AMS and Paris (but which airport?) would work from EXT. Not sure about MAN. Brymon/BACx could not get it to work from BRS (probably due to awful timings - one lunchtime rotation per day) but Air Southwest appears to be making a real go of it, starting the route at PLH. However, would there be a market from both PLH and EXT?

skyrabbit

Thanks for that. I guessed there was bit of south west Britain airline co-operation going on.

BTW, I like the Dragon livery. Your a/c was parked just behind a Aer Arann ATR 42 and looked far more stylish.

[skyrabbit]

MV....

thanks..we rather like it too!

cheers

Rabbs :ok:

[witchdoctor]

Told you so, I did, but Shhhhhh! It's a secret as nobody in NCL is supposed to know.;)

[fuzzbear01]

Well, its been said before but the livery on AWW is amazing ! It looks very upmarket and helps in giving the airline a USP.

Shame the Yield Management isn't as good :uhoh:

Cheers :ok:

[EGTE]

MV

You asked why I thought that the EXT-NCL BEE service would attract leisure travellers whilst the NCL-PLH AWW service does not seem to. I'd say marketing is the answer.
In Devon & Cornwall PLH is viewed more as a "businessman's airport" whilst EXT caters more for the leisure trade (mainly outbound until now). Maybe it's the business travel sector that AWW are aiming for? Flybe seem to have a marketing arrangement with some hotels in Exeter and Torquay. The TLH Leisure group in Torquay advertise on their website that you can book your Flybe ticket and hotel accomodation in one transaction. It seems to be working as the vast majority of GLA & EDI pax appear to be leisure travellers.

As for MAN...well, JEA and Eurodirect both operated the service and the sheds and Jetstreams always looked to be full. The Exeter business community has been asking for an EXT-MAN service but I'd have thought that to fill a Q400 that would also require a sizeable number of leisure travellers.

Which Paris airport? CDG offers the onward connections but I would have thought that ORY must have several vacant slots available!

[Powerjet1]

NCL- EXT, NCL - SOU & SOU - MAN likely to be announced tomorrow when winter timetable goes on sale.

[johnwalton]

Yep, announced today NCL-SOU and NCL-EXT, each once daily, but local news is also reporting that Flybe will be announcing routes to Europe from Newcastle in the near future........

[Hudson Bay]

Yep. Just as you said yesterday! Ext - Man, Sou - Man, Sou - Ncl

Man rumoured to be the new Northern base Flybe have been talking about. Seems that M. Bishop and J. French have come to some sort of agreement about the future at Man. They have always had a gentlemens agreement about treading on each others toes at the various basis and with the cheap landing fees at Man it now appears Flybe couldn't resist the temptation. More routes will be announced shortly which is great news for Manchester. What a turn around for flybe! One minute the troops are told no diverting into Man at any cost then its the place to be and the start of there next adventure!

[Mark Lewis]

SOU-MAN starting in November, bookable on the website, SOU-BRU rumoured but not confirmed. Assume they are trying to push BACX out of SOU, shouldn't be too hard :rolleyes:

[Going loco]

Hudson; Maybe so, but SOU-MAN is being operated by a SOU based aircraft which will visit the North West 3 times a day and then return home to the South Coast. Not to say they won't open a crew base at MAN in the future of course, but this doesn't look like it is it.

loco

[simonwa]

According to BBC Ceefax news, Flybe is not only announcing new routes from NCL to the south west, but also NCL to destinations across Europe are to follow soon. Any thoughts on these other routes?

[ALLMCC]

Any news on MAN - BHD which was also rumoured to be starting?

[Mark Lewis]

BA seem to be in quite a strong position with their Dash 8 routes out of MAN, I think they are even recruiting for them. I reckon FlyBe would think twice before challenging one of these routes head on?

[johnwalton]

From www.newcastleairport.com:

Flybe., Europe’s third largest low-cost airline is set to announce its intention to become the second major low-cost airline to make Newcastle International Airport a base for its operations. Flybe. will put 262,000 seats on the market in Newcastle as existing routes are grown and two new routes are launched in October 2004, with the prospect of more route expansion to coincide with the start of Summer 2005 programme in March 2005.

Full Article (http://www.newcastleairport.com/ReadNews.aspx?news=54)

[witchdoctor]

Only 70p for NCL-EXE and return at the moment. Even I could be tempted at that price!;)

[kala87]

Can we please have Exeter - Amsterdam, or even better, Newquay - Exeter - Amsterdam?? Would FlyBE or a loco operator be interested? The SW of Britain must be the only region with no direct link to AMS. Then we can connect to KLM's worldwide network and avoid the Heathrow madhouse. The nearest airport at present with an AMS service is Bristol, which is a 3 1/2 hour drive if you live in west Cornwall. We get lots of Dutch tourists down here in oggyland, which would be a potential traffic source, in addition to UK originating pax. How about it, FlyBE??

[EGTE]

Travelling along the A30 to and from EGTE over the years I've been amazed at the number of Dutch registered cars that I've passed on their way to the SW.

As Amsterdam is one of the routes that Flybe have mentioned as likely from EXT next year, perhaps thay can be persuaded to extend into Cornwall?