Seville San Pablo (LEZL)

[Trumpet_trousers]

Having lived and worked in Seville for the past 4 years, I can't help but think that the airport is massively under-utilised. At certain times of the day, there appears to be NO traffic at all for several hours, (typically between 13:30 or so for at least 2-3 hours, (yes, I'm aware that it is traditionally siesta time...)) Is this just due to the current economic climate here, or are there other factors at play?
Apart from Ryanair, Vueling and Iberia, (both IB and IBE) there appears to be very little other regular daily traffic (admittedly, Easyjet, Air Berlin and a few others have fairly regular weekly flights, but it appears that there is an awful lot of newly-laid/renovated concrete going to waste.)
Also, regarding routes, not surprisingly perhaps, both Vueling and Iberia serve mainly domestic destinations, although the service to Madrid is a nightmare, both in terms of scheduling and trying to connect without having to wait in MAD for 2-3 hours!
As for RYR, whilst once they served at least 4 UK destinations, (STN, LGW, BRS and LPL) now it is just the first 2. The only other direct flight to the UK is with EZY to LGW, 3-4 times weekly.
Bearing in mind a fairly sizeable expat community here (bolstered by the Airbus facility,) there seems to be an opportunity for a LoCo/mainline carrier to capitalise on this and introduce some new routes direct to UK. Reintroducing a direct flight to either BRS and/or LPL (ideally both!) would certainly be very welcome - after all, arriving at STN at 23:55 is not everyone's cup of tea...

Should I hold my breath or not?

[Aksai Oiler]

You would think with the large EADS presence in SVQ it would be better utilised, but it's not; even RYR keep chopping and changing there routes. I live not far (on the border between Cadiz and Seville, and utilise XRY, SVQ, AGP and GIB as necessary to connect with long haul; none of them have the ideal schedule, even AGP.

It's not that many years ago there were direct flights to LHR from SVQ (IB->VY and AGP (IB & BA) - all have sadly gone; and I don't see it changing any time soon.

[2Planks]

I would have thought that AVE was just about as quick for long haul out of MAD.

[FR8364]

Hello Trumpet_trousers:

As a person living in Seville and working with English people, I can tell you some facts about the airport and its connections.

Seville Airport situated in the capital of Andalusia (South of Spain) serves a population of 2,2 million inhabitants within 60 min by car. Its pax record was in 2011 carrying about 4,9 million passengers while in 2012 it descent to 4,2.

Nowadays, 10 airlines operates in SVQ with an average of 90-100 flights/day. Although 60% of the traffic is domestic, there are also more than 25 destinations within Europe. France followed by Italy leads the capacity offered (7 destinations in France, 6 in Italy). In addition there is also a very strong demand to BENELUX (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg) with 21 weekly departures to this region.

I give you the reason about the lack of activity during evening (13-15 hrs) but flights concentrate at first hour in the morning (6-8 am), 11 am, and night time (7-10 pm). Aiport authorities are working to cover this period with more flights and new routes in 2013 to Lyon (Transavia) and Geneve (easyJet) have been scheduled to arrive at this time.

About the suspension of UK direct links:

In the past (until 2011), there were flights with Ryanair to Liverpool (4x>2x), Bristol (2x) and East Midlands (3x). LPL worked perfectly in LFs and surely on yields. Mainly used by Nothern-English and with very good schedule in the afternoon. Lots of friends took this route which has been availible from Feb. 2006 until Oct. 2011. Then RYR cut some routes in its LPL base and Seville was one of them. There had been some rumours about RYR trying to put an SVQ-MAN but no further information was known :confused:

BRS (from Jul. 2009 until 2011) was very mediocre in LFs. All around 70-75% with some peaks of 80-83% in Summer. Many students used this route for exchanges and campaments and also English coming to the South of Spain.

Finally EMA (2011) reached poor LFs and I believe only some peak months reached around 75%. Fares were so low, sometimes you could find tickets for €12. Lots of Spanish people using this route for their holidays in UK.

However, in 2012-13 Ryanair decided to cut lots of direct connections between Seville and Europe suspending EMA, LPL, BRS, AOI, NYO, PSA, TFS, ZAZ, BIO, IBZ, FEZ...

Currently Seville-UK market is really unserved with only flights to London. There is a demand for routes to Northern England and Scotland. As SS13, you have these options:

easyJet LGW-SVQ 4x (increased to 5x in WS13-14)
Ryanair LGW-SVQ 3x
Ryanair STN-SVQ 5x
--> 12 weekly departures between Seville and London but not to other cities in UK :(

The information I have is that airport direction is looking for IAG (Vueling/BA) to re-establish flights to LHR but according to LHR slots capacity and operational costs I see it is stupid instead of working with easyJet to increase LGW to daily. Also there is some talks with airlines to open Seville-Birmingham because airport marketing department has seen optiond to this route, but I think there is not any airline based in one of the two airports interested in flying this link. In my opinion, MAN/LPL and EDI/GLA must be priority.

Airbus Military has created a demand on flights between Seville and Toulouse which is operated by Air France (A319) and Iberia-Air Nostrum (CRJ200) with 9 flights per week.

I hope my information has been useful. You can follow my webpage about the airport in svqairport blog :ok: Please, write to me in case of any suggestion to airport direction or any other comment to [email protected]

Kind regards :)

[Trumpet_trousers]

Hi FR8364, thanks for the response.
Most of what you wrote is known to me, but the news of possible increases in direct UK flights is very welcome - let's hope at least some of it happens!
Having used the Vueling SVQ-LHR before it was axed, and both the Ryanair services to LPL and BRS, there is perhaps some hope that at least one of these routes will be re-introduced, not necessarily by the same carriers.
I was prompted to post initially after looking across the airfield on an almost daily basis and observing very little activity, with at times all the airbridges vacant, and nothing else in view, except the DHL 757 and TNT 146 which as you know arrive early morning and depart early evening.
A second EasyJet direct route to UK would especially be very welcome, perhaps LPL or MAN?
Let's see if all that resurfacing/expansion of the parking areas hasn't been wasted...:ok:

[FR8364]

The expansion of the parking area is an unnecessary investment that nobody understand why it had been done instead of other more useful repairs like the modernization of the check-in desks or the improvement of the distribution in the arrivals hall.

The best thing now according to SVQ-UK flights will be easyJet maybe flying to Manchester. I am not sure what are the most important bases of EZY in UK but I think they are MAN, LPL and BRS, so one of them would be fine. I will make a suggestion to airport marketing department this week...

Regards ;)

[FRatSTN]

If you mean biggest by "most important" then Gatwick is by far biggest for EZY, followed by Luton but it's Bristol that is the biggest outside of London, followed by Belfast, Edinburgh and then Stansted I think.

Liverpool and Manchester are actually two of the smaller bases but still have a significant presence at those airports. Ryanair is now bigger at both Liverpool and Manchester than EasyJet as far as I know (certainly at Manchester, in terms of passenger numbers).

I would think the most likely outcomes would be FR operating MAN-SVQ or EZY serving BRS-SVQ but if similar routes haven't lasted in the past then maybe their won't be such routes. I guess it's a case of time will tell.

[FR8364]

I see with difficulty easyJet flying BRS-SVQ. There is not enough 'leisure' demand to fill the planes. Airbus has created a demand, but no sufficient...

However, there is a strong demand to justificate a direct link between Seville and Northern England. I said EZY in MAN-SVQ because of the route BIO-MAN (similar city as SVQ). I thought EZY had more planes in this base, but as you say, RYR could be more easy to operate. Unfortunatly, RYR would not have more planes until few years, so resuming LPL-SVQ or adding MAN-SVQ will mean the suspension of other route.

[Heathrow Harry]

still the biggest, quietest airport I've ever been to.......................

[Capetonian]

San Pablo airport was extended and upgraded at the same time as the AVE was built to link Madrid to Seville, where a fancy new station was built for the AVE (Santa Justa?).

Barcelona would have made more sense for several reasons. Greater traffic, and the possibility of linking up with the rest of the European High Speed rail network, which is only being done now. The Olympics were held in BCN in 1992, but the Catalan capital had no AVE service until 2008 or thereabouts.

Ostensibly, the Sevilla link was built for EXPO in 1992.

Felipe Gonzalez, was PM of Spain at that time, is from Seville.

?Casualidad, o una historia de enchufados y corrupcion?

http://c.buyoly.com/stella-252-not-cynical-med.jpg

[116d]

In the past (until 2011), there were flights with Ryanair to Liverpool (4x>2x), Bristol (2x) and East Midlands (3x). LPL worked perfectly in LFs and surely on yields. Mainly used by Nothern-English and with very good schedule in the afternoon. Lots of friends took this route which has been availible from Feb. 2006 until Oct. 2011. Then RYR cut some routes in its LPL base and Seville was one of them. There had been some rumours about RYR trying to put an SVQ-MAN but no further information was known

I can vouch for the LPL-SVQ load factors. I flew on this route in August 2011 and on both the outbound and return flights it was well-loaded, even though by that time it had been cut to fly on Mondays and Fridays. As you say, the flight times were decent (left LPL 0650 and return flight departed SVQ at 1115) so very attractive for many prospective passengers.

I'm glad I flew this route when I did as I had wanted to return to Seville for some time and having this route provided me with the incentive to do it. It's a nice city and for tourism to grow it needs good air links.

SVQ is a good, alternative airport for those wanting to cross the border into Portugal or to go to Gibraltar/points east or the coast in between, so it's a shame that from the UK flight options are now limited to airports serving London. It would be interesting to know the reason why these routes were cut, in particular LPL.

[Trumpet_trousers]

Seville - capital of Andalucia. Andalucia - second largest area of the autonomous regions in Spain, and the most populous (Wiki.)
Surely the area deserves better scheduled services to its airport?

[Mr A Tis]

I'm currently in Seville and keep seeing a very frequent airport bus in the city - never seen a passenger on it though. Seems everything is here, but the flights. The city is very busy with tourists, but few British ones. I flew from MAN to Malaga at a cost of almost 200 quid return + 60 quid on train fares, makes it a dear do from oop north. Can't help but feel EZY is long overdue on MAN-SVQ. Or maybe Monarch shouldn't have played with the ill fated Munich, but reintroduced the old jerez service.

[FR8364]

Seville Airport can be comparable in terms of passengers statistics with UK airports of Newcastle, East Midlands or Belfast Intl. SVQ terminal was dessigned for 6 million pax/year, and it is now carrying between 4,2 (2012) and 4,9 (2011).

I have talk with airport authorities this week and I have told them about the lack of SVQ-UK flights. They told me they are working with BA Cityflyer for a link to LCY. They are also interested to resume LHR service with BA/VY. Unfortunately, no talks with neither RYR nor EZY to Northern England connections are open :(, but they will try in Routes Europe (or as least, they has told me).

My friends from Scotland, Manchester and Warrington living in Seville use AGP to get there almost every 2 months (in the past they flew to LPL). Others from Kent, Bath and Leeds uses LGW/STN from SVQ. It depends wether you preffer to move in UK or once you arrive in Spain...

Mr A Tis, hope you enjoy your trip to Seville ;)

[Trumpet_trousers]

They told me they are working with BA Cityflyer for a link to LCY - is there an actual demand for this proposed service, or is this just showboating by the airport authorities? What is clearly needed is another direct service to UK, but not to another London airport!! :ugh:
Judging by some comments on here, the airport authorities should be targetting LPL or MAN - I think the load factors could be pretty high on either.

[Aksai Oiler]

Flights to LCY gives connection options to GLA, EDI and ABZ. I for one would be happy with that as I need to travel to ABZ, for example, and at the moment that means 3 flights XRY-MAD-LHR-ABZ; so I would be happy to drive an extra 30 mins to take the flight from SVQ to LCY and then up to ABZ.

There may be demand for a MAN or BRS service, but at least this is a start...

[Mr A Tis]

Well, as the only 2 existing UK routes are to London Gatwick & London Stansted, i would have thought another route to London city or London Heathrow, would only dilute what they already have. It certainly would not add any significant tourist numbers. RYR + EZY already operate in to Seville from Europe, so extending into UK should be achievable. However, maybe Monarch or Jet2 should give this overlooked city some consideration, for routes north of Watford. LPL or MAN + GLA or EDI, maybe seasonal Jan - May ?

[Heathrow Harry]

IIRC it was greatly expanded for the '92 EXPO and a lot of it has been gathering dust ever since

[116d]

Seville - capital of Andalucia. Andalucia - second largest area of the autonomous regions in Spain, and the most populous (Wiki.)
Surely the area deserves better scheduled services to its airport?

I don't disagree. At the moment the alternative gateways are Malaga, Gibraltar, Jerez or Faro - all except Jerez requiring lengthy drives which isn't exactly a great advert unless it is somewhere without an airport.

[Heathrow Harry]

It's a wonderful city but it's not on a beach so the LCA's and the Great British Public aren't interested

[FR8364]

^^I do not think English only like beach. Others known cities like Pisa or Firenze are atractive and don't have the beach component. However, Costa de la Luz is served by Seville Airport within 1 hour by car from it. There are some wonderful resorts like Costa Ballena, El Portil, Zahara de los Atunes, Islantilla... which offer unspoilt beaches, golf and luxury hotel resorts... Fortunately for few, it is still undiscovered by foreigners and are mainly feed of national tourism. Lots of Sevillians, Catalonians and Basques have a second residence there. In summer, BIO-SVQ and BCN-SVQ practically transport these people. NTE-SVQ, ORY-SVQ and LYS-SVQ of Transavia also feed these Resorts. They used to go to hotel Lookea Marismas de Andalucía, Elba Costa Ballena, Barceló Costa Ballena.... among the more beautiful

[Heathrow Harry]

that's my point - the mass of Brits want to pour off the plane and head straight to the beach and bar - discerning tourists go to the places you mention but the mob prefers Torremolinos, Magaluf or San Arenal.......

[Capetonian]

the mass of Brits want to pour off the plane and head straight to the beach and bar - discerning tourists go to the places you mention but the mob prefers Torremolinos, Magaluf or San Arenal.......

May it ever stay so! It suits everybody.

[Trumpet_trousers]

The fact still remains - beach or no beach - that for an airport the size it is, and for a capital city of the second most populated area within Spain, the choice and variety of flights (not to mention the scheduling) falls way short of expectations.

[Mr A Tis]

Budapest, Prague, Venice. Munich, & Bilbao are not "mob", "beach" destinations, but served by UK LCCs. Seville, Jerez & Cadiz deserve better UK connections. Maybe an opportunity for Veuling, if the UKs not interested.

[radar707]

I think SVQ - BHX could be a profitable route for the likes of EZY or RYR.

BHX has a large catchment area and if the prices were right people would travel from MAN, LPL, LBA as well. Train station at the airport with regular services.

BHX is in dire need of new routes and SVQ is keen to develop new links with the UK outside of London.

I am biased though as I work in Seville and live near to BHX, travelling via AGP is a bit of a pain but quicker than via MAD and LHR.

[Heathrow Harry]

Mr A Tis - unfortunately relatively few Brits have any idea of the joys of Seville - the only thing they about is that the oranges in their supermarket seem to come from there.

Madrid, Barcelona & Bilbao are probably the only non-beach destinations known to the unwashed - and Deportivo because they have/had a decent football team. Some culture vultures also head for Granada & Cordoba but it's not a lot of bums on seats

Personally I think it's fantastic - and I'll put of with some inconvenient flights if it keeps the Hen & Stag weekend crowd away

[Phalconphixer]

Very slightly off thread, but BA are introducing a service LCY-GRX as of July 25, thereby reinstating a much needed GRX-UK service. The choice of London City Airport leaves me a little bemused however since LCY is essentially a businessman's airport and unless you actually live in London or South Essex a bit of a bitch to get to by public transport... Arrival at any London mainline rail terminal other than Liverpool Street involves at least two changes on the tube and Docklands Light Railway...

[FR8364]

This week I have been noticed about a Monarch Famtrip to Seville last year to show Monarch delegates the city and the region. Additionally in Routes Europe 2012 there were some meetings with Jet2.com to show the benefits of operating UK-SVQ flights. So as I can see, it is not a lack of interest from airport authorities, but from UK airlines (maybe becuse there is not a strong demand to justify direct flights unless RYR would put them).

Regards .-

[116d]

Mr A Tis - unfortunately relatively few Brits have any idea of the joys of Seville - the only thing they about is that the oranges in their supermarket seem to come from there.

Madrid, Barcelona & Bilbao are probably the only non-beach destinations known to the unwashed - and Deportivo because they have/had a decent football team. Some culture vultures also head for Granada & Cordoba but it's not a lot of bums on seats

Putting your derogatory comments about clientele aside, could it be that one reason why Seville remains generally undiscovered to many besides the more discerning traveller is the lack of marketing and promotion of the city from the local tourist board? I'm not doubting the fact that a lack of flights limits access, but you can hardly expect people to flock to Seville unless they know something about it (or anywhere for that matter).

[116d]

BHX has a large catchment area and if the prices were right people would travel from MAN, LPL, LBA as well.

I think it would be dependent on the lack of suitable alternatives at these three airports to attract those who would normally otherwise use these airports. In my case, the options would be from MAN or LPL. LBA is like BHX in that it's too far away to consider unless it's ridiculously cheaper to a point where there's savings to be made after air/road transport to/from BHX is accounted for or either of these 2 airports has a flight that LPL/MAN doesn't (e.g. we flew LBA-VCE with Jet2 way back in 2006 as the alternative was Ryanair LPL-TSF which actually worked out more expensive).

In any case, BHX already competes with MAN and LPL for the North Staffordshire/Cheshire/Derbyshire market.

[compton3bravo]

Quite agree with you Heathrow Harry about Seville etc. The area is fantastic but it is just not for the great unwashed of the UK and long may it remain so. It caters mainly for mainland Spanish, German and Scandinavians.

[pwalhx]

The area sounds interesting and worth a visit, shame I am one of the great unwashed so I had better stay away. By the way I thought it was El Arenal not San Arenal but I could be wrong.

Back on topic however, it is interesting that Monarch have done familiarisation trips, one would hope they would bring a better class of clientèle than Ryanair.

[Heathrow Harry]

it's not just Brits - mass tourism is a blight on a lot of places - the Spanish themselves aren't particularly wonderful in the area south of Valencia for example and anyone who has seen the howling mob departing Paris at the start of August will have a very good idea of what Gengiz Khan and friends looked like..........

[mevans_europe]

Hello, im from Warrington, UK. Im new to the forum.

I travel to Seville alot, as I have family living there. We used to use the Liverpool direct flight which was great. Perfect actually! However since that stopped it has been a real hassle flying to Malaga, Gibraltar and even taking the direct Ryanair flight from Stanstead.

Does anyone have any other others in this subject? I cannot beleive that such a major City has connection at all with the North of England, and that there are so many different flight options in London. I can honestly say every Liverpool flight I went on was packed. So I could never understand why it was axed in the first place and replaced by another provider.

Kind regards

[mevans_europe]

Hello are there any developments to this subject?

[FR8364]

mevans_europe,

Seville, capital of Andalusia, is the fourth biggest city in Spain. 2 millions inhabitants live in its metropolitan area. 4,2 millions people live within one hour and a half driving from Seville airport.

Seville is also the third most visited city in Spain (and growing!). Art, flamenco, gastronomy (tapas), nightlife, religious origins, and some famous sights (such as Giralda), attract over 2 millions visitors every year to the city (100.000 of them, from UK).

Currently, Ryanair and easyJet are the only operators which fly between Seville and United Kingdom. London is the only city served through Gatwick and Stansted airports. In summer season 2014, both airlines will offer 16 weekly frequencies (total) in these routes. In fact, SVQ-UK flights rarely depart less than 90% full. Fares are rarely low, and there are people who preffer to fly to London from FAO/AGP paying low fares, as Seville is becoming a kind of a 'VIP' service to fly directly, even with Ryanair!

For those who ask themselves why only London, in 2011 Ryanair expanded at Seville with new routes to East Midlands and London-Gatwick which were added to the existing ones of Bristol, Liverpool and London Stansted. The same year, easyJet announced its first route to Seville, from London Gatwick. Seville-UK market grew consequently. The market was suddenly overserved, and this had its consequences. Ryanair cancelled Bristol, Liverpool and East Midlands routes as Vueling did it with London-Heatrow. Seville is not Malaga or Alicante, and we cannot support 28 weekly frequencies to 6 destinations across UK. It was a madness!

However. load factors were never poors (this is according with Ryanair sources), but yields decrease too much, as the fares should be lower than expected for the plane to become fully booked.

The consequences two years later, is that we only have flights to London :(

Is Seville airport Marketing Team working for more Seville-UK connections? Yes, they are. But no low-cost ones. They do not want Ryanair to overserve the market again, and remove competitors from it. They are in talks with British Airways, which is interested to open SVQ-LON (LHR or LCY) in 2015. Even there are some conversations with Jet2.com, although I personally do not see this airline flying to Seville (too charter vacation-focused).

I only look forward to Ryanair for re-opening Seville-Northern England link in the coming seasons. It is the only airline which fits in this market, capable of operate it. In fact, the Irish carrier will (perhaps) base more aircrafts in Manchester base next summer, and some routes are expected to be announced soon. Hope Seville to be among them!

Seville sounded as Manchester's route when Ryanair opened its base in Ringway. Although they requested slots, the route was never announced.

Best Regards :)

PD: Is there any kind of Warringtonians colony in Seville? Among the few English I know living here, 3 of them are from Warrington! :P

[occasional]

FR8364,

I travel fairly frequently between Scotland and Spain and have often flown from Liverpool, but never from Manchester.

That should tell you something either about the ground transport links or the flight scheduling.

[wetlanding]

May be worth exploring a spainish airline to take this up with a smaller aircraft say Volotea with 717 they already fly contract into the UK and may be good for weekly services to BRS, SOU, LPL, BLK, BHX, GLA, EDI, NCL, HUY,NWI & SEN. all of these are in good catchment areas and with a smaller aircraft the yeilds could be better and load factors higher.

[TSR2]

That should tell you something either about the ground transport links or the flight scheduling.

No flights between Manchester and Seville.

[occasional]

No flights between Manchester and Seville.And I am suggesting that flights from Liverpool might be more useful than those from Manchester.

[mevans_europe]

FR8364 - Hola !!


Thanks for the update, and sorry I haven't replied. I didn't realise you had responded. Is their any update to a Seville service to the North of England? I have just returned from Seville via Stanstead, what a long trip!!


Re the Warrington colony, I am not aware of this? It would be good to see a few Warringtonians there etc. Cheers Mark

[mevans_europe]

I cannot believe that BA has announced a direct flight from Seville to Gatwick. Another London flight!! When will a direct flight resume back to the North of England? It doesn't make any sense at all?


Up until 3 years ago, the Liverpool - Seville flights were always full. It is ideal for a long weekend schedule. That means now; Ryanair, Easyjet and BA operate flights from London airports.

[MKY661]

Can maybe see Ryanair launching Manchester sometime :)

[mevans_europe]

I really hope so. Have you any news or rumours on this?