European to start BOH low-cost airline?

[bmibaby.com]

I know that this has probably been bought up on the board before, but I am not clear as to the current position of European.

I knew about there small and short lived FlyEuropean brand that flew BAC-1-11s around Sweden, but I have heard rumours of FlyEuropean being relaunched with three Boeing 737 Classic aircraft to a range of both domestic and international destinations from Bournemouth.

Have you heard anything?

[bearkeeper]

bmibaby.com,

If you refer to the thread "European to re-equip ?" there is a rumour that EAC are to replace their old B737-200's with "Classic" -300's during 2003/2004. How true this is, I am sure will be revealed during the next few months !!

What is more certain however, is that BOH is ripe for a low-cost airline. The advanced bookings with Buzz (prior to the Ryanair take-over) proved that there was a vast market to be tapped. True, Ryanair have added new routes (since then) and have intimated that more are to follow, but it still seems to leave the door wide open for somebody else to pick up the ball.

Will this be European/Palmair, Jet2, Ryanair or someone else ?
Anyone care to guess !!!

[surely not]

I'd have thought that FlyBe might have put the kybosh on any more south coast low cost.
SOU has a far superior catchment area and can cope with 737/A320 a/c easily if anyone else wanted to give it a go.

[GroupCaptain]

surely not:

I suspect the cost at SOU might be a lot more than BOH; this is a considerable factor for a true low cost airline.

[bearkeeper]

BOH vs SOU

There is no argument that SOU has a large catchment area and a very good Terminal facility. However, it also has a restrictive runway length that is not easily extendable - M27 at one end and a railway line at the other.

BOH, on the other hand, has a runway that will accommodate up to B747's, etc. Granted, the Terminal Building is well overdue for replacement, although recent expenditure by BIA has certainly improved the existing facilities. It also has a very large catchment area, some of it shared with SOU.

During the late 1990's, Euroscot Express operated a BAC1-11 (leased from European) on BOH-GLA / BOH-EDI routes, based upon a low-cost philosiphy. At the time, they were selling seats for sub-£100 (return) compared with BA flights from SOU which were in excess 0f £300. There pax load factors were, I believe, quite good (encroaching on some of SOU's pax traffic) until they swapped from the BAC1-11 to an ATR-72. This happened to be around the same time that BA replaced the J31/J41, on the said routes, with the EMB-145 !! Good timing, eh !!!

Buzz (prior to the take-over by RYR) had concluded that BOH represented the best opportunity on the South-Coast of England for a low-cost operator. Why shouldn't another low-cost airline come to the same conclusion ?

Don't rule out BOH, it has a great future. It just needs somebody to commit in the way that Buzz originally did. As I have said before, this could be European/Palmair, Jet2, Ryanair or someone else.

Flybe may be starting to rule the roost at SOU, but who will provide the needed competition at BOH ? Let's just see what develops during the coming months.

[GroupCaptain]

bearkeeper:

The BOH terminal is fine for low cost - don't fall into the trap of thinking that low cost pax need high cost facilities - they don't; make it clean and comfortable and they'll use it. BOH has potential without needing terminal replacement.

[eurostar builder]

During last weekend there was a Flybe 146 had to divert to bournemouth for fuel as it could not take from Southampton for spain with the full fuel load due to the high temperature.

[bmibaby.com]

Personally, I think that it would make a lot of sense for Bath Travel as the owners of Palmair European and EuroAv to launch a low-cost airline in a similar way as MyTravelLite.

The saying goes if you cant beat em join em and it seems to be the best idea because there is no large scale low-cost airline there now and it would allow Bath Travel to compete across more markets of the travel industry, IT market, package holidays and now city breaks and business passengers.

Although, I think that if the group were to launch an airline it would have to be with newer aircraft.
Whilst PALMAIR do well in passengers opinions, surely they do not want to fly on an elderly Boeing 737-200 all the way to Greece with NO inflight entertainment compared to maybe a Britannia 757 with IFE etc.

I think that the group would do well with a new fleet of Boeings or Airbuses.

And what would the new airline be called?
flyEuropean, jetEuropean, EuroConnect, Eurohopper, EuroLite?

[Exel]

I posted this on another thread re : BOH Airport Expansion.......they seem to overlap so i've copied it here as well.


'Does the "NEW GUY" know something about the persistent rumours of JET2 / Channel Express opening up a new base here perhaps ?

Channel Express recently purchased (6 ??) further B737-300 series aircraft (the first of which arrived from AUS today 12/07). At least one of these (6??) will be a QC, therefore pax by day / freight by night ???? Sounds pretty logical to me.

The rumours are that 3 aircraft will go to Leeds and the remaining 3 to operate for Jet 2 from BOH ???????????.....(Anyone care to start a new THread on the subject)

But don't hold ya breath as BOH marketing dept. have a track record of promising the earth, yet failing to deliver. Let's wait-n-see just what happens shall we.'