BOURNEMOUTH Airport is on the brink of something big

[eurostar builder]

Date Published: Thursday 10 July 2003

Airport `set to join the premier league'
by Jonathan Slater




HIGH HOPES: Opportunities at Bournemouth Airport are `massive', says the new sales manager


BOURNEMOUTH Airport is on the brink of something big - and it is only a matter of time before it soars into the premier league.

That is the view of the site's new sales and marketing manager, Spencer Brace, who says he was drawn to the role because of the huge potential ready to be tapped, both in terms of spruced-up facilities at the Hurn complex and the prospects for attracting a major low-cost airline.

And he believes the fiasco with Buzz earlier this year could benefit the airport in the long term, as it proved the local demand for cheap air travel to Europe definitely existed.

This year has seen a host of structural improvements to the airport terminal, including a new departure lounge and a bar/food village built on the old viewing area, which still looks out over the runway apron.

A total of 12 new check-in desks and baggage belts have been installed to speed up passenger service, featuring a state-of-the-art passport scanning device.

Further, an ATM cash machine should be in place later this month with new retail outlets expected to follow later in the year.

But the event the airport was gearing up to - the launch of European services by budget carrier Buzz - crashed spectacularly when Ryanair bought out its rival in February and scrapped the flights, to the dismay of those who had snapped up 55,000 tickets .

However, Mr Brace - who used to work for British Airways at Heathrow - said it was "only a matter of time" before another airline set up a base in Bournemouth and opened the passenger floodgates.

"Everything is in place now to handle much more activity - all we need are the people," he explained.

"This would be a prime location for a low-cost carrier, both in terms of facilities and its geography. We are a much more hassle-free airport than the big London ones, and in many respects easier to get to.

"What the Buzz episode did show is that there is a keen demand for cheap routes to Europe, and that people are prepared to travel a long way to fly from here.

"The opportunities for Bournemouth are massive, and I would say to people: watch this space."

[MerchantVenturer]

This man is the new sales and marketing manager so, to plagiarise the words of one of the female witnesses in a notorious 1960s criminal trial, he would say that.

I am not saying that BOH is not about to expand its services significantly, but 'premier league' - what he does he mean by this? That BOH will be up there alongside LHR and LGW?

Well up in Divison 2 perhaps, even looking at Division 1 in the fullness of time, but Premier League? That might well be a bit of spin, methinks.

[touch&go]

But there having a cash machine fitted:hmm:

[nick24]

You beat me to it, Touch & Go! That was my thought too - I wonder how many people use an airport just to withdraw cash? But don't forget the retail outlets too!

It is a brave investor who spends their money on facilities hoping that they will draw customers - in this case airlines - to help pay the bills.

[N14HK]

They did have a cash machine until ~6 months ago, then decided to get rid of it.

[Chillwinston]

What is the future of regional airports like Bournemouth, Teeside, Humberside and such like?

Knowing Humberside quite well (Not an expert so this thread may have some errors but i'm sure someone will correct me!)

Take Humberside, ok its a the base for Eastern Aw, has scheduled links to Amsterdam (Klmcityhopper, or whatever they are calling themselves now a days) and Aberdeen (Eastern), helicopter base (formerly Bond Helicopters) serving the Oil & Gas industry, small GA based aircraft, odd couple of flying schools and then theres the charter flights to the sunnier climates but is that sufficient to economically run a regional airport?

The Lo-co's I presume pay very little to regional airports and from what I have read the airports offer fees that are considerably lower than the norm, so very little profit there.

So I guess the airport concessions etc are the real money spinners, retailers charged the earth to service the masses flowing through the airport.

But take for example Humberside, they dont have a Lo-co operator using the airport so the flow of passengers is just for the miniscule regional services and seasonal charter flights, so how can money be invested in the airport when the profit generated must be small or run at a loss. The lack of investment then has a knock on effect by not attracting the Lo-co's and more regional services!

Would be intrested to know how owners of the regional airports in the same boat as HUY throughout the UK forsee the future.

[MerchantVenturer]

Now that flybe are setting up a sort of loco service at EXT (a smaller airport than HUY I believe in terms of current pax numbers) and bmibaby are soon to start at MME (a bit bigger than HUY), by my reckoning that only leaves NWI and HUY in England and Wales without a loco service - ignoring the tiny ones like Swansea, Carlisle, Staverton etc.

It cannot be too long surely before Buggins Turn ensures a loco presence at both NWI and HUY.

[ALLMCC]

i can't speak for regional airports in England & Wales - however, I do have reasonable knowledge of Belfast City - apart from Flybe (who seem unable at times to decide whether they are low cost or not) they have no budget operators and it certainly seems to have had no effect on their ability to grow - this is despite the fact that Belfast International have lost all mainline operations (apart from Eastern doing one daily sector to ABZ) and are now totally low cost with the resultant loss of revenue.

It seems that investment is the key factor here and recent purchasers of Belfast City, Ferrovial are doing just that having recently announced a substantial investment to resurface the runway (long overdue) with associated resurfacing/strenghtening of taxiways - BMI certainly seem to be happy following their move from Belfast Intl - the link to LHR is vital and is experiencing steady growth.

The message is regional airports will survive with proper investment from capable investors

[1261]

Aren't Humberside and Bournemouth owned by the same people (along with East Mids), i.e. Manchester Airport Group?

[surely not]

After heavy rain I hear that BOH has a swimming pool on the ramp with a shallow and deep end. Now that's premier league isn't it:O :O

[stevobeevo]

1261,

You're correct Humberside and Bournemouth are part of the Manchester Airports Group.

[Pontious]

BOURNEMOUTH Airport is on the brink of something big.

Yes. It's called the English Channel.

[Exel]

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.

[hanger35]

A new ATM machine - O'HARE BEWARE!

[Frankfurt_Cowboy]

Does anyone know if it's a LINK machine?

[nitro rig driver]

what airport facility's is he talking about-,,,,the modern hangers,catering and cargo handling ones
or 6 empty checking desks,i expect they are as busy as the no doubt empty ATM machine as well

[stevobeevo]

Once again a FlyBe 146 has had to call into BOH to fuel as due to the hot weather they couldn't leave SOU with a full payload. SOU must be run by Railtrack. Too hot, too cold, too wet.
Any excuse! :p

[donder10]

Agh,so the presence of FLYBE diversion might explain the quote.

[eurostar builder]

I have just seen out my window this evening another fly Be 146 is this another Southampton Diversion today on the 15/7/03 Or are we taking on a new route Southampton - Bournemouth.

[AhhhVC813]

Actually sb, it's called performance 'A', and has rather more to do with weight, altitude and temperature. In the eighties whilst operating from BOH, we were having to tech stop on the way to TFS from BOH in a 737-200 on just about every occasion. Why? Too far with too much payload off a (then) relatively short runway, and this was in the winter when temperatures are not a factor. It was programmed, of course, which I guess is not the case with whatever BE flights are diverting. I imagine that when BE/their pax get fed up with it happening, they'll either reduce the payload, (unlikely), schedule a stop, get aircraft which are not WAT limited off a short runway or move their operation somewhere else.

[Scottish Flyer]

Looking at the Ryanair Winter Timetable just out, it looks as though Bournemouth is going to lose the Frankfurt Hahn route as it does not seem to be included (unless it is still to be added). Dublin remains as a daily service but the Prestwick route runs daily except Saturday for the winter.

[The_Bean_Counter]

Ryanair to launch additional services to Bergerac or Bergamo this winter in response to Flybe at Southampton and step up Prestwick to 2 a day. Apparently MOL getting p**sed off with French saying he is the third biggest low cost in the UK and is going to teach him a lesson about the costs of Dash 8's v 737

[Powerjet1]

See Aurigny have applied for a licence on the BOH-JER route as well as JER-STN to complement their GCI operation. The latter will provide competition to Flybe who have just extended their seasonal summer ops on the LTN-JER route throuhgout the winter. Probably the nail in the coffin on that proposed route(LTN-JER) by Now

[stevobeevo]

The Bean Counter,

How did you find out this info??? Would be really nice if it happens. I'm sure that the FR schedules are not complete at the moment as it would make no sense to drop capacity on the PIK service as this is doing V. well. Loads of 90% and higher are the norm. The Hahn service struggles through the winter months and really only picks up May through October. Craft would be better used else where.

[The_Bean_Counter]

Give the reservations centre a call, it leaks like a colander. Hahn is gone for the winter it seems.

[fmgc]

Why does a 146 out of SOU need to tech stop at all. Surely the 146 was built to fly in and out of short fields, hot and high fields, and short, hot and high fields.

[HZ123]

It is very encouraging to see the vast increase in service from BOH and the many other regional airports. However, where are all the passebgers coming from to fill all these services from BOH/SOU. Do Palmair still operate ?

[eurostar builder]

Yes Palmair are Still operating with two 737 painted in their colours from European Airlines.

My question is Why Aurigny for Bournemouth - Do they see Le Cocqs a threat ? The Airline should have started this route many years ago when they first applied for the routes....

[stevobeevo]

HZ123

Ryanair at BOH say that they have passengers travelling from south and west London as its easier to get to BOH than Stansted and Luton. Journey times can be as little as 1hr 30mins even in heavy traffic. As long as theres no hold ups on that A31.

[HZ123]

Steevo; I concur that indeed you can get from these areas in 1.5 hours and no doubt pass thru the checks/ security etc in 30 minutes unlike LHR/LGW/STN. Though I am told there are not so many queues at LGW.

The future lies with much more work from the regions surely and the sooner the BAA monopoly is broken up and everyone is on an even playing field the better. I wish no harm to BAA but their continual juggling with monies for all their S/E airports to compete with the privates cannot be right.

If someone can comment I would like to know the views on SOU as they are managed by BAA, can this sit comfortably.

[Spirit of st. Louis]

It appears everyone is forgetting the carribean flights from bournemouth starting this autumn! (european).
Now, that is sure to fill up the terminal in a heartbeat.

They might even need a second ATM;)

[brabazon]

fmgc

The 146 may have been designed as a short-field aircraft, but its hot temperature and range performance is not good. The Avro RJX would have offered better performance for FlyBe, but unfortunately it was cancelled.

[Buster the Bear]

So as a BAA shareholder, one could ask, "Which UK airports are subsidising the BeFly Eastleigh operation?" For sure, they are!

Seen this occur, in an uneven battle between Beds and Essex in the early 90's. One airport propped up via X subsidies from another more profitable. Westprick is in a similar battle now to Hurn.

Now subsidies are disguised as regional development aid, then it is was blatant cash on the table, or so it seemed?

Good to see Gwyneth on the case now! Too late mate, though! X subsidies will now have to go to pay for T5

[eurostar builder]

The Cash Machine has now arrived at Bournemouth.....++++.....:ok:

[brabazon]

What's the temperature been like at SOU the last few days and how are the 146s coping now? Have there been many more tech stops?

[stevobeevo]

Flight BE1607 should now be displayed on SOU airport screens as Southampton-Bournemouth-Murcia. At least 3 this week have had to pop in and 1 last week. Maybe we'll get another visitor tonight. Lets hope the Sun keeps shining. Really showing up SOU weakness!:cool:

[Buster the Bear]

WOW, FlyBe certainly have a recipe for making money, or is a certain floated company, cross subsidising this from its other UK airports and paying for empty seats to be flown by certain other charter carriers 'cause the runway is toooooo short?

This weather is certainly toooooo hot for bears!

[Exel]

The Cash Machine has now arrived at Bournemouth.....++++........................................ ..........................

But are we going to get ripped off to the tune of £1.50 each time we use it...............if so they may as well take it away again........

[Tart with the cart]

LOL at the whole cash machine thing. :D

[eurostar builder]

New Ryanair route between Bournemouth and Spain
and double prestwick.


What a good summer.....:ok: :ok: :ok: :ok:

[AhhhVC813]

Buster, perhaps you could be slightly more specific. You are indicating who is subsidising what company?
Ignorance of aircraft performance seems to be endemic. You could not, after all get a fully laden Jumbo off Lutons runway. Too short then?? No, it was never designed to take such aircraft. The fact the 146 has problems when temps are high and fully laden from SOU is rather more indicative of the aircrafts performance than the runways. Other aircraft with better performance do not have a problem. Still, ignorance is bliss eh?