Primera
Well, well, well, that has to be the biggest non-surprise news. I agree with LAX-LHR, a total disaster from the word go, a huge back step for the airport and the death knell for scheduled TATL from BHX. IF they re-launch next year, who on earth will have any confidence to book with them? I'm not sure I would even book a short haul flight with them right now.
I predicted they wouldn't be back next summer but hoped they would drag themselves through this one.
BHX lies around 80-90 miles from LHR and MAN and it will be these airports that now serve the vast majority of Midlands demand for scheduled TATL flights, along with EI flights through DUB.
We will never know why UA and TS pulled out so closely together but it seems coincidental PF was announced just a few weeks later when these sorts of new route and airline negotiations take months if not years in some cases? Primera must have really talked the talk but sadly have barely walked. I should imagine there are some very worried faces in DH right now.
Thoughts must go to the flight, cabin crew and ground teams who were recruited on the basis of 2 x daily A321 TATL flights and now (I assume) are out of work? (If indeed they even started work?)
As for BHX, Jet2, TUI and TCX have breathed life into leisure short haul after the demise of ZB and our long standing legacy carriers appear to have solid operations. Going east, AI are a success story and both EK and QR are holding their own. TATL scheduled flights though are a thing of the past. Let's move on and forget this whole sorry episode.