Originally Posted by
Hotel Tango
Speaking of Eurowings, I was pleasantly surprised at the load on the lunch time DHC-8 BHX-DUS service last Thursday. 70 pax total. Having experienced relatively mediocre loads on their 3x weekday Airbus flights I was somewhat skeptical regarding their decision to introduce a 4th rotation. Of course it might have been something to do with the NEC and not a regular occurrence, I don't know. Many of the pax flew on to other destinations from DUS.
Cheers HT interesting comments and my first thought when it was announced was why? However as you have alluded to BHX is still affected by trade shows at the NEC and indeed FR Dublin, EI Dublin, Flybe Amsterdam, easyjet Belfast operate more frequencies than summer which for short-haul regional routes you would think would be unusual. However there is a chance of filling them during trade shows although outside of these events some loads can be horrendous but some haven't the luxury of Lufthansa or SAS where an A319 can be reasonably quickly upgraded to an A321.
I know the popular assumption is that BHX is a low-yielding, seasonal outbound market but it is not as straightforward as that and there is money to be made in winter even during school-term. BHX is not the lame-duck some allude to which is often fuelled by what seems to be the constant long-haul struggles.
On the subject of Dussledorf, ironically next week is the last week of the Eurowings extra Dash 8 service yet they have been given the early inbound market on a plate by Flybe moving their first inbound Dash 8 flight to Manchester and this should improve load factors at least on the first inbound Eurowings A319/A320.
Pete