Originally Posted by
simoncorbett
Great News that Easyjet are adding Naples, but I’m surprised this destination has been picked when there are so many more obvious destinations that could of been picked..... but still great news & hopefully more to come !
Ryanair and easyjet are quite similar at BHX picking not always what you think are the obvious routes (Easy GLA & EDI were obvious though) as Naples is operated by Jet2 twice a week and TUI three times.
Take Madrid for example unserved for years and an obvious one for the new Ryanair base when it opened but no, lets wait until Norwegian (March 2015) and Iberia (March 2016) operate the route and then go on it (April 16 and announced 2 months after IB in November 2015).
And in 2020 what will be getting...…...Ryanair only from July 2020 and at the moment a reduced frequency next winter to boot.
This route was never going to support three lo-cost carriers and I was never convinced about two and now indeed it will be one. I assume Iberia considered Air Nostrum and deemed not enough connecting and business traffic to make the 90-100 seater work.
January Stats
Sources: CAA for the passenger figures, FR24 for rotations and various sites for seating configs which does mean load factors should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Some load factors such as Madrid could be out due to holiday extras and Ryanair using different flight numbers to the normal schedule.
- I can't fit the 2019 load factors in to the screenshot but in general Flybe operated a smaller schedule such as EDI down from 354 sectors to 316, BHD 336 down to 316, Glasgow 274 from 307 and Aberdeen 112 from 132. This explains the fewer passengers although load factors have also decreased but without knowing what fares were charged from year to year it is difficult to analyse these any further and I know some will just blame the loss of confidence in booking but it is not across the board on all their routes. Belfast City is a signifcant difference but easyjet operated extra frequencies compared to 2019.
- Vienna improved significantly with Lauda on the route and the Austrain 195
- Long-haul is reasonable other than Air India which is disappointing, as it is still only six a week and apparently no let up with high load factors. Another route where yopu have to assume yields are not high as it would be at least daily.
Pete