Originally Posted by
Letsflycwl
Be interesting to see EZY reaction I guess, they’ve more of less saved BRS and made it what it is today, so imagine they will not be impressed at all. First FR and now Jet2...... would be amazing to see some “W” patterns through CWL to test the water as a result of this and to threaten BRS after all they’ve invested and done for BRS.
Makes it sound as if easyJet is some sort of charity that turned up at BRS for purely altruistic reasons and has now been spurned by an ungrateful supplicant. The reason easyJet has grown so much at BRS over most of this century is that it makes money there. Were that not the case it would not have stayed. A recent aviation analyst’s report concluded that BRS is one of the airline’s most profitable bases. The easyJet presence is mutually beneficial as the airport is very profitable for its owners, pandemic effects excepted.
That’s why airlines like easyJet, Ryanair, TUI and now Jet2 are prepared to operate a significant presence at a small airport site perched on top of a mist-laden hill, with a ski-jump size runway, poor surface connectivity in the middle of a Green Belt. Jet2 is partly a replacement for the former three-aircraft Thomas Cook operation anyway. TCX’s programme was never fully replaced by other airlines, especially its Greek and Turkish programme.
As for easyJet saving BRS - it has certainly paid a major part in the airport's growth - but it had already been saved by the time GoFly (soon to be acquired by easyJet) arrived in 2001. The real saviour was a a charismatic individual called Les Wilson who was appointed MD in 1980 at a time when the city council-owned airport was a loss-making, economic basket case supported by the long-suffering Bristol rate payers, of whom I was one. There were periodic local demands for its closure in the 1960s and 1970s. Les, whose arrival might well have been the last throw of the dice, recognised the potential of the catchment, as incidentally did Barbara Cassani (Go’s CEO) and her team twenty years later, and set about turning around the airport’s fortunes. Tragically he was killed in a motoring accident in 1995. By 2000 the airport had been growing steadily for many years and passed the 2 mppa barrier that year with its only low-cost carrier being Ryanair to Dublin, that also operated a CWL-DUB service then.
There should be no problem with aircraft parking at BRS next year. Five new stands have been built in the last few years, with more to come if the airport’s planning appeal is successful. Furthermore, the previously-based three Thomas Cook and five/six flybmi aircraft are now out of the picture, albeit larger aircraft could not use all the stands occupied by the small flybmi Embraers.
BRS’s real problem will arise if it loses its planning appeal and is stuck with a 10 mppa cap indefinitely. Had the pandemic not intervened the BRS management was projecting the 10 million annual cap being reached by the end of 2021 - it had reached a 12-month rolling total of nearly 9.2 million in February this year before the virus made its presence felt.
Perversely the pandemic might have helped BRS in the sense that it now has more time to ride out the appeal procedure, which could take a while, without the possibility of having to turn away business because its annual passenger cap had been reached.
Ryanair and TUI began some expansion at CWL (and at EXT) pre-pandemic and but for the emergency that might well have continued. It still might once aviation begins to get back to normal, or even sooner if the Jet2 arrival really does lead to some adjustment in travel patterns across Severnside. In any case if BRS is permanently capped at its current level an entirely new scenario will emerge in the South Wales/South West England aviation sector within the next few years. The Welsh Government and its airport company will certainly be watching with great interest - they both formally objected to the BRS planning application that was rejected by the local authority early this year.