Originally Posted by
Sotonsean
Regarding catchment areas, they are a bit of a fallacy at times. STN, for example, is exactly 123 miles from my drive and is doable in under 2 hours.
I think they're often misunderstood and the term is used very loosely. Look at Scotland, Ryanair used to serve the whole of Scotland from PIK so Inverness was in the catchment area as Scotrail ensured competitve pricing to PIK. Back then, only other FR options from Scotland were ABZ and EDI to DUB. Ryanair then moved all the European city routes to EDI and PIK's traffic collapsed, and as a result, Inverness was no longer in the catchment area for PIK. Same with Glasgow which was once Scotland's long haul gateway and now sits in EDI's catchment area. So it's not just a function of geography but of the services offered at each airport, which is why Birmingham sits easily in LHR's catchment area but doesn't really sit in STN's. For what STN offers, BHX can supply to some degree, for what LHR offers, BHX cannot begin to match.
Originally Posted by
Rutan16
Beyond London, Edinburgh will see Saudia at some point and Manchester has an additional Saturday rotation already. Birmingham will certainly go daily soon.
With Emirates returning soon and Qatar expanding, not sure Saudia have room as there's very little point to point between Edinburgh and Saudi Arabia, more so from Glasgow IMHO. If Etihad announce EDI next month I'd take it off the table for sure. That being said, if money's no object and it's a political scheme, like Qatar started off as (as did BOAC, not having a go), then who knows.