terrier
I presume the additional aircraft will fly three rotations during a day. Does this not point to perhaps one new route and extra frequencies on some existing ones?
As to the existing routes, it is difficult to see which ones could accommodate extra rotations. Not the Scottish routes surely, nor probably FRA and MUC. Although these last two have steadily improved their load factors over the last twelve months (yes, loads are only one part of the equation, I know, but the fares always seem pretty tasty so one would think the yields aren’t bad either) I wonder whether additional capacity is necessary. Aurigny and Air Southwest are running their JER rotations through the winter (slightly curtailed frequencies in Southwest's case) in competition with BACx so there doesn’t seem much scope for adding extra JER rotations.
That leaves CDG. A return to six rotations each weekday from the present five would return to the level seen when AF competed on the route. So that might be the one.
Milan has been talked about forever and might be tried at last.
I have two other suggestions. The first is Copenhagen. easyJet had built up the route to an average load of 110-120 and would doubtless have kept it going but for the Danish government’s cash grab on every passenger. I flew it in March and there seemed to be a number of regular business travellers – I spoke to one who confirmed it. It must be highly likely that the route would work, even with BACX’s higher fares and the Danish government’s insistence on a piece of the action.
The second is Cork. Aer Arann reduced their daily (except Sats) rotations to Tue Thur and Sun at the beginning of summer 2004. They have not reinstated the lost rotations in their winter schedule. I spoke to one of BRS’s senior route gurus at the time and he told me Arann blamed poor yields which he didn’t believe because the loads were good and the fares not cheap. He said BRS would be looking for another carrier if Arann did not restore the earlier schedule. They reduced their ORK-SOU rotations at the same time.
The real reason seems to be that the Irish government pays PSOs on routes out of the likes ofGalway and Waterford, and Arann obviously found this guaranteed income more to their liking. They were therefore in need of aircraft to service the PSO routes and BRS and SOU suffered.
CAA stats show the BRS-ORK route averaged 45 pax per load last month (it was a bit higher in the main summer months). 45 is 93% of the ATR 42 capacity which seems to be used more than the 72 on the route now, or at least each time I have been at the airport it was a 42. Brymon/BACX used to fly the ORK route from BRS. Perhaps they should look at it again.
BTW, how strong are the rumours about additional easyJet aircraft from next summer? Off the top of my head, I can't think where they might fly to.