Unfortunately, the title 'Humberside Happenings' is more like 'Humberside, nothing is happening'
Humberside had a great portfolio of holiday routes this past summer, and it would seem that with the emergence of DSA on the local scene, it may well be the busiest year HUY ever has. Right back from the mid nineties, HUY has failed to attract any significant new operators, it has seemingly missed the low cost bandwagon, and is set for a life in the shadows of its neighbours LBA and DSA. DSA will handle more passengers in it's firts year of operations, than HUY ever has.
Humberside will keep the Aberdeen and Amsterdam routes, the KLM is always full. Eastern make good money on the ABZ.
Paris, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Esbjerg, Dublin, Belfast, London, Jersey, Edinburgh and Glasgow have all been tried in the past, and most were successful, however, HUY appears to have suffered from unsecure operators, and the HUY part of their operations, such as Gill, EuroDirect and Brymon played very little part in their future strategies or fates.
There is definitely a market for low cost flights from HUY. Before the advent of DSA, an airline could have easily operated something in the 100-150 seat category, successfully to the likes of Alicante, Malaga, Palma, Faro, Barcelona, Prague, Nice, Jersey, Dublin, Belfast, Amsterdam and Paris, with even a potential LGW link. Now however, the market has been even more segmented and anything more than 100 seats would be very ambitious. HUY has handled more pax than Exeter, Bournemouth, Inverness and Norwich for several years now, however, they were picked ahead of HUY for low cost expansion.
Time will tell, but with the axing of holiday flights from Humberside to Malaga, Fuerteventura, Corfu and Paphos in recent times, the future does not look as rosy as it once did.
I am hoping for a miracle, but in the real world, they just don't happen!
Regards
Mike