Jongeman
I totally agree with your views. It is now a very late stage indeed that MME are coming back to the table seeking a Loco service provider.
The main issue is that no matter how attractive individual routes appear, they are not able to provide consistent and high levels of service on 'w' rotations alone. Basing of aircraft for most Loco's is only likely to lead to them competing against themselves at airports that are not too distant. This is not a good business model for them for any number of reasons and I would be extremely surprised if Jet2 were tempted, who are more likely to look to seize the oportunity to develop routes out of it's current bases.
As for GSM well I wouldn't get too excited as to their potential contribution in the short term. Although they have put their 'toe in the water' with the winter TFS, they already have extensive expansion plans for growth elsewhere, and presumably there has to be a limit to the rate they can sensibly expand ie sourcing aircraft for a start.
For my money, Peel seems to have a good realtionship with Thomsonfly at DSA & maybe they may take a chance on providing a based aircraft to promote and consolidate their Spanish business.
Finally it's clearly going to get tougher out there as the oportunists look to poach those displaced passengers as can be seen from this extract off NCL's website :-
'Newcastle International has five low-cost airlines providing services to and from 30 different destinations across Europe, providing the region with an extensive choice of low-cost routes. These destinations include all of those currently operated by bmibaby from Durham Tees Valley, which are Cork, Paris, London Gatwick, Alicante, Malaga and Palma'.
Going for the jugular or what ?
Last edited by skyman771; 14th Sep 2006 at 22:48.