Leeds Bradford transatlantic flights ‘next year’
What utter ??????? don't get me wrong i would love to see LBA having US flights but it wont happen.
LBA is probably not far of its peak pax numbers now, it has talked about 3m+ for at least the last 8 years but never got there,
Why long haul wont happen
First off fuel is on its way back North ($60 dpb) the goverment increase in air passenger duty will kill any shopping trips to NY and the exchange rate will seal it, last March the $ was 2 to the pound its now $1.4 to the pound! i did 4 US trips last year and have yet to do 1 this year.
The we are like BRS is rubbish, Bristol can count the South West, South Wales, East as far as Newbury and North as far as Gloucester as its catchment area, that is a foot print that would cover Liverpool to Hull and EMA to NCL, perhaps not as many people, but with only Exeter and CWL to compete with, not EMA,HUY,DSA,MME(OK NOT MME!!)NCL,MAN&LPL
Its all well and good to be loud and proud of being a Tyke but lets not the rest of the UK have it confirmed that we are thick of head as well!!!
I would have thought by now that most people would have woken up to what face's the UK over the next 5 years who ever gets elected next year, it is going to mean spending cuts and taxes rises with little or nil earning growth, probably followed by inflation and rises in interest rates to fight it.
Look at most of the UK loco plans for winter 09, many are planning to fly less than this winter past, the green shoots in the North are going to be the grass growing on the regional airports runways.
The JET2 NY shopping trips served a purpose but did not make any money and are not likely to be repeated, a Connie 757 will not make the US off R32 non stop on 9 out of 10 days and wont autoland on 32.
Leeds has a good future but not for this sort of bollocks, it needs another Loco in Globespan, baby, Ryanair or better still Easy, failing that Wizz or Sky Europe if they are still going