Just thought I would add my pennies worth with regard to the NCL knockers.
The airline business is not all about numbers of passengers it is about seat factor and yield. Just because the passenger numbers could be high does not mean that an airline will make money if it cannot get a yield and seat factor which cover its costs. It has to get the right mix of seat factor and yield for it to work.
We are in the middle of the worst recession that the airline and airport industry has ever had to deal with – Newcastle’s passenger figure declines are quite respectable in this context – yes routes have been lost and frequencies reduced but this is a result of necessary action by the airlines. Many of them fighting for their survival.
The statistics for the CAA will become available for July and it will be interesting to see how Newcastle compares with other UK airports. In June Newcastle was -9.3%. Belfast International was -14.6%, Blackpool -23.1%, Bournemouth -11.2%, Bristol -11.6%, Cardiff -17.7%, Durham Tees Valley -58.2%, East Midlands -16.4%, Exeter 19.5%, Humberside -32.2%, Leeds/Bradford -10.9%, Liverpool -12.5%, London City -14.3%, Luton -9.7%, Manchester -13.1%, Newquay -18.1%, Norwich -24.0%, Prestwick -26.3%, Stansted -11.5%. A number of these airports enjoy a significant Ryanair presence but are nursing bigger losses than Newcastle. Does that not tell you something? Yes, Leeds/Bradford now has a two aircraft Ryanair base and is claiming this will add 1,000,000 passengers a year to Leeds’s numbers. Well, in the short term it might be able to do that but long term? No way. The UK low cost market is over saturated with capacity and all that the Leeds Ryanair base will do is move passengers around – they will gain some from jet2.com and Manchester and other airports but these will not be new passengers they will be existing passengers and that will mean other airlines will have to cut back to bring supply and demand back into balance – see point above. Winter 2010-11 will see Ryanair operating to the Canaries from Leeds/Bradford – that will not be a positive thing for jet2.com and Thomas Cook, that’s for sure, as all that capacity will be unsustainable long term.
Suggesting that the current CEO is not up to scratch is so far off the mark as to be laughable. Did the previous CEO deliver Dubai? He may have been CEO and he may have been present at the odd meeting or two but the current CEO and his team worked far harder on it, have no doubt about that. Who secured the only additional based aircraft from Thomas Cook this summer? The current CEO and his team. Which airport is campaigning the hardest on the issue of APD increases? – the doubling of which in November 2007 had a disastrous effect upon demand from Newcastle and caused easyjet to cut its capacity? The current CEO and his team.
The airport has been successful in attracting a wide spread of carriers and while the route network is not as wide as anyone would like it to be, it is not for want of trying by the airport. However, they are at the hands of airlines who have the most moveable asset in the world and they will only deploy these resources at Newcastle if that will provide the best return for them. If all the people of the North East want are bucket and spade routes then that is what will be provided. If they want to soak up the cultural experiences that Europe has to offer then that will strengthen the case for routes to major European cities as will a strong desire for travel inbound to the North East but why should someone travel to Newcastle from Europe if they can visit a number of other cities which offer a far richer experience for them? Hannover by the way has worked because of British Forces traffic underpinning the route.
The delay in the CAA figures being available could be down to it being the holiday period. Describing their absence as ‘shoddy work’ is incorrect. Wiktionary gives the following definition for shoddy: exhibiting poor quality, workmanship, design, or construction. Rather than criticise the airport for their absence it might be better to reflect on Newcastle being an airport which is doing its best to provide the North East of England with a sustainable range of services given the region never gets dealt a hand full of aces. If you are picking at the ‘routes tree’ the lowest hanging fruit rarely has Newcastle on it and even more rarely has Durham Tees Valley on it. It does though have an amazing number of scheduled airlines for an airport of its size in the UK