A380
WATABENCH,
I saw the 380 pass almost over my house and slot into the landing queue. I posted on the Spectators Balcony that it would be delicious if some of the antis living under the flight path thought the 380 was actually going to land at BRS as it passed overhead, fearing it was some Machiavellian scheme hatched up by the airport as a regular route, although I have to say the aircraft was very quiet.
Flybe
Flybe, in its various incarnations, operated into BRS on scheduled routes for a number of years and by 2004 it had five routes from the airport – Belfast City, Bergerac, Bordeaux, Toulouse and Jersey. Incidentally, in summer 2004 BRS had four carriers on the JER route - Aurigny, Flybe, BACx and Air Southwest.
However, easyJet gradually began to compete on some of the Flybe routes and by the end of 2006 the airline had pulled them all except Jersey, presumably because it was unable to compete on the others. Its rival to Jersey was Air Southwest which it could apparently cope with. In fact ASW has reduced its own BRS-JER operation in the past year.
Flybe's decision now seems sensible because the other four routes are currently operated by easyJet or Ryanair.
In 2007 Flybe bought BAConnect that had eight routes from BRS and a five aircraft (ERJ145) base there. The routes were Frankfurt, Milan Malpensa, Zurich, Munich, Dusseldorf, Paris CDG, Edinburgh and Glasgow, the last two both 5 x daily in competition with easyJet's 3 x daily on both. Very quickly Flybe decided it would close the BRS base and axe all the former BACon routes.
I recently discovered a Competition Commission report on the internet relating to an enquiry into the effects of competition at BAA airports.
One of their case studies was a comparison of the airports of BRS, CWL and EXT to see how neighbouring airports under separate ownership affected competition. They took evidence from representatives of these airports and, amongst other things, the relationship of BRS with Flybe was highlighted.
The case study points out that by 2004 Exeter Airport was beginning to grow and BRS approached Flybe about moving its operations to Bristol, offering substantial inducements. Flybe declined, saying the advantage of keeping its home base at EXT was significant. Instead, the airline expanded its BRS operations (which brought routes to Bergerac, Toulouse and Bordeaux) but retained its EXT operations.
When it took over BACon in 2007 and decided to axe all the BACon BRS routes the airport tried to get them to stay but Flybe said they had better deals at Manchester and Birmingham airports.
The case study was told by BRS that they understood Flybe's 'strategic decision' but it was a surprise to them that Flybe had pulled off some key routes at BRS 'where they (Flybe) knew, and BA had admitted, they were making money'.
So it looks as though it is a strategic decision of Flybe to cut the ties with BRS, except for JER, even though some at least of the routes they inherited from BACon were making money, presumably on the basis that easyJet and/or Ryanair would trump anything significant they might come up with, as easyJet has done in the past.
Furthermore, the thought that some of their EXT routes might be diluted probably was a factor in virtually pulling out of BRS.
The case study is a fascinating document as it reveals some of the strategy behind the BRS management's method of attracting and keeping airlines.
It's the first time that I've seen the airport accept that 16% of its passenger numbers come from South Wales – the BRS master plan and other publications have usually put the figure between 10% and 12%.
The airport also says that with 'tweaking' the current facilities could handle 8mppa.
The link to the case study is here:
http://www.competition-commission.or...er_bristol.pdf
I am surprised that some of the content has been put into the public domain.