CO BF seats and EWR route
Thanks 2J&D and bristolflyer for information re seats.
I know people who have used the EWR route in BF and most have been very satisfied. Economy reports seem to vary and much appears to depend on the quality of the cabin crew on the day from what I've heard, though there are some who will always complain about flying the Atlantic in a narrow-bodied aircraft.
santito,
You mentioned the progress of the EWR route and my thoughts, based on publicly available figures and one or two other sources, are these. I don't claim infallibility and would be interested to learn anything that contradicts the below.
The CO EWR route will reach its 5th anniversary in May this year.
Total passenger numbers (to the nearest thousand) for each of the four complete calendar years of its operation are:
2006 84,000
2007 93,000
2008 90,000
2009 83,000
The first three months of 2009 showed poor figures but that can be explained at least in part by the teeth of the recession and fewer rotations, especially in January when some weeks saw only two or three.
The main summer months were surprisingly good with August 2009 seeing the highest monthly passenger figures since the route's inception – 9,622: 88.5% load factor.
From the middle of September the rotations were reduced to six per week from daily (no Wednesdays) and, perhaps perversely, that month saw the highest monthly load factor of the route's history at 91.5%.
November saw only 18 rotations, with the usual 5 x weekly reduced to two around Thanksgiving, so the 4,925 passenger figures meant a monthly load factor of 78%.
December saw a similar number of rotations with only two being flown in the period from just before Christmas to New Year's Eve resulting in a monthly load factor of around 81%.
Rotations were reduced to 4 x weekly for January and February 2010 (no Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays) and I believe that after a good start to January the remainder of the month and the first part of February saw disappointing loads, though the four days of the current long weekend seem to have done well on the outbound legs to Newark – no doubt the half-term effect.
Figures for January should be published this week.
I remember Paul Kehoe, during his short tenure as CEO of BRS, urging the business community to use the route or lose it. Obviously the recession hasn't helped but I still have the feeling that businesses in the area aren't supporting the route in the way many said they would when it was being touted – but that sort of thing is not specific to BRS.
I mention the usual caveat about loads not necessarily equating to good or bad yields.