BRISTOL - 4

[MerchantVenturer]

Loads tended to be the lowest of the CO EWR routes from the UK, especially in the winter and to be honest the decision hasn't surprised me.

In fact, I'm surprised the route lasted so long. I didn't want to say as much on this public message board but I have been expressing my concerns in PMs to one or two people for a long time.

The herculean efforts of the airport and indeed the airline to promote all sorts of initiatives in the past year or so also gave a clue that the route was in need of a big boost.

Obviously yields are the important thing and there were rumours that the airport had given CO exceptionally good terms but even that, if true, has not worked in the end.

Probably the bottom line is that Bristol is rather too close to London (I know Birmingham is a similar distance from the capital but the West Midlands has a much larger population) with its huge choice of transatlantic routes, and also the failure of business people to use the route in sufficient numbers.

Paul Kehoe warned of this during his short tenure as CEO at BRS.

This will now play hugely into the hands of SBAE and its fellow travellers. They made a great fuss when the FRA route was axed last year.

It is a great shame. It was fun while it lasted. The airport says it will be looking for a replacement carrier - of course it has to - but it won't be easy.

I feel very sorry for those who worked so hard to get the route in the first place and I am sure they will try to find another carrier. If they do they will really have earned their corn.

Addendum

The official reasons given are the forthcoming rise in APD, the weakness of the pound and the recession.

The other thing that might have a bearing is CO's increasing its rotations from LHR from 3 daily to 5 daily later this year. When the CO to BRS started CO had no LHR routes and the London gateway was Gatwick.