Been away for a while & certainly not much of any substance appears happening on this site the only relevant postings seem to be from a reasonably realistic current assessment of the current situation by "
Highwideandugly" & an informed comment by "
paarmo" which present relevant issues.
Unfortunately in absence of political intervention, the trend in decline (at least from a pax aspect) at DTV is likely to continue. The basic & obvious problem is that it's all about pax no.'s/footfall & whether the actual number of commercial movements at present is relevant when discussing pax no’s is debatable as most are simply low capacity "commuter" types.
Even KL is operating from the base level of it's fleet of ageing Fokker types. … perhaps one has to ask oneself why ?
I was passing through AMS recently around c.22.00 ie the time of last daily departures to North East. Flights to NCL & DTV were departing from adjacent gates, offering an opportunity to run a rough profile of the pax & no.'s. & though neither flight was full, circa 55 on the DTV & 85 on the NCL, the profile of the pax appeared remarkably similar.
So here is the question on the "chicken & egg" basis what comes first the pax demand or the aircraft type. KL operated new EMB's on the NCL for their lower demand sectors as opposed to the remains of their fleet of Fokkers offered on the DTV.
One can discuss the reasons at length, but I wonder as to how much longer KL is to retain these ageing Fokker workhorses & perhaps their eventual demise may not bode well for the future at DTV UNLESS progress is made on facilities & other routes.
To me "Friends of this or that" unfortunately offer no respite whatsoever & are no more than “spotters” looking to improve their access to hopefully better subject matter.
As to any group being able to coerce even a single additional individual that they should fly from DTV is also a dream. To effect this one has to be able to convey in a positive manner information that they are not aware, be it services or competitive fares.
With facilities that are becoming on a daily basis “less fit for purpose”, than those of their competitors then where to next ?
