After trawling through the current schedules this evening. (Nothing better to do!) I have compiled, what I believe will be the schedules for the Gatwick based aircraft. These are shown in the table above.
If this is correct, then this shows that (initially at least) there will only be 2 aircraft that night-stop Monday thru Friday. With a third on Saturday and again 2 on Sunday.
AC1 seems fairly standard. The schedule shows that Gatwick based unit now operate the flights to Aalborg and Alesund, and these fit nicely into this unit. The AM Oslo service also fits nicely in this AC. M-F between the two Scandic routes, there is space for a new external route, and my belief shows the above. Rotating between Nice and Barcelona throughout the weekdays. Come the weekend, the unit flies a host of new routes, Dubrovnik, Split and Marseille on Saturday. With Palma, Nice and an extra Weekly frequency to Helsinki on Sunday.
AC2 is the second night stopping unit. M-F it flies an early morning Stockholm rotation. Once back, just after lunch, the unit flies to ARN once more where it looks like an aircraft change takes place. A different aircraft then returns from Stockholm in late afternoon, and this unit (AC3) goes on to operate a further ARN rotation on 12_45__. On the Wednesday, AC3 would then operate one of the new Tromso frequencies. Back to AC2, on the weekend, it would operate a Tromso and Faro rotation on the Saturday, with Aalborg, Barcelona and Stockholm on the Sunday.
As mentioned above, the schedules suggest only 2 night stopping aircraft, but also that three aircraft are required for most of the weekend. The schedules suggest that the third unit (AC3 once again) will arrive from Stockholm on the Saturday morning, and will operate to both Alicante and Stockholm that day. On the Sunday, the third unit will operate two return rotations to Stockholm after which, in the evening, it operates a third late evening flight to Stockholm where it remains for the night.
If that makes sense to you, well done! I think I lost myself in explanation. However. Regardless, in my opinion the new Gatwick base has been set up simply to serve Scandinavia. The Stockholm route is practically now operated by one of the Gatwick based units and if you factor in the other changes, ie frequency increases on Helsinki and Oslo, plus a new route to Tromso, then the schedule is left with a couple of holes. Like I said, in my opinion, rather than the aircraft sitting around idle at Gatwick why not make use of them on some bucket and spade routes. In the bigger picture, the base will make money as a whole thanks to the Scandic routes alone I believe. As mentioned also, there is the potential to "hub" passengers through Gatwick. In time, I suspect new routes to Scandic airports that cannot support a base to open, for example, Kristiansand. By having a base at Gatwick, the airline would be able to operate a weekly/twice weekly route to the airport in the future, which would be a great more deal sustainable than basing an aircraft at Kristiansand and trying to fill it daily to various other destinations.
Strayed slightly from the hubbing point however. It simply is not possible for NAX to operate Tromso to Tenerife for example. However, passengers now have the opportunity to fly that routing via Gatwick. Yes, they could choose to go via OSL or such, but LGW is a more direct route and would be quicker for the passengers.
Anyway, certainly is interesting news. Wish NAX every success. Believe they can do well.
8R