Now is definitely not the time for the marketing
PR team to take a break! They need to be working overtime to bring in a scheduled carrier who will fly from the airport all year round!!! You can't spend 45 million on an airport then have virtually no passengers for 5 months!!!
I would definitely agree that Jet 2 are a possibility with 2 x 737-300s based at the airport. In fact either Jet 2 or Monarch working alongside Bath Travel would be a very workable way forward for the airport in my view. But, there is still one major stumbling block which makes this currently impossible!
R Y A N A I R!!! You can't have an airline hold an airport to ransom every year!
Somebody at MAG has got to make a big call and either sling O'Leary into touch or accept that in future he might continue to pull his routes for up to five months of the year. I couldn't run a business which is supposed to support the local community all year round with an airline that does this!
It might take a brave move by Bournemouth Council to buy the airport back from MAG who are not surprisingly more focused on Manchester, East Midlands and Stansted than a tiny regional airport in Bournemouth! FACT!
Those three airports generate 50 million passengers for MAG!
And on a final note - today - Wednesday 7th November there is one arrival - yes just O N E arrival into Bournemouth! A Thomson 737 at 2100. The multi million pound terminal will stand empty all day with hundreds of staff required to man the shops, security, customs, handling agents, cleaners, etc.
This can't go on all winter and every winter!
The council in Bournemouth need to stop focusing / investing in follies such as the IMAX / SURF REEF disasters and start concentrating on their real assets that support the whole community!
GROUNDLOOP - Jet 2 to Belfast isn't what we are talking about here is it!!!