Nightstop and related..
Belfast City x 4 daily first arrival 0820 LGW
Bergerac
Guernsey x 5 daily first arrival 0805 LGW
Inverness x 3 daily first arrival 0850 LGW
Isle of Man x 4 daily first arrival 0820 LGW
Jersey x 4 daily first arrival 0805 LGW
Newcastle x 3 daily first arrival 0755 LGW
Newquay x 3 daily first arrival 0825 LGW
Above is a typical Monday in Summer timetable for BE at LGW, 7 early morning arrivals. Each of these arrivals (slots) would require an aircraft overnighting outside of LGW. Unless the slots are used at base airports, can we expect:
(a) additional nightstops
(b) new base (s) being set up and
(c) that some of the existing routes will be maintained.
I have a strong feeling that IOM will reach a deal to secure an INV type arrangement, given that BE were the most frequency London service and it being an Island etc, the IOM gov will want retain it. Clearly GCI will be out, BHD unlikely to be picked up, JER well served by BA so not convinced this market would appeal to EZY, NCL has been canned from STN previously, cannot see EZY going after that, that leaves NQY as a potential, they may see 319 are too big to allot to an early morning slot. So my feeling is that they wont go for NQY.
On a final note BFS had daily night stop, coming in from LGW and doing an early departure from BFS when EI started ops on BFS LHR in winter 2007/8. That continued for 2 seasons until the BFS based machine operated.
Last edited by EI-BUD; 30th Jun 2013 at 08:14.