Originally Posted by
Husky One
No matter how much pontificating goes on here, EI made a mess of LGW. I travelled on it many times and it was never full. Long haul crews were using it as the bus to work for that very reason.
With respect to capacity 'restriction', I would define that as a deliberate reduction in services to maximise yield. That is not what easyJet were doing over the last few winters. if it's cheaper to park them up than fly them then they get parked up. Every airline does it. Jet2 are masters of it in BFS. Ryanair have mastered it everywhere else. Airlines exist only to make money and you can't blame them for that. I fail to see how easyJet are somehow a culprit hampering BFS growth by electing to reduce services in winter. Recent capacity 'increases' are purely the result of a larger aircraft on some rotations. Ironically the domestic schedule is better in winter than summer due to availability of airframes. Unfortunately only one of the 5 based airframes is a 320. I do agree however that the summer schedule over the last couple of years has been poor at weekends. That is clearly the result of sending the aircraft on longer holiday routes but you'd think by some of the attitudes around that easyJet should just exist to do the bidding of BFS. There's a bit of a shock in store if you think Ryanair are any different.
West Brit - the KRK route is always full so it's highly unlikely to be dropped although I believe the onboard spend figures are low. When EI arrived at BFS years ago they took on easyJet on head to head and got flattened. I recall taking an EI flight to AMS with 6 people on it. They eventually reduced the direct competition and found some success. I can see a similar scenario developing but the winner is less certain. Having all 3 locos pounding AGP may well work in July and August but is unlikely to be sustainable outside peak season.
Think I'll start hiring out motability scooters in Spain this winter!!!!