I am 'just a passenger', as the PPRuNe survey pigeon-holes us so I know my place; neither have I ever worked in the aviation industry.
However, I do wonder what a hot rumour is. Who is telling whom? Is the rumour being spread amongst airline professionals, travel writers, city people or within the airline? The airline has apparently not denied it. Has the rumour been put to them for comment? If so, by whom? And if they did deny it would not that in a sense fuel the flames - like the football chairman having every confidence in his manager then sacking him the next day?
On another forum within PPRuNe a number of Welsh supporters quite understandably are becoming annoyed at what they see as unwarranted sniping at Welsh aviation in general and at certain airlines and airports within the Principality in particular.
Well, if BRS was in Wales and it is pretty close, I think their dudgeon would be in overdrive by now.
Within the last three months I have read 'strong rumours' in PPRuNe that BA Citiexpress is to close its BRS base, that there is a massive capacity cut in MYT charters out of BRS this summer including the removal of one based aircraft, and now this.
The MYT nonsense was easily disproved because it has not happened and we are well into the summer period. Flights are continuing and the two based aircraft are in place. What did happen was that in May one of the aircraft was not available and its flights that month were undertaken by a number of other, mainly foreign-based airlines.
When the BA Citiexpress rumour surfaced I asked the main spreader within these forums for further information but he/she has never replied. I imagine it was based on an assumption that because BA had closed several bases and BRS is one of the few remaining, it might be on a hit list.
And now this easyJet thing. The thread originator has not amplified his post, therefore a 'punter' such as me can have no way of measuring the worth of his ‘information’. I note that his profile describes him as a 737 pilot. Is he an easyJet pilot? If so, one might wonder if there is some substance. But then I don’t know how often ‘hot rumours’ run through airlines and how often they turn out to be true.
As for U2s prices I have flown BRS-GLA-BRS and BRS-EDI-BRS in the last few months, both times at £25 all in. I am flying BRS-NCL-BRS in September for £15 all in (booked at a time that easy was paying the UK tax) – that is if these bases are still in existence by then!
During the past couple of days I have found BRS-EDI-BRS available at £35.98 on many dates in the autumn, and ‘return flights’ BRS to such places as Prague, the Spanish Costas and Majorca at under £100 all in (about half that for Prague on some dates I looked at). My experience with easyJet is that if you can book well in advance and can be flexible with dates there are some tremendous bargains to be had.