Thomson long haul
The news today has received limited coverage in the local media. The regional ITV early evening news did cover it (with an inevitable interview with Simon Calder who seemed very underwhelmed about it all) but the BBC main regional tv bulletin didn’t even mention the news.
G-TUIB landed on 27 and used the full length parallel taxiway to the western apron which at least confirmed that it can use this taxiway, something that originally was thought not possible because it was said the wings would overhang a perimeter fence next to a public road immediately outside the airport boundary. The airport master plan spoke of constructing a turning circle to overcome the difficulty.
I’ve not read any confirmation today that the 787 will be able to fly non-stop to Cancun (it may have been said and I missed it of course). If it can’t then the economic dynamic of using BRS must be considerable as the CWL runway presumably could accommodate a non-stop service.
Another interesting point concerns possible APD devolution to Wales. Thomson can’t know the government’s intentions so they must have decided that if the tax is devolved they can live with a more favourable APD regime in Wales or they can’t and will switch the flights to CWL in a year or two.
If the latter were to occur it would give the BRS owners primary evidence that the more favourable tax conditions had caused market distortion and affected competition and might be significant if they decided to challenge APD devolution in the European Court of Justice. That’s assuming the UK doesn’t vote to leave the EU in which case the UK government could adopt, if it wished, a more imaginative method of mitigating the effects in England of APD devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as it would no longer be bound by EU competition rules or EU state aid rules which must meet the ‘Azores criteria’.