Based IT aircraft at Humberside

[MD11FAN]

As the number of holiday flights offered at Humberside are rising year on year(30/week this Summer) I was wondering if there are any plans by Britannia/Mytravel/other to base an a/c at HUY? Anyone heard any rumours?

[transwede]

Judging by most of the flight timings, certainly in the near future most aircraft will 'W' through Humberside, like MYT and BY do now. Other flights will probably operate using foreign carriers from their respective hubs.

[MerchantVenturer]

Looking at flight timings this winter with Air 2000 from Exeter, I would presume an AMM a/c is to be based there. If so I would think this is the first time a major UK charter company has based an a/c at EXT.

As HUY is about the same size as EXT in pax terms (in fact perhaps a little larger), there must surely be hope for Humberside in the near future. Or am I being naive?

[Buster the Bear]

Airport needs to be open 24 hours a day to make it economical to base aircraft.

[MEFLYBE]

Actually, HUY handles a great deal more pax than Exeter, HUY is expected to go through the 550,000 mark for 2003.

IF an IT operator were to base an A/C at HUY, then the airport would extend its opening hours accordingly.

Humberside will in fact handle 35 IT flights per week next summer, as follows:

ALICANTE BY 752 TUE
ALICANTE MYT 752 SAT
ARRECIFE AEA 738 THU
BODRUM OHY M88 MON
BOURGAS BGH TU5/320 TUE
BOURGAS BGH TU5/320 SUN
CORFU BY 752 FRI
DALAMAN PGT 738 MON
DALAMAN OHY M88 MON
DALAMAN MYT 752 FRI
FARO LK 320/321 THU
FUERTEVENTURA IWD 320 WED
HERAKLION NDC M83 TUE
IBIZA AEA 738 FRI
IBIZA AEA 738 SAT
JERSEY VG F50 SAT
JERSEY VG F50 SAT
LARNACA XLA 738 WED
LARNACA HCY 738 WED
LAS PALMAS FUA 738 MON
MAHON JKK M83 WED
MAHON MYT 752 FRI
MALAGA FUA 738 SUN
PALMA AEA 738 MON
PALMA IWD 320 TUE
PALMA AEA 738 THU
PALMA AEA 738 FRI
PALMA AEA 738 FRI
PALMA AEA 738 SAT
PALMA AEA 738 SAT
PALMA JKK M83 SAT
PALMA BY 752 SUN
TENERIFE MYT 320 TUE
TENERIFE AEA 738 FRI
VARNA BGH TU5/320 SAT

On top of this KLM cityhopper will be operating a 3xdaily F70 and 1xdaily F50 service to Amsterdam.

Regards

Mike

[WHBM]

Any airline thinking of setting up a base in this market would currently be waiting to see what impact opening Finningley will have - for many of the potential Humberside users it will be a much more convenient location, and will draw business from Leeds/Bradford and East Midlands as well.

[MerchantVenturer]

MEFLYBE

HUY's size vis-a-vis EXT noted, albeit EXT will grow substantially next year with the arrival of Flybe's low cost operation setting up there.

Off topic, but the list of IT destinations from HUY shows that certain destinations must be more popular from some parts of the country than from others.

I note HUY has two flights to Bourgas and one to Varna each week. My local airport at BRS, which is heading for 4 million pax this year and over a hundred weekly IT flights, can only provide enough pax to Bulgaria for one weekly flight to Bourgas, and even that only runs from late July to early September.

There is in fact a weekly AMM flight scheduled to Varna next summer, but Bulgaria still forms a relatively small percentage of the west country IT market compared to other areas of the UK.

[WHBM]

Merchant Venturer:

Regarding the number of holiday charters from HUY (and EMA and LBA) to Bulgaria.

There is an old tradition of the Yorkshire coal miners (and presumably now their children) going to Bulgaria on holiday, dating from the old "we're all good worldwide socialists together" days. I bet Co-op Travel in Barnsley sold a lot of these once upon a time. I think we soft Bristolians might have different thoiughts on the standards of the Black Sea resorts at Bourgas and Varna, though!

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

That's undoubtedly right. In the old days, ie. in communist days, there were always more flights from northern cities to the Black Sea resorts than from southern cities, but they were more sold as cheap and cheerful holidays rather than for their dubious poilitical attractions. Surprised to find the disparity still exists though, and Varna is going up in the world too these days.

[MerchantVenturer]

WHBM and GCC

Thanks for that. Probably also explains why CWL has weekly summer flights to both Bourgas and Varna.

[WHBM]

Ms. WHBM comes from St Petersburg and makes the point that holiday flights from there to Bourgas/Varna are also well down on years past (although some Pulkovo Airlines Il-86s still plod down there). If you go to St Pete airport on a Saturday nowadays it is full of charters to the Greek islands, Turkey, Spain, etc.

It's a whole new world.

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

Sure, WHBM. Those with wealth now in Russia and former communist countries have the freedom to take their holidays in the Mediterranean, Western Europe or even further afield. This is not a negligible market either. Partly in response, some of the old 'eastern' resorts like Varna and Bourgas are trying to smarten up their act - they can still compete on price, and the climate is good, but they just don't have the 'cachet', I suppose.

[LGWAlan]

The thing with Bulgaria is that for years only Balkan really offered it with any success. For Summer '04, it seems that the bigger tour operators are now also offering it (the likes of Thomson, First Choice, Thomas Cook etc) - which will mean an increase in flights. I can't see a british airline offering VAR or BOJ from for example ABZ or HUY - but a based a/c should be OK from the likes of LGW or MAN. The reason is that Balkan are trying to do what the old Yugotours did before they went under and offer holiday flights from the smaller airports - while the bigger tour ops are offering flights from LGW/MAN etc. I suspect that you will find that the charter from the likes of ABZ and HUY are fully sold as Balkan Holiday with the bigger aiports having the likes of AMM or TCX operating the flights with each of the tour ops concerned having a part allocation on the flights.

The ski market is somewhat different though - with the biggies having offered Bulgaria for a while on UK aircraft (MON/BY/AMM/and even BA) to PDV and SOF.