DurhamTeesValleyAirport happenings

[mmeteesside]

No way! a 1x a day, departing at 1840 (Sun-Fri) compete with LHR??

mmeteesside

[nclairportfan]

Terrible timings really. You need at least 2 flights per day, at peak times to make it work as EZY did from NCL with BRS and BFS in the beginning.

[onion]

Yes the Gatwick is not ideally timed for the business travellers, but I think it is aimed more at a leisure market at the moment with the morning flight on a sat with the evening flight on a sun giving people the chance of an night in London. Also how many people will use the Heathrow to fly down and then use the later Gatwick flight to fly back from London?

NCL people remember that Stansted was originally only done once a day to start with with GO and now look at it.

Also if they do base a second aircraft at MME I think a second Gatwick will probably be on the cards.

Will the Heathrow stay at 3 flights this winter with the introduction of the Gatwick and if so the airport has actually lost 1 flight a day.

[mmeteesside]

I think the 4th daily last winter was only a slot-holder (maybe for the new Mumbai flights)

I really do hope the LGW grows into a good route, we could do with one in the morning not only for biz pax but also for long-haul connex (not that they through-check your bags), but if we had that you would need a lunchtime one as well (for returning long-haul pax)

mmeteesside

[roblondon70]

How long is left for MME-LHR? How come it has survived so long when so many other regional airports hve lost their LHR service over the years?

[onion]

roblondon are you going mad? If you are seriously asking that question why not ask the same about the LBA-LHR? This has more competion from the railways than the MME-LHR. Also bmi must be makin a fortune on the route when you consider a business class ticket is costing more return than say a flight to the USA. Ok there are probably routes out of LHR that bmi could make more money on, but with all the high profile politicians in the area bmi would face questions, these politicians include Milburn, Blair and Hague.

[roblondon70]

I would also ask it about the LBA service!! BHX, HUY, GCI, JER, INV, IOM, LPL, NQY, NWI, EMA and PLH have all gone so why not MME and LBA? Many of these have poorer surface links with London than Darlington or Leeds.

If SMB were ever to get his ambition to grow LHR long haul significantly the slots would have to come from somewhere. LBA and MME occupy some prime ones (esp am arrivals) so I would suggest they'd go pronto. By the time Mssrs Blair and Milburn realised this was happening it'd be a done deal. As for Hague, erm, who cares!!

[Mark Lewis]

Remember the bmi Business Class service has just been axed, further reducing the yields on these two "business" services.

[nclairportfan]

For your information and to add more fuel to the debate the April CAA Provisional Stats show:

NCL - CIA (EZY) 6315 pax - approx 105 pax per flight
Down from 7445 in March

NCL - BGY (FR) 6841 pax - approx 114 pax per flight
Up from 6716 in March

NCL - DUB (FR) 10746 pax - approx 89 pax per flight
Down from 11681 in March

MME - DUB (FR) 5519 pax - approx 92 pax per flight
Down from 6159 in March

MME - CIA (FR) 6025 pax - approx 100 pax per flight
Down from 6989 in March

[flyerz111]

Easter was in March so you would expect a surge and subsequent drop in April ....

[RobT100]

What about NCL - LHR too? I would look at binning that as leeds has more important connections with london than newcastle (finance).
Good train network operates from newcastle too. NCL getting a bit too big for its boots sometimes, they gotta remember they are only a small regional airport after all !

[nclairportfan]

Rob

My understanding is that NCL - LHR is very profitable. BA have 7 daily rotations. I would imagine it's mainly connecting traffic.

[GrahamK]

Good train network operates from newcastle too. NCL getting a bit too big for its boots sometimes, they gotta remember they are only a small regional airport after all !

Thats the kind of comment that I'd expect to see on that other site! So if NCL is a small regional airport, then what is Leeds/Bradford?

[Leodis]

so if NCL is a small regional airport then what is Leeds Bradford

.....which makes MME look like a tin pot grass field

[DC10FAN]

BA have only recently added a 7th flight on the NCL-LHR service so it is highly unlikely that the route would be dropped. Comparing the journey time with the train is not always relevant; if you are travelling point-to-point ie a day's business in London then the train is probably as quick for central London. But I suspect that >50% of passengers are connecting at LHR onto other flights hence BA gets revenue on 2 routes. Drop the route and what happens? You gain a few slots but lose alot of passengers who would move to the trains or KLM/AF feeder flights as an alternative.
I suspect that connecting passenger numbers will also increase on the BA service when LHR T5 opens; as the single terminal concept at AMS(much easier for connections) will have no advantage over BA's new single terminal operation.

[Leodis]

The top UK intercontinental

London Heathrow - Very large international/intercontinental
London Gatwick - Very large international/medium intercontinental
Manchester - Very large international/small intercontinental
Birmingham - Large international/very small intercontinental

The regionals

Newcastle - Very large domestic/international
Leeds Bradford - Medium to large domestic/international
Teeside - Small regional domestic/international
Doncaster - Very small international/intercontinental (2006)

[Andy_S]

.....which makes MME look like a tin pot grass field

Leodis,

Thank you for that very thoughtful and constructive comment.

Perhaps you could explain why Durham Tees Valley is deserving of such a dismissal? Having looked at the recent posts on this thread, none of the regular contributors on MME matters have passed judgement on your oh so beloved LBA, so I'm not sure what provoked this reaction. Do please enlighten us.

[Leodis]

Admittedly a little childish and I apologise.... but it was that very thoughtful and constructive comment by GrahamK.

[RobT100]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
so if NCL is a small regional airport then what is Leeds Bradford
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So what does that make DSA, a childrens toy garage.
Just for the sake of Graham K !

[Leodis]

If you poke I'll bite, back to topic MME