Eujet cease operations/Manston(Merged)

[The Real Slim Shady]

Time out chaps!!!!

Now before anyone has a go at anyone, PJ or Stuart or anybody else involved in EUjet, let's get things in to perspective....airlines come....airlines go.

Examine, if you will, certain facts: I realise that this is distasteful here, but it does stop the character assasinations etc.

PJ is a businessman: he is not the head of a charity. He sold the business he had founded, EUjet, to Planestation. Ergo, it is down to PTG, not PJ.

If PTG thought,or believed, that Stuart was the man for the job, take it up with them, not PJ. Anyone can spend £35 mill in a year in the airline businees; Stuart's record doesn't even come close to the US majors.

I hasten to add that I am not PJ's greatest fan: it is my opinion that he sticks his head up his ass and surrounds himself with butt kissing acolytes who shield him from the realities of life, won't listen to the harsh truth, but hey, he own's the company, that is his call.

So, in summary, get off PJ's back; he sold the company to a mug, or a bunch of mugs. That is business. Harsh, but c'est la vie.

The writing was on the wall.....and in the email...12 months ago.

[thgilf]

THIS SHOULD PRICK UP SOME EARS

I am an employee of KIA and I knew from day one when Plane station (Wiggins) bought into EU Jet, that was the end.
There is no other airport that owns its own airline (that is not how airports make there money)
There are several parts of this thread that I disagree with.
1 PJ's statement that it was KIA's fault that operations ceased, well PJ must have some sort of sort term memory loss, as it was Plane station (Wiggins) that saved them after one month and has kept them going for this lenght of time, so really it is thanks to EU that after many years employed at Manston I have lost everything ( I am just wondering whether PJ is wondering where the hell he will find the money to buy his kids a loaf of bread as I am). He was also blameing the fact that 1 plane was out of action for the summer months (well he must have ordered it not Planestation (Wigins) Come on PJ it is about time you started accounting for your own actions.
2 Martin May (the big whizz kid) yeah right, I attendented sevral staff briefings from this man and I thought then we are in real trouble with this idiot at the helm, he is a top notch accountant but if you have no money what is ther to count ??? was he drawing a wage I am wondering.
Let me pose a question if no other airport in the world owned it,s own airline why should Manston,??????
There were lots of domestic routes flying with 20 or 30 pax per flight twice a day, yet all the international flights ie: spain france portugal were flying at almost max capasity, which to a untrained eye would show what route EU should have been flying but not so many times per week or day on some routes (it is not rocket science), also I wonder whether Martin May was aware of what was going on as he cleared his office out and dissapeared on the 21st July 05. (Spineless wonder), as usual our boss Mr A Robinson was left to pick up the pieces.
3 Manston is not in the wrong place ..... for the right flights.... it is in the wrong place for domestic and business flights twice a day, holiday flight have proved different, they were booked full and thanks to the Mc Gold Trick, Manston has lost a lot of good will and trust, every one employed there gave passion, time, devotion, and a lot of very hard work against all odds to make sure that customers had the very best service through Manston and on that note there were no complaints, all complaints recieved were EU Jet based and not KIA.
I am now hopeing that I genuine buyer is now intersted in Manston it does have a very succesfull future both as a passenger and cargo airport (closest to europe and with a deep water port and most up to date B.I.P. in europe) with a company that does give a damm, Wiggins were a bunch of idiots who used Manston to line a lot of pockets, EU was the last nail in the coffin.So heres hoping..............
4 Stuart Mc Goldrick well what can I say,,,, a puppet on a string caught up in all of this.
As it stands now I am set to loose everything I have worked for over the years, I loved working at Manston and was hoping to be part of it's development, thanks to two very clever, and now very rich people we are now back at square one.
But we will succeed the staff have the devotion and we will make this airport sucsess again.
When MK were here we were loosing 4 million a year whiz kid Martin May took over then we were loosing 2 million a month, surley this man must be now unemployable (and rich)
Love to hear thoughts from other employees

[Devonair]

My heart goes out to you guys in Kent. I must admit many of the EU Jet routes seemed most bizarre when they announced them last year! Just one point though:

"There is no other airport that owns its own airline"

Sutton Harbour Holdings owners of Plymouth City Airport, also own Air Southwest.

Good luck with everything at MSE hope this is just a 'blip'. When BA announced they were pulling out of PLH there was talk of it closing. OK its only a tiny city airport but it just had its busiest year on record. The best thing to happen to PLH in my opinion was BA pulling out.

[wakehead]

Writing on the wall etc

I was going to remain silent in this whole matter, but I just need a quick gripe.

I used to fly for Eujet and thankfully am now with a major. However loads of my mates who are now going through their 3 redundancy are left to scratch their heads.

An infamous lawyer in Cork said from day one what the problems were, but nobody listened. He wrote a long email to the entire company including PJ. Instead of listening, he ridiculed this bloke. When Planestation took over, he warned May about the problems and still was ignored.

My heart goes out to my mates stuck in the UK, but you will get sorted.

As for the freaks who ran Eujet and a certain contract employer from the IOM who told me to stop belittling the company 6 months ago when I put my concerns across, well, I really hope you are all held accountable for your actions.

[alibaba]

I heard on the grapevine that Ryanair were looking to help the pilots from eu with jobs....

They are in need of drivers due to there planned expansion and aircraft delivery program over the winter I wish everybody concerned with the demise of eu the best of luck for the future

[thebrother]

wakehead - it would be interesting to read extracts of that email from the lawyer in CORK. Could you possibly publish part of it - or even bits of it in bullet points. Educational.

[ebenezer]

Neidin - you're talking a load of

Anyone who has bought tickets with EUJet using a credit card (NOT a debit card or charge card) is covered and will receive a refund from the credit card company.

Don't go winding people up with inaccurate so-called "advice" - people who have had their travel and holiday plans disrupted by EUJ's collapse have enough grief already...

[jabird]

"There is no other airport that owns its own airline"

Sutton Harbour Holdings owners of Plymouth City Airport, also own Air Southwest.

And let's not forget TUI's lease on CVT - but I think we are in a very different situation here. CVT's problems can be solved - dispute with WDC almost done, and new terminal likely to be on the way. Also in this case, the airline bought the airport in order to start operations, whereas it is the other way round at MSE.

Manston can't be moved 50 miles up the M2, so they'll just have to wait until London's congestion spreads out far enough to make the airport viable. I can think of some routes which might work at the moment from MSE, but the kind of outfit might be very different for each one - e.g. turboprop feeder into AMS, weekly 757 to Malaga etc. EU Jet's attempt to do too much too soon can't help the case for other operators to offer inbound rotations there though.

[frostbite]

In case it's of any help to anyone, I heard Southend ATCO say this morning that Manston Radar is currently operating 0700-1700.

He didn't say Zulu so assume local time.

[Nakata77]

like wakehead i was going to remain silent but i just can't help it

TOLD YOU SO!

all those poor people who started working for such a dodgy company i feel bad for, but did you do any research into the company?! Everyone who knows anything about aviation was predicting its demise and not to touch it with a bargepole.

so i'm afraid my sympathy is limited.

did the staff recieve ANY money for the month of July just worked?

[ATP_Al]

Sorry to see EUjet go, and I hope that everyone affected finds work elsewhere soon.

Manston does have a future. It just needs to be used for the right purpose. The new management will need to stop playing international airports and try hard to attract some tenants that may not be as glamourous but will at least pay the bills.

As someone who lives in Kent, I see no need for yet another airline selling flights to Southern Spain. If you're travelling abroad for your annual holiday, knocking 45 minutes off your travel time doesn't make that difference, especially if you consider that those travelling to Gatwick or Stansted will have all the extra choice of destinations offered by the established carriers. BUT if you need to travel to Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh etc once or twice a month then avoiding London and that extra 45 minutes DOES make a big difference. So why doesn't isn't there a low cost small turboprop operator flying out of Manston (or Lydd for that matter)?

Another area where Manston could make money is training. A large amount of commercial and instrument training is done in the South West at airports such as Bristol, Bournemouth and Exeter. These are now brimming with commercial traffic and turning away most non home based aircraft, with the result that it is very difficult of most students to practice IR test routes. Yet in the South East we have plenty of instrument capable airports desparate to attract traffic - Manston, Shoreham, Southend, Lydd (when they their ILS sorted) but few commercial flight schools.

Surely these kind of ideas can take MSE forward.

Al

[wingandprayer]

I am with 'Slim''on this one.

All the 'coal face' workers can do its fly the schedule as dictated by Commercial. If the commercial department hasnt bothered to obey the basic rules of business then there was no hope. Ultimately poor commercial decisons are taken by the Group Commercial Director, in consultation with the board.

Too much ambition, very little market research, almost non-existant advertising (until too late).

The airline was started as wet-lease, which it was profitable at, just. However, it went 'pear-shaped' during the latter part of the wet-lease venture by to do too much.
That led to problems in italy, with impounded aircraft, court cases etc, (hence cancellation of planned italian routes).
All caused by the commercial department. I wonder who was the head of that department?

Coincidence, .............maybe.......

[jabird]

Love the way today's ttg continues to push for another £1 lobby on flights, pointing out about how many within industry have known this was going to happen, whilst still running a full advert for said airline "the hassle free alternative", saying how MSE is on GDS and "travel agent friendly", and how it is now even more simple to book.

Ebeneze, the ttg article suggests that consumers might NOT be protected, as the transactions took place via Shannon, and therefore outside consumer credit protection. I know which side of the fence this publication sits on, so can anyone comment further?

[KentSeaSider]

Trouble at'mill

THGILF
Good Points.
1. Management- From day 1 the communication from management has been virtually non-existant. Even on the 'last' day all I saw was the e-mail from PJ.

2. We used to wonder if any of them had really ever been out on a ramp. Especially after PTG moved its head office down to Manston from London.
EUjet can't complain about the availability of money whilst they were operating, when they moved in to Manston, it seemed that money was no object, from stationary to personel....what they asked for ....they got, the rest of us had to get on with extremely keen and willing people but with equipment and facilities that belong in a museum.

3. Routes - as thgilf says the holiday flights were doing very well, people wanted to use Manston, so what if it only saved them 15-20-30-45 minutes instead of going to Gatwick, they like(d) the small airport atmosphere and facilities.
Why we were sending a 108 seat aircraft up to Belfast and Newcastle and filling only 15 to 25 seats on average made me wonder as well.

4. Marketing - too little to late. Passengers used to say they saw no EUjet advertising away from Manston at the destinations.

5. Manston in the right hands could prove to be a very good airport and operation.
-good wide and long runway
-cargo facilities, the BIP etc
-Road and rail links are'nt the best....but with investment (extend the M2 and the proposed high speed rail link)
-Room to expand (Farm land on 3 sides of the airport)

6. The row over building new runways/airports in the S.E. In the arguments over plans to build at Cliffe in NW kent, no where did I see anyone put forward a plan for an existing airport to be developed.... i.e. Manston.

The people at KIA are good people and deserved better.

[Jetscream 32]

i am part of a group that will hopefully make things better in the coming weeks - hopefully for good, and obviously only if we are succesful in our bid.

Plan is to take over airport as going concern - but guess what! without trying to smash an egg with a hammer.

:-)

[durlockminster]

Noe of the EUjet staff have been paid a penny. Pay day should have been today. KIA staff all got paid a few days before the annoucement, as did caterer's etc. Cabin/Flight crews are also down on sector pay as it is paid a month in arrears, so missing Jun & July secotr pay, basic salary, june/july comission and holiday entitlement pay.

[Mr @ Spotty M]

ebenezer
Where do you get that info from, reference credit card refunds, as l reported on the 27th, you need to have spent over £100.
This was also added in a later post.
"A spokeswoman for the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) said clients with future bookings were unlikely to get any sort of refund unless they had spent more than £100 and paid by credit card".

[fj1]

BBC KENT were sayng early in the week

All future customers money has held by a third party(debis), and is being returned automatcally if you paid by Credit Card.

If you paid by Debit Card or Cash when write to

'The Examiner'
EUjet
debis AirFinance House
Shannon Airport
Co. Clare
Ireland

P.S IIRC "£100 and paid by credit card" only applies to UK companies and EUJET is not one of the them

[Andy_S]

In the arguments over plans to build at Cliffe in NW kent, no where did I see anyone put forward a plan for an existing airport to be developed.... i.e. Manston.

Not true. In the government White Paper of a few years ago on future airport capacity in the London & the South East, Cliffe was discussed, as were Manston, Lydd, Biggin Hill and (I think) Farnborough.

Manston was assessed in this document as being able to contribute modestly to capacity in the S.E. - I think a figure of 2 million pax / annum was mentioned, as well as the freight capability - but was not seriously considered for many of the reasons already mentioned in this discussion; distance from London, lack of catchment area, transport links. I believe one of the local MP's (Ladyman?) subsequently tried to rebut this by asking questions in parliament, but got short shrift from Alistair Darling.

[adm1n]

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