Air Southwest
No they won't.
Exeter to London air services have never been a success as the rail service is usually a faster option. It is the slow rail service west of Exeter that makes services from Plymouth and Newquay to London's airports viable.
Exeter to London air services have never been a success as the rail service is usually a faster option. It is the slow rail service west of Exeter that makes services from Plymouth and Newquay to London's airports viable.
Join Date: Sep 2006
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Competion from FlyBe on NQY may not be as bad as you think. Aurigny have been competing with them on GCI-LGW. Aurigny are now adding a fifth rotation and have a lot of loyal pax who are fed up with FlyBe fares fees etc. Its ASW's market fight them they do not always win...... FlyBe have a reputation in the Channel Islands of letting pax down cancelling at the hint of bad weather etc etc. Aurigny have a apolicy of getting its pax home as every one matters to them. I get the feeling that ASW are the same.
Join Date: Feb 2008
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Actually last weekend it was Flybe that got all its aircraft back into GCI through all the fog and low cloud. Aurigny cancelled most of its services, leaving pax stranded on the mainland for the Saturday night. Anyway this is off topic for ASW! Flybe will always try and get the aircraft to where its supposed to be - the knock-on headache of having aircraft and/or crew in the wrong place the next morning is far worse. At the end of the day if the weather is out of limits for the aircraft to land legally they will not go.
Join Date: Jul 2007
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New LCY route / alternatives for ASW?
Can't argue with the ASW publicity (at least in theory!) that their new London service to LCY will be quicker than using the train. I calculate it will save at least 1 hour+ & to business people who just want to do a day trip then that will certainly mean a lot. Plus at only £29 each way (just excluding credit & debit card charges & with no other "extras" to pay) in the current economic climate it's a very good deal! I wonder though how long they will be able to keep it this low given that LCY has relatively high landing fees - does anyone know if LCY are finacially supporting this new route in anyway?
Also, whilst this route maybe of advantage to those living / needing to travel to destinations closer to LCY (compared to those nearer to LGW &/ or STN), is the route really a good move given that their services from both NQY & PLY to/from LGW are (according to the CAA stats for Oct-Dec '08) in double digit decline (& this is before the FlyBe competition ex NQY started)? Will this not just further divide a shrinking cake?
Although they already fly domestically to most major conurbations, I would suggest that there are still other alternatives for ASW from the South-West. Certainly the West Midlands still takes over 3 hours by both train & car (almost 4 hours in fact if you are going to the NEC), so a route to BHX perhaps should have been considered ahead of LCY. It would certainly be attractive to both business & leisure travellers!
Also, whilst this route maybe of advantage to those living / needing to travel to destinations closer to LCY (compared to those nearer to LGW &/ or STN), is the route really a good move given that their services from both NQY & PLY to/from LGW are (according to the CAA stats for Oct-Dec '08) in double digit decline (& this is before the FlyBe competition ex NQY started)? Will this not just further divide a shrinking cake?
Although they already fly domestically to most major conurbations, I would suggest that there are still other alternatives for ASW from the South-West. Certainly the West Midlands still takes over 3 hours by both train & car (almost 4 hours in fact if you are going to the NEC), so a route to BHX perhaps should have been considered ahead of LCY. It would certainly be attractive to both business & leisure travellers!
Join Date: Oct 2007
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bmi baby start a summer only 737 service from BHX-NQY as well as MAN which will add competition to wow. Whereas MAN will support both a dh8-300 service and a 737, i doubt BHX will ?
again for summer only JET2 are adding a 737 to LBA and Belfast
seems as though there is still an option available which hasnt seen a service for years....... LPL ?
again for summer only JET2 are adding a 737 to LBA and Belfast
seems as though there is still an option available which hasnt seen a service for years....... LPL ?
Join Date: Jul 2007
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To be honest cornishsimon I was thinking more of the route to BHX being more heavily used ex PLY rather than NQY. Sorry for any confusion here but that's why I was using journey times from there rather than NQY plus it also has potentially a greater catchment area. Appreciate that for operational reasons ASW need to base the a/c at NQY but if they were to go year round (twice a day) then that would be of overall more advantage to people compared to the BMI Baby summer only service which I believe is only available 4 days of the week & thus cannot offer day return trips which is so important to business travellers.
GROUNDHOG - it's year-on-year e.g. Dec '08 vs. Dec '07 & so on for Nov & Oct as well, so no summer months involved here.
GROUNDHOG - it's year-on-year e.g. Dec '08 vs. Dec '07 & so on for Nov & Oct as well, so no summer months involved here.
An advantage for a domestic route between Plymouth/Newquay and London City is that there is no service from these points to Heathrow, Luton or Stansted. It is the substantial services from these which has done in operations from LCY to places like Belfast.
I also hope Air SW makes something of the quick connection opportunities at LCY to link the Southwest to the major European cities like Amsterdam or Frankfurt. It takes a sight less time to transfer there than at Gatwick.
For London passengers, Gatwick seems miles from anywhere. Unless you happen to be close to Victoria it takes significantly longer to get there than many of the flights take. The attitudes and organsiation at Gatwick, and the time taken to get through the place, are also more suited to once-a-year holday travellers than to regular business users.
I also hope Air SW makes something of the quick connection opportunities at LCY to link the Southwest to the major European cities like Amsterdam or Frankfurt. It takes a sight less time to transfer there than at Gatwick.
For London passengers, Gatwick seems miles from anywhere. Unless you happen to be close to Victoria it takes significantly longer to get there than many of the flights take. The attitudes and organsiation at Gatwick, and the time taken to get through the place, are also more suited to once-a-year holday travellers than to regular business users.
Are Ryanair back ? OK.
I do trust that Air SW have done their marketing correctly and know where their traffic on LCY will be coming from already. Normally on a business route you will find that half your traffic comes from no more than 10 or 20 firms, all of whom you should have been in substantial contact with to understand their requirements and likely demand. You can then extrapolate to the total likely daily demand. Air SW should have a good idea of this demand from their Gatwick route. It's not as if you can just start an operation and then sit back and wonder who is going to use it.
Who is No 1 business user to Gatwick for O&D traffic at the moment ? MoD to/from Plymouth ?
I do trust that Air SW have done their marketing correctly and know where their traffic on LCY will be coming from already. Normally on a business route you will find that half your traffic comes from no more than 10 or 20 firms, all of whom you should have been in substantial contact with to understand their requirements and likely demand. You can then extrapolate to the total likely daily demand. Air SW should have a good idea of this demand from their Gatwick route. It's not as if you can just start an operation and then sit back and wonder who is going to use it.
Who is No 1 business user to Gatwick for O&D traffic at the moment ? MoD to/from Plymouth ?
Join Date: Mar 2002
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As WHBM says, Gatwick is fine but just not well-suited to the sort of O&D traffic that might be using the route, even taking into account government traffic that might find Victoria/Gatwick more convenient than the City. It also makes sense to maximise the benefits of flying versus the train by serving an airport that is on the opposite side of London to Paddington. As for Ryanair, it lands much further away at STN at the same time AirSouthWest plans to land at LCY so will always be less convenient for business traffic, all others things being equal.
I look forward to supporting NQY-LCY. I'd be interested to know why LCY wasn't considered sooner. Was it an issue of capacity at LCY? I can't be the only one willing to pay a premium for flying from LCY and not LGW (I'm guessing it won't be £29 each way for long...) and those that aren't willing to pay more are welcome to trade down to LGW or STN instead
I look forward to supporting NQY-LCY. I'd be interested to know why LCY wasn't considered sooner. Was it an issue of capacity at LCY? I can't be the only one willing to pay a premium for flying from LCY and not LGW (I'm guessing it won't be £29 each way for long...) and those that aren't willing to pay more are welcome to trade down to LGW or STN instead
Join Date: Jan 2009
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Why not LCY earlier ,because very hard to get LCY slots and I would say its no coincidence that these flights are announced now they have direct competition with Flybe on the gatwick route.
Some might say they needed something to get them out of the sitting back wondering what to do next attitude.
Some might say they needed something to get them out of the sitting back wondering what to do next attitude.
Join Date: Mar 2009
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I would say its no coincidence that these flights are announced now they have direct competition with Flybe on the gatwick route.
Join Date: Apr 2007
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Yeah- I could've sworn that, when WOW had their old style website, on their aircraft charter page they mentioned their crews are LCY trained.
Might of been somewhere else, but I'm pretty sure it was on their website...
Might of been somewhere else, but I'm pretty sure it was on their website...
Join Date: Mar 2009
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With thanks
Many thanks for all the posts regarding Jim Cameron.
He loved his time spent at Air Southwest - for him it was truely coming home to many friends he had made previously at Brymon and the new friends he met in his short return there.
His obituary can be found on the Herald website:
Jim Cameron (from The Herald )
Thank you for the kind words of friends, they are lovely to read - we miss him terribly
He loved his time spent at Air Southwest - for him it was truely coming home to many friends he had made previously at Brymon and the new friends he met in his short return there.
His obituary can be found on the Herald website:
Jim Cameron (from The Herald )
Thank you for the kind words of friends, they are lovely to read - we miss him terribly