ABERDEEN

[ANYWHERE BUT ABZ]

The only destination currently that could work at abz would be a daily stansted by easyjet and perhaps something to a big city in Europe ie Madrid. Surprised haven't seen a Poland or something like that taken up by any airlines

[ANYWHERE BUT ABZ]

Increase Dublin flights

Are Arran, also known as Aer Lingus regional is upping its Dublin service to Aberdeen by putting on 3 extra weekly flights.

Also added are 4 weekly flights to Glasgow and another daily service to Edinburgh but overall any increase in flights to Aberdeen has to be a good thing.

Now just need some new exciting destinations and a few more airlines

[Joe Curry]

Now just need some new exciting destinations and a few more airlines

And a bigger population?

[ANYWHERE BUT ABZ]

Don't know what Aberdeen city and aberdeenshires growth rate is, but its where all the jobs and money is in the uk to be honest.

Also a point for thought!

According to aberdeens masterplan 2013 Aberdeen airport will have 5 million pax by 2040, the terminal and all facilities can only handle 3.2 million, so take off the 500k heli pax and the terminal is near capacity already,

But going by past few years plus continuous growth on average of 5-6% even tho last 2-3 years have been about 10% on average, Aberdeen airport will be at 8 million pax and potentially more, this could well be a potential for Aberdeen and would put a huge strain on the very very limited airport resources, especially terminal and aircraft stands that baa management doesn't seem to of really thought too much about.

[CaptainDoony]

ABZ do have plans to gradually expand based on demand. There is plans for extra stands , terminal extensions and I would maybe expect the first phase of these around 2020.

The expansion will only come when required so expect the airport to operate at bursting point most of the time and I wouldn't be expecting Changi.

The airport has had rapid pax growth of 600k in the last two years but this was largely down to the recovering economy up here and new routes that really should have been here anyway e.g. FRA, BE to MAN, U2 to LGW.

The growth has fallen to around 3% with a couple of declines meaning we're only 8,000 ahead of last May.

[ANYWHERE BUT ABZ]

Very good point captain, although I think with last month it was good to see helicopters were up on last may, and that was before the grounding so shows that the heli side of things has recovered well, plus looking at summer 2014 there is an absolute stack of new charter flt destinations by both Thompson and tcx just hoping jet 2 gets on board at Aberdeen because then I think growth would pick up again

[CaptainDoony]

The charter network does look reasonably inflated right now for next year which is fine but there is still much scope for growth.

Malaga alone has a proven demand for >50k pax per annum, Alicante, Barcelona, Canaries, Faro, etc have also got a respectable track record when served from ABZ.

Maybe in 20 years when Manchester et al have got 300 daily flights to Palma or whatever we might get a scheduled operator but I'm not holding my breath...

Oh and an airline can run more than a tiddly Embraer on the routes - GSM were using 738's out of ABZ before their demise I believe,

[ANYWHERE BUT ABZ]

Well Malaga for year 2012 was a touch over 4k, so if u say its done 50k before that's a huge increase, something well worth keeping an eye on especially if an airline takes the route up properly. But an extra 46k in passengers just on that one route and well on the way to over 5 million passengers.

Be interesting come end of the year what the charter numbers actually are and whether adding Virgin to Heathrow has increased the London flights.

Noticed also gatwick is now done 13 times a week with jet a single flt on Saturday but load numbers are always extremely full, normally 150 pax atleast on a 156 seat airbus.

Plus with increase is Dublin service with an extra 3 flights each way a week that's an extra 420 seats available per week meaning an extra 22k per year,

[ANYWHERE BUT ABZ]

Any hope of JET 2 coming to Aberdeen to fill the space left by Fly Globespan?

[CaptainDoony]

Check out this article - near the bottom - from last March.

Jet2.com boss hails successful year in Glasgow | Herald Scotland

[ANYWHERE BUT ABZ]

There is hope, well maybe

[tangoecho]

Corfu 2014

Corfu flights with First Choice summer 2014
14:55 departure from ABZ Arriving CFU 20:35
12:00 departure from CFU Arriving ABZ 13:50

[CaptainDoony]

Airline still TBA.

I think the aircraft will be on a W-pattern with NWI operating the CFU, IBZ and PMI rotations so possibly TOM metal since NWI is a base.

At the moment it seems IBZ will be running from 03/05/14 - 29/10/14 which is considerably longer than in the past few years.

TFS down for 1x weekly with Air Europa.

[CaptainDoony]

315,000 pax in June with an 8% increase. Busiest June ever.

[ANYWHERE BUT ABZ]

Good to see further growth in all 3 sectors, still think/know there is still further demand for more charter/summer flights from Aberdeen that is yet untapped by airlines,

[ANYWHERE BUT ABZ]

Is Thomas cook/Thompson still continuing with tenerifes all year round on the 757?

[Heathrow Harry]

"still think/know there is still further demand for more charter/summer flights from Aberdeen"

as long as the oil price holds up of course................

[Richard Taylor]

..................of course...................

[Richard Taylor]

Here's the 'official' confirmation of the Thomson/First Choice expansion at ABZ for S14 season.

Aberdeen Airport: Thomson and First Choice summer 2014 announcement

[Richard Taylor]

PSZ

No, not a route, but Public Safety Zones.

Seems the CAA want to relax said zones around the airport to encourage more development,especially nearer the runway thresholds. Justification is that today's modern aircraft are far safer than their predecessors.

I did notice a Notice(!) in the evening papers the other day announcing a consultation on the matter.

You wouldn't have got away with it in the days of the Trident & 1-11!!!