GATWICK

[Ramper1]

Thomson are doing LGW -HKT (Phuket) direct in winter with their 787 so no reason why Norwegian can't do bkk

[LN-KGL]

Emirates will never fly direct flights to Bangkok from one London's airports, Norwegian will do that. The time difference looking at today's Emirates timetable seems to end up using 7 more hours traveling with Emirates compared with Nowegian (the shortest transfer times at DXB is 3:10 eastbound and 2:00 westbound).

The most probable Norwegian timetable for flights between LGW and BKK (local times):

Departure LGW 13:00
Arrival BKK 6:40 (next morning)
Duration 11:40

Departure BKK 09:00
Arrival LGW 16:00
Duration 13:00

Now let's look at what Emirates offer on their least time consuming combination:
Departure LGW 10:00
Arrival DXB 19:19:50
Departure DXB 23:00
Apprival BKK 08:20
Duration 16:20

Departure BKK 09:55
Arrival DXB 13:00
Departure DXB 15:00
Arrival LGW 19:30
Duration 15:35

The Norwegian (DU) timetable is based on the times and speeds used on timetables for OSL and ARN. You may wonder when you see arrival at 16:00 and departure at 13:00. Then I may continue with the send half of the timetable from LGW:

Departure LGW 17:30
Arrival JFK 20:00
Duration 7:30

Departure JFK 21:30
Arrival LGW 09:25
Duration 06:55

If Norwegian select to assign two B788 to cover BKK-LGW-JFK-LGW-BKK there will be daily flights to both BKK and JFK. At BKK and JFK the B788 will overlap with other company aircraft and an exchange of aircraft will be possible so that it can be flown to ARN for scheduled maintenance. The third B788 that is assigned for the FLL flights have a weekly one day stop at ARN (for scheduled maintenance and/or for exchange of aircraft).

[Skipness One Echo]

Emirates will never fly direct flights to Bangkok from one London's airports, Norwegian will do that.

I never said they would, I said they would react badly if DY entered the market. Let's give the Gatwick base a year and see how much money they're making before we start playing fantasy timetables eh? They still have no brand recognition on long haul and if they did enter LGW-JFK, what's the betting we'd see a spoiler response from BA?

The only people that this timetable would attract would be the super-price conscious, now I'm not saying there's not a market but entering LON-NYC, one of the most competitive markets on Earth AND aiming for the bargain basement is barmy. Branson himself said Virgin would have died in it's early years without Upper Class, premium travellers and getting into Heathrow. The only difference is DY are using *very* cheap non EU crew and brand new aircraft to chase the cheapest seats? No one has ever managed to do this, particularly not branded as "Norwegian Air Shuttle". Zero brand recognition, no premium service, no lounge access on one of the most premium centric routes on Earth. That's partly how BA killed Pan Am btw, they let PA fill their aircraft with Y travellers while BA poached all the high yield travellers. DY are going to need deep pockets and very cheap labour costs if they try this.

Do they have travel agent deals with the majors to block book seats in their plans?

[Calmcavok]

Further, where will the freight demand come from for DY? LCCs carry very little freight due to the fundamentals of the model, add the lack of interlining both for a LCC and at LGW, and that's killed the belly revenue.

Can never see low cost transatlantic on a city pair such as London-New York. In fact, cannot understand how low cost long-haul will ever work outside of IT.

[pabely]

Can't see how this will work, Air Asia tried far east, APD and no belly cargo will make this a cash burner....NYC has so much capacity and the savy flyer can get good deals from LHR on a choice of flights per hour.

[SealinkBF]

Didn't O'Leary say that for the distance, lowest LON-NYC Y fares are already "low cost" and he probably couldn't do it for less.

(I think it was before the £40 boarding card charges et al) ;-)

[LN-KGL]

BKK and NYC are unserved destinations from UK's second largest airport and it's this void Norwegian may want to fill. Regarding cargo, this press release may be of interest:
Newsdesk - Norwegian

Nothing is written in stone yet; Norwegian may find better business cases for aircraft number 4, 5, 6 and 7 inbound in 2014. Some answers we'll get this autumn.

[True Blue]

I sent KE an email asking them when Lgw flights would be available for booking via their site. They replied this morning that they have no plans to operate to Lgw this year. Strange.

TB

[Tigger4Me]

Does anyone know what the queues are like through North Terminal Security around 08:30 to 09:30 on a Friday morning please?

[no sponsor]

Low cost long haul doesn't work. Air Asia tried it first out of STN, then LGW. Oasis tried it and went bust. Even Hong Kong airlines with their all business class was a failure. BA have given up offering first class on a 744 from LHR-BKK due to the lack of yields, and are moving to a 3-class 772. BKK just doesn't attract the high paying passenger like HKG or SIN.

There's no way BA, Virgin, AA and United will let Norwegian be a success on the most lucrative route in the world. Remember AA starting their US service out of STN when EOS started flying? As soon as EOS went under, AA pulled out of STN.

Unless they can fill the front cabin with people paying £5k a ticket, there's no money in it.

[canberra97]

Pier 1

Does anyone know what date Pier 1 will finally close or if it has already?

The Gatwick Airport website doesnt give much information regarding this and when the demolition of Pier 1 commences, I know June was mentioned but if anyone can confirm this it would be appreciated.

[Skipness One Echo]

It has already closed but is still intact as of last weekend.

[737James]

Just a bit of a heads up a couple of Neos aircraft will be operating from Knock Ireland to Gatwick on Fri 31st May these are charters for Voyages of Discovery cruise passengers. I believe it will be one 767-300 and a 737-800

[LGS6753]

Worst airports for flight delays revealed

[IrishFlyer2013]

LGW - Pier 1

Pier 1 is being demolised today. I've read else where that it will re open for Summer 2015.

http://gatwickairport.tumblr.com/pos...london-gatwick

[iwak]

Is that the pier where flybe operate from?

[IrishFlyer2013]

Is that the pier where flybe operate from?

Yes, all small a/c operate from Pier 1 at Gatwick.

[jijpc]

FlyBe at Pier 1

But of course they won't be back as they are leaving before it re-opens!

[Skipness One Echo]

So how many gates will this new Pier One have?

[tubby linton]

White A330

There is a white A330 outside the Virgin hangar with a raw metal section around the doors two area. Has the aircraft been repaired or modified?