NORWICH

[NickBarnes]

Oh yeh looks like it is

[John Blakeley]

Who Can Afford It?

For convenience I would use NWI every time, and it is a great airport to fly from and to, but the price of such convenience is now so high that I have to look at the Stansted and Luton options - also for their greater range of destinations and numbers of flights. If I was taking a family, say two adults and two children, then for many direct flights I would find NWI unaffordable - and that is without the outrageous additional £3.00 development fee (ADF).

To take an example off the web at today's fares - NWI to CDG on 15 June and returning on 22 June for a family of four - not counting baggage, car parking, environmental offset, speedy boarding and all the other extras. FlyBe from NWI (only one flight) comes to a grand total of £692.84, of which £263.48 is shown as airport charges and taxes. Easyjet from Luton (picking the cheapest flight options) comes to £222.32 of which £122.00 is airport charges and taxes. The Government taxes and CDG are common to both so discounting the airlines fare differences it would appear that NWI is around £140 more expensive for airport operator charges (to which you add the ADF) - is this really the case? If so I suggest that NWI really is trying to price itself out of the market. The difference of nearly £430 for a family of four more than pays the extra fuel cost and driving time to Luton for most people in the NWI catchment area.

Lest you think I have picked the worst example and dates this route and these dates were the only ones that I looked at - these days the choice is anyway very limited. I recognise that some comparisons would be better (or possibly worse) in terms of airline fares, but, presumably, not in terms of taxes and airport charges. I am willing to pay a reasonable premium for the convenience of NWI, and I would love to see the route structure being expanded - but at the moment the opposite is happening and the NWI management seems to be doing little about it - especially in terms of affordability and value for money!

JB

[aidoair]

New NWI-ALC

A new route to Alicante and possibly other new destinations is to be officially announced on Friday.
The airline operating the new services has not been announced as yet but i think the most obvious airline will be Ryanair either operated by one of their based aircraft or even on a W flight from STN. Anyone any other thoughts?

http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/conte...A27%3A40%3A007

[ara01jbb]

A new route to Alicante and possibly other new destinations is to be officially announced on Friday

...

http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/conte...A27%3A40%3A007

From that article:

Mr Jenner said: "The formal launch will happen on Friday, but I can confirm our announcement will definitely include new flights to Alicante. ..."

More than one destination methinks? I just hope this is a sustainable business decision, not a knee jerk reaction to get back at BE that will last a season and then evaporate into thin air.

[aeulad]

LTE

Regards

Mike

[aidoair]

I was thinking a Spanish carrier but could't think of one that would be able to operate a service on a regualr basis other than a weekly charter service perhaps. Do you have any more knowledge on the frequency or best we wait until Friday...

[NickBarnes]

yep i believe it is LTE, altough ryanair would be good, and Norwich has a new website!!

[NickBarnes]

LTE start new spain routes

LTE have uploaded the flights to their website from Norwich - Alicante, it will operate Saturdays from the 5th July, the times are,
Norwich - Alicante
10:25 - 13:55
Alicante - Norwich
14:40 - 16:10
Flights are around £70 one way or £140 return.

Also there are flights from Norwich - Barcelona, again starting from the 5th July and will operate Saturdays, times are,
Norwich - Barcelona
17:25 - 20:50
Barcelona - Norwich
21:50 - 23:15
Fares start at around £70 one way or £140 return.

Looking at it those prices they seem very good because when i looked at Ryanairs website from STN - ALC departing on the 5th and returning on the 12th the price was £181

[pug]

That is a big coup for NWI! Wish all concerned well..

[airhumberside]

Those times indicate an aircraft positioning into NWI. So I would expect either a retime (maybe do a BCN-NWI-ALC-NWI-BCN since BCN is a LTE base) or another route

[NickBarnes]

Should think that it would be another route which comes in on the Sat morning and then leaves back on the Sunday morning possibly.

i think i might be booking my summer holiday soon

Hope these routes do well!!!!!

[NickBarnes]

And there will be another new route with LTE, you will also be able to fly from Norwich - Palma once a week at the weekend.

these flights will operate year round as well

http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/...A18%3A07%3A687

[cavortingcheetah]

This just in about the dear old place from Auntie...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/7364854.stm

May we expect a resignation, or a termination of employment on the part of the feared head of security at EGSH?
Still, it warms the old cockles to learn that someone can do a less effective job than Group 4, many of whose security staff would appear, by their demeanour, to have failed bank robber school.
That'll get one locked up for 28 days, going on 42 plus the thirty it takes the Commons to debate the matter. Still, another report today stated that prisons were now so comfortable, 'cushy' was the word used, that convicts do not even want to escape. Jolly good thing that, for Group 4 that is, if they have the contract for public protection from prisoners, ain't it?

[niknak]

The BBC got in, was able to wander around airside and even took away some books from the Head of Security's office, informed sources state that the Head of Security was incandescant with rage... because she hadn't fininshed colouring them in yet.....

[42psi]

Not good ... but is it only me that notes the "form of words used" both by the BBC and NWI??

What I'm reading suggests we are talking about a "controlled landside" area and not airside ...

???

[rvsm compliant]

The area shown is not anywhere near the live terminal area, there is a further checkpoint, manned and security screened were loose items are x-rayed and personal have to walk thru the 'Bleeping arch'.

[cavortingcheetah]

Far as one can remember there are no jet fuel tanks near any hangars at EGSH. All the fuel is kept down at the depot on the little perimeter road and then tankered in through the main perimeter security gate to the aircraft.
However those with long memories will recall that during the cold war, Vulcan bombers used to sit at Norwich airport, 24/7, engines fired up waiting to go and bomb the Russians. These aircraft used to be fully armed with nuclear devices and would stand, loaded and locked, on the hard opposite what today is the new and improved hangar like terminal building, for use of which an extra tax, over and above that levied by the government's green political usury, is charged.
It was always rumoured that one or more nuclear device, disarmed of course, had been left at Norwich and indeed apparently one of these was almost fitted to the Vulcan which is now in the Norwich Aviation Museum at the upwindish end of Rwy 27 and which did indeed fly down towards the Malvinas during the British armed aggression there. It had to turn back when it arrived at Ascension Island, suffering from structural failure. Large chunks of its heat resistant tiles had started to fall of. After a long and exhaustive enquiry by the RAF adjudicatory panel into: Accidents that might have been, Vulcan, one of; it was determined that this was not due to Argentine sabotage but rather attributable to the quality of British workmanship and engineering locally at Felthorpe.
Anyway, the end result of all this is that if the very strong and substantiated rumours are correct, then what the BBC or other journalists saw and mistook for fuel tanks were in fact the underwing pods for the nuclear devices Devices which, furthermore, have apparently never been removed from their camouflaged casings, although they have apparently been rendered sufficiently safe as to satisfy Norwich City Council health and safety regulations which, as all who dwell in her know, are among the toughest in the country.

[Em0866]

Some good news to see weekend holidays flights to Croatia and Corsica with Holiday Options http://news.cheapflights.co.uk/flights/2008/05/holiday-flights.html

[airhumberside]

These aren't new, just usual summer charters

[Expressflight]

Are the Holiday Options flights operated by Eastern Saab 2000s then?