STANSTED - 2

[FRatSTN]

Finally some recognition of this issue!

Since the video won't last, I'll quote what Paul Simmons, the former UK market director said:

"Whenever an airport changes hands, we want to try and get a good deal and relationship with the new owners, so now we have long term 5 year deal which facilitates growth with Stansted's new owners MAG.

We have 27 routes out of Stansted at the moment and recently we started adding longer routes to places like Egypt and Morocco, so this gives us a framework to expand further."

What absolute meaningless waffle that was!

For starters they only have 25 destinations at STN and even that breaks down into 21 currently and 19 for the winter schedule.

Turns out also if you weren't aware that they axed their route to Morocco on 30 May.

Really does come to something when an airline doesn't even know what routes, and how many they fly!

It also doesn't take a genius to work out that longer routes mean less flights and passengers per aircraft, which of course isn't mentioned there's only 7 of those compared to 13 only 4 years ago. How that can be concluded as "a framework to expand further" I do not know.

Goes to show they cannot justify this and it's just not good enough really. Now they are doing the same thing to FCO, despite actually being one of their faster growing airports in recent years.

Clearly not a very forward looking company and just ruthlessly chop and change as and when they feel like to squeeze current yields to the maximum.

Needless to say much more really.

[gilesdavies]

For starters they only have 25 destinations at STN and even that breaks down into 21 currently and 19 for the winter schedule.

Turns out also if you weren't aware that they axed their route to Morocco on 30 May.

Paul Simmons, the former UK market director said:

Im wondering if this if this an old news aricle, and today was the slow news day on when it was used.

You wouldn't usually put up a "former" manager to represent a company, so would appear he has moved on since doing the interview.

[FRatSTN]

Nonetheless, the point remains. If that is the case then that demonstrates further decline since the 18% accounted for.

[LTNman]

Also worth pointing out that after the MAG deal easyjet did a Luton deal. Maybe the Luton deal makes more sense to them and the MAG deal was used as a lever to get a better Luton deal.

Also do easyjet really want to take on Ryanair in their own back garden in a big way?

[SWBKCB]

We have 27 routes out of Stansted at the moment and recently we started adding longer routes to places like Egypt and Morocco, so this gives us a framework to expand further."

Really does come to something when an airline doesn't even know what routes, and how many they fly!

Is that quote from the same Paul Simmons that joined flybe in October 2013? People in glass houses....

I would imagine that any "expansion plan" would have been based on existing routes delivering the required pax and yield. Must admit I'm surprised this has made local TV news - just imagine if this happened every time Flybe had suggested expansion at a regional airport and it never happened. There would be no room for other news...

[Seljuk22]

FR to open daily Sofia route from May.

Still not bookable on their website. Won't happen?

[Skipness One Echo]

Clearly not a very forward looking company and just ruthlessly chop and change as and when they feel like to squeeze current yields to the maximum.

That's exactly and precisely Ryanair got to be a market leader. "Forward looking" is just marketing BS come on.

Is there anyway MAG might be doing a bit of stirring in the background, and applying some passive pressure on the airline, by reminding the travellng public of what the airline committed too, a few year back?!

I would be VERY surprised as this is not how business is conducted. MAG would put in place a charging framework to allow EZY to drive up yields at STN, however given the current focus on getting under one roof at LGW, I rather suspect they're concentrating on London elsewhere right now. Any route launch is a commercial decision for an airline usually, are the contractual terms public and are EZY bound legally to grow at STN? If not, forget it.

[canberra97]

Korean Air Cargo

I've noticed on the Stansted Wikipedia page that it lists Korean Air Cargo as operating from the airport, it also says the same on the Korean Air Wikipedia page, I know that you can't always trust Wikipedia but have Korean Air Cargo reinstated flight at Stansted and if so are they replacing their LHR cargo flights.

I am sure Wikipedia is wrong as someone on here would have posted it, so if anyone can confirm one way or another it would be appreciated.

[autobrake3]

The flight ops director at Easyjet is ex Ryanair. There used to be 18 Easyjet aircraft in Stansted, there are now just seven operating a much thinned out route network. Every one of the routes abandoned by Easyjet is now operated by Ryanair. Colusion or coincidence ?

Inevitably, there is no further room to expand at an already over stretched Luton where customer experience is dreadful and ground handling is a farce. Gatwick operations are bursting at the seams where further expansion would appear to be a foot shooting exercise. Recent rumours at Stansted suggest an increase in aircraft establishment for next year. I wonder if the Easyjet board have gone cap in hand to RYR and MAG to ask for some their routes back, after all Monastir was a great idea........

[Skipness One Echo]

Gatwick operations are bursting at the seams where further expansion would appear to be a foot shooting exercise

This is true of based aircraft, depending on fleet availability, Gatwick does sit half empty for large parts of the day outwith the main pain points, even with one runway being utilised to the max.

have Korean Air Cargo reinstated flight at Stansted and if so are they replacing their LHR cargo flights.

Not according to their own website.

[Itchin McCrevis]

Rumour control says that annual Festival of Irrelevance known as the the "Which? Airport Report" is due out iminently, the PR consultants are all salivating and racking up their daily rates:

Has Stansted managed to steal Luton's crown as "Britains Least Favorite Airport"?
Will Southend hold on to it's title of "Best Liked but Least Used Airport"?

we wait with baited breath

[LTNman]

Has Stansted managed to steal Luton's crown as "Britains Least Favorite Airport"?

Not defending Luton here but Stansted scored just one percentage point more than Luton last year. I can't see Luton scoring any more points this year and will probably drop to a lower score next year with the airport being a building site.

It is not difficult to already know what Luton's excuses will be but what defense will Stansted put up?

As for Southend? With a little used terminal I would expect them to come top but passengers are not heading for the coast to experience the delights of Southend, in fact numbers are dropping so the airport will probably get an even high score this year.

[Seljuk22]

37 based aircrafts and 3 new routes (MXP, VRN & SOF) next summer
Welcome to Ryanair!

[davidjohnson6]

Looking at routes Ryanair operated over 2015 plus all the new routes beginning later this year and next year, I count 136 routes. Press release indicates summer 2016 will have 129 routes, suggesting 7 routes at Stansted may not be served in summer 2016.

Apart from Grenoble, the following routes do not appear to be scheduled yet for summer 2016

Tampere - possibly ends 24-Oct-2015
Clermont-Ferrand - possibly already ended
Rodez - possibly ends 03-Nov-2015
Strasbourg - possibly ends 24-Oct-2015
Haugesund - possibly ends 23-Oct-2015
Skelleftea - possibly ends 21-Oct-2015

Strasbourg may be linked to Karlsruhe. Tampere, Clermont-Ferrand, Rodez, Haugesund and Skelleftea are all likely candidates for no flights to Stansted in summer 2016

[daz211]

Well done MAG at Stansted

21.9m passengers flew from STN in the last 12 months, an increase of 16.3% - the highest rate of annual growth of any major UK airport.

Stansted had the busiest August since 2008, the 17th consecutive month of traffic growth.

The average load factor - the number of seats occupied on each flight - hit an all-time high of 93.5% in Aug as 2.2 million passed through.

[FRatSTN]

A mixed bag from EZY's S16 at STN.

Disappointing to see some slight frequency reductions it seems on AGP and PMI and, as may have been expected, no continuation of KEF into the summer.

However, very slight increase overall thanks to the continuation of winter additions on AMS, BFS, EDI and GLA. Those 4 routes alone will now account for about 1/2 of EZY's traffic at STN.

Also seems to be some changes to the general timings with a better spread of flights through the day, helping somewhat to fill the quieter off-peak periods, particularly mid-afternoon.

[wowzz]

More passengers = more queues at Border Control, less seating, longer queues at security etc.
Am I the only one who would like to see STN's pax figures fall, so as to make the airport once again the pleasant [relatively] place it was 10 years ago?

[turbroprop]

Hi Wowzz

I am with you. Stansted is the most depressing airport to pass through. I am helping your cause and helping reduce the pax numbers. I have started using East Midlands.

[FRatSTN]

Terminal Transformation

The new retail outlets for the final phase were announced today:

Stansted names 18 new shops in final retail phase | Travel Retail Business

[LTNman]

I see that Stansted and Luton are tied at the bottom of the list with a 40% customer score in the latest Which airport survey. I was going to post this on the Luton thread but as they were already bottom the shame can't get any worse.

I might be wrong but I seem to remember that last year Luton was bottom with 38% and Stansted scored 39% so at least they are both going in the right direction!