STANSTED - 2

[Skipness One Echo]

Was it not the case that BAA were forced to sell STN but wanted to keep hold of it right up to the end.

They wanted to sell at the top of the market, not quite where STN was, that's reasonable.

Skipness why do all of you recent posts all seem to be anti STN, are you joining LGS & the Luton Fanboys?

I replied to a similar point under Dundee which I have moved here for relevance. I have no beef in local turf wars, I really, really don't.
Moved from the Dundee thread

Skipness One Echo I must ask. Why are you so anti anything and everything Stansted?

I think STN is a great airport, I have used it many times with Ryanair. However I think an understanding of the demographics, why NAX moved to LGW, why American did not remain after EOS collapsed, why Continental gave up, why SAS, Lufthansa and Air UK went away are helpful. Also to understand why the remaining core operation is easyJet and Ryanair, Air Berlin and Germanwings, there are quantifiable reasons for what works and what went away forever. Domestic services on say, Do328s to Scotland are filed firmly under yesteryear. As for anyone who thinks the Aurigny service to JER/GCI is genuinely comparable is mistaken, one cannot board a train to the channel islands so one turboprop each day has 100% of the point to point market. This is really taxpayer subsidy to allow businessmen on expenses to save minutes in Scotland that they'll need to lose at the other end getting into London from STN, if it's for leisure that's even worse as EDI is already very accesible from Dundee. The taxpayer has absolutely no business here.
It's not about me hating "Team Stansted", I am just staggered at how in business, a lack of institutional memory (or stupidity / naivety) allows a lot of money to be wasted repeating the same mistakes.
I fully support the based airlines doing what they do but the waters get muddied badly when people witter on about expanding STN with two runways into a "hub" when they singularly fail to see why it's sitting half empty with one runway. It's a market behaviour, a real world, business friendly quanitfiable metric, not all that complex. I wholly support STN for what it is and try not to laugh to hard at those trying to sell it as something it's never been. Where else do you see Ryanair and easyJet in such "palatial" surroundings as some Irish CEO once said?

Indeed, this flight has been running for over 20 years and is well used.

Aurigny nowadays rather than Rockhopper.

Do I need to touch on the fact it has connections to god knows how many destinations via FR & EZY
Go educate yourselves. I bet half of you don't even have the experience of ever having used Stansted.

I think you need to educate yourself first.
Number of connections offered by Ryanair = Zero
Number of connections offered by easyJet = Zero
They are point to point low cost operators who don't offer connections. That's the whole business model, by all means fly from Scotland to STN and connect but at your own risk and more than likely on easyJet....

unlike it's competitor at 'Bedfordshire International'.

= tribal silliness really, come on.

[pamann]

Funny how a lot of us think the same though.

Let's move on to some positivity. Some of you are beginning to make my eyes bleed to be honest.

[racedo]

BAA built a very nice new STN against all airline advice then paid the price when reality kicked in. It has lovely facilities and growth potential galore as it's not as busy as it was supposed to be.
MAG are looking to make something of STN but the main reason BAA gave up and concentrated on LHR is that they tried everything to get other airlines in and no one was having it. BAA got badly burned by the whole debacle, all credit to MAG if they get things on a surer footing, but the transport strategy that got us to where are now was a fantasy in the 80s, compounded in the 90s then forgotten in the noughties.

They had pretty much forgotten about it and just wanted to offload.

[FRatSTN]

I think BAA is better left in the past. They were a nasty, greedy airport monopoly that spared no thought to anywhere or anyone other than Heathrow. They epically failed and finally paid the price. That's why they no longer exist! What they are now known as I think explains exactly where their priority is clear enough! Not to mention the suggested sales of SOU, ABZ and GLA.

But bizarrely everything Skipness refers to is under BAA management. Yet just a year into MAG ownership and Stansted becomes one of the UK's fastest growing airports and it's fair to say new carriers are coming in quicker than they have done for several years. Funny how that happens. Some co-incidence would you say Skipness?

[j636]

MAG are going the exact same way as BAA, they are gathering a monopoly in the UK to!!!

Before STN MAG were all MAN like BAA were LHR and didn't do much for there other airports oh wait they sold one instead.

[Skipness One Echo]

Funny how that happens. Some co-incidence would you say Skipness?

As I alluded to they tried everything to make it work, to save face, then just lost the will to continue pushing it. Terminal 5 was given the green light twenty years late and LHR became a delayed focus as the shameful neglect there was addressed belatedly. Bare in mind the LHR airlines had been angered by substantial capital investment being focussed on STN when they were paying serious money to LHR and seeing facilities fall into neglect. STN was the major focus after Terminal 4 and later the North Terminal at Gatwick opened.

MAG can do all sorts of things to get traffic in, BAA got Continental, Lufthansa, SAS, American Airlines (twice) but all were unsustainable. Right now MAG are getting the traffic back up, I genuinely hope they succeed where BAA failed. It's re-writing history to suggest they didn't try very hard though.

[pamann]

So a year on and Stansted under MAG ownership has achieved...

• Thomas Cook increasing based units from 1 x A320 to 2 x A321
• Air Maldova (poached from LGW)
• Atlantic Airways (Poached from LGW)
• Aegean Airlines (Return of at peak seaon)
• Ryanair increase/return of of 7 based units
• FlyBe in the disguise of Logan Air (as announced today)

We should also now see potential future growth from EasyJet. Not bad really for a year seeing it was stagnant under BAA's ownership. Will be interesting to look back in a years time.

One thing I will add is that having used Stansted recently the new security area looks a bit cheap and shabby like some poor MFI job. I do hope they improve on it.

[LTNman]

So we have a list of gains but what has Stansted lost in the last year?

There are a few easyjet aircraft based at Southend I am sure MAG would like to get back.

[Burnie5204]

One thing I will add is that having used Stansted recently the new security area looks a bit cheap and shabby like some poor MFI job.

Welcome to MAG terminal redevlopments....

[boeing_eng]

As I have always said Stansted is a great airport and I am a fan of the place but I wonder why the business jet community has never really taken to the place and prefers Luton.?

The main reason STN fails to attract Biz-Jets in similar numbers to LTN is location,location,location!

[NickBarnes]

Im hoping Stansted will get some long haul flights back, would be really great to see, but i agree Stansted has improved since BAA have gone, so lets forget about them and look to a brighter furture

[LTNman]

The main reason STN fails to attract Biz-Jets in similar numbers to LTN is location,location,location!

It has a better location than Farnborough I would have thought when it comes to getting to central London.

[Boeing 77W]

One thing I will add is that having used Stansted recently the new security area looks a bit cheap and shabby like some poor MFI job. I do hope they improve on it.

Couldn't agree more. It looks very poor. Same can be said for the new and 'improved' UK Arrivals.

[jdcg]

Security clearance is a lot quicker now though

[maggot738]

Long delays and several cancellations today due to Italian ATC strike!

[FRatSTN]

Schedules at Stansted for S14 look a lot less peaky than they have done for several years.

Typically from about 13:30/14:00 till 16:00 in the afternoon, the place usually pretty much went dead.

That no longer seems to happen where these times are significantly busier for S14. The busiest periods around early afternoon and early evening are also generally slightly less intense than previously, helping to make a much better spread of flights across the day.

Of course there's still going to be some busier and quieter periods, but nowhere near as extreme. Only a brief spell in the morning at around 09:00 or 10:00 and then in the evening for a short time about 21:00 or so, are generally quieter.

To put this into context, here is the Departures on a Monday between 13:00 and 15:00 in S13 compared to S14:

S13
EZY3103 13:05 Nice
FR2281 13:05 Warsaw-Chopin
QS2175 13:05 Gran Canaria
EZY259 13:15 Belfast-International
EZY3245 13:15 Ljubljana
FR2462 13:15 Bydgoszcz
EZY3189 13:20 Lyon
FR8474 13:20 Poitiers
FR032 13:30 Oslo-Torp
FR8182 13:35 Fuerteventura
FR225 13:40 Dublin
FR908 13:40 Cork
FR1396 13:45 Oslo-Rygge
FR2612 13:45 Santander
FR3004 13:55 Rome-Ciampino
FR4196 13:55 Milan-Bergamo
FR8132 14:00 Gran Canaria
GR625 14:20 Guernsey
FR8592 15:00 Bergerac

S14
EZY3103 13:05 Nice
FR4196 13:05 Milan-Bergamo
FR3004 13:10 Rome-Ciampino
EZY259 13:15 Belfast-International
EZY3071 13:15 Munich
FR2281 13:15 Warsaw-Modlin
FR2462 13:15 Bydgoszcz
FR1396 13:20 Oslo-Rygge
FR225 13:40 Dublin
FR908 13:40 Cork
FR2612 13:50 Santander
TOM5116 13:55 Gran Canaria
9U834 14:00 Chisinau
EZY3191 14:00 Lyon
FR032 14:05 Oslo-Torp
FR7965 14:05 Osijek
FR8132 14:10 Gran Canaria
FR8546 14:15 Berlin-Schonefeld
FR8182 14:20 Fuerteventura
GR625 14:20 Guernsey
FR105 14:30 Shannon
FR754 14:35 Frankfurt-Hahn
FR2404 14:35 Munich-Memmingen
FR8345 14:40 Porto
TCX7982 14:40 Bodrum
FR8592 14:50 Bergerac
FR9275 14:50 Eindhoven
FR5986 15:00 Madrid

[LTNman]

FR,FR,FR,FR,FR,FR,FR,FR,FR,FR,FR,FR,FR,FR,FR,FR,FR,FR,

Almost a one horse airport The airport could do with a bit more diversity to give it a really secure future.

[mikkie4]

Thought EZY agreed with MAG to increase their flights from STN, may of had a change of heart

[nt639]

But still with almost double the amount of passengers as LTN & 18 times SEN & Rising

[LTNman]

Very true but another way to look at it is that Luton is running at almost full while Stanated is half empty

Joking aside what is Stansted's present capacity? What is Stansted's growth rate if you strip out FR?