BOURNEMOUTH - 2

[Keyvon]

Also :

Malaga with Thomson
Bourgas with Balkan Holidays
Corfu with Thomas Cook

seem to have all gone for good.

Confirmed charter destinations for Summer 2011 are :

Antalya with Thomson
Bodrum with Thomson
Corfu with Thomson
Dalaman with Thomson and Holidays4U (Onur Air)
Enfidha with Thomson (replacing Monastir)
Ibiza with Thomson
Palma with Thomson
Paphos with Thomson
Rhodes with Thomson
Sharm el Sheikh with Thomson
Tenerife South with Thomson

In addition, there will be several one-off depatures to Verona, Catania, Naples, Dubrovnik as well as Porto. All of them operated by Lithuanian carrier Small Planet Airlines for Newmarket Air Hols.

Shame no IT flights to Mahon, Larnaca, Brescia/Verona, Heraklion or Funchal this year. Give it a go, Thomson!

I'm not be able to know which kind of destinations are confirmed with Thomas Cook, since I have not been able to book anything with them, not even Antalya or Dalaman, which were confirmed for the summer. Can anyone shed a light on this ?

[possibleconsequences]

''Also, when BHX was closed the other day, the airport turns away up to 10 diverts as they never had enough fire cover.''

The airport has adequate fire cover for diversions. The real reason is they no longer have enough handling staff , especially late in the evening.The airport management have never got to grips properly with the diversions issue,aircraft are turned away too often.

[Heathhurn]

More than a clue

IMAYNOSUMMIT asserts that the problem with BOH is that the people running the airport have not got a clue what they are doing. Nothing could be further from the truth. The team at BOH backed by MAG have tremendous expertise resource and the will to succeed. This has been proven time and again most recently last year when they processed record passenger numbers safely and expeditiously through a terminal in the process of build. Successful Regional Airport management is the most difficult of tasks especially so at an airport with marginal catchment whose population are mostly retired folk who have seen their incomes slashed through collapsed interest rates on their savings. Also bear in mind that the catchment at BOH is only 180 degrees the other 180 is in the sea. Winters at BOH in the past have been similarly quiet but BOH has always rallied in the rest of the year. Without doubt there are challenges ahead, but the team in place is resourceful determined and committed to seeing BOH flourish. This is the only airport in the region with modern large terminal capacity, Cat 3 ILS, and capacity to handle aircraft up to B747. With the current management expertise it will develop and prosper, In 5 years time it will be a major player in UK southern airports. I am not an airport employee so have no axe to grind.

[Groundloop]

The real reason is they no longer have enough handling staff , especially late in the evening.The airport management have never got to grips properly with the diversions issue,aircraft are turned away too often.

As the currently only have one - sometimes two - scheduled pax flights per day why on earth would they keep a lot of handling staff on duty? So that once in a blue moon they can handle a few diversions? Diversions are NOT big business.

[MARKEYD]

Thomas Cook flights to Antalya and Dalaman are still bookable , operating on a Friday and Saturday on a W pattern from Gatwick using Boeing 757 aircraft . There is however a short gap in July when both services are stopping and then re start in August

[Big Tony]

I was told by service air that there was adequate fire cover for the 12 diversions but most of them were ryanair and got turned away ( This may have been an up yours) I don't know if this was true. Jet2 also got asked to accept gatwick diverts the same day but none never materialised

[possibleconsequences]

''As the currently only have one - sometimes two - scheduled pax flights per day why on earth would they keep a lot of handling staff on duty? So that once in a blue moon they can handle a few diversions? Diversions are NOT big business''

i understand it's not once in a blue moon and has happened during busier times too. In any case, surely retaining enough staff to accept the odd diversion makes good business sense for an airport which wants to grow?
Every time an aircraft diverts in the awareness of the facilities that are already in place and those that are under construction spreads. It may not be big business but it seems like good business.Every time a diversion is turned away the pilot reports back to his / her airline that Bournemouth do not accept them- this can't be good for an airport which needs to attract more routes etc

[Mexotag]

I wouldn't be so sure on Ryanair's return, just looked and there is nothing for the summer. Which means, booking to fly from another airport. Does anyone actually know why Bournemouth has never really worked?

[Knife-Edge]

Does anyone actually know why Bournemouth has never really worked?

Perhaps because the only Low Cost Operator that has given it a serious go has too many seats on thier aircraft = insufficient yield.

The trouble is in the current climate I can't see anyone else being willing to give it a serious go... though hopefully they can convince someone to at least dip their toe, otherwise without Ryanair & Palmair it could be a very quiet - and embarrassing - 2011 summer season at BOH!

[Mexotag]

Excuse my ignorance... but if RYR isn't really a serious player in BOH (no summer flights available) why isn't another carrier coming in? I agree with the yields, but EZY have the A319? I think it would make a good competitor to RYR.

I am very sad for the Palmair employees, but I knew it would happen eventually. I doubt the company will last much more.

[Knife-Edge]

but EZY have the A319? I think it would make a good competitor to RYR

Probably the correct size a/c (or smaller), but I can't see them slotting BOH in between LGW and BRS in the current economic climate. Hope I'm wrong though.

[compton3bravo]

Re Palmair/bath Travel

Sad news about Palmair but agree with some other posters not really surprised in the present climate. Although Bath Travel have a loyal following the only IT customers to my way of thinking could be the odd one-day visits to Venice, Rome etc. and charter an aircraft in as required.
Regarding Bath Travel if my memory serves me correctly was it not a few years ago that the founder - Peter Bath - was contemplating charging 'customers' 10 Pounds for the privilege of picking up some brochures from their travel outlets and this would be taken off any holidays booked!
Fortunately I do not think this idea was put into practice but any Bath Travel employee might be able to confirm or deny.
As for Bournmouth Airport a real struggle to keep going over the next few years I fear - do not like to see any airfield close but I do fear for its 'passenger' side.

[Random Flyer]

A very sorry state of affairs at Bournemouth at the moment. I really hope Ryanair proceed with a program of some sort for S11, if not the city itself could suffer, not just the airport.

Looking beyond Ryanair, I would agree FlyBe have the "perfect" aircraft for a market like Bournemouth, but with their large presence at Southampton, would a base at Bournemouth be unrealistic?

What about Air Southwest/Eastern Airways?

[RooCat]

It would seem realistic and viable for an airline like Air Southwest to maybe base an aircraft in Bournemouth. most flights from Plymouth go via Newquay just to fill the aircraft more easily and using their model, flights from bournemouth could link up to their operations from Bristol, which would mean the airport gets routes such as Jersey, Manchester, Leeds/Bradford as well as maybe a route to Aberdeen through a code-share with Eastern. However, could Eastern maybe build at Bournemouth without affecting their Southampton operation?

[benm345]

Flybe back?

Not sure if this is correct, but ive just been checking a few flights from Southampton. Noticed that Bournemouth was still one of the origin airports on the search options and its showing Belfast city, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Isle of Man as available to book.

[pug]

Just looked on the booking engine, it would seem BOH is due to get some welcome news this week

[RooCat]

looks like Glasgow I and Edinburgh could be new destinations with onwards connections to Inverness,Belfast City and IOM. However as pug says, nothing official yet on timetable. Could well be interesting!

[GCILover]

these are all onwards connections that were available for booking when they flew BOH-MAN. Think it might be a case of them not being removed when they dropped MAN

[fanrailuk]

GCILover you could, sadly, be correct. The CWL-NCL was in the pull-down menu for about 2 weeks after it had stopped and also is still 'lights up' on the route map at flybe.com - it's probably just an IT/webmater issue of updating the website...[hopefully not]!

PP

[Nakata77]

if you go to 'connection' timetables then it shows Bournemouth to these destinations. But if you go to 'online timetables' then it doesnt have Bournemouth as an option. It seems that during their re-design to their website they must have left in the connection options. I would really love to be wrong but i dont think it has any hopeful meaning.