LONDON CITY - 2

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by virginblue

Anyone having information about the percentage of transfer pax at LCY? Is it negligible or has it increased?

Was on a BA EDI-LCY flight yesterday and the FA was stickering a couple of boarding passes with "transfer stickers".

Not just BA, but having been on Cityjet in the last couple of days they too seem to be increasing their marketing efforts on connections through LCY, from Dublin and from the forthcoming Cork route to the continent.

Cityjet seem to have a new spring in their step, after some time of being in a decline and cutting back routes. To and from Dublin, in what traditionally has been LCY's "quiet month", load factors were at or close to 100%.

[virginblue]

I was on a WX opf AF flight yesterday and browsed their inflight mag. The editorial by Pat Byrne mentioned a quite spectacular increase of the loads on LCY-DUB. Cannot remember the exact figure, but it was quite impressive and I wondered if it really could be natural growth.

[Skipness One Echo]

If it's month on month it might be the result of forcing flybe off the route?

[globetrotter79]

...the result of dumping fares??

[virginblue]

I thought about the Flybe route cancellation as well but assumed that BE would rather rebook on BA than WX. Am I wrong here?

[WHBM]

I heard that Flybe's loads on LCY-DUB were minimal anyway, hence it being dropped. What say you ramp guys ?

I'm aware that as soon as you say "Load Factor" someone will respond "Yield", but the fare you've actually paid yourself is a bit of a pointer, and being a regular on the run it doesn't seem to have changed. If you can hold your fare, get a better LF, and have the price of fuel halve, then things will start to look up. I do get the impression that there is a transfer of pax taking place from LHR to LCY, and if the newly combined BA and EI "streamline" their offering from Heathrow on the route, this must surely increase. It would be overstepping my knowledge to state that Pat Byrne and his small team would seem to understand more about Yield than Air France did, but I wonder ...

[Vick Van Guard]

Cityjet took delivery of an additional RJ85 on Friday. Fleet now stands at 18 RJ's.

[s2art1e]

interestingly EI-RJB was withdrawn from use August last year and almost exactly a year later is re introduced into the Cityjet fleet.

The iintroduction/increase of the Irish flights (Cork/Dublin) plus the decrease in fuel costs seem to have given Cityjet a lifeline. Plus the discontinuation of non profitable routes like Dresden have helped.

[TartinTon]

I heard that Flybe's loads on LCY-DUB were minimal anyway

75% in its last full month (March) doesn't seem too bad.....certainly better than WX....but an expensive airport and a low yield don't make for a good mix.

[Wingman1000]

Can anybody confirm the rumour regarding a new BA route?

[BHD2BFS]

I heard BHD last year a few times

[cornishsimon]

Shame that nobody wants to give NQY a go summer seasonal !
cs

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by BHD2BFS

I heard BHD last year a few times

Just by my casual experience of load factors and fares charged, this seems to be the best of Flybe's operations out of LCY. If BA push them off then that might be the end for them here. A bit surprising, as BHD had previously had a poor history of demand from City.

If I were the new forthcoming investor in LCY I'd be getting a bit concerned at one carrier, BA, becoming so dominant there.

[WHBM]

Came out of LCY on Tuesday morning. Often I make my own way there but this time needed a cab. What an absolute chaos the road approach was, it was jammed solid from BEFORE the signals where you turn into the airport, right round to the terminal drop off, and seemingly then back all the way to the signals again. It took 20 minutes from the signals to the drop off. Now the previous day, when driving nearby at the same time, it seemed worse, it had blocked back right to the Connaught Bridge roundabout and jammed the Royal Docks Road from the Beckton side of the dock.

So what has happened here ? People were abandoning cabs and walking up the road to the terminal. I guess some flights were missed.

[wallp]

Where next from LCY?

Where could the next new destinations be from LCY?

Could the sunshine routes like PMI, IBZ be expanded upon?

How about another go at some Scandinavian routes?

Or perhaps another attempt at cities like TXL, VIE.......?

Or even something completely new like WAW or PRG?

[Skipness One Echo]

WAW was run by BA CityFlyer before who also tried ARN and CPH after SAS gave up. VIE was operated by Austrian F70s and almost every major German city has had a go. Lufthansa even gave up on MUC!

Since the same airline is unlikely to try again (BA and GLA /DUB being strategic changes via the wider BA group, later IAG) , the list of possible newcomers is tiny sadly.

Think Mahon is being dropped for next year also?

[BAladdy]

MAH definitely dropped for S16

[good egg]

Number 1 again for punctuality

Seems a 20% increase in pax hasn't affected punctuality too badly....

UK Airport Ranking (Scheduled Delays: Jan-Jun 2015)
1st London City 7.94 mins
2nd Belfast Int'l 9.27 mins
3rd Belfast City 9.42 mins
4th Bournemouth 9.80 mins
5th Durham TV 9.93 mins
6th Newcastle 10.11 mins
7th Birmingham 10.13 mins
8th Leeds Bradford 10.23 mins
9th East Midlands 10.45 mins
10th Aberdeen 10.45 mins
11th Bristol 10.56 mins
12th Stansted 10.97 mins
13th Liverpool 11.03 mins
14th Edinburgh 11.84 mins
15th Exeter. 11.85 mins
16th Doncaster. 12.55 mins
17th London Luton 13.09 mins
18th Manchester 13.14 mins
19th Heathrow. 13.24 mins
20th Glasgow. 14.19 mins
21st Cardiff. 14.54 mins
22nd Gatwick. 15.32 mins
23rd Jersey. 16.62 mins
24th S'ton. 17.19 mins

Still need that planning permission though to maintain/improve performance....

[SealinkBF]

Fly from LCY on Friday, back on Sunday.

Observations:

- The airport is busy on Friday night, as you'd imagine, but I still found somewhere to sit.
- £5.75 for a pint!!! Where's 'Spoons when you need one!
- All the self service check-in machines seemed to switch off when you used the touch screen. Tried about seven. Very frustrating.
- The main escalator to Departures was out of service
- Security was fast - any delay due to due other pax.
- Could not find a working power socket to charge my 'phone, despite there being dozens of sockets.
- Eastern Airways for BA to Isle of Man was great - really nice service and no real indication that it was an Eastern Airways 'plane. Was flying BA for all intents. The flight was more or less full.
- Isle of Man (Ronaldsway) Airport is a joy!!!

[Red Four]

According to the airport web-site today of the inbound flights there were 43 cancellations, 13 diversions out and 6 landed. That's a lot of passengers to be re-scheduled.