CORK - 5

[gavinhicks]

assuming the stobart sale to cityjet goes through, and that leeds is going to be dropped, could we see stobart operating next year the la rochelle and nantes routes in the leeds time slot for aer lingus regional or cityjet, or did they not perform well and could just be dropped

[AerRyan]

Any merger won't have any affect on next summers ops at least as they usually take years to complete.

[aer lingus]

Were they not charter flights, I'm sure they were.

[AerRyan]

Most certainly were not, they were regular scheduled flights.

[Jamie2k9]

The routes need the SSJ to do well not a slow prop.

Loads for June & July:
La Rochelle - 65.8% & 79.2%
Nantes - 64% & 84.9%

Factor in first 2-3 inbound in June were likely mostly empty.

[eirbus06]

KLM at Cork

Heard from a source that KLM have applied for slots in Cork. And i know Cork doesn't have slots but that is how it was worded.

[AerRyan]

Hmm interesting.

Of course if it does come off it won't exactly be unforseen.

Question is what will EI do in that case? Is it bye bye to a bases aircraft or hello to another route?

[eirbus06]

That's the big question AerRyan. I suppose only time will tell, Aerlingus have great timings for the connections in Amsterdam, but KLM will have the codeshare.

[Jamie2k9]

Heard from a source that KLM have applied for slots in Cork. And i know Cork doesn't have slots but that is how it was worded.

It's worded correctly, they will still be a slot coordination system in place at the airport.

If it does come off I think EI may move some capacity to Paris and bucket and spade but not fully pull out of AMS for the moment.

[Charlie Roy]

If it does come off I think EI may move some capacity to Paris and bucket and spade

Or move capacity to OneWorld hubs like Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin...

[840]

Madrid would make easy sense just by having Aer Lingus operate the route rather than Iberia Express.

I also note that Düsseldorf got off to a relatively strong start, carrying more pax in May and June than the long-established Munich service (although I think the days in the month may have meant more services in June). It could be a possibility for growth.

You'd have to wonder though how much more demand there could be to the Barcelona region.

[Jamie2k9]

Charile Roy,

OW is great but I think people under estimate viability of routees. BCN is x4 weekly and seasonal any increase would likely work in summer but not because of and alliance. OW wont make it work outside summer. TXL was tried before and I don't see them going back. MAD have IB but again I don't see EI going back.

EI will stick to where the money can be made on bucket and spade, perhaps LIS or NCE might get another try.

[840]

I think the previous Berlin service was to SXF, although Aer Lingus operate to TXL from Dublin nowadays.

I suspect expansion to hubs would work better to those with long-haul connections. Nowadays, most non-business travellers seem to be happy to take the overland trip up to Dublin if there's a direct flight from there, instead of connecting in LHR, AMS or CDG.

With that in mind, I don't see the Air Berlin hub in TXL or the Vueling hub in BCN attracting many passengers who are looking to connect.

MAD is a different possibility altogether, with plenty of good connections available from there.

Also, remember that if KLM do arrive, they take a lot of the connecting pax and it's a limited pool.

[Jamie2k9]

I think the previous Berlin service was to SXF, although Aer Lingus operate to TXL from Dublin nowadays.

I suspect expansion to hubs would work better to those with long-haul connections. Nowadays, most non-business travellers seem to be happy to take the overland trip up to Dublin if there's a direct flight from there, instead of connecting in LHR, AMS or CDG.

With that in mind, I don't see the Air Berlin hub in TXL or the Vueling hub in BCN attracting many passengers who are looking to connect.

MAD is a different possibility altogether, with plenty of good connections available from there.

Also, remember that if KLM do arrive, they take a lot of the connecting pax and it's a limited pool.

TXL move is nothing more than operational. If you want to offer a good hub service then increasing DUS to connect with AB is most logical, EI probally won't be in OW for a long time. Thing with MAD is I don't think it will that useful for many as it's heavily S America focused where as AMS/LHR East and West where more demand is.

[840]

That's probably a fair point. Of the connections available through Iberia in Madrid, if you exclude those where you are flying in completely the wrong direction, only Johannesburg generates significant traffic out of Cork.

[AerRyan]

KEF 4x weekly with WOW AIR announced next summer.

[840]

I did not see that one coming.

4x weekly seems very ambitious, even with all the North American connections.

I wonder what this means for Norwegian.

[AerRyan]

Absoutley nothing as the service was never actually going to happen anyway.

[gavinhicks]

Your right there I think, wow is a good alternative and the flights will operate 3 weekly in the winter. There are some very competitive intro fares from 149 each way to Boston or new York, it will surely eat into klm/ba/ei's connecting passengers through lhr, ams and cdg.

[EI-A330-300]

Well no one saw this coming but I feel its to much freq. Wow are great at offering this 149 fares for 2 dates in season. Their charges add up quickly so I dont see current carriers worrying.