NEWCASTLE - 7
Join Date: Nov 2005
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Does anyon know whom will be taking over the flying for the likes of Olympic and Style? Surely there is a gap in the market for a pure charter company.
XL were a fab company - RIP XL
XL were a fab company - RIP XL
Join Date: Oct 2002
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I would imagine that for what is left of this summer the formerly operated XLA flights will most likely be cancelled, with the likes of passengers from Olympic, Libra etc being accommodated from other airports. Their passenger numbers on XLA flights were small, probably not enough to generate a full charter.
I totally agree nclpilot despite the down turn in the market, there still could be room for an independant charter outfit, who serve the needs of the smaller tour operators who do not have their own inhouse airline, such as Olympic, Libra, Mark Warner etc. These companies often specialise in smaller destinations, where the big two tend not to serve en-mass, particularly from regional airport. Destinations in Greece are well served from LGW and MAN, but they have also operated very successfully from NCL, GLA and BRS for a number of years, with loads to JSI, KVA, EFL etc very high all year round. The only stumbling block is whether anyone would set up an airline in this current climate and of course whether the smaller niche operators survive themselves. I for one hope they do......I have said this before, but the geordies and regional folk love their Palma's, Alicante's and Malaga's, but we also like to have a choice of something different. Summer 09 has only been on sale a short while, maybe we could see soemthing different from TUI or TCX?? Already J2 have branched out and announced SPU!
I totally agree nclpilot despite the down turn in the market, there still could be room for an independant charter outfit, who serve the needs of the smaller tour operators who do not have their own inhouse airline, such as Olympic, Libra, Mark Warner etc. These companies often specialise in smaller destinations, where the big two tend not to serve en-mass, particularly from regional airport. Destinations in Greece are well served from LGW and MAN, but they have also operated very successfully from NCL, GLA and BRS for a number of years, with loads to JSI, KVA, EFL etc very high all year round. The only stumbling block is whether anyone would set up an airline in this current climate and of course whether the smaller niche operators survive themselves. I for one hope they do......I have said this before, but the geordies and regional folk love their Palma's, Alicante's and Malaga's, but we also like to have a choice of something different. Summer 09 has only been on sale a short while, maybe we could see soemthing different from TUI or TCX?? Already J2 have branched out and announced SPU!
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I seem to think a good little niche operator would plug a gap, mainly to the greek islands. But, as is rightly pointed out, todays market is risky. However, with the collapse of XL, there is a MASSIVE gap in the ad-hoc charter market. XL were big players with the likes of Thomson and Thomas Cook not having the capacity to cater for this lucrative market. Could see the emergance of a company to fill the gap......only time will tell.
ATC newcastle
NO radar ??It was last weekend and also last week I spotted it on AIS.
Do they still operate a ground service ?DTV seem to have sorted there ATC problems out now???
Do they still operate a ground service ?DTV seem to have sorted there ATC problems out now???
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Join Date: Jul 2003
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I have heard that there had been a few problems with morale in ATC at NCL but had not realised they had materialised into closures. I just hope the managment at NCL will treat their staff better than they do down the road at MME.
Join Date: Nov 2004
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As it is quiet at the moment maybe I can give my thoughts on my first trip with Emirates. NCL-DXB-BKK and back.
Check-in no probs. Security, well I went through a few large airports and a couple of provincial Thai ones this trip and is NCL the only airport left asking pax to take laptops out of their hand luggage case?? It can be a real hassle.
At the gate it is an excellent idea to sort out the ID and tear off boarding cards before the holding area so that when the plane is ready you just walk on. That must increase the turn-around times and saves a lot of the bun fight when “ready for boarding” is announced. Can this not be adopted at all NCL gates??
Food and drink on the plane was excellent(though I don’t have a problem with my normal flight in that respect) but very disappointed with the famed entertainment system. They mention “over 40 films”, but any given flight has nothing near that number.I enjoy watching films but it was only on the way back that I found one I even vaguely wanted to watch and my video screen wasn’t working properly! No option of trying the games either.
And why do all airlines show films that they know they will stop before the ending? Grrr! (and when they can get men on the moon do they really have to serve butter that has a hardness factor of something approaching diamond?? Grrr!)
Then comes the big problem for me. The 7hrs to DXB comes too soon to sleep and feels like the main AMS-BKK that I’m used to so mentally I’m ready to get off in BKK feeling very tired. What I don’t want is the thought of 3 hours in DXB in the early hours followed by virtually the same flight again. The second leg could be the best or worst airline in the world, it doesn’t matter. All you want to do is get the food(quality unimportant) out the way and go to sleep. IIRC we didn’t even get a cup of tea before getting off that one but may have got that wrong.
The return was at different times and worked out better but when it is 2am BKK time, 11pm DXB time(and pax possibly having to miss their evening meal to get to BKK for check-in time) when the first meal is served soon after getting on the plane why do they give us breakfast?????
Not impressed with DXB. Great if you want to buy the latest shoes and handbags and unnecessarily expensive gold objects, but the main seating area upstairs is terrible. Over half the seats unoccupied but you couldn’t sit on any of them as there were-literally-hundreds of bodies lying asleep on the floor right in front of them, even when a lot could have slept against the wall away from the seats. Large queues for the toilets(male and female) as well around the central part of the area.
The biggest plus of all for Emirates is the staff who were all excellent. Well dressed, friendly and efficient in all departments.
My next trip out is already booked with China(done before this trip), and I think I’m pleased except that I will have to rely on that terrible KLM link to AMS. Even this trip while I was waiting for my flight, NCL staff were telling pax that their KLM flight had been cancelled and those with onward connections, well, tough. No reason given(grrr!). And this was after going through security. Also on that route it is no better than 50/50 that my suitcase makes it. Why????
So plenty of good things(including the price) about Emirates but the killer for me is in the timings.
Check-in no probs. Security, well I went through a few large airports and a couple of provincial Thai ones this trip and is NCL the only airport left asking pax to take laptops out of their hand luggage case?? It can be a real hassle.
At the gate it is an excellent idea to sort out the ID and tear off boarding cards before the holding area so that when the plane is ready you just walk on. That must increase the turn-around times and saves a lot of the bun fight when “ready for boarding” is announced. Can this not be adopted at all NCL gates??
Food and drink on the plane was excellent(though I don’t have a problem with my normal flight in that respect) but very disappointed with the famed entertainment system. They mention “over 40 films”, but any given flight has nothing near that number.I enjoy watching films but it was only on the way back that I found one I even vaguely wanted to watch and my video screen wasn’t working properly! No option of trying the games either.
And why do all airlines show films that they know they will stop before the ending? Grrr! (and when they can get men on the moon do they really have to serve butter that has a hardness factor of something approaching diamond?? Grrr!)
Then comes the big problem for me. The 7hrs to DXB comes too soon to sleep and feels like the main AMS-BKK that I’m used to so mentally I’m ready to get off in BKK feeling very tired. What I don’t want is the thought of 3 hours in DXB in the early hours followed by virtually the same flight again. The second leg could be the best or worst airline in the world, it doesn’t matter. All you want to do is get the food(quality unimportant) out the way and go to sleep. IIRC we didn’t even get a cup of tea before getting off that one but may have got that wrong.
The return was at different times and worked out better but when it is 2am BKK time, 11pm DXB time(and pax possibly having to miss their evening meal to get to BKK for check-in time) when the first meal is served soon after getting on the plane why do they give us breakfast?????
Not impressed with DXB. Great if you want to buy the latest shoes and handbags and unnecessarily expensive gold objects, but the main seating area upstairs is terrible. Over half the seats unoccupied but you couldn’t sit on any of them as there were-literally-hundreds of bodies lying asleep on the floor right in front of them, even when a lot could have slept against the wall away from the seats. Large queues for the toilets(male and female) as well around the central part of the area.
The biggest plus of all for Emirates is the staff who were all excellent. Well dressed, friendly and efficient in all departments.
My next trip out is already booked with China(done before this trip), and I think I’m pleased except that I will have to rely on that terrible KLM link to AMS. Even this trip while I was waiting for my flight, NCL staff were telling pax that their KLM flight had been cancelled and those with onward connections, well, tough. No reason given(grrr!). And this was after going through security. Also on that route it is no better than 50/50 that my suitcase makes it. Why????
So plenty of good things(including the price) about Emirates but the killer for me is in the timings.
Join Date: Nov 2004
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Yes, the toilets were spotless.
757:
you know me better than that!!! Guess who got stuck in BKK when the political protests shut Phuket and Hat Yai airports. Being stuck in Bangkok is not the end of the world but 2 or 3 extra nights adds to the expense when the week in Phuket is already paid for, but pales into insignificance when compared to the cost of the mobile phone bill trying to get through to Air Asia to try and rebook and put on hold for 45mins a time @ £1 per minute. Several times. I normally keep a phone in Bangkok with a local sim card for such occasions but it wasn't to hand this time( though 1 extra day and it would have been!)
757:
you know me better than that!!! Guess who got stuck in BKK when the political protests shut Phuket and Hat Yai airports. Being stuck in Bangkok is not the end of the world but 2 or 3 extra nights adds to the expense when the week in Phuket is already paid for, but pales into insignificance when compared to the cost of the mobile phone bill trying to get through to Air Asia to try and rebook and put on hold for 45mins a time @ £1 per minute. Several times. I normally keep a phone in Bangkok with a local sim card for such occasions but it wasn't to hand this time( though 1 extra day and it would have been!)
