BRISTOL - 4

[2J&D]

What I would say with regards to the CO route, is that we are coming up to what should normally be the busiest time of the year. A lot of people would have organised their travel plans for the likes of Florida and West coast USA some time before now and I believe they would still be wanting to travel. The £-$ exchange is still good and this could sway people to stick with their travel plans. It may be quiet at present but come mid July/Aug I would think the flights are pretty busy. After that though who knows. Don't forget a plane does not have to be full to make money, you might find that the seats booked are high yielding and with the recent press article lets hope it may help from a business travel point of view.

I think the problem going to Europe is the strength of the Euro v £. I have been lucky in only receiving on currency surcharge for a customer but if it continues we could see the reduction of pax traveling to 'Euro using' countries because prices are being increased...and it has nothing to do with fuel surcharges!

I can say that we as an agent are busy and have not noticed a decline, people are still traveling. However we are not your standard high street agency, so whether this has something to do with it? Just hope the doom and gloom being predicted doesn't get too bad...

[smala01]

Frustration with the premium applied to KLM and Lufthansa long haul flights!

I work for multinational national based near Bristol - over the last couple of months we averaged approx 500 long haul outward sectors per month. My company along with the majority of others (I assume) have a cheapest ticket policy. We must take the cheapest usable ticket (Y) with a small (£60) personal discretion allowed for convenience.

Bristol would be far and away the most convenient airport to begin many of the journeys for myself and fellow colleagues (mainly to India and Far East – Lufty flight times are excellent) so I was excited by the introduction of the daily flight a few months back.

The trouble is the premium attached to this service (compared to a LHR legacy carrier) is about 25%. We are therefore forced to take the Heathrow “hell” option!

Of course if this flight is commercially successful then there is no need to change, but if the loads are still poor then PLEASE Lufthansa give us a comparable price so we can fly with you and support our local airport!

Smala01

[Confirmed Must Ride]

I am sure if you contacted LH directly and asked to meet with the sales manager responsible for this region they would be more than happy to negotiate a commercial agreement with you and your company if you are completing this many trips.

[2J&D]

Smala01,

do you have an in house agent? or us a particular agent? Might be worth them also speaking to the sales team at the airport. They have a dedicate person who deals with business travel and I am sure they would be interested in speaking with you, especially if you do have that many flight bookings. As CMR metioned, the airline could look at route deals etc dependant on the amount of travel you do! PM me if you want any more info.

Thanks

[Bristol_Traveller]

Smala01,

If you PM me, I can give you the details of LH's commercial manager, who can probably take some more affirmative action.

I *generally* don't find a premium per se on the flights ex-BRS; what I do find is availability on BRS-FRA segment can horrendously spike fares on the long-haul segment.

I'm currently battling to do BRS-FRA-GVA-FRA-BRS next week, and due to FRA-BRS being very busy one night next week it's spiking the fare for the whole journey from £230 to £1,233! LH's fare combination rules are the work of a maniac.

[MerchantVenturer]

CO to EWR and the vanishing CEO

I've emailed the South West Regional Development Agency today asking what they are doing to try to get local businesses to support the route in greater numbers.

I did get a reply and the guts of it is this:

We have and will continue to work with Paul Kehoe and his colleagues to promote the service to our business contacts and potential inward investors and promote the benefits of travelling from the regional airport over Heathrow. A challenge the Airport faces is that many of the major companies and potential users of the flight based in the South West are often not headquartered here and travel procurement decisions for global organisations can take place outside the region. Bearing that in mind we have also helped the Airport promote the route to US tour operators to increase inbound tourism which will also increase usage of the flight.

Fairly routine sort of reply - what you would expect I suppose.

However, they won't be working with Paul Kehoe at BRS any more - he's off north along the M 5. It's like musical chairs in the CEO's seat. Wonder if Andrew Skipp will come back.

Does this mean there will be yet more delays to the expansion planning applications to give the new man or woman time to review them, as Paul Kehoe did when he took on the job?

[LGS6753]

I met Mr K when at Luton, and he struck me then as 'passing through' on his career trajectory. No passion for aviation, more passion for the career!

Just a personal view, of course.

You may get someone better at BRS now.

[OltonPete]

CEO

LGS6753

If so could it be a big risk on his part?

BHX heading towards 10 million pax, FR base secured, runway application in, T1 new pier started and TK almost in the bag, you might say the only
way is down? In these economic times can it get any better, I suppose we will just have to wait and see?

Your paragraph is only 28 words if I counted correctly but chilling all the same .

I assume he secured Ryanair & Lufthansa going by the dates of his tenure at Bristol?

Pete

[bravoromeosierra]

On the subject of KLM a few posters above, doesn't CityHopper have an awful on-time rating for the 06:15 Amsterdam flight!

[bristolflyer]

Paul Kehoe has done little more than keep the seat warm. Ryanair was in the bag before he arrived and Lufthansa was being courted as soon as Flybe announced they were going to cease operations at Bristol. It is disappointing, but if he really is more interested in his career then it is a positive step for the airport. Bristol needs an MD that will fight it's corner. MV I doubt the next MD will re-think the expansion plan. Paul Kehoe had to review it because it was based, in part, on BA Connect and their small Embraer jets. By the time he was appointed they had left and Ryanair was in with the larger 737's, hence the resulting pier plan. Ryanair won't pay for a bus and the airport requires infrastructure to get passengers to the plane on foot. I wonder if the whole issue of development will be put on the back burner given the current financial climate. The expanded departure and security area seems to be working well (although I have only passed through in the afternoon). The airport will do well over the next year or two to retain the current levels of routes and passengers. They may decide to consolidate given the terminal can just about cope. They can get the pier on appeal and this would solve the outstanding problems of passenger flow in the short to medium term. Where did Andrew Skipp end up after being the fall-guy for the runway farce?

[Bristol_Traveller]

On the subject of KLM a few posters above, doesn't CityHopper have an awful on-time rating for the 06:15 Amsterdam flight!

Yes, and a pretty poor reputation for CANX flights. Which may be why I see a growing number of FB tags on handluggage on the LH flight to FRA.

Come over from the dark side, and find the light. You know you want to...

(Actually, I think OW is the "dark side". ST is more, urm, the "back side"?)

[crewmeal]

Car parking at Bristol

Another reason not to use this dump of an airport


http://www.uk-airport-news.info/bris...ews-060708.htm


Pull it down and develop Filton, it has the space, runways connections. Give Lulsgate back to the farmers where it belongs

[Bristol_Traveller]

Much as I agree with the complaints in that report, all the Airport is doing is aping the behaviour of its biggest customers - Easyjet and Ryanair. It's pretty standard behave for a company to exploit its monoply position wherever it can, and I'm sure the regulation of airport fees hasn't extended to baggage carts and car parks yet.

Filton appears to remain forever a missed opportunity. Like the girl you never asked out, it's simply less distressing not to ever think about it again.

[under_exposed]

The north field of Filton is about to be covered in houses so it is too late.

[birdscarer]

Stories like that make me laugh. There is ample free spaces to pull in by the exit booth without causing a blockage....more like I couldn't be arsed to walk over there. She clearly knew it was there prior to exiting the car park.

With regards to other charges, airports make very little from airlines. Someone has to pay for, and maintain, baggage trolleys - why shouldn't it be the customers that use them?

Crewmeal - whether Filton or Lulsgate (....totally hypothetical) were developed after Whitchurch, it would surely ultimately be the same management, who would impose the same charges and look for new revenue generators in a time where it is getting harder to make income.
I'm not sure if you understand the way an airport authority generates revenue?

[Standard Noise]

the way an airport authority raises revenue

By turning taxiways into carparks so they can fleece more punters.
Seems to be this years theme, anyhoo.

[Assurgent]

Standard

And pay your salary!

[L G Double-Yew]

A bit nostalgic perhaps, but a great archive of Brymon Airways photos including early days of the then "new" terminal at Bristol etc - if you follow the link to the Brymon photo archive from here Brymon Airways - history and photo archive

[Goldilocks95]

Those pictures are very strange to see. How it has changed!!!!

[mrloop]

Bristol in 2008 is rather different to how it was in the Brymon years.

I travelled through BRS on Wednesday and Thursday of this week finding it a rather disappointing experience despite sailing through arrivals and having a very fast baggage reclaim. The chaos to get away from the airport was horrendous - over a hundred people milling round the front waiting for the bus into the city centre (supposedly a 15 minute frequency but with the next bus showing as being due in 30 minutes). The taxi office was rammed solid with unhappy punters , a promised 5 to 10 minute wait being in reality 30 minutes (including a farcical offer of a shared taxi with two people wth pushbikes!). I really don't understand how the taxi company monopoly can be justified if the contractor can't meet peak demands.

The return trip showed that the improvements to security had worked but the departure lounge is a disgrace - once the queues for Ryanair and Easyjet flights had been circumnavigated it was eventually possible to find empty ripped and stained seats surrounded by piles of other peoples rubbish. The German colleague I was travelling with compared it to third world railway station...

It's clear to me that the airport has been so successful in attracting business that it has now totally exceeded the capacity of the available infrastructure. The drive from LHR or BHX is now only marginally worse than the BRS departure lounge.