BRISTOL - 4
Join Date: Jan 2005
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The only route GB did from BRS was TFS, but they dropped this before the EZY buy out i believe. So cant see anything to those areas coming from BRS, although I often think ATH and IST might of done well.
Join Date: Oct 2006
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TCX
I see TCX are having yet more bad luck and GTDL is tech in BJV i/b BRS 15 hours late. I take it the crew need some Zzzs. Yet again an old MYT bus let's them down.
Why bods go abroad stumps me with this kind of grief? They should stay here for our lovely summers!
Why bods go abroad stumps me with this kind of grief? They should stay here for our lovely summers!
Join Date: Jun 2007
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tcx tech
any idea whats wrong with the above a/c?or is it just a night stop for the crew too get minimum rest?ya and ed are now about 1hr 30 behind at the mo!regards brs planespotter
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it looks like the airport is going up for sale, as the australian owners are looking to boost there profits,as it looks like they will make a loss. all european airports they own are being sold off.thats according to the local bristol paper.
Brunel to Concorde
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It is reported that Macquarie Airports (MAp) posted a 'solid set of passenger traffic results' across its core portfolio in July, despite a weakening of short-haul European traffic, which hit Copenhagen Airport in particular.
MAp Chief Executive Officer Kerrie Mather said: “The value of the traffic diversity amongst MAp’s airports is being demonstrated. While there is a general softening in the European short haul market, the combination of Sydney’s continued growth, Brussels’ increased long haul offering and low cost international traffic at Bristol is ensuring that MAp’s core portfolio continues to deliver solid growth."
I haven't read the newspaper report to which you refer. If it turns out to be true maybe the growth is not as solid as MAp would wish.
Addendum
I have had a look through the financial press and it seems that MAp posted a first-half loss this year and announced it would reduce its stakes in two airports to cut debt. The announcement apparently sent its share price up nearly 10 percent.
The airports concerned are Copenhagen and Brussels and MAp is to sell around a quarter of its stake in each to another Macquarie fund.
I can find no mention that Bristol is involved in a sale or reduced stake.
In fact, although BRS is owned by Macquarie the set-up is slightly complicated and I can do no better than reproduce the ownership details as set out in the airport's own website.
Bristol International Airport is 100% owned by South West Airports Limited (SWAL), a joint venture holding company owned by Bristol Airport (Bermuda) Limited (BABL) and Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund (MEIF). Both BABL and MEIF are managed by Macquarie Capital Funds (Europe) Limited (MCFEL), a subsidiary of Macquarie Group Limited.
MAp Chief Executive Officer Kerrie Mather said: “The value of the traffic diversity amongst MAp’s airports is being demonstrated. While there is a general softening in the European short haul market, the combination of Sydney’s continued growth, Brussels’ increased long haul offering and low cost international traffic at Bristol is ensuring that MAp’s core portfolio continues to deliver solid growth."
I haven't read the newspaper report to which you refer. If it turns out to be true maybe the growth is not as solid as MAp would wish.
Addendum
I have had a look through the financial press and it seems that MAp posted a first-half loss this year and announced it would reduce its stakes in two airports to cut debt. The announcement apparently sent its share price up nearly 10 percent.
The airports concerned are Copenhagen and Brussels and MAp is to sell around a quarter of its stake in each to another Macquarie fund.
I can find no mention that Bristol is involved in a sale or reduced stake.
In fact, although BRS is owned by Macquarie the set-up is slightly complicated and I can do no better than reproduce the ownership details as set out in the airport's own website.
Bristol International Airport is 100% owned by South West Airports Limited (SWAL), a joint venture holding company owned by Bristol Airport (Bermuda) Limited (BABL) and Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund (MEIF). Both BABL and MEIF are managed by Macquarie Capital Funds (Europe) Limited (MCFEL), a subsidiary of Macquarie Group Limited.
Last edited by MerchantVenturer; 22nd Aug 2008 at 11:56. Reason: Addendum
StandupfortheUlstermen
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They could increase pax throughput at both BRS and CPH by persuading on of the airlines to set that route up again. That part of Europe is badly (or not at all, depending on how you look at it) served by the operators at Brizzel. Having spent some time in southern Sweden this year, it's a shame we only have a summer route to Stockholm, which is a bit far north.
Mind you, I'd have thought that Malmo was right up Ryanair's street, anyone for Copenhagen-Sturup?
MV - that last paragraph of yours explains why I'm an ATCO and not a businessman, it was all Greek to me!
Mind you, I'd have thought that Malmo was right up Ryanair's street, anyone for Copenhagen-Sturup?
MV - that last paragraph of yours explains why I'm an ATCO and not a businessman, it was all Greek to me!
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Mind you, I'd have thought that Malmo was right up Ryanair's street, anyone for Copenhagen-Sturup?
Join Date: May 2005
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Bristol International Airport is 100% owned by South West Airports Limited (SWAL), a joint venture holding company owned by Bristol Airport (Bermuda) Limited (BABL) and Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund (MEIF). Both BABL and MEIF are managed by Macquarie Capital Funds (Europe) Limited (MCFEL), a subsidiary of Macquarie Group Limited.
Some of their businesses are getting really walloped in the credit crunch. Broadly speaking, their businesses are massively leveraged, which is like taking out a massive mortgage against the value of the airport, probably to go and buy another airport. That's all fine and dandy whilst the revenue from the airport can keep up with the interest payments, and the airport value remains above that of the original price.
That's usually why MacBank businesses are so obsessed with cashflow - which is why they don't mind big building projects, but hate putting staff into operations, or cleaning things and so on.
I would guess that Bristol is still throwing off lots of cash - it's got relatively big passenger volumes, for a relatively small infrastructure cost. I'm guessing the cashflow from the airport is worth more than trying to get a lump-sum by selling it (particularly as it appears to be a buyers market for airports at the moment).
So my take is that MacBank will hold onto Bristol, as long as Easyjet and Ryanair and Charters keep the terminal packed to the gunwhales.
Join Date: May 2003
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Have you heard the one about the world renowned aerobatic team who wanted to park on the western apron at Bristol so they could have access to the ATC facilities but were told that they couldn't use the security gate beside the tower because they didn't have the requisite security passes? So they parked on the southside instead, where it appears, DfT aren't worried about security.
Dontcha just love the Dept for Tw*ts, sorry, I meant Dept for Transport
Dontcha just love the Dept for Tw*ts, sorry, I meant Dept for Transport
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Forced landing for Ryanair flight
Ryanair said the plane landed at Limoges as a "safety precaution"
A Ryanair flight carrying British holidaymakers has been forced to make an unscheduled landing due to a loss of cabin pressure, the company has said.
Flight FR9336 from Bristol to Barcelona Girona airport was diverted to Limoges, central France, on Monday night.
In total, 16 passengers were taken to hospital with earache.
In a separate incident, on Tuesday a Ryanair flight from Liverpool to Sardinia was diverted to Stansted following a minor technical problem.
Passengers on flight FR9642 from Liverpool to Alghero were transferred to a replacement aircraft.
'Safety precaution'
In a statement posted on its website, Ryanair said the loss of pressure "caused the oxygen masks on board to deploy".
"As a safety precaution the captain descended and diverted the aircraft to Limoges Airport at approximately 2330 local French time," the company said.
"All 168 passengers disembarked safely upon landing.
"A total of 16 passengers together with five accompanying family members have been transferred, at their request, to a local hospital complaining of earache.
"As a precaution, Limoges Airport have arranged a local doctor to be available to any other passengers should they require."
Arctic explorer Pen Hadow, who was on the flight with his family, told BBC News they had had no warning, "it just suddenly happened".
And when he had put on his mask, there had been "no oxygen flow coming through the line".
Mr Hadow, who became the first man to walk unaided to the North Pole in 2003, was also critical of a lack of communication by cabin crew and Ryanair ground staff.
"It was unfortunate that, for whatever reasons, the flight crew were not able to talk to any of us," he told BBC News.
"We really didn't see them during the main situation at all. They didn't say anything, they weren't visible. We have not heard a squeak.
"No-one at Ryanair... there was no physical presence and absolutely no sense of any sort of frontline communication with us.
"Some people thought we were going to die - that is how frightening it was. The woman sitting in the seats in front of us was whimpering.
"We have been through a genuine life-threatening emergency. The runway had fire engines all the way down the line, this was a full-on situation."
Ryanair's chief executive Michael O'Leary denied reports by passengers that their oxygen masks had not been working.
"Passengers sometimes misunderstand and expect there's going to be a surge of oxygen, when in actual fact there's simply a steady stream of oxygen," he said.
"I've been in one of these myself. The oxygen masks were working, the correct safety procedures were followed."
Passengers also complained that the flight crew failed to tell them immediately why the aircraft was descending so quickly.
Mr O' Leary said passengers had not been told immediately why the aircraft was descending so quickly because safety had been the crew's priority.
"We have to require that the pilots and the cabin crew deploy their oxygen masks and they can't be making PA announcements while they have their oxygen masks on," he said.
"As the passengers confirmed the pilot did make an announcement once he got down to 8,000ft, when it's safe to take oxygen masks off."
Ryanair said a replacement aircraft had been flown from Stansted Airport to Limoges and had taken the remaining passengers to Barcelona.
A Ryanair spokesman could not confirm how many passengers, other than those attending hospital, had chosen not to fly.
Ryanair said the plane landed at Limoges as a "safety precaution"
A Ryanair flight carrying British holidaymakers has been forced to make an unscheduled landing due to a loss of cabin pressure, the company has said.
Flight FR9336 from Bristol to Barcelona Girona airport was diverted to Limoges, central France, on Monday night.
In total, 16 passengers were taken to hospital with earache.
In a separate incident, on Tuesday a Ryanair flight from Liverpool to Sardinia was diverted to Stansted following a minor technical problem.
Passengers on flight FR9642 from Liverpool to Alghero were transferred to a replacement aircraft.
'Safety precaution'
In a statement posted on its website, Ryanair said the loss of pressure "caused the oxygen masks on board to deploy".
"As a safety precaution the captain descended and diverted the aircraft to Limoges Airport at approximately 2330 local French time," the company said.
"All 168 passengers disembarked safely upon landing.
"A total of 16 passengers together with five accompanying family members have been transferred, at their request, to a local hospital complaining of earache.
"As a precaution, Limoges Airport have arranged a local doctor to be available to any other passengers should they require."
Arctic explorer Pen Hadow, who was on the flight with his family, told BBC News they had had no warning, "it just suddenly happened".
And when he had put on his mask, there had been "no oxygen flow coming through the line".
Mr Hadow, who became the first man to walk unaided to the North Pole in 2003, was also critical of a lack of communication by cabin crew and Ryanair ground staff.
"It was unfortunate that, for whatever reasons, the flight crew were not able to talk to any of us," he told BBC News.
"We really didn't see them during the main situation at all. They didn't say anything, they weren't visible. We have not heard a squeak.
"No-one at Ryanair... there was no physical presence and absolutely no sense of any sort of frontline communication with us.
"Some people thought we were going to die - that is how frightening it was. The woman sitting in the seats in front of us was whimpering.
"We have been through a genuine life-threatening emergency. The runway had fire engines all the way down the line, this was a full-on situation."
Ryanair's chief executive Michael O'Leary denied reports by passengers that their oxygen masks had not been working.
"Passengers sometimes misunderstand and expect there's going to be a surge of oxygen, when in actual fact there's simply a steady stream of oxygen," he said.
"I've been in one of these myself. The oxygen masks were working, the correct safety procedures were followed."
Passengers also complained that the flight crew failed to tell them immediately why the aircraft was descending so quickly.
Mr O' Leary said passengers had not been told immediately why the aircraft was descending so quickly because safety had been the crew's priority.
"We have to require that the pilots and the cabin crew deploy their oxygen masks and they can't be making PA announcements while they have their oxygen masks on," he said.
"As the passengers confirmed the pilot did make an announcement once he got down to 8,000ft, when it's safe to take oxygen masks off."
Ryanair said a replacement aircraft had been flown from Stansted Airport to Limoges and had taken the remaining passengers to Barcelona.
A Ryanair spokesman could not confirm how many passengers, other than those attending hospital, had chosen not to fly.
Join Date: Apr 2006
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Forced landing
As the quotes came from the Bristol Evening Post, use of the term 'forced landing' is probably the best to be expected 
Still whilst understandably 'scarey' much prefer to go down rapidly and immediately rather than wait for full technical explanation from flight deck crew as to what was happening and what they were about to do whilst slowly falling asleep
FOR GOOD!!!
Not sure of actual time limitations on lack of O2 at usual cruising flight levels, but understand it's not very long before it has a major effect
Well done crew.
Still whilst understandably 'scarey' much prefer to go down rapidly and immediately rather than wait for full technical explanation from flight deck crew as to what was happening and what they were about to do whilst slowly falling asleep
FOR GOOD!!!
Not sure of actual time limitations on lack of O2 at usual cruising flight levels, but understand it's not very long before it has a major effect
Well done crew.
Join Date: Aug 2008
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I was on a Brussels Airlines flight back in April and we had to make an emergency decent due to cabin depressurisation (Masks came down). Landed at Bristol safely. Did it ever make it on to the news?
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Lufthansa heads for Winter hibernation
I've just been trying to book some BRS-FRA flights on LH in November, and come across a rather dramatic reduction in service.
By the looks of things, the Winter plan is:
M/T/W/Th - 3 rotations
F - 1.5 rotations (LH4965 / 4962 / 4963) - no midday rotation, only one early evening flight FRA-BRS
Sa - no flights
Su - 0.5 rotation (LH4964) - one early evening FRA-BRS (presumably as crew/aircraft positioning for BRS-FRA on Monday morning)
That's not a good indication, and so relatively soon in the route's life.
The Friday reductions are really going to hurt, with the only FRA-BRS flight leaving at 17:35. The later morning departures from BRS (at 07:00) mean losing some connections at FRA too.
By the looks of things, this is cutting back on the amount of crew overnights in Bristol (no overnighting on Friday or Saturday, and only one crew overnighting on Sunday), as well as cutting back on 6 rotations a week).
I know things are tough out there, but I would have thought the route needed more than 6 months to bed in?
Didn't BRS-DUS launch just at the beginning of an economic downturn, and not last long? Let's hope this won't be a repeat event....
By the looks of things, the Winter plan is:
M/T/W/Th - 3 rotations
F - 1.5 rotations (LH4965 / 4962 / 4963) - no midday rotation, only one early evening flight FRA-BRS
Sa - no flights
Su - 0.5 rotation (LH4964) - one early evening FRA-BRS (presumably as crew/aircraft positioning for BRS-FRA on Monday morning)
That's not a good indication, and so relatively soon in the route's life.
The Friday reductions are really going to hurt, with the only FRA-BRS flight leaving at 17:35. The later morning departures from BRS (at 07:00) mean losing some connections at FRA too.
By the looks of things, this is cutting back on the amount of crew overnights in Bristol (no overnighting on Friday or Saturday, and only one crew overnighting on Sunday), as well as cutting back on 6 rotations a week).
I know things are tough out there, but I would have thought the route needed more than 6 months to bed in?
Didn't BRS-DUS launch just at the beginning of an economic downturn, and not last long? Let's hope this won't be a repeat event....
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I was on a Brussels Airlines flight back in April and we had to make an emergency decent due to cabin depressurisation (Masks came down). Landed at Bristol safely. Did it ever make it on to the news?
Brunel to Concorde
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LH to FRA
B_T
I was half expecting a reduction to two daily rotations for the entire week this winter.
Monthly passenger figures this summer seem to have settled down to between 9,000 and 10,000, giving an average load in the 50s. Not sensational but if the high fares that were being thrown up on the LH booking engine were actually paid by some people maybe decent money was being made.
The last DUS initiative was that of BACon and it went the way of all BACon routes from BRS in the spring of last year when Flybe decided to axe the lot. The DUS had been operating less than a year.
KLM Cityhopper usually take out a daily rotation for part of the winter. They did last year and I think they intend doing so this coming winter.
I was half expecting a reduction to two daily rotations for the entire week this winter.
Monthly passenger figures this summer seem to have settled down to between 9,000 and 10,000, giving an average load in the 50s. Not sensational but if the high fares that were being thrown up on the LH booking engine were actually paid by some people maybe decent money was being made.
The last DUS initiative was that of BACon and it went the way of all BACon routes from BRS in the spring of last year when Flybe decided to axe the lot. The DUS had been operating less than a year.
KLM Cityhopper usually take out a daily rotation for part of the winter. They did last year and I think they intend doing so this coming winter.
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I'm on an LH BRS-FRA in Nov which has now been re-scheduled FOUR times! Only fairly minor time changes, and the latest version is in my favour as I now have 1hr to connect in FRA as opposed to the original 45m (which would've been tight, I know...)
But they are clearly not yet 100% sure about their Winter schedule on this route!
But they are clearly not yet 100% sure about their Winter schedule on this route!
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Do you think they possibly went in using the wrong aircraft? As MV mentioned average loads are around the 50's and i can't help but think that maybe they should have used a CRJ, versus the BAE which has another 30-40 seats....
Whilst the reduction appears a bit sudden, it is good to see that it is not a more severe cut and maybe LH can already see enough of a pattern to start to 'trim' the route to be more economical.
At least it has not been dropped all together.
Whilst the reduction appears a bit sudden, it is good to see that it is not a more severe cut and maybe LH can already see enough of a pattern to start to 'trim' the route to be more economical.
At least it has not been dropped all together.
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My experience is that ~50 pax is usual for the route, and there's usually one or two in business. Once or twice the flight has been full (overbooked, even), so I guess the cost saving on using a CRJ isn't substantial enough to justify it being the norm.
The two things that are concerning me:
* No LH4964 from FRA-BRS on Friday evening - that's really going to make it difficult to do any work in Europe on a Friday. (I don't mind the loss of the mid-day rotation, which I suspect exists mainly to catapult a crew in for the following day's first flight).
* No flights to FRA at the weekend. That's going to hit my leisure travel a fair bit. If they do put in a Friday evening flight FRA-BRS, it makes sense to send it back as LH4961 min-morning on Saturday (which allows the same crew to work it back as came out on Friday night).
I've written to LH asking if they'll look again at these two issues, and fingers crossed...
Obviously, the other explanation is that the crew have been down to the Centre in Bristol on a Saturday night, and no longer want to be anywhere near the place at the weekend....
The two things that are concerning me:
* No LH4964 from FRA-BRS on Friday evening - that's really going to make it difficult to do any work in Europe on a Friday. (I don't mind the loss of the mid-day rotation, which I suspect exists mainly to catapult a crew in for the following day's first flight).
* No flights to FRA at the weekend. That's going to hit my leisure travel a fair bit. If they do put in a Friday evening flight FRA-BRS, it makes sense to send it back as LH4961 min-morning on Saturday (which allows the same crew to work it back as came out on Friday night).
I've written to LH asking if they'll look again at these two issues, and fingers crossed...
Obviously, the other explanation is that the crew have been down to the Centre in Bristol on a Saturday night, and no longer want to be anywhere near the place at the weekend....
StandupfortheUlstermen
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Noisy, this would be because the Southside is in the Controlled Zone as opposed to the Restricted Zone (which requires a valid pass and a full search). Bottom line, no doubt, was probably avoiding paperwork!
What will the Dept for Tw4ts do if a Fat Albert divs into Briss and has to sit on 30L cos it's tech? They'll have a pink fit "oh I'm terribly sorry chaps but you can't have your Herkybird back as it happens to be in the Restricted Zone."