BRISTOL - 4

[MerchantVenturer]

Local radio news this morning had a man at the BRS press conference.

It seems it is Aer Lingus/Aer Arann returning on BRS-DUB from next March and offering onward connections to JFK, Boston, Chicago and Orlando at DUB.

The radio station said the flight will operate from BRS 3 x daily.

Presumably this is the 'further good news' mentioned on the BRS website two or three months ago.

When I last looked Ryanair had reduced their BRS-DUB schedule for summer 2011 to 18 x weekly, down from 21 x weekly in summer 2010, but there will still be a lot of seats on BRS-DUB next summer if the radio station has its facts correct.

[2J&D]

Well, seen as though the flights are shown in the GDS's:

3 x Daily BRS-DUB on ATR aircraft, from 28 March 2011.

Obvious oppertunities are connections to USA, but not just NYC! but also BOS/ORD/IAD/MCO...

[WATABENCH]

EI3280 DUB 0635/0750 BRS
EI3281 BRS 0815/0930 DUB

EI3286 DUB 1515/1630 BRS
EI3287 BRS 1700/1815 DUB

EI3288 DUB 1845/2000 BRS
EI3289 BRS 2030/2145 DUB

On Aer Lingus website now

[santito]

As predicted nothing exciting then. An ATR 72 to DUB. Stalling Altitude was the closest with his prediction!

[WATABENCH]

Santito, nothing major as in a US carrier, but this does open up a lot of onward US and other connections, and clearing immigration in Ireland saves a shed load of hassle for pax when they land on the other side of the pond. Always good to have full service carriers serving BRS from their main hubs. Good work to get them back on the route.

[2J&D]

Santito,

Depends on how you look at it...

This now offers us something new to sell to the US, since CO left. Plus with the added benefit of travelling in the right direction (as opposed to CDG/AMS) plus the possibility of pre clearence in DUB, I would say it was fairly good news!

At the end of the day, it is a new route for BRS and it shows that EI must have some faith in the airport. There was a market for the US even at the time CO pulled the route and I think EI have been smart to have recognised this and jumped in pretty quickly.

With the extra KLM service as well, congrats to all at BRS who have obviously worked hard to secure a new service and prove there is a need for extra capacity.

Look at it the other way, it could have been an airline pulling out, now that would not be exciting!

[bristolflyer]

Whilst any new route is always welcome this is a bit of a non-event. Accept for the pre-clearance in Dublin it's the same as an AF or KL connection. EI have been been in and out of Bristol so many times over the years I've lost count. They pulled the Dublin route last time because they could not compete with Ryanair. I can't see that situation changing. They're not going to have an ATR full of onward US bound passengers everyday. If Continental couldn't attract the required number of business passengers with all that marketing and a direct flight I can't see Aer Lingus doing any better with an inferior product. If I remember rightly they tried this "Hey look everybody it's flights to America from Bristol...except that it's not" back in the late 80's. It didn't work then and I don't see a massive up take now. They've dropped out of the OneWorld alliance and are currently not a member of any. That is going to be a big draw back when business passengers make a decision who to travel with. I have to say I'd still rather travel to LHR and fly with Virgin direct especially if my final destination is not NYC. I used to use Continental, but only finished in New York on about 25% of my trips. There is no way I do Bristol - Dublin - JFK - LA if that were even possible. Fair shout to the route team for working as hard as they have ever done to try and come up with something.

[Skipness One Echo]

Why does this whole business of flights to the US get people so worked up? As far as BRS is concerned it's an ATR72 on BRS-DUB up against a much cheaper option on a B737-800.

Since Aer Lingus pulled off GLA-DUB to allow Aer Arrann to fly the route, the fares have rocketed due to no economies of scale in comparison to the seat mile costs of the ATR. Also only the first and to a lesser extent the second rotations will be any use for connecting flights at DUB. Not sure what EI are offering that FR don't already do faster, cheaper and better on vastly superior aircraft. Think how little you see THAT in print!

[bravoromeosierra]

I wouldn't say cheapest is always the best though. I have nothing against Ryanair, but I'd rather consider Aer Lingus now they're back on the route again.

It looks better for the airport too.

[PPRuNeUser0162]

I'd agree with bravoromeosierra, returning to BRS last night from AMS my colleague noted the difference between the airport environments. Whilst you can't really compare the two (global hub vs regional airport) it certainly seems as if BRS is very 'no-frills' - particularly the new walkway, which certainly appears to be done on the cheap (v narrow and low quality materials / finishing). The return of a 'full fare' airline route, even the regional arm, shows that airlines other than EZ and FR have faith in the airport.

[crackling jet]

As i said a couple of months ago as soon as Aer Lingus went into code share with Aer Arran after Continental announced they were giving up the route,did i not say "there's our next New York service" hubbing via Shannon. Next weeks lottery numbers anyone !!!!!

Stil it's feet through the door and bums on seats, every little helps these days

[Bristol_Traveller]

At least EI seem to have loaded some fares, based on this routing:

Code:

SPECIFIED          ROUTE: 0011                                 
BRS-SNN/DUB-NYC                                                
BRS-DUB-SNN-NYC                                                
BRS-SNN-DUB-NYC

Lead in fare to NYC is £254 (plus tax), compared to CO's £241 and KL's £256.

Incidentally, with all this talk of (non alliance affiliated) EI operating BRS-DUB-NYC, let's not forget that you can still book BRS-BRU-NYC on the CO fare.

Code:

BRS(CO/SN)BRU-BOS/CLT/DTT/EWR/NYC/PHL/WAS(AC/CO/LH/UA)NYC      
BRS(CO/SN)BRU-NYC                                              
BRS(CO/SN)BRU-EWR/NYC(AC/CO/LH/UA)NYC

You have to call CO on the phone, and availability on the BRS-BRU route is really ridiculously tight (I think it books into SN's S or V classes), but it works and the connection at BRU is good in both directions. (I know that the crew who worked the final EWR-BRS went back on the Monday on this route).

[MerchantVenturer]

................particularly the new walkway, which certainly appears to be done on the cheap (v narrow and low quality materials / finishing).

Apparently it cost £7 million to build. It was built as general permitted development without the need for formal planning permission, which means the airport is limited in the facilities it can put in - not supposed to increase the terminal floor space.

Now that planning permission has been granted for the major expansion it may be that the walkway might be upgraded.

And speaking of the major expansion plans, the end of this week will be three months on from the date the secretary of state announced he would not be calling in the plans for public enquiry.

SBAE (StopBristolAirportExpansion) vowed to take the sec of state to judicial review over his non-intervention.

Does anyone know what SBAE is doing? They seem to have gone very quiet.

I believe that applications for a judicial review must be submitted promptly and in any event not later than three months after the grounds upon which the claim is based first arose.

So it would seem SBAE (or anyone else for that matter) must formally ask for a judicial review by the end of this week. A court will only extend the period if it considers there are very good reasons for so doing.

[Jamie2k9]

Aer Lingus fly to New York JFK not NYC.

[Bristol_Traveller]

Aer Lingus fly to New York JFK not NYC.

NYC is a city code for faring purposes, and encompasses any of EWR/JFK/LGA (which are actual airports). Same for LON (LHR/LGW/LCY/LTN/STN/BQH). And MIL (MXP/LIN). And so on....

[bristolflyer]

It is good to see full service airlines at Bristol, but the economic reality is that the majority of money made by the airport comes from LCC. Michael O'Leary has moaned time and time again about airports spending money on fancy buildings and putting up fees. When they do this he walks away. Surely the purpose of the walkway has little to do with the environment, but more to do with cutting the cost to airlines. Each Ryanair plane that can be reached on foot from the terminal is one less plane that has to have a coach provided for it and one less cost for the airline. I always seemed to me, if you look at the plans, that the west apron (which the walkway serves) was to be the budget end of the airport with few airbridges, whereas the east apron had a number of airbridges in the plans and space for the 787 and was where the full service operations would be located. In any event the walkway is a vast improvement on the original bus shelter!!

[SN146]

Any update on how SN is doing since they've introduced the regional jets of bmi regional and added a 3rd flight to BRU? It seems from the GDS the flights may come back to ARJ next year?

[MerchantVenturer]

BRS-BRU

Passenger numbers this year on BRS-BRU are very encouraging.

For the first ten months of 2010 31,517 passengers were carried which compares with 26,107 in the same period last year (CAA stats).

This represents a rise of nearly 21% in passenger numbers.

[SN146]

That looks good indeed.

Since the swap from ARJ to Embraer happened on Jan 10, the figures above are very representative indeed.

BTW, as I am also interested in seeing the results of the swap from ARJ to Embraers at NCL... any idea where I could find the data?

[Bristol_Traveller]

Passenger numbers this year on BRS-BRU are very encouraging.

For the first ten months of 2010 31,517 passengers were carried which compares with 26,107 in the same period last year (CAA stats).

This represents a rise of nearly 21% in passenger numbers.

This got me doing some mental 'rithmetric.

The ERJs seat 48, and there are 34 flights between BRS & BRU each week. That's a total of 1,632 seats/week. In 10 months there are roughly 43 weeks, which equates to an available capacity of 70,176 seats.

With flown passengers of 31,517, that's a 44.9% load factor.

That probably explains why that route is being priced for yield, not volume (or vice versa. Cause or effect? Discuss.).

On the RJ85's, they flew twice daily and not at all at the weekends, so 20 weekly flights, and at 82 people per aircraft, there were 1,640 seats/week, equating to 70,520 seats in that same 10 month/43 week period.

With flown passengers of 26,107, that's a 37% load factor.

So, whilst overall route capacity hasn't changed, the load factors are up. And I would guess the yield is up a much larger amount, looking at the fares SN generally charging. However, you'd need to offset that against operating 7 extra rotations a week.

To put those load factors in perspective, in October 2010 Ryanair ran an 85% load factor, and Easyjet ran an 88% load factor.