NEWCASTLE - 8

[HH6702]

easyjet

Ncl didn't have an low cost carrier based until easyjet came along so a good deal is what was reqired to get easyjet to base!
With regarding ema and easyjet was ema a boeing base before becoming an airbus base?

I think ncl haven't seen much from easy over the last 2 years because we were a 737 base and all new aircraft were A319.
Will see what happens with easy over the next 2 years they should be growning at ncl if not then we will worry

[fl dutchman]

Ryanair

Gerona still bookable for summer.

Dublin one daily but better times ie not 06 25.

Why could FR not base at NCL with routes not operated by others. (there are plenty)

If they went to Teeside with the same routes being flown from NCL it would really hurt NCL.

[northumberlandairway]

Ryanair doesn't need to base at NCL. Planes fly in and out of airports! With the thirty odd bases that they have shouldn't they be encouraged to fly to NCL. Routes to Milan Bergamo, Madrid, Stockholm Skavsta, Oslo Rygge or Frankfurt Hahn (their more major bases near cities that travellers from NCL may want to go to) three or four times a week may be viable and fill in some of Newcastle's gaps.

I always get frustrated when Ryanair announce routes to some obscure place from one of their more obscure bases. Sometimes I wonder what links the populations at either end of such a route actually have with each other and makes me come to the conclusion that the number of airports who are willing to play ball with MOL are getting fewer and fewer.

Fair play to Newcastle Airport for not being bullied by Ryanair and I think there may come a time (probably a long time from now) when Ryanair may have to accept higher landing charges as there is simply nowhere left to land the planes.

[10 DME ARC]

Ryanair base/routes
First of all the NE only has a limited catchment area,
From the past years of low cost in the NE, people here want to travel to the sun,
So there are only so many routes a Low Cost carrier can really makes money on,
You already have a couple of low cost operators based giving you a fair coverage, I too would like to see Bergamo back but fail to see how some others would work?
So you get say £2 per pax from Peter and Paul Airways but Megalowcosta Air wants to do the same routes plus a few other sweeteners giving you 50p per pax? Now this would give the people of the NE great choice in how they get to the sun and some mega low fares. Great you think but then Peter and Paul Airways and some Charter Airlines get pissed off and bail out. Leaving Megalowcosta who now have a monopoly on the routes to the sun and low and behold the prices rocket(look at the DUB fares can be 4-5 times higher than London-DUB) AND low and behold the sweetener routes are not making money so they drop them !
This has happened before, just look at the glut of pax’s that went through the airport a couple of years ago when the previous CEO took every seat he could with whoever he could, great year for passenger numbers but no one made money, the airlines because of the competition and limited number of paxs. The airport lost out because we lost so many routes charter and low cost the next year because the airlines/charter companies did not make money the year before!!
Balance is what you need........

[BALLSOUT]

What a lot of you fail to realise is that it doesn't make any differance what the airport gets from a carrier. They make their money from the shops and car parks etc. I flew with easy recently and paid them £50 for a return flight. When I returned two days later it cost me nearly £50 to get my car out of the car park. Where do they make their money, £2 from easy or £50 from me?
What they need is more people in the shops and car parks and FR are the ones who could do that for them!

[Flightlevel001]

Personally I think that Flybe should be capitalising on some of this. Why not push for a Dublin service if FR pull out? BE also stood by and let Bmir in to operate the Brussels with the possibility of them expanding at NCL in the future. A direct competitor. There always seems to be rumours of BE expanding at NCL but it never appears to come to fruition! Mind you the addition of Hannover and GCI this summer will be a start. Is it down to a/c availability?

[Teevee]

Ballsout, I'm sure that somewhere research has been done on this, and I'll bet the airports are well aware of it, that FR pax don't actually pack the shops, and from my experience I'd agree. Having done some airport watching over the last week or two it seems to be the BAR that empties when an FR flight is called, and then slowly fills up again in the interval to the next FR flight. The airport shops themselves don't actually see much extra custom from FR.

[BFS101]

What they need is more people in the shops and car parks and FR are the ones who could do that for them!

I agree to an extent. When going off for a week or two in the sun, then I'd guess most would check-in luggage, freeing up hand baggage. However on recent flights with both Easyjet (to NCL) and Ryanair, the majority of weekenders have their clothes crammed into cabin sized trolley cases or back packs, with very little excess space for a shopping spree at the airport.

BHD staff, acting for FR, force passengers even with plastic bags from WH Smith, to put these goods into their cabin baggage or they wont travel!!! Even if its a newspaper and 500mls of water. I feel FR are particularly bad at this, tell the airport we'll get an extra x million through the doors every year, so provide us unsustainably low charges, and then employ incredibly strict hand baggage policies to discourage airport spend. Bars and food outlets may potentially benefit.

[ConstantFlyer]

Ncl didn't have an low cost carrier based until easyjet came along

Before easyJet took them over, GO operated the NCL-STN route.

Ryanair doesn't need to base at NCL. Planes fly in and out of airports! With the thirty odd bases that they have shouldn't they be encouraged to fly to NCL. Routes to Milan Bergamo, Madrid, Stockholm Skavsta, Oslo Rygge or Frankfurt Hahn (their more major bases near cities that travellers from NCL may want to go to) three or four times a week may be viable and fill in some of Newcastle's gaps.

Quite agree. With all their bases dotted around Europe, FR has plenty of places from which they could offer flights to NCL. We as a region perhaps haven't been as co-ordinated and sharp as other regions around Europe in promoting inward tourism and investment. Everything has been very North-East-England-focussed, and maybe we've missed a chance to promote Newcastle Airport as a gateway to the Lake District and southern Scotland. Of course, One North East (the regional development agency) wouldn't support Newcastle Airport to do that as it would tread on the toes of the North West Development Agency and the equivalent in Scotland.

majority of weekenders have their clothes crammed into cabin sized trolley cases or back packs, with very little excess space for a shopping spree at the airport.

I understand why airports see shops as a vital source of income generation. But it mystifies me why people shop at airports at all. A hangover from the 1960s, maybe, when 'duty free' meant real savings? Going through Newcastle, you can't move for booze and perfume, and it's the same in many places. Somewhere recently on the departure screens, instead of the instruction 'WAIT IN LOUNGE', I was exhorted to 'RELAX AND SHOP'. What a cheek! I went through the low-cost terminal at Warsaw before they shut it, and the only shop was a newspaper/snack kiosk.

The shops must hate the locos, though. With so many travellers now going 'hand luggage only', the sales opportunities, especially for big heavy bottles and the like, are going to be limited.

When I returned two days later it cost me nearly £50 to get my car out of the car park

Don't drive if you can avoid it. While the official airport taxis are expensive, phoning your local mini-cab office and getting them to pick you up works out much cheaper. Similarly, many offer a fixed fare to take you from your door to the airport. If you're travelling light, the Metro is good.

Here are three improvements I'd like to see made to public transport at Newcastle Airport:
1) Have signage to advise arriving visitors of the mini-cab option, identifying the pick-up point, and giving the phone numbers of taxi firms around the region and a map;
2) Enable passengers arriving with no English coins to buy Metro tickets with notes or cards (I believe new ticket machines are in the pipeline); and
3) Offer some bus services which pick up/drop off outside the terminal, including ones at eg 0400hrs for staff.

[skyman771]

BALLSOUT

What a lot of you fail to realise is that it doesn't make any differance what the airport gets from a carrier. They make their money from the shops and car parks etc.

I am in total agreement, accepted it is all one big balancing act but there is a critical mass req'd to maintain & promote terminal concessions. I am unsure of the precise no. but I recall reading that it was near 5 Million pax. Other ground facilities that support, such as hotels & carparking also require considerable investment & lead time to set up & establish. Like it or not it's pax volume rather than carrier choice or routes which pay the bills !

[10 DME ARC]

You are missing the point if you get a large amount of seats on the market at low prices with a limited market you will find people, as they did a few years ago, tempted by a really cheap flight to say Spain instead of going to the Greek Isles. So not only is the existing low cost to Spain hurt the charter companies on marginal routes to the likes of the Greek Islands are as well! So next year not only could the existing low cost be cutting flights but charter companies as well!
Just remember all the routes cut the year after we hit 5.7M in 2007!
And yes your average spend does vary between low cost and charter!

[HH6702]

flybe and OA

Flybe has 4 Q400's out in greece at the minute until august 2010
Will these aircraft be staying in greece for longer what is the latest rumours about them?

Just thinking we may get our 3 or maybe 4th based aircraft from flybe when the aircraft return ready for the winter timetable.

I think hannover will continue throughout the winter also hopefully turning into a daily service!

[potash]

FR a false dawn

Contra to what moll and his buddys spout how many jobs his airline creates when they move into a airport the truth is the exact oppersite they attack the routes of the airlines already there. When they marched into bhx the very first week one of his planes had by by baby plasterd all over it bmi have slashed routes now and laid a lot of people off they are now challenging Monarch on every one of there routes but Monarch are every thing fr is not i beleive Manchester did the best thing Leeds will soon be a fr strong hold jet 2 beware

[HH6702]

jet2 and ryanair @lba

I don't think jet2 will go into a price war with ryanair and loss money.
I would expect more aircraft moving from lba to ncl and man in the next few years.

I would like to see jet2 try the following from ncl
Milan
Warsaw
Prague
Budapest

And bring back krakow

All the above routes would work say 3x weekly using the 737!!

[andrewmcharlton]

Here is an outside bet, although it goes against the grain of my thought process, this new "2 tier" terminal at MME is in my opinion only being laid out because someone has said they want it as they wont pay full handling charges for a full service terminal. Nobody sensible would do it off their own bat, so who is asking for it?

[BALLSOUT]

For my bet read my earlier post. (FR)

[Britannia]

Flybe launch Guernsey flights from Newcastle

Flybe to Guernsey twice weekly, Tuesdays and Saturdays, Flights from 10th July.

[sunshine79]

Looks like T3 have an overnight delay, any idea why? I'm sure they'll end up putting pax on the other 2 flights in the morning providing there are seats to accommodate them.

[andrew1968]

KLM Cityhopper

Looking at The AirDB website KLM are dropping the AMS - NCL service.

Doesn't give a date of when this will happen.

Have taken a look at the KLM website and flights are still bookable at the moment.

[rpmac]

AirDB website.

Last week this site stated, if I remember correctly that Flybe were starting LBA to AMS which seemed strange, so to cancel NCL AMS would seem even more strange.