OXFORD/KIDLINGTON
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OXFORD/KIDLINGTON
Air Southwest are to operate every Saturday from Oxford to Jersey from July 11th until September 12th. First commercial route from Oxford since the unsuccessful Oxford-Cambridge link.
Could there be more?
Has an Eastern to Newcastle or Flybe to Edinburgh route been considered ?
Cambridge was a nice idea, but students (and some academics !) will put up with 3h15 on a much cheaper coach. Relatively few biotech firms have offices in both of the science parks.
Cambridge was a nice idea, but students (and some academics !) will put up with 3h15 on a much cheaper coach. Relatively few biotech firms have offices in both of the science parks.
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Does Kidlington have a proper passenger terminal building? Customs?
Just built a new terminal with all the trimmings.
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Seems to be a flat fare of £75 each way all in. Could work. There's limited potential at Oxford for services to MAN, GLA, EDI, and NCL I think. Suprised Eastern or Flybe haven't really made a go of it yet.
Oxford-Manchester being viable by air would be tough. There's a direct train every hour taking 3 hours. Allowing for a single change at Birmingham, there's a train every 30 mins throughout the day. Oxford likes to spin itself as being part of the south-east and close to London, but geographically it's just as close to Birmingham
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Air Southwest are to operate every Saturday from Oxford to Jersey from July 11th until September 12th. First commercial route from Oxford since the unsuccessful Oxford-Cambridge link.
Could this be the start of something bigger for the region?
And yes - more to follow.....apparently
First though, a sizeable apron extension
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Interesting potential - OXF
They seem to have spent lots on the infrastructure to be able to take the Air Southwest Dash-8-300s with the new runway,ILS,terminal,fire and rescue, security etc. but that was all for business aviation. Looks like the business aviation ambitions may have stalled so they are getting into scheduled stuff. If they had a proper terminal, going up and down the M40 makes it a better bet than another runway at Heathrow!
With a 1552m runway you can get in the Q400 easily and some of the Embraer jet family,RJs, 146s etc. even the A318, Sukoi Superjet etc.
All the VFR pilot training side was moved to Arizona so they are dead quiet now, so masses of capacity and no restrictions on commercial traffic like Farnborough or Biggin Hill.
Twice daily to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, Amsterdam, Newcastle etc. would seem to make sence with anything from 19-seaters to Dash-8s or ATRs. Summer charters to Jersey and winter runs to the ski resorts and at the heart of the home counties and Thames Valley area they've got an affluent catchment area.
Makes quite a lot of sence? Next stop would be global hub at Upper Heyford with high speed rail doing 45 minutes into Marylebone. Forget Heathrow and Stansted runway - go west (O.K. north-west-ish).
Note this is in David Cameron's back yard?!
With a 1552m runway you can get in the Q400 easily and some of the Embraer jet family,RJs, 146s etc. even the A318, Sukoi Superjet etc.
All the VFR pilot training side was moved to Arizona so they are dead quiet now, so masses of capacity and no restrictions on commercial traffic like Farnborough or Biggin Hill.
Twice daily to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, Amsterdam, Newcastle etc. would seem to make sence with anything from 19-seaters to Dash-8s or ATRs. Summer charters to Jersey and winter runs to the ski resorts and at the heart of the home counties and Thames Valley area they've got an affluent catchment area.
Makes quite a lot of sence? Next stop would be global hub at Upper Heyford with high speed rail doing 45 minutes into Marylebone. Forget Heathrow and Stansted runway - go west (O.K. north-west-ish).
Note this is in David Cameron's back yard?!
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Wasn't Oxford - Cambridge tried a few years ago by Rangemile Aviation? Would some form of Air Southwest style Plymouth/Newquay setup not work using B1900s or J31s, for example Oxford-Cambridge-Edinburgh or Oxford-Cambridge-Newcastle etc?
I trained in Oxford at the very beginning of my training for my ATPLs etc and the airport seems to have a good catchment area and a lot of potential. Someone like Manx2 or Eastern would be a good starting point, maybe with Flybe coming along later?
I trained in Oxford at the very beginning of my training for my ATPLs etc and the airport seems to have a good catchment area and a lot of potential. Someone like Manx2 or Eastern would be a good starting point, maybe with Flybe coming along later?
I think Oxford may well have potential for limited scheduled/charter services in the future using Q400/ATR type aircraft, although remember that it's declared distances are limited to 1319m due to its runway width of only 30m, so the full 1552m is not useable for PT ops.
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RADAR
One thing OXF needs to consider is adequate radar coverage. Brize will cover you down to 3000 ft but that's it 'most' of the time. There are many issues with regard to the proximity of other airfields and the large amount of non 'mode c' traffic.
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Groundloop why not? A good catchment area. Better than flying from the bigger airports nearby. Possibly you would get cheaper parking, a friendlier experience, & quicker boarding etc. Who thought GLO would do as well as it does! I think an airline like Air Southwest could do well at Oxford trying other routes.
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Purely because, other than the Jersey service - which is good news but hardly rocket science and, I suspect being operated at a significant cost to the airport company, it's all pie in the sky.
Common business sense dictates that Oxford will never be able to sevice such markets.
Amsterdam is a non starter because there isn't an airline with an interline agreement with KLM which operates an aeroplane capable of operating from Oxford.
Additionally, Oxford does not have the terminal or handling facilites to operate more than one aircraft such as a DCH8 at any one time - assuming that a 1319m runway will alow a fully loaded DHC8to operate anywhere (I think not).
Oxford should stick to what it's good at - GA and executive aviation, anything else will never make them money and will, without a doubt lead to significant financial pain.
Purely because, other than the Jersey service - which is good news but hardly rocket science and, I suspect being operated at a significant cost to the airport company, it's all pie in the sky.
Common business sense dictates that Oxford will never be able to sevice such markets.
Amsterdam is a non starter because there isn't an airline with an interline agreement with KLM which operates an aeroplane capable of operating from Oxford.
Additionally, Oxford does not have the terminal or handling facilites to operate more than one aircraft such as a DCH8 at any one time - assuming that a 1319m runway will alow a fully loaded DHC8to operate anywhere (I think not).
Oxford should stick to what it's good at - GA and executive aviation, anything else will never make them money and will, without a doubt lead to significant financial pain.
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Not so difficult to do a few more routes - OXF?
Goatface - so what if they can only handle one rotation at a time? If they can only do one at a time, that's what they'll do. In one day they could still comfortably do say four or five rotations of 50-seaters, spread through the day. Stick a few Portakabins down like say Coventry and bring in a few more staff and you could easily do more.
Clearly, the fact that they are doing one 50-seat rotation already today means they are already there, all the infrastructure for that to be legitimate is there now. There are no obstructions to them doing more other than manpower and elbow room.
OXF is at least an hour from any other option be that BHX, LHR, SOU so the catchment area is good, prosperous, business-oriented etc. If the experiance is hassle-free at the airport, there are people living on Heathrow's doorstep that would drive 45 minutes up the M40 to travel from a 'regional' airport. People in Swindon, Northampton, Reading, Oxford, Milton-Keynes etc. would give serious consideration to going there instead of say Luton, Bristol etc.
I can't see what the problem is - the runway is exactly the same as LCY and now they've got all the boring stuff sorted - RFF, ILS, Security etc.
Good luck to them - got to be good for UK aviation in general, a new commercial opportunity? Otherwise it will be a housing estate in 10 years - probably the direction Coventry is going in - sadly!
Clearly, the fact that they are doing one 50-seat rotation already today means they are already there, all the infrastructure for that to be legitimate is there now. There are no obstructions to them doing more other than manpower and elbow room.
OXF is at least an hour from any other option be that BHX, LHR, SOU so the catchment area is good, prosperous, business-oriented etc. If the experiance is hassle-free at the airport, there are people living on Heathrow's doorstep that would drive 45 minutes up the M40 to travel from a 'regional' airport. People in Swindon, Northampton, Reading, Oxford, Milton-Keynes etc. would give serious consideration to going there instead of say Luton, Bristol etc.
I can't see what the problem is - the runway is exactly the same as LCY and now they've got all the boring stuff sorted - RFF, ILS, Security etc.
Good luck to them - got to be good for UK aviation in general, a new commercial opportunity? Otherwise it will be a housing estate in 10 years - probably the direction Coventry is going in - sadly!