SOUTHAMPTON

[Wycombe]

You make a good point Groundloop - I tend not to think about trains too much, and especially the speed of Eurostar.

Also relevant here might be the rumour over on the Flybe thread that they are about to enter into a deal with Brussels Airlines for wet-lease of some Q400's this Summer?

[adfly]

It would be nice to see Brussles Airlines take up the BRU route 2-3 daily and they and their *A partners off good connection possibilities, certainly better than AF/Skyteam via Paris Orly which is the only euro 'Hub' SOU is directly linked to with codeshares etc. I could see SN using another BMI E145 for the route if they could, as per the EMA, BRS and NCL routes that currently operate. Although if the timings are good I can see a twice daily flight on an RJ85/Leased Q400 working well.

As for IOM I think Manx2 would fit the route very well as they can offer more flexibility but with fewer overall seats if not maybe Flybe will re-instate it as a seasonal route, most likely at a lower frequency.

[Flitefone]

Brussels

I travel from Bournemouth to Brussels at least once/month. My options are usually Flybe, BA from LHR and Eurostar.

I flew Flybe last Monday, there were fewer than twenty pax and it was expensive (Flybe is usually pricey for any day/time/route that suits business). The Brussels flight times from SOU are generally not very convenient, dont get you into down town Bru before about 14:30 local, by which time most of the business day is gone, and you have to pay a crazy price to get the business lounge thrown in at SOU - it doesnt come as standard with the flybe frequent flyer which is a mistake when compared to the competition.

Eurostar tickets are usually outrageously priced often more than 300 euro one way. But its comfortable and fast, and almost always full and the seats are big enough for working.

More often than not I fly from LHR, on BA. Its usually less than half Eurostar price, has a good dep time for business in BRU, is always full. And BA has a decent lounge in T5, where the breakfast is good, the papers and magazines are free, and the delays are no worse than the Flybe record.

[Cloud1]

Well done Flybe, you set of t******

Well thanks for the compliment there, you should hear what they say about you

Again, we go back to the fact that if Eastern had operated such a good product why did all there passengers go to BE when they moved in with the route. Simple, cost nothing to do with service levels. People moan about BE fares but I never remember Eastern being all that cheap.

In addition to Groundloops comments, timings I feel are an issue with the SOUBRU but realistically there are only so many departures you can get airborne first thing in the morning. Those that do serve SOU several times a day and quite often include an early morning and evening rotation are worth it and bring in the money so it makes sense to prioritise these. There are no free stands, to my knowledge, so the only other way to get a reasonably timed BRU would be to operate it from BRU (as they do with the DUSBHX am)

BE do not have a huge presence at BRU (yet) with only the MAN and SOU routes. Hopefully as time goes on and the airline expands the route may return - thats if Eastern dont pick it up again 3 times a day of course.

[Aero Mad]

People moan about BE fares but I never remember Eastern being all that cheap.

I think the point made was that Eastern provides exceptional service at extortionate prices, whereas Flybe provides questionable service at prices which are occassionally cheap but more often than not rather expensive for what they offer (and without luggage etc.)

[11K-AVML]

In recent years Eurostar has absolutely hammered Paris and Brussels air traffic.

Possibly combined with BE's long-winded climb to cruise.
As a colleague told me, by the time they turn the seat belt sign off and allow electronic devices to be used they have about 10 minutes before having to turn them off again.

Another now decides that whilst the train may take longer at least they can use their laptop for the whole journey meaning very little down-time.

Will be interesting to see what happens to AMS once Eurostar is extended up that way and when DeutschBahn comes to the UK.

[Wycombe]

Possibly combined with BE's long-winded climb to cruise.

Not sure that's fair - in my experience (purely as pax), the Dash (ATC permitting) can nip up to FL250 pretty quickly - for an aeroplane with propellors ;-)

[11K-AVML]

That's true, but how long before they let you use electronic equipment?

[Wellington Bomber]

Wycombe

I think he means that with the London TMA there are a lot of step climbs and not just blasting up to 25000ft.

[Wellington Bomber]

Aero mad

Thankyou, for your interpreted rant of mine


Cloud 1

If Eastern did try it again, how long before Flybe came back on just so that nobody else could profit, not very long would it

[Andrew R]

I don't get why it's more expensive to fly to Southampton than to most of the London airports. Is it because FlyBe have a monopoly on basically all the routes and can charge what they like? For example last Monday, I paid £45 to fly from Gatwick to Belfast city single on Flybe, the same route from Southampton was over £150 single. I don't get this. Surely Gatwick is far better connected than Southampton is and thus flights from Gatwick should be a premium.

Really hopping Bournemouth can give Southampton a run for it's money and attract a few Locos like Easyjet and now Aer Lingus.

[StGermain]

I don't get why it's more expensive to fly to Southampton than to most of the London

Andrew R...it's simply down to the fact that Southampton is not 'regulated', unlike the majority of London airports. Given also that Southampton sits in a relatively affluent catchment area, has comparitively high operating costs per landing and per departing passenger and FlyBe have relatively little in the way of competition on the majority of their routes, FlyBe charge what the market will bear. You would only need one other competitive loco to start MAN or EDI from Southampton or BOH and suddenly the FlyBe fare structure would be reviewed, certainly on UK domestic services at the very least. FlyBe have been a real success story for SOU since they started in 2003 and have made an awful lot of hay while the sun has shone (so to speak) but SOU must be nervous of 90%+ passengers with one, albeit successful, airline.

[Andrew R]

Thank you very much for the explanation StGermain :-)

[Groundloop]

it's simply down to the fact that Southampton is not 'regulated', unlike the majority of London airports.

Please explain what you mean by "regulated" in this context? As you rightly say it is simply a question of competition (or lack of) that allow Flybe to charge what they do. But what has "regulation" go to do with it?

[Rivet Joint]

Arn't the airport fees quite high at Southampton too though?

[StGermain]

A definition of 'regulated'...for Groundloop

Groundloop...Regulated = a maximum permitted income from aeronautical charges. By that I mean that some, not all, London airports have their aeronautical incomes capped. It is therefore much cheaper to land at, for example, Gatwick than it is to land at Southampton at their current, published tariff. Southampton is not much different to many other regional Airports, just more expensive than some of the London catchment.

[adfly]

S12 - As it stands!!

Air France:

New Routes:

Nantes (NTE) (1x weekly E170)
Lyon (LYS) (1x weekly E190)

Both routes are operated by 'Regional' and start on Sat 30th June operating until the beginning of September.

Aurigny:

Alderny - Much the same as last year with the usual explosion of end of week flights at peak times!

Blue Islands:

Guernsey - Pretty much as it was last year - around 3x daily all on J31/32's.
Jersey - The first two flights are as last year (J31/32's) but the evening flight has been upgraded to an ATR 42 500 and operates daily ex. Saturday.

Eastern:

Aberdeen - Operates around twice daily for the Summer, a reduction compared to previous years with the weekday flights all down as J41's and the Sunday flight via DTV as a S2000.
Dijon - Not currently bookable or on the SOU sites schedules but this routes was put on sale quite late last year and it remains on the route map so we will have to wait and see! If it returns I would expect it would be as last year - 3x per week on a J41.

Flybe:

Some of the domestic and longer running regional French routes seem to have some reletively small reductions in frequency although there are no really significant changes.

New Routes:

Tours (TUF) (2x weekly Q400) Starts 16th May
Norwich (NWI) (1x weekly Loganair/Suckling Airways D328) Starts 19th May

Dropped Routes:

Pau (2x weekly E95) The slack seems to have been taken up by extra flights to Beziers and Palma (Both up to 3x weekly)
Brussles (6x weekly Q400) Ends 28th February
Isle of Man (6x weekly Q400) Ends 29th February (Aircraft flew IOM-SOU-BRU-SOU-IOM) hence why both routes are being dropped.
Salzburg (1x weekly Q400) Has operated for the last couple of Summers but no sign of it this year, will almost certainly return in time for the Ski season!!

Skybus:

Much the same as last year 3x weekly rising to 6 in the peak season with most off-peak flights operating via NQY.

Thomas Cook:

New route - Ibiza (IBZ) (1x weekly BE E195)

PMI and MAH both return as well meaning all 3 or the balearic isles are now served from SOU!!

Thomson:

Have dropped their weekly SOU-PMI flight, was down to the operated by Flybe but they have decided to focus on their more major airports.

Vueling:

New route - Barcelona (BCN) (3x weekly A319) Starts 23rd June currently bookable until mid-September.

Well we've all been waiting a while for this one!!

[adfly]

It looks like Flybe are planning on using a GLA based E175 to operate ~3 of the weekdaily flights this summer which is a notable increase in capacity and good news for those who prefer jets (not saying there is anything wrong with a Q400, it just seems some people see the advanced 6 blade propellors and think they are about to get on a streched DC-3 with the wing in the wrong place!!)

There will also be a few on the MAN flights flown by a MAN based E175, currently I belive there is only 1 on a Sunday which also operates a Ski Charter to somewhere in France.

I suppose this brings up this issue again: BAA have new stands east of the apron planned in the Master Plan, of which some were meant to be completed in 2010, so with the E175's being added to some of the larger domestics and it being fairly likely that Flybe will be looking to base a few at SOU, either to replace some Q400's or possibly 1 or 2 for growth. How will they fit?! Stands 1-5 will have the three based E195 + visiting E175's/195's along with Vueling taking up two stands and Air France E170/190's this year to cope with!

Hopefully BAA will finally see sense and what with Flybe introducing the E175 in greater numbers to SOU they will hopefully realise that they should probably be starting work on these planned stands pretty soon! And while they are at it a northen Runway exit/taxiway to cut the backtacking issues would be lovely.

[OltonPete]

175

Per GDS

4 x 175's a day on Mo & Fr from GLA with 3 the other weekdays.

Depart GLA 06.50, 10.50, 14.50 & 18.40

Starts 1st July per GDS

Pete

[adfly]

I believe that leaves only the early morning SOU departure as a Q400 and also one of the evening flights is an E195 presumably based in SOU.