BOURNEMOUTH - 3
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The current management team at Bournemouth Airport have failed miserably to attract new passengers at a time when there has been "major" growth at nearly every other major UK airport. 45 million spent several years ago has clearly not given a satisfactory return - It doesn't even come close to achieving the projected three million with Pax figures still well below that of 2007 when figures peaked at over a million. Like the Chelsea FC manager Jose Mourinho, it's about time new managers were brought in and a new strategy put into place. You honestly can't say that the current management didn't see this Flybe debacle coming! Clutching at the final straw seems to have been the reality! Let's face it - Ryanair, EasyJet, Flybe, Thomson, Thomas Cook, etc don't wish to commit any more flights to what is a very poorly connected regional airport. After seeing dozens try and make it work since the dizzy heights of Dan Air operations in the late 1970s / early 80s I really think the game is up! Flybe really was the last roll of the dice with regards to BOH being a well served regional success story! What next??? BMI Regional / Eastern wouldn't even remotely look at it would they!!! Who else is there!? The only remote possibility is for a home grown airline with a couple of 30 to 50 seat turboprops launching with support from local businesses and councils. Everything else has been tried before. It doesn't look good at all. What a great shame that Ryanair "killed" Palmair! How they are missed.
The only remote possibility is for a home grown airline with a couple of 30 to 50 seat turboprops launching with support from local businesses and councils. Everything else has been tried before.
Join Date: Dec 2004
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Shamrock7seal, Mrshubigbus, SWBKCB
This list of failures at BOH is staggering. I don't think any airport in the UK has a list this long:
Euro Direct 1994 was a disaster - 18 seat J31's flying to AMS and then massive expansion to 4 daily flights BOH-AMS with 64 seat ATP's. The writing was on the wall.
Air Berlin - BOH-PAD. Hardly a useful or necessary route. No wonder they stopped.
Jet2 2005 - daily flights to BFS. Again, too much capacity and no one had heard of Jet2 down here.
WIZZ 2007 - Not sure why this one didn't work? They operated one route at the same time as easyJet was testing the BOH market. Not good as both airlines failed.
EasyJet - Tried Krakow and Grenoble (Krakow same time as WIZZ so demand would have been split between two airlines - wrong move) Also tried GNB which failed. GVA has been a success although frequency has declined slightly over the 10 years it has operated. But these two 'test' destinations are hardly ground breaking. They should have tried Barcelona, Nice, Rome for example.
Flybe 2015 (Previous Jersey European which last operated from BOH in 1993 and as Flybe to MAN single daily in 2010) - a mess and obviously everyone agrees they had no intention of operating a long-term sustainable base at BOH. They were leveraging their once biggest base at SOU from a cost perspective. Using BOH.
Ryanair - yield is the biggest issue at BOH. At one time they operated 4 daily flights to Scotland alone - fantastic load factors but everyone paying 20 quid. Many routes discontinued including Wroclaw, Katowice, Shannon, Madrid, Nantes, Carcasonne, Pisa, Ibiza, Reus, Chania, Dublin, Glasgow, Edinburgh Frankfurt Hahn, and many more.
Aurigny daily services to JER and GCI in 2004 - failure caused by high fares and lack of frequency compared to SOU.
BMIbaby - 3 flights a week to JER will not compete with 6 daily from SOU at similar pricing.
Aer Lingus - failure caused by high fares and lack of frequency compared to 3 daily at SOU.
BUZZ - bought by Ryanair and closed BOH base before started operating.
Flyglobespan - sold BOH-EDI but stopped before started flying.
Euroscot express - did OK with 1-11's to Scptland then lost it when they deployed ATR-72's with high fares, low frequency and slow aircraft when compared with SOU. Gill Air took over when Euroscot when under and flopped within months.
Thomsonfly 2005 - couldn't cut it with 2 737's flying to AMS, CDG, PRG etc etc although the change in business model at the company may have contributed to the cuts rather than BOH demand per se.
I very much doubt any airline will consider BOH now. How can the management team explain the lack of sustainability???
The ONLY solution for BOH is to negotiate with incumbents Thomson, Ryanair and easyJet to base more aircraft and try to make the best out of the volume of passengers. This is the ONLY effective way to compete with SOU and enlarge the BOH catchment (the low fares offer a much wider appeal). MONARCH would be a target from a brand fit with BOH catchment. If they are brave and get a good incentive.
Did I miss any airlines???
This list of failures at BOH is staggering. I don't think any airport in the UK has a list this long:
Euro Direct 1994 was a disaster - 18 seat J31's flying to AMS and then massive expansion to 4 daily flights BOH-AMS with 64 seat ATP's. The writing was on the wall.
Air Berlin - BOH-PAD. Hardly a useful or necessary route. No wonder they stopped.
Jet2 2005 - daily flights to BFS. Again, too much capacity and no one had heard of Jet2 down here.
WIZZ 2007 - Not sure why this one didn't work? They operated one route at the same time as easyJet was testing the BOH market. Not good as both airlines failed.
EasyJet - Tried Krakow and Grenoble (Krakow same time as WIZZ so demand would have been split between two airlines - wrong move) Also tried GNB which failed. GVA has been a success although frequency has declined slightly over the 10 years it has operated. But these two 'test' destinations are hardly ground breaking. They should have tried Barcelona, Nice, Rome for example.
Flybe 2015 (Previous Jersey European which last operated from BOH in 1993 and as Flybe to MAN single daily in 2010) - a mess and obviously everyone agrees they had no intention of operating a long-term sustainable base at BOH. They were leveraging their once biggest base at SOU from a cost perspective. Using BOH.
Ryanair - yield is the biggest issue at BOH. At one time they operated 4 daily flights to Scotland alone - fantastic load factors but everyone paying 20 quid. Many routes discontinued including Wroclaw, Katowice, Shannon, Madrid, Nantes, Carcasonne, Pisa, Ibiza, Reus, Chania, Dublin, Glasgow, Edinburgh Frankfurt Hahn, and many more.
Aurigny daily services to JER and GCI in 2004 - failure caused by high fares and lack of frequency compared to SOU.
BMIbaby - 3 flights a week to JER will not compete with 6 daily from SOU at similar pricing.
Aer Lingus - failure caused by high fares and lack of frequency compared to 3 daily at SOU.
BUZZ - bought by Ryanair and closed BOH base before started operating.
Flyglobespan - sold BOH-EDI but stopped before started flying.
Euroscot express - did OK with 1-11's to Scptland then lost it when they deployed ATR-72's with high fares, low frequency and slow aircraft when compared with SOU. Gill Air took over when Euroscot when under and flopped within months.
Thomsonfly 2005 - couldn't cut it with 2 737's flying to AMS, CDG, PRG etc etc although the change in business model at the company may have contributed to the cuts rather than BOH demand per se.
I very much doubt any airline will consider BOH now. How can the management team explain the lack of sustainability???
The ONLY solution for BOH is to negotiate with incumbents Thomson, Ryanair and easyJet to base more aircraft and try to make the best out of the volume of passengers. This is the ONLY effective way to compete with SOU and enlarge the BOH catchment (the low fares offer a much wider appeal). MONARCH would be a target from a brand fit with BOH catchment. If they are brave and get a good incentive.
Did I miss any airlines???
Euro Direct 1994 was a disaster - 18 seat J31's flying to AMS and then massive expansion to 4 daily flights BOH-AMS with 64 seat ATP's. The writing was on the wall.
Air Berlin - BOH-PAD. Hardly a useful or necessary route. No wonder they stopped.
Air Berlin - BOH-PAD. Hardly a useful or necessary route. No wonder they stopped.
Air Berlin moved the PAD service from SOU to BOH as they needed the longer runway because of their high load factors. The run down of UK armed forces in Germany reduced the need for the service - PAD was close to the main UK army bases.
Join Date: Dec 2015
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Airline failures at Bournemouth
Good morning everyone, may I just add a couple more airlines to the Bournemouth failure list:
AIR SARNIA - BN Islander to Channel Islands
DEBONAIR - Operating Bae 146 on holiday charters
ELLEN VANNIN - where the cabin crew had to be less than 5 feet in height to avoid the low cabin ceiling of the aircraft operating to Isle of Man (can't remember aircraft type)
PALMAIR of course
There are more if you include cargo airlines!!!
Remembering happy days on the ramp at BOH.
AIR SARNIA - BN Islander to Channel Islands
DEBONAIR - Operating Bae 146 on holiday charters
ELLEN VANNIN - where the cabin crew had to be less than 5 feet in height to avoid the low cabin ceiling of the aircraft operating to Isle of Man (can't remember aircraft type)
PALMAIR of course
There are more if you include cargo airlines!!!
Remembering happy days on the ramp at BOH.
Join Date: Sep 2005
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OTAC22
Not sure it was Debonair, think it was Princess Air?
I agree with Nakata77, Monarch would be a great fit for BOH flying to Spain, Funchal, Greece, Ski in winter, maybe even a weekly Orlando in Summer and Barbados or Cancun flight in winter.
Ryanair to Tel Aviv would be useful for the very large Jewish community in Bmth.
I think BOH should try and work on getting English language school charters in from some obscure places within Italy, Spain, Germany etc. Perhaps even Taiwan, Korea and China?
I agree with Nakata77, Monarch would be a great fit for BOH flying to Spain, Funchal, Greece, Ski in winter, maybe even a weekly Orlando in Summer and Barbados or Cancun flight in winter.
Ryanair to Tel Aviv would be useful for the very large Jewish community in Bmth.
I think BOH should try and work on getting English language school charters in from some obscure places within Italy, Spain, Germany etc. Perhaps even Taiwan, Korea and China?
Monarch would be a great fit for BOH flying to Spain, Funchal, Greece
...maybe even a weekly Orlando in Summer and Barbados or Cancun flight in winter.
Bournemouth to Tel Aviv would probably struggle - the resident Jewish community in Bournemouth is rather smaller than might initially seem to be the case.
I imagine most English language students travel to/from Bournemouth on cheap tickets - unlikely to be compatible with long haul charter flights being profitable.
I imagine most English language students travel to/from Bournemouth on cheap tickets - unlikely to be compatible with long haul charter flights being profitable.
Join Date: Dec 2015
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Bournemouth Royal Mail flights
Off at a tangent-my apologies.Is it true that Mail once flown fromBOH toEMA is now roaded to Stanstead and then by air to East Mids??? Must be even cheaper that way!
Join Date: Nov 2006
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ORTAC22
I think your find that is correct regarding Royal Mail.
And by the way it is STANSTED, your find a lot of journalists or newspaper articles, etc use STANSTEAD which we all know is spelt incorrectly.
I think your find that is correct regarding Royal Mail.
And by the way it is STANSTED, your find a lot of journalists or newspaper articles, etc use STANSTEAD which we all know is spelt incorrectly.
Join Date: Dec 2004
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Merry Christmas everyone!
I couldn't sleep because of the excitement of Santa so here is a Christmas post to cheer everyone up.
BOH in the year 2030:
KLM enticed away from SOU operated 3 daily with 1 based ERJ-190
easyJet based 2 A320 NEO
Ryanair based 3 737-max
Monarch based 1 B737-max
Thomson based 2 B737-800
Oh and AFC Bournemouth Champions of the Premier League.
I couldn't sleep because of the excitement of Santa so here is a Christmas post to cheer everyone up.
BOH in the year 2030:
KLM enticed away from SOU operated 3 daily with 1 based ERJ-190
easyJet based 2 A320 NEO
Ryanair based 3 737-max
Monarch based 1 B737-max
Thomson based 2 B737-800
Oh and AFC Bournemouth Champions of the Premier League.
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If BOH manages just 20% of the expected 3 million pax in 2016 (figures based on the expansion plans put into action eight years ago) then I think they'll have done well. 600,000 looks like a dismal but realistic proposition for the next 12 months compared to the original 3 million! That's an absolutely huge difference to what MAG expected! Is there really anything that can be done to change this? It seems extremely unlikely now. It's so hard to be optimistic regarding the future of an airport that can't even handle more than a couple of diversions at any one time these days! So what was so different in the 70s and 80s when they managed to handle dozens of LHR & LGW diverts! Something to do with everyone working as a team in those days maybe?
Join Date: Nov 2002
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Diversions are a thing of the past for most UK airports these days as most just can't handle them due staffing issues , enhanced immigration checks , parking and stand availability etc ….
Something that Bournemouth was very lucky with and that was parking of aircraft pretty much anywhere on the ramp and buses coming right up to the aircraft and taking them off to their destination and a team that were able to multi task . You will never see the likes of 20 / 30 aircraft lined up at BOH , great memories but thats it now …
As to the future it really is bleak at the moment , not sure what the next step is but certainly the smug MD of the airport seems hopeless at everything he does and really a fresh new local marketing team needs to be put in place to work with travel agents and the public alike to promote it along with a new dynamic MD for the airport with a vision
The drop off fee needs to be lowered , although its bringing in revenue its a real thorn in everyones side and really winds people up
The transport side of things is awful , a happy shopper bus every hour is not going to cut it ! but its again a real chicken and egg situation , get the flight in get the transport links started
As for 2016 i think the above posters are correct in saying its going to rough
Something that Bournemouth was very lucky with and that was parking of aircraft pretty much anywhere on the ramp and buses coming right up to the aircraft and taking them off to their destination and a team that were able to multi task . You will never see the likes of 20 / 30 aircraft lined up at BOH , great memories but thats it now …
As to the future it really is bleak at the moment , not sure what the next step is but certainly the smug MD of the airport seems hopeless at everything he does and really a fresh new local marketing team needs to be put in place to work with travel agents and the public alike to promote it along with a new dynamic MD for the airport with a vision
The drop off fee needs to be lowered , although its bringing in revenue its a real thorn in everyones side and really winds people up
The transport side of things is awful , a happy shopper bus every hour is not going to cut it ! but its again a real chicken and egg situation , get the flight in get the transport links started
As for 2016 i think the above posters are correct in saying its going to rough
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BOH in the year 2030:
KLM enticed away from SOU operated 3 daily with 1 based ERJ-190
easyJet based 2 A320 NEO
Ryanair based 3 737-max
Monarch based 1 B737-max
Thomson based 2 B737-800
KLM enticed away from SOU operated 3 daily with 1 based ERJ-190
easyJet based 2 A320 NEO
Ryanair based 3 737-max
Monarch based 1 B737-max
Thomson based 2 B737-800
Oh and AFC Bournemouth Champions of the Premier League.