NEWQUAY

[Air Hop]

Why cannot work be done to have a share with EXT on some routes. Surely a shared flight would give greater opportunites to samller / regional types with a market to suit?

[Phileas Fogg]

[quoteWhy cannot work be done to have a share with EXT on some routes][/quote]

You're only suggesting EXT because PLH is no more, routes were shared between NQY and PLH and they failed.

One difference between EXT and PLH, indeed EXT and NQY, is that EXT has the M5 and the A303!

[Wycombe]

....and EXT is at the end of the relatively fast bit of the rail network, before it creeps at 70mph (max) around all those very scenic coasts and hills in Devon and Cornwall. NQY is at the end of a 40mph branch line!

Phileas, I think you'll find that the A303 runs out a fair bit E of EXT! It's the A30 that goes past the Airport.

[trafficnotsighted]

Routes shared between NQY and PLH did not fail. The development company that owned PLH and Airsouthwest ensured that the operation of them did not show they were making money (whilst Plymouth City Council turned a blind eye),so they could close them down and apply to develop the PLH site. Which they are still waiting for permission to do.

[oapilot]

One difference between EXT and PLH, indeed EXT and NQY, is that EXT has the M5 and the A303!

Which means that those folk around E. Devon have the excellent choice of flights available from a variety of airlines operating out of Bristol, as well as the rail link.

Plymouth and Newquay pax have the choice of what's left out of Newquay, or Exeter, neither of which are much use to anyone once Flybe ditch LGW....

[TSR2]

The development company that owned PLH and Airsouthwest ensured that the operation of them did not show they were making money (whilst Plymouth City Council turned a blind eye)

Do you know this as fact, or is it just your take on the situation.

[trafficnotsighted]

It is not a case of knowing it for a fact, it is a case of being there and watching it happen. I doubt the truth will ever come out ,but there are enough of us who were involved with ASW or PLH that watched business opportunities turned down or services priced to put customers off, especially during the last couple of years. This to ensure the ultimate goal of invoking the clause in the lease to be able to shut PLH.

[Phileas Fogg]

TrafficNotSighted,

The NQY/PLH London route was supposed to be combined for just one season, the winter of 1982/1983 if I recall correctly, following the retirement of Brymon's HPR7 and until the arrival of their 4th DHC7 ... Which never arrived.

Brymon, during the Bill Bryce days, had no financial alternative but to continue with combined services or to cancel one route or the other due to lack of finances but once BA moved in, and ASW after BA became a lesson of "How to p1ss the punters off in one easy lesson".

So please don't preach to me that the combined routes didn't fail and it was, to the effect, sabotage by Sutton Holdings that caused them to fail, Sutton/ASW, and BA before them, did sabotage the routes by keeping them combined and without good reason ... except a beancounters reason!

[Wycombe]

Was thinking about the "keep the LGW route going" situation.

When EZY started ops at NQY earlier this year, they made vague statements about the possibility of sun routes out of NQY at some point, which I appreciate would be dependant upon many factors lining up in a positive fashion.

I was wondering if they could do this with a single a/c, that operates LGW-NQY morning and evening, and then flies "W's" to the likes of AGP, ALC, PMI etc during the day.

RYR had previously managed to make these sort of routes work (albeit operated from their Med. bases), to an extent, although their price point might have been a bit different to what EZY would like to set.

Thoughts?

[GROUNDHOG]

One of the difficulties would be that around one in five of the Cornish population is directly involved in tourism and many more rely on tourists to support their shops and businesses, they cannot usually take holidays in the summer months.

The economy is one of the poorest in the UK and has a GDP of just 62%
of the national average and whilst things are changing thanks to EU grants in part, in general most Cornish folk will holiday more modestly than take longer haul. ALC, AGP,PMI etc are not really winter sun destinations so unlikely to attract much support.

Against this background I doubt there is sufficient support to run 'sun' destinations from NQY in any volume since we also have Exeter just up the road.

I have doubts even mighty easyjet will have a once a day service that lasts very long but then we go back to the old catch 22 situation. You need frequency, smaller aircraft.... and somewhere to land them in London to make that viable.

Finally on the subject of ASW and its deliberate destruction by SHH, that is not the impression I got, I am sure the board would wanted millions in contribution from its airline but that was not happening.

I am waiting until the dust settles before my next move?

[Wycombe]

Not good news from EZY

Leaving aside the inaccurate BBC reporting (which seems to imply that EZY already operate between LGW and NQY), what they are reporting is as follows:

BBC News - Newquay-Gatwick flights to end says Easyjet

[srobarts]

Not sure I was surprised that Easyjet will not keep Newquay Gatwick going but saddened for this region.
BBC News - Newquay-Gatwick flights to end says Easyjet

[GROUNDHOG]

Well documented her a single A319 a day would never be viable so no surprise really, the airport claim they are still talking to more than one other company but the bottom line doesn't change. The only way the route is viable is with low capacity units and higher frequency and that is not going to happen at Gatwick!

[Non Emmett]

With nearly 100000 passengers using the Newquay -Gatwick route in 2012 and traffic having dropped for each of the last five years at the airport what is the likely future for the airport now that Easy jet have indicated they will not be taking on the route ? I recall using the Newquay -Heathrow service in its first week of operation back in the 1970s. It's a service which has assumed greater importance to Cornwall over the decades. The Southend route will hopefully just manage to keep the airport going for now but annual losses of three million pounds a year seem set to continue it seems to me.

Spend a few days or more in the southeast of England and it soon becomes all too apparent how far behind in economic terms Cornwall sadly is.

A bottomless pit or am I being too pessimistic ?

[GROUNDHOG]

I wouldn't be relying on Southend to keep the airport going myself, Newquay Airport needs something much more permanent than relying on the whims of easyjet, ryanair etc and if that cannot be done fetch the bricks and mortar and build a theme park.

[Barling Magna]

The Southend route is a leisure route for the good folk of Essex and the East End of London. It could become a useful route to London for the Cornish, but this would require a lot of said Cornish businessmen to turn up in suits and use the service next July and August........

[devonish]

A sad day for Nqy, but what other airlines are being talked to?? None fit what is needed at Nqy, newquay was only viable when the RAF were running the airfield and supplying most services, the airport management are delusional if they think they are a big player and with lands end having hard runways fitted, times could be even tougher. At the end of the day not enough people are using the airport

[GROUNDHOG]

Southend is useless as a business route to London, no frequency and nowhere near London!

[globetrotter79]

Inevitably going over old ground somewhat, but I guess the most likely options now are likely to be:

Flybe NQY-LTN
BA Cityflyer NQY-LCY

[mikkie4]

GROUNDHOG

Neither is LONDON LUTON OR LONDON STANSTED.LONDON GATWICK OR LONDON HEATHROW