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Old 9th Mar 2014, 19:28
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I also like how we are helpfully informed which countries those little-known fringe regional destinations of Copenhagen, Frankfurt and Madrid are in
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Old 10th Mar 2014, 14:13
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For all the talk, are Aer Arann actually going to offer flights from Southend to a non-DUB destination for summer 2014 or not ?

Advertising for staff is fairly cheap - until employment contracts are exchanged there is very low commitment. In an employee's first year, an employer has a fairly free hand to issue redundancy notices if so desired with little job protection afforded to the employee under English law. Of course if Aer Arann offer jobs under Irish law this might be different.

It's now mid March and if Aer Arann want ticket sales over the summer to be reasonably good, time is pressing for a publicity launch...
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Old 10th Mar 2014, 15:10
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According to the Sunday Post Ireland (9th March 2014), Aer Arann are close to finalising a second franchise agreement with a major British carrier.
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Old 10th Mar 2014, 15:53
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To be called easyJet Lite
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Old 10th Mar 2014, 15:54
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Surely it's got to be either BA or BE ?


cs
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Old 10th Mar 2014, 16:02
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How do you work that one out?
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Old 10th Mar 2014, 17:04
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My money would be on BMI given the past of the CEO and similarity of a/c size...some good possible synergies there (potentially)
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Old 10th Mar 2014, 17:21
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is there a link to the sunday post article?
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Old 10th Mar 2014, 17:28
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At the moment the article is only available to subscription holders so there is no point in providing a link, but you can read the headline and opening sentence if you go on their website and search 'Aer Arann'.


I don't think it will be BA or BE, but BMI sounds feasible.
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Old 11th Mar 2014, 16:18
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What exactly would be the point to get a franchise from a relatively unknown airline like bmi regional that operates 50 seat aircraft if you are operating ATR72s under the EI brand? Does the EI franchise not allow flights to the continent? And why would BE interested to franchise an airline that operates on a market that is attractive for BE itself? Franchises typically work differently: A larger airline franchises a smaller airline with a different fleet and market, e.g. BA franchises Sun Air.
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Old 11th Mar 2014, 21:01
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Originally Posted by virginblue
What exactly would be the point to get a franchise from a relatively unknown airline like bmi regional that operates 50 seat aircraft if you are operating ATR72s under the EI brand? Does the EI franchise not allow flights to the continent? And why would BE interested to franchise an airline that operates on a market that is attractive for BE itself? Franchises typically work differently: A larger airline franchises a smaller airline with a different fleet and market, e.g. BA franchises Sun Air.
I'd hazard a guess that the EI franchise is limited to flights to/from Ireland (and with a particular focus on flights feeding the hub at DUB); I don't think that EI have a particular interest in expanding their brand further afield and it may not be attractive for RE when contemplating a new network to face the marketing expense that comes with establishing "Aer Lingus" as the brand name in these new secondary markets.

I do agree with you though that bmi is not a particularly obvious franchisor. There may be a certain amount of residual brand equity for bmi in the London market but it would hardly translate to a turboprop operation from Southend to secondary Continental points (for which the principal market will be at the other ends of the routes.) I don't see any points in the existing bmi regional network which would likely be served from Southend, so there's no commonality there. Then again, if Aer Arann is willing to write a cheque for x% of revenue as a franchise fee, I could imagine bmi regional (or indeed flyBE) gritting their teeth and saying "to hell with the lack of strategic rationale, they want to do this, so why shouldn't we just take their money?"

Incidentally, you mention the (very relevant) example of BA and Sun-Air. Are we entirely sure that BA (!) would not contemplate signing a franchise deal to feed secondary European points into London on a purely point-to-point basis, if Stobart/RE are waving chequebooks around?
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Old 11th Mar 2014, 21:15
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BA signing a franchise deal means licensing their brand to another company and giving them limited freedom to use that brand to sell a product or service.
By necessity, the act of brand licencing means BA would give up some meaningful degree of control of their brand. The question is how the franchise royalty stacks up against the change in perceived value of the BA brand.

How willing would BA be to see their logo advertising flights to Southend ? SEN is a nice airport (been through twice) but it still has a bit of a LCC feel that might not gel with BA's 'To fly to serve' marketing approach. On the same theme, before BA offloaded regional ops to Flybe, the presence of BA at Luton for example felt (to me at least) somewhat odd
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Old 11th Mar 2014, 22:20
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Aside from BE/BA, what about VS? They're back on the short-haul scene and it's a bit of extra cash for them. Sure ATRs out of SEN isn't that glamorous, but neither was the Viscount to Maastricht (?) or that LTN-DUB franchise thing they had. Virgin Group in general have little problem with their name being used on airlines (and other enterprises) where they aren't holding controlling stakes. Just what came to mind.
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Old 11th Mar 2014, 23:26
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Sen is good for a low key airline but turbo props will not have the appeal of a A319 to anywhere. There is a market for a big player to open up there for regional stuff. Will it happen ? I doubt it
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Old 11th Mar 2014, 23:40
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SEN/RYANAIR

On the RYANAIR page someone said that RYANAIR are getting some 737-400s for the summer, could SEN have been talking to MOL about using the airport.even though MOL stated that SEN was a BACKWATER AIRFIELD and that it would never make it as a PROPPer AIRPORT,maybe he has had a change of heart,or he has seen how well EZY are doing 737-400 should have no problems operating from SEN
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Old 12th Mar 2014, 01:19
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mikkie - anything is possible but you might like to ask yourself what is not just possible but highly probable instead. If MOL were to base 737-400s at Southend, there would need to be clear commercial reasons for doing so, not just because they differ from FR's standard 737-800 aircraft, but also because the summer 2014 season that went on sale 5 or 6 months ago begins in less than 3 weeks time, drastically reducing the time for people to buy tickets for any new routes.

Imagine you were in MOL's shoes and ask yourself what you would be thinking about SEN at this point...
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Old 12th Mar 2014, 06:05
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Stobart is by far the largest shareholder in Aer Arann and has only one route to Southend to show for their investment after the disaster of moving the Waterford service across London.

So who is pulling the strings here to set up a Southend base? Stobart who are desperate for more passengers at their airport or the management team at Aer Arann?

Would Aer Arrann be even thinking of a base at Southend if it wasn't for the pressure they are no doubt under from their largest shareholder?
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Old 12th Mar 2014, 07:12
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Smile EEN

Well Jeanie Mac give the man a chance ,
We all now the current aer Arann fleet are committed to EIR for next ten years , so let him at least get a plane first as well as crew , hats us what's the hurry ?
EI-FCY and. EI-FAZ are due soon so maybe he has to wait for a plane before he love bombs the local mejia !
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Old 12th Mar 2014, 07:13
  #959 (permalink)  
 
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Smile SEN

Well Jeanie Mac give the man a chance ,
We all know the current aer Arann fleet are committed to EIR for next ten years , so let him at least get a plane first as well as crew , what's the hurry ?
EI-FCY and. EI-FAZ are due soon so maybe he has to wait for a plane before he love bombs the local meeja
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Old 12th Mar 2014, 07:53
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Well, there has certainly been no shortage of possibilities being put forward on here over the past few days.

I'm surprised that nobody noticed that ch-aviation.com reported early yesterday that the SEN-FMO would operate under the Aer Lingus Regional brand, although they didn't quote any source for that statement.

No guesses from me this time I'm afraid.
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