SOUTHEND 5
Regional air connectivity
Just a thought, could the lack of SEN's efforts to restart the DUB flights be connected to the stobart air application for government funding for CAX-SEN-CAX-DUB and CAX-BFS.
I assume if they were successful flights would be timed so passengers could go from SEN to both the Irish destination with a short stop in CAX.
I assume if they were successful flights would be timed so passengers could go from SEN to both the Irish destination with a short stop in CAX.
Last edited by fatmed; 23rd Aug 2015 at 10:45. Reason: Spelling
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I assume if they were successful flights would be timed so passengers could go from SEN to both the Irish destination with a short stop in CAX.
Last edited by Steviec9; 23rd Aug 2015 at 11:05.
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Adria
Slovenia's Adria Airways has delayed a decision on whether to continue operating flights from Maribor Edvard Rusjan Airport to London Southend during the 2015/16 winter season. A decision to extend the seasonal service, launched this summer, was to be made last Friday. In a statement, Adria said, “The decision for the upcoming winter depends on local communities and the creation of a joint fund for these flights”. The fund would subsidise the service and its creation is expected this week. Currently, the majority of passengers using Adria’s service between Maribor and London are Slovenians, with British travellers making up only 4% of passengers. Flights to London are scheduled to run until late September.
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With British passengers making up only 4% of passengers it must be a disappointment to Adria. The question I would imagine they will be asking is whether more UK passengers would use the service with a London airport swap? To be honest I would think that many Wizz services have lowish British passengers totals but probably not that low.
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The 4% isn't really the problem as flights are pretty full. The reason for the low British numbers is the late arrival time in Maribor of around 11pm. An earlier flight would help the situation although I think they are aiming primarily for Slovenian's travelling inbound to London.
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I also can't recall the Adria flights having been advertised in the UK. My family and I took the flight last week and will be returning next Tuesday, but the only reason we knew about it is the fact that I read Pprune and we saw it in the Echo. Northern Slovenia and Styria are not exactly the most famous destinations amongst Brits so coupled with the late arrival time in MBX (which I speak from personal experience was brutal when we had some distance still to travel by road), I don't think conditions are conducive to attracting British passengers in significant numbers. Having said that, the load factor was very high on the outbound and the return seems to be full so hopefully Adria will be pleased with that, assuming yields are also good.
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I also can't recall the Adria flights having been advertised in the UK
Maribor, Slovenia: let?s hear it for the grapevine | Travel | The Guardian
From my occasional presence when the Adria flights arrive I would say that the load factors look very encouraging. I also agree that the current timings are hopeless for UK travellers. The article above makes Maribor sound an interesting enough destination for a visit - but perhaps only once!
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Neither can I, but there have been a couple of newspaper articles publicising the route, of which this is one:
Maribor, Slovenia: let?s hear it for the grapevine | Travel | The Guardian
From my occasional presence when the Adria flights arrive I would say that the load factors look very encouraging. I also agree that the current timings are hopeless for UK travellers. The article above makes Maribor sound an interesting enough destination for a visit - but perhaps only once!
Maribor, Slovenia: let?s hear it for the grapevine | Travel | The Guardian
From my occasional presence when the Adria flights arrive I would say that the load factors look very encouraging. I also agree that the current timings are hopeless for UK travellers. The article above makes Maribor sound an interesting enough destination for a visit - but perhaps only once!
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I too found Maribor a very boring place. There is nothing to see in the city itself. However, if the schedule was changed to arrive there mid-afternoon, it would give UK travellers the chance to pick up their hire car, drive to either Lake Bled, Ljubljana, Klagenfurt or even Zagreb in time for dinner.
The service has done very well with its support from the local Slovenians coming to London, but will they still want to visit during the winter months?
It's the same with the Skywork Berne flights. The schedule always arrived there late evening; only suitable for Berne city itself but hardly time to find a restaurant open that late. By changing it to the new schedule I think it will become more attractive to local people, on both sides.
As for EasyJet, I wont hold my breathe to see if they have anything expansions plans up their sleeves.
The service has done very well with its support from the local Slovenians coming to London, but will they still want to visit during the winter months?
It's the same with the Skywork Berne flights. The schedule always arrived there late evening; only suitable for Berne city itself but hardly time to find a restaurant open that late. By changing it to the new schedule I think it will become more attractive to local people, on both sides.
As for EasyJet, I wont hold my breathe to see if they have anything expansions plans up their sleeves.
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The service has done very well with its support from the local Slovenians coming to London, but will they still want to visit during the winter months?
The vast majority will be traveling here not for a holiday but to either work, visit relations over here that are working or working Slovenians going back to see their relations. This sort of activity happens throughout the year and is not restricted to summer although fares would drop to encourage winter travel.
The big tourist sites in Slovenia are Ljubljana, Bled and the coast, all of which are much closer to Ljubljana airport. Klagenfurt is also nearer LJU than Maribor and Zagreb already has good service to London. Other posters are right, Maribor struggles to provide major interest for tourists. A guided tour of the castle museum and visiting the old grape vine can fill a few hours but no more than that, whatever the local tourist board may say. The region is frankly, a bit of a rural backwater in Europe.
We should however be grateful that a route with low seasonality is going to Southend - it's hard to fill large numbers of seats to Ibiza or Alicante in November.
We should however be grateful that a route with low seasonality is going to Southend - it's hard to fill large numbers of seats to Ibiza or Alicante in November.
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We visited Maribor itself yesterday after having visited Austria ever year for the past 15 years. Sadly we were bored after an hour!
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Southend airport suffers easyJet passenger drop - www.travelweekly.co.uk
Southend airport suffered a 99,000 fall in easyJet passengers in the five months to the end of July.
Parent company Stobart Group revealed the shortfall to 410,000 over the same period last year in a trading statement this morning.
However, it voiced confidence in achieving a target of more than 2.5 million passengers a year using the Essex airport by 2018.
Stobart said: “We reported in the AGM statement in June that we are currently working with easyJet to determine the optimum capacity for the routes it currently operates from London Southend airport.
“Stobart Group guided then that this would lead to a short-term fall in passenger numbers over the summer.
“As a result of this process, passenger numbers in the five months to 31 July 2015 decreased by 99,000 year-on-year to 410,000, but revenue per passenger increased.
“Stobart Group's growing relationship with easyJet, coupled with discussions with other low cost airlines, gives us confidence we will be well placed to announce new routes and achieve our target of welcoming 2.5 million passengers to London Southend airport annually by 2018.”
Southend airport suffered a 99,000 fall in easyJet passengers in the five months to the end of July.
Parent company Stobart Group revealed the shortfall to 410,000 over the same period last year in a trading statement this morning.
However, it voiced confidence in achieving a target of more than 2.5 million passengers a year using the Essex airport by 2018.
Stobart said: “We reported in the AGM statement in June that we are currently working with easyJet to determine the optimum capacity for the routes it currently operates from London Southend airport.
“Stobart Group guided then that this would lead to a short-term fall in passenger numbers over the summer.
“As a result of this process, passenger numbers in the five months to 31 July 2015 decreased by 99,000 year-on-year to 410,000, but revenue per passenger increased.
“Stobart Group's growing relationship with easyJet, coupled with discussions with other low cost airlines, gives us confidence we will be well placed to announce new routes and achieve our target of welcoming 2.5 million passengers to London Southend airport annually by 2018.”
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With only three years to go before 2018 they better get a move on but then they only have to find another 1.5 million passengers which really isn't a massive total at just an extra 500,000 per year or is it?
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I have to wonder why a small airport would want to get into bed with LCCs. SEN is not, and doesn't have the size to be, a shopping centre with flights like STN or LGW. The LCCs are not going to pay their way otherwise. I thought it quite interesting at the recent Connect conference that regional airports, in particular, are starting to talk about 'yield' rather than simply numbers of passengers. I should think that would be the smarter business model.
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“As a result of this process, passenger numbers in the five months to 31 July 2015 decreased by 99,000 year-on-year to 410,000, but revenue per passenger increased.
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Nope but does make sense on economic matter well suit to shorter runway and it Airport. Just remember when it crosswind problem EZY had to off load some passengers. Hope the NEO will solved the plm.
Last edited by tayair6; 31st Aug 2015 at 10:20.