Southend-2

[davidjohnson6]

Chateauroux

Flew between Chateauroux and Southend. Very low load factor (well below 50%) filled mainly with French people holidaying in London - very few Brits. This suggests that the aim of the subsidy, namely encouraging Brits to visit Chateauroux is not working - not that surprising as the local seem to excel at marketing fluff in the knowledge that thete isn't really anything worth seeing; I managed to fill 2 hours with sightseeing but found myself struggling after that ! Really can't see this route returning in summer 2019 unless the local French Govt body paying for the subsidy has money to burn.

[tophat27dt]

Oh dear Another ATR broken this morning??

[virginblue]

Originally Posted by davidjohnson6

Flew between Chateauroux and Southend. Very low load factor (well below 50%) filled mainly with French people holidaying in London - very few Brits. This suggests that the aim of the subsidy, namely encouraging Brits to visit Chateauroux is not working - not that surprising as the local seem to excel at marketing fluff in the knowledge that thete isn't really anything worth seeing; I managed to fill 2 hours with sightseeing but found myself struggling after that ! Really can't see this route returning in summer 2019 unless the local French Govt body paying for the subsidy has money to burn.

While I doubt that the route is sustainable, I also doubt that it is aimed at Chateauroux proper which is a fairly small city. Probably targeting those who holiday in the area or who have second homes, just like all those flights to Tours, Limoges or Poitiers. Problem is undoubtedly how to create awareness of that route with the target group mainly served by Ryanair and Flybe from STN and SOU.

[Barling Magna]

I would have thought that the route is mainly targeted at the French wishing to travel to London?

[compton3bravo]

Could not agree more Barking. Nothing too spectacular plus very few ex-pats in the vicinity. Personally I don't find both Tours and Poitiers not particularly attractive either but Limoges is a different matter. Visit Oradeur-sur-Glane if you can and if you are not moved by the futility of war you never will be but good luck to the airline for giving it a go.

[tophat27dt]

AMS delayed

Anybody know why 3 hours delay this morning on AMS? I am using this route for the first time next week with connections on separate tickets (I know it's at my own risk). The weather is CAVOK.

[Falcon666]

AMS
Easyjet website is your friend.
Go to Business/ flight tracker for the info

Its due to crew welfare issues

[welkyboy]

DT. It’s operating from Amsterdam with a Neo (1st visit to SEN) so inbound on time outbound delayed

[davidjohnson6]

Barling - with load factors in the region of 25%, the Southend-Chateauroux route is clearly losing a lot of money. An ordinary commercial airline would probably be cutting the route - my understanding is that public sector organisation in Chateauroux is providing some sort of commercial support to IGAvion / Skytaxi. Why would French public sector effectively want to subsidise visits to Buckingham Palace and also provide glossy magazines on the plane promoting Chateauroux as a tourist destination ?

[22/04]

Why would French public sector effectively want to subsidise visits to Buckingham Palace and also provide glossy magazines on the plane promoting Chateauroux as a tourist destination ?

Regional pride

[tophat27dt]

Originally Posted by Falcon666

AMS
Easyjet website is your friend.
Go to Business/ flight tracker for the info

Its due to crew welfare issues

Many thanks for the info.

[tophat27dt]

Originally Posted by welkyboy

DT. It’s operating from Amsterdam with a Neo (1st visit to SEN) so inbound on time outbound delayed

Hi Welkyboy! Nice one.

[Barling Magna]

Originally Posted by compton3bravo

Could not agree more Barking.

Hey, I'm BarLing, not BarKing.

Then again, maybe you're right.

[DC3 Dave]

I'm posting this open letter from Andrew Tinkler here because I believe some will find it both relevant and of interest. Apologies to those who do not believe it belongs here.

https://www.scribd.com/document/3830...s-29-June-2018

[Andy_S]

Originally Posted by DC3 Dave

Apologies to those who do not believe it belongs here.

I've said before that I believe the fortunes of Stobart Group and its Aviation Division are inextricably linked, so any boardroom shenanigans is highly relevant and (in moderation) valid for discussion IMO..

The AGM is on Friday, and the vote to replace the Chairman looks like it’s going to be close. I get the feeling from the business pages that Tinkler’s camp may have the upper hand.

Personally, I don’t think anyone comes out of this very well. And it’s keeping Stobart Group in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

[SWBKCB]

Personally, I don’t think anyone comes out of this very well. And it’s keeping Stobart Group in the headlines for all the wrong reasons

.

An it could be taking the corporate eye off the ball - for example, could the Carlisle fiasco be related?

[rowly6339]

Originally Posted by Andy_S

I've said before that I believe the fortunes of Stobart Group and its Aviation Division are inextricably linked, so any boardroom shenanigans is highly relevant and (in moderation) valid for discussion IMO..

The AGM is on Friday, and the vote to replace the Chairman looks like it’s going to be close. I get the feeling from the business pages that Tinkler’s camp may have the upper hand.

Personally, I don’t think anyone comes out of this very well. And it’s keeping Stobart Group in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

tinklers camp have around 1/3 of the votes they hardly have it in their favour, far from it.

[virginblue]

Has anyone connected through MAN on BE to another domestic destination? Is the transfer airside without security or are you dumped in arrivals and have to fight your way back through security to departures? BE offers 45m connections which would be very tight if the latter scenario applies.

[JobsaGoodun]

Domestic to domestic connections with BE through T3 at MAN are all airside - no need to go anywhere near arrivals or security. In fact, the minimum connection time offered is just 35mins on some and I've never experienced an issue in making connections through their hub.

[Andy_S]

Originally Posted by rowly6339

tinklers camp have around 1/3 of the votes they hardly have it in their favour, far from it.

They have about a third of the votes in the bag simply from Neil Woodford’s institutional shareholding and Tinkler’s personal stake. What’s not known is which way the rest of the votes will fall, and they only need to secure about a quarter of these to win. One other institutional shareholder, while not actually declaring for either party, has publically refused to give the board his full backing and a few days ago one of the non-execs switched his loyalty to Tinkler. Of course, this may just be a case of better news management from Tinkler’s camp, but they only need one or two major shareholders to pitch in with them and suddenly it becomes too close to call.

Also worth observing that if Tinkler does get his way, then most of the other directors, including Warwick Brady, will almost certainly quit, in which case the turmoil will continue.

I should add that I myself don’t have a dog in this particular race and am less then enthused about either of the factions.