Southend-2

[rowly6339]

According to Stobart those flights that have been flying from the airport have largely been full.

[LTNman]

So much for social distancing then. One metre plus!

[AirportPlanner1]

Originally Posted by rowly6339

According to Stobart those flights that have been flying from the airport have largely been full.

Fares when I had a look for interest last week and a few images in the media would seem to confirm this, although there have been very few flights - about 2-4 per day - and they are to quite mainstream destinations

[DC3 Dave]

Stobart have sold Stobart Rail for £1000. I guess what they are doing is try and slow down of group losses in order to keep hold of the airport possibly until some sort of knight in shining armour comes along to save them.

Talking of knights, Andrew Tinkler says he would have paid 5 million for Stobart Rail, and again called for the removal of Warwick Brady.

https://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/185...thend-airport/

[Startledgrapefruit]

Originally Posted by DC3 Dave

Stobart have sold Stobart Rail for £1000. I guess what they are doing is try and slow down of group losses in order to keep hold of the airport possibly /

£1000 I have seen train sets down the church hall that cost more than that.

[SKOJB]

Wizz starting new med routes from LTN, is this partly in response to EZY pulling its base at SEN perhaps?

[pamann]

Originally Posted by SKOJB

Wizz starting new med routes from LTN, is this partly in response to EZY pulling its base at SEN perhaps?

I would say it’s more about them going head to head with EZY at Luton on some of those routes. Can’t see how it has any connection to Southend if I’m honest.

[SKOJB]

Originally Posted by pamann

I would say it’s more about them going head to head with EZY at Luton on some of those routes. Can’t see how it has any connection to Southend if I’m honest.

Just thought they might be tapping in to lost capacity at SEN to go head to head with EZY at LTN!

[LTNman]

Not a good time for Stobart to focus on Southend when aviation has been decimated. Southend will now have to compete head on with other London Airports with plenty of spare capacity and better transport links who will be doing their own deals. To compete means offering ever lower fees or not charging fees at all, which will mean even lower wages and zero hour contracts.

Mirror that for STN, GAT, and LTN and it is a race to the bottom with the airlines holding all the aces.

[The96er]

Originally Posted by LTNman

Mirror that for STN, GAT, and LTN and it is a race to the bottom with the airlines holding all the aces.

I’m not sure the airlines any longer hold all of the aces. I’m led to believe that the suppliers/handling agents are no longer prepared to ‘slit their own throats’ to gain market share. Hopefully for those in the industry, they’ll hold firm on that. We shall see.

[LTNman]

Southend does its own handing. Stobart has already said it has to reduce costs so people will be made redundant and then no doubt taken back on again, as the airport picks up, on new inferior contracts.

[davidjohnson6]

If I worked at SEN and was laid off.... based on Easyjet closing their base, I would not be waiting around expecting to be rehired within 6 months

[chesna152]

So what can be made of the fact that Ezy have put a near full schedule on sale from Southend for next summer:

A) They are a company in cash generation mode and are just trying to acquire cash even if they know they will be almost certainly cancelling the flights?

B) They plan on offering a larger range of destinations through non based flying than most of us would have originally thought (the timings of many flights make this unlikely)?

C) A possible U turn over base closure (hopefully so but probably the most unlikely)?

D) Something else?

[davidjohnson6]

E) The person who is meant to update the schedules is out of the office and hasn't read their emails telling them to do so yet ?

[DC3 Dave]

Can anyone confirm that there’s an Ural Airlines A320 at the airport with a scheduled 1515 departure to St Petersburg?

[FRatSTN]

F) They continue to sell tickets as normal since they're still consulting with unions about the base closure and will reaccomodate bookings, or offer a refund, when the inevitable is officially confirmed.

Seems the most logical explanation to me.

[chesna152]

Originally Posted by DC3 Dave

Can anyone confirm that there’s an Ural Airlines A320 at the airport with a scheduled 1515 departure to St Petersburg?

Yes there is, operating a change of personnel for a ship at a nearby port

[DC3 Dave]

Originally Posted by chesna152

Yes there is, operating a change of personnel for a ship at a nearby port

Thank you, comrade chesna152.

[AirportPlanner1]

EZY are allegedly operating a full pre-Covid schedule from early September. Fares are temptingly good...now, are they really going from 0 weekly to 13 weekly to AMS for example? My hunch is the cash generation option cited for why the 2021 schedule is on sale isn’t far off the mark. I’d be surprised if all the Sep flights take to the skies and that’s far more immediate.

As an aside my STN-AMS has been retimed and the schedule appears to all be operated from the AMS base whereas from what I can tell SEN-AMS is being operated from SEN.

[Planespeaking]

Originally Posted by LTNman

Not a good time for Stobart to focus on Southend when aviation has been decimated. Southend will now have to compete head on with other London Airports with plenty of spare capacity and better transport links who will be doing their own deals. To compete means offering ever lower fees or not charging fees at all, which will mean even lower wages and zero hour contracts.

Mirror that for STN, GAT, and LTN and it is a race to the bottom with the airlines holding all the aces.

'Better transport links.' I concede that the road links from London to Southend need improvement even though it is dual carriageway, however the train services and ease of access from SEN's own dedicated station to and from the terminal within 100 paces is hard to beat.