Eastern Airways-2

[allan1987]

There is an order in for 4 ATR72-600
1 E190 (ER-ECC) has been painted white at East Midlands,
1 JS41 (G-MAJU) has gone to cranfield
looks like G-MAJK (JS41) has been repaired and now back in service
1 E170 Still to come back from storage
more likely to replace G-CDEB (S2000)
the 2 E145 are up for sale
think 2 new routes will be CWL-BHD and CWL-DUB
There is only 2 ATR72's both are at SOU

[SKOJB]

Originally Posted by SWBKCB

Where are the other ATR's coming from - they only have two at present? What does the E190 at MME do? aren't the E145's up for sale??

No idea on the number of ATR’s but 2 are now based at SOU and I believe any new ones will replace the Saab and E145 fleet. Be good to see the E190 in new colours!

[The Nutts Mutts]

Originally Posted by SeanM1997

Eastern now have 4 ATR72s at Southampton. There are gaps in the middle of the day should they want to increase frequency or add more routes. No aircraft based at Belfast City (BHD) at present, but they may have been waiting for Stobart Air to announce before doing so.

Looking at the schedules, the following aircraft seem to be based:
Cardiff - 1x J41
Humberside - 1x J41
Leeds/Bradford - 1x J41
Southampton - 4x ATR72
Teesside - 1x E190, 2x J41, 1x S2000

That leaves the 2x E145 new (3x) Embraer (170/190) aircraft, 2x ATR72 and 1x J41 unaccounted for. This would either be new bases or grow Southampton for European

Right now Eastern only have 2 ATRs at SOU.

[SeanM1997]

Originally Posted by The Nutts Mutts

Right now Eastern only have 2 ATRs at SOU.

Winter 2020, SOU based aircraft:
ATR72 0645 SOU-MAN 0755
ATR72 0655 SOU-NCL 0820
ATR72 0705 SOU-BHD 0830
ATR72 0710 SOU-DUB 0820

[Wycombe]

Right now Eastern only have 2 ATRs at SOU

....and not exactly highly-utilised at the moment, just covering 1 daily (weekday) flights to BHD, NCL and MAN currently.
2nd daily weekdays flight to MAN due to start next week, and DUB (5 weekly) from 17/08.
Further frequency increases on BHD, NCL and MAN from 31/08

[JSCL]

Looked at a few MAN flights and some are showing J41 on the return legs. System error or some voodoo?

[Albert Hall]

They even have some flights which go out as a Jetstream 41 from SOU and the same rotation returns as an ATR72 - it does that five days a week. If they've got a magic handling agent, maybe that's where the extra ATRs are coming from! Quite impressive. As long as they don't reverse the spell one day and you send an ATR72 and get a J41 in return....

Is there not a question that whatever any airline has on sale at the moment for the coming winter (routes, frequencies, equipment) is rather aspirational versus the reality of what might actually happen? I don't think Eastern would be alone in that. Loganair's schedule still has loads of ATR72s scattered around too, and BA still has high frequencies showing on a lot of routes that are hard to imagine happening.

[Fly757X]

Originally Posted by Albert Hall

They even have some flights which go out as a Jetstream 41 from SOU and the same rotation returns as an ATR72 - it does that five days a week. If they've got a magic handling agent, maybe that's where the extra ATRs are coming from! Quite impressive. As long as they don't reverse the spell one day and you send an ATR72 and get a J41 in return....

Is there not a question that whatever any airline has on sale at the moment for the coming winter (routes, frequencies, equipment) is rather aspirational versus the reality of what might actually happen? I don't think Eastern would be alone in that. Loganair's schedule still has loads of ATR72s scattered around too, and BA still has high frequencies showing on a lot of routes that are hard to imagine happening.

Loganairs schedule has had the ATRs that were due to operate GLA/EDI-SOU replaces with ERJs now, removing the need for extra frames. However by the looks of the schedule the 2nd -600 they have is to enter soon. Anyways apologies for going off topic.

[Albert Hall]

I'm glad you can keep up with it all.

But back to the thread title, four ATR72s all doing two flights a day each doesn't seem very real-world. It seems more like an effort to put a schedule into the system to be attractive to anyone booking.

[allan1987]

looks like the Saab 2000 went tech in NQY? as seems G-CISK Embraer 145 was sent this afternoon today for replacment flight back to MME

[s_insania]

Another Jetstream rejoined the fleet after 10 months at Cranfield, JZ back and in service yesterday

[allan1987]

Originally Posted by s_insania

Another Jetstream rejoined the fleet after 10 months at Cranfield, JZ back and in service yesterday

Seems that G-MAJZ and G-MAJY was reregistered with Eastern Airways on G-INFO on the 10th July

Seems that G-MAJW was reregistered with Eastern Airways on G-INFO on the 28th July

This must be with wanting 10 Jetstream 41's in service that was mentioned earlier on here

[The Nutts Mutts]

Does anyone have any insight into passenger numbers on the ex-Flybe routes? Anecdotally I've heard that they're a bit hit and miss, which hopefully is just a Covid symptom which will improve with time.

[Letsflycwl]

With all the planned Eastern expansion notably at MME, SOU and other airports how come Eastern only appear to be advertising for cabin crew at CWL on their webpage ?

i know they do the twice daily CWL-VLY route with the based J41 and prior to COVID-19 they also did the daily MME/ABZ but this was with a non based aircraft.

Would this cabin crew recruitment drive be purely for the VLY route or is something else in the planning for CWL as since the loss of Flybe, CWL has lost (and not replaced to date) BHD, DUB, EDI, GLA, JER and CDG.......or is this just wishful thinking ? Just seems odd to be advertising solely for CWL based crew.

[yeo valley]

Originally Posted by Letsflycwl

With all the planned Eastern expansion notably at MME, SOU and other airports how come Eastern only appear to be advertising for cabin crew at CWL on their webpage ?

i know they do the twice daily CWL-VLY route with the based J41 and prior to COVID-19 they also did the daily MME/ABZ but this was with a non based aircraft.

Would this cabin crew recruitment drive be purely for the VLY route or is something else in the planning for CWL as since the loss of Flybe, CWL has lost (and not replaced to date) BHD, DUB, EDI, GLA, JER and CDG.......or is this just wishful thinking ? Just seems odd to be advertising solely for CWL based crew.

Airlines recruit from all different places for crew. The 2 airlines that spring to mind that had a advert for cabin crew around CWL was BA and Virgin,but neither fly any passenger services from CWL.I remember at the time there was a big discussion at the time and the same question was asked as you asked. Airlines recruit from all walks of life as it adresses the racist thing.Normaly the crew that apply for jobs get employed near to a base,as not many apply that live no where near a base,also it tells the airline what sort of people are out there in the big wide world. This practice has been going on like this for years. The sad part is this corona 19 has made airlines think and have and will do make redundancies.

[Mr A Tis]

SOU-MAN . The published schedule shows twice daily Mon-Fri on the ATR.
However, in practise only Mon & Fri are twice daily- Tue, Wed, Thu appear to be only once- thus not allowing day return & timing not brilliant.

All my flights mid Sept have been downgraded from the ATR to the Jetstream. Begs the question what are they doing with the ATRs that hardly seem to fly?

Both the schedule and type would put me off booking further flights.

[RW20]

Originally Posted by Mr A Tis

SOU-MAN . The published schedule shows twice daily Mon-Fri on the ATR.
However, in practise only Mon & Fri are twice daily- Tue, Wed, Thu appear to be only once- thus not allowing day return & timing not brilliant.

All my flights mid Sept have been downgraded from the ATR to the Jetstream. Begs the question what are they doing with the ATRs that hardly seem to fly?

Both the schedule and type would put me off booking further flights.

Can't see that this improving much,certainly no increase on the horizon and certainly no other airlines ( like blue island) taking a stab at it.
A bumpy ride ahead for SOU for sure!

[Atlantic Explorer]

Fortunately or unfortunately which ever way your viewpoint is, the J41 is Easterns only hope of culling operating losses on thin routes being operated which accounts for pretty much all of them. As the ATRs are leased I’m guessing there will be an operating charge per hour, so keeping them on the ground is the cheapest way of doing things.

Pretty dire in the grand scheme of things to have a leased asset sitting on the ground doing nothing, but is the lesser of two evils. As for their jet fleet, well, least said the better I think. Tough times ahead.

[SWBKCB]

Originally Posted by RW20

Can't see that this improving much,certainly no increase on the horizon and certainly no other airlines ( like blue island) taking a stab at it.
A bumpy ride ahead for SOU for sure!

I know RW20 likes to get in a dig, but this isn't remotely a SOU only issue but industry wide. Most schedules at the moment are "best guesses" as the industry tries to match supply and demand, and revenue and costs. Bit of a chicken and egg situation too, cos as Mr A Tis points out, if the flights aren't there, the demand can disappear.

Agreed, tough times.

[The Nutts Mutts]

In the SOU case, MAN was planned to be double daily on the ATR, but the demand just hasn't been there. Average loads are increasing but at a fairly slow rate. The Jetstream has been used more often than not, with some flights on the ATR. As a result it's planned as one daily flight for the rest of September.
Belfast is going double daily on the ATR from the 14th September as demand on that route is much higher and the use of an ATR is justified as they're carrying more pax than a Jetstream could hold.
I think it's been a case of having a plan and adjusting it to fit with the realities of the market right now. As SWBKCB says it's a mess everywhere.