Eastern Airways-2

[Wycombe]

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.

I've been watching the going's on at SOU quite closely and pretty sure there have been 2 MAN rotations every day this week, most if not all on the ATR's, of which 1 seems to be operating (to BHD also) each day, with them swopping in and out of use every 4 or 5 days. Not great utilisation on 2 fairly new and therefore I assume quite expensive airframes.

J41's on the NCL and LBA flights at the moment. MME due to start next week. DUB was due to start also but appears to be getting pushed back?

[Mr A Tis]

I think some publicity wouldn't be amiss on the MAN-SOU. The 3 x daily Flybe Dash 8s had good loads.
Domestic travel is increasing & the train from Manchester to Southhampton is the best part of 4 hours & first class fares are eye watering.
I've made a few train trips and they are pretty full.
The Eastern fares are almost half the Cross Country First fares & I'm sure people would prefer 45 minutes in a tube as opposed to 4 hours on train.
Trouble is in my area very few people are aware of Eastern, it's not really a know name in the Manchester area. However, it does need to be double daily ( which it is, only 2 days week)

[The Nutts Mutts]

Originally Posted by Mr A Tis

I think some publicity wouldn't be amiss on the MAN-SOU. The 3 x daily Flybe Dash 8s had good loads.
Domestic travel is increasing & the train from Manchester to Southhampton is the best part of 4 hours & first class fares are eye watering.
I've made a few train trips and they are pretty full.
The Eastern fares are almost half the Cross Country First fares & I'm sure people would prefer 45 minutes in a tube as opposed to 4 hours on train.
Trouble is in my area very few people are aware of Eastern, it's not really a know name in the Manchester area. However, it does need to be double daily ( which it is, only 2 days week)

Totally agree with this. Of all the airlines that have replaced Flybe on routes from SOU, Eastern are probably the least well known and recognisable. Apart from their twitter account I haven't seen much if any marketing for their new routes.
Although you could argue that the Flybe flights had good loads before Covid and many of the business travellers and people feeding onto long haul ex MAN aren't travelling right now.

[adfly]

Originally Posted by The Nutts Mutts

Totally agree with this. Of all the airlines that have replaced Flybe on routes from SOU, Eastern are probably the least well known and recognisable. Apart from their twitter account I haven't seen much if any marketing for their new routes.
Although you could argue that the Flybe flights had good loads before Covid and many of the business travellers and people feeding onto long haul ex MAN aren't travelling right now.

Agree with all of this. Even at the end Flybe were flying SOU-MAN ~6x daily on weekdays! I wonder is Eastern will struggle on the route once Blue Islands start it at the end of October as I feel that they may be a better known name around Southampton, not to mention to partnership with Loganair allow for domestic connections (something Flybe had a fair amount of through MAN). Hopefully Eastern can establish themselves a little more before they gain competition on the route.

It is good to see that BHD is doing well for them though, hopefully this will continue. I wonder if NCL is paying it's way being on a J41 once a day where Loganair have now grown to 2x daily ER3/4 on weekdays?

Finally, I expect the Irish border restrictions and quarantine is the reason for DUB being pushed back to October. That is another route they'll be competing with Blue Islands on, although if there is demand for it Eastern's current planned 12 weekly morning and evening schedule is a lot more attractive than the 4 weekly lunchtime flights from the competition.

[Mr A Tis]

Manchester Airport has had a couple of tweets advertising & welcoming Blue Island to the MAN-Exeter route, but I cannot see any similar tweets from MAG about Eastern to SOU. To be honest I only found out Eastern were operating the route by chance. If there was a choice between the Blue Island ATR or the Eastern J41, I'd be booking the Blue Island.
I see Blue Island is open for bookings MAN-SOU twice daily from October 25th on the ATR with fares half that of Eastern.
It's a bit disappointing given EZE has had a head start to get the service established.

[Wycombe]

Looks like todays EZE flights from MME and LBA firstly got consolidated onto an MME-originating Saab, then diverted to EXT.

Anyone shed any light on what's gone on?

[JobsaGoodun]

Originally Posted by Wycombe

Looks like todays EZE flights from MME and LBA firstly got consolidated onto an MME-originating Saab, then diverted to EXT.

Anyone shed any light on what's gone on?

Unfortunately, this is Eastern all over. Rather than regrouping during the pandemic, I wonder if they’ve spread themselves so thin that the operation lacks resilience to be delivered confidently and robustly. I hope they learn but can’t see it happening really.

[The Nutts Mutts]

Originally Posted by Wycombe

Looks like todays EZE flights from MME and LBA firstly got consolidated onto an MME-originating Saab, then diverted to EXT.

Anyone shed any light on what's gone on?

Flights to where?

[Cautious Optimist]

Newquay; which was fogbound.

It should be noted that their performance at MME since the relaunch back in February has been *almost* faultless.

[Wycombe]

Newquay; which was fogbound.

Yes it was to NQY, sorry to Mutts Nutts (that'll teach me for copy/pasting from my similar post on the airport thread )

METARs didn't look too bad to me, but I know that part of the world quite well and the Cornish mizzle can be very localised and come and go quickly.

[ivor toolbox]

Originally Posted by The Nutts Mutts

many of the business travellers and people feeding onto long haul ex MAN aren't travelling right now.

Exactly this. Until demand picks up (which with the way Boris and co. are muttering about another national lockdown...could mean never). Lack of flights doesn't cause lack of demand its the other way round, lack of demand causes lack of flights.
Basic economic rule of supply and demand.

Ttfn

[Jamie2009]

How are Eastern doing? many passengers? Heard they're offering pilots unpaid leave for an indefinite period of time or redundancy?
I'd be surprised if they're not haemorraging cash.

[highwideandugly]

Eastern Teesside doing ok...propped up by the mayor and his transport infrastructure money!

[GrahamK]

When was the last time a J41 flew into LHR? I see the Saab deputised for the Embraer on Friday?

[HKGBOY]

My MAN-SOU J41 trip the other day turned out to be an ATR via BHD. With no cabin service, meaning arriving SOU 3 hours late with nothing to eat/drink On board & everything at Southampton airport is closed. For me my day ended 6 hours with nothing to drink. Be warned if using Eastern or Southampton Airport bring your own stuff.

[BA318]

Originally Posted by HKGBOY

My MAN-SOU J41 trip the other day turned out to be an ATR via BHD. With no cabin service, meaning arriving SOU 3 hours late with nothing to eat/drink On board & everything at Southampton airport is closed. For me my day ended 6 hours with nothing to drink. Be warned if using Eastern or Southampton Airport bring your own stuff.

Wow. BHD isn’t even on route. They will end up killing these routes operating like that. Why would you fly with them again? Did they give a reason why?

[SWBKCB]

Originally Posted by BA318

Wow. BHD isn’t even on route. They will end up killing these routes operating like that. Why would you fly with them again? Did they give a reason why?

MAN is en route SOU-BHD. Presumably consolidating two flights with poor bookings, so it least they got you there, rather than cancelling?

The old PPRuNe double edged sword is out again, with every other thread having comments along the lines of "what are the airlines doing, they are ruining the economy by not operating business friendly flights".

[SWBKCB]

In his statement, signed off on August 6, Mr Lake said: “Aviation faces an uncertain future, with what could be a longer term travel freeze and the risks of a slow recovery. Orient . . . is undertaking significant measures internally to preserve cash and liquidity, as well as operational efficiency and cost savings.”

He highlighted the group’s “good mix” of business activities, “substantial” cash balance, “unencumbered” aircraft and no debt refinancings due, while talks were taking place with lenders “who recognise our strength of balance sheet and business model”.

But auditor John Taheny, of accountancy firm Bissel & Brown, said Mr Lake’s confident outlook had assumed a phased increase in bookings and flights after August. The potential for further disruption due to Covid-19 meant there was a “material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the group’s ability to continue as a going concern”, Mr Taheny added.

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp...to-fly-higher/

[Atlantic Explorer]

Originally Posted by SWBKCB

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp...to-fly-higher/

Lake can only boast about his cash reserves as he keeps shovelling his own money into the company, has done so for years. It’s his pet, always has been and any other normal business would have gone bust years ago. The difference this time maybe is there’s a limit of how much he is willing to pour into a black hole. Paying staff the industry rock bottom and operating clapped out old turboprops is certainly a saving grace financially however.

Having Ejets/ ERJs sitting about not earning any revenue though is of concern as they’re leased.

[OC37]

Originally Posted by Atlantic Explorer

Lake can only boast about his cash reserves as he keeps operating clapped out old turboprops

Well he wouldn't need to if someone saw the light and recommenced production of such a size of turboprop allowing him to buy 'new' should he choose to do so!