Derry/Londonderry 2
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Derry
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BFS has 58,000 aircraft movements per year.
BHD has 36,000 per year.
LDY has 2,000 per year.
The airport is handling half the passengers it did 10 years ago. The problem however is not caused by lack of passengers but by lack of flights. If more flights operated, there would be more passengers.
Ryanair operated successfully at the airport for years. Stansted operated for 18 years, Alicante for 9 years. Ryanair did not lose money otherwise they would have pulled the plug. When they finally did, it was due to relocating to BFS not due to LDY itself.
BHD has 36,000 per year.
LDY has 2,000 per year.
The airport is handling half the passengers it did 10 years ago. The problem however is not caused by lack of passengers but by lack of flights. If more flights operated, there would be more passengers.
Ryanair operated successfully at the airport for years. Stansted operated for 18 years, Alicante for 9 years. Ryanair did not lose money otherwise they would have pulled the plug. When they finally did, it was due to relocating to BFS not due to LDY itself.
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Ireland
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This is the conundrum that so many smaller airports face. Whereas once upon a time there would have been a "local" carrier with some local loyalty, or else an airline would have decided "we want to serve Northern Ireland, now let's think about which airport we want to use", these days most of the airlines are (of necessity) more agnostic - they fly wherever they can make the most money (which I suppose is understandable behaviour for private companies) so the competition for a service by Airline X is no longer just the neighbouring airports but also airports on the other side of Europe (so Ryanair might say "with this aircraft in Alicante we can fly to LDY or to (say) Kaunas or to Ancona or to Memmingen - and LDY is not the most profitable, so too bad...").
C.
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Londonderry
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FR still haven’t loaded EDI for summer 19 yet. Hopefully it’s not dropped already and they will add it soon.
On another note it seems GLA is doing pretty well with selected dates showing as sold out. Granted these are days using the Saab 340, but still nice to see the service being used well. Do Loganair have any spare Saab 2000 capacity that could be utilised on these days?
On another note it seems GLA is doing pretty well with selected dates showing as sold out. Granted these are days using the Saab 340, but still nice to see the service being used well. Do Loganair have any spare Saab 2000 capacity that could be utilised on these days?
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Londonderry
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FR still haven’t loaded EDI for summer 19 yet. Hopefully it’s not dropped already and they will add it soon.
On another note it seems GLA is doing pretty well with selected dates showing as sold out. Granted these are days using the Saab 340, but still nice to see the service being used well. Do Loganair have any spare Saab 2000 capacity that could be utilised on these days?
On another note it seems GLA is doing pretty well with selected dates showing as sold out. Granted these are days using the Saab 340, but still nice to see the service being used well. Do Loganair have any spare Saab 2000 capacity that could be utilised on these days?
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Londonderry
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Would that be before or after he films himself walking across the Peace Bridge? Joking aside, whilst BMI have served STN well over the last few years, I wouldn’t be averse to a change of operator on this.
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Londonderry
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If memory serves me correctly, I believe the only other interested party at the time of the PSO tender was Stobart. I wonder if they would have done a better job. They could have possibly utilised aircraft downtime better with perhaps a DUB rotation or two.
Yeah, Stobart were the other airline in the final two. Who knows? Long old run in an ATR tueboprop. Still, as you say, they may have found value in operating MAN as well (for instance).
Join Date: May 2017
Location: Belfast
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From memory the PSO rules on funding are very restricted. I recall Euroceltic being threatened with fines from the EU for operating to SXL and then busing pax to I think CFN rather than operating desperate sectors. I'm sure it is worse now and probably not that easy to do something else with your airframe that's outside the PSO t and C's. It might not be as simple as in down time fly some place else
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Londonderry
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Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Outer London
Age: 43
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I’m not sure they would have done other routes though and certainly not DUB. It’s more likely they would have operated somewhere from SEN inbetween, eg LDY-SEN-XXX-SEN-LDY-SEN-LDY. This would also allow them to swap aircraft and crews.
I’m not sure they would have done other routes though and certainly not DUB. It’s more likely they would have operated somewhere from SEN inbetween, eg LDY-SEN-XXX-SEN-LDY-SEN-LDY. This would also allow them to swap aircraft and crews.
Join Date: Aug 2014
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People used to manage OK with just one flight at the crack of dawn.
If you want to pick hairs they could actually fit in three return flights LDY-SEN and still fit in Lyon, Cologne, Rennes or such like in between, but to be honest it’s all hypothetical and irrelevant until the tender comes along again.
If you want to pick hairs they could actually fit in three return flights LDY-SEN and still fit in Lyon, Cologne, Rennes or such like in between, but to be honest it’s all hypothetical and irrelevant until the tender comes along again.
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: UK
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Just to note that BE have never operated a Dundee-London PSO and the Dundee-London and Dundee-Amsterdam services were never operated by the same aircraft:
The London PSO has always (during its life span as a PSO funded route) been operated by Loganair, usually using 30-odd seat Dornier 328 or Saab aircraft. For a period the route was, of course, operated under the flybe franchise, but it was always Loganair underneath.
The Dundee-Amsterdam service was a totally separate thing, operated by flybe themselves with a Dash-8 (I believe on a W-pattern using a BHX-based aircraft?).
As such, during the life of the Dundee-London PSO operation, the Loganair aircraft allocated to this has never been used for any regular additional scheduled flying in between the London runs.
The London PSO has always (during its life span as a PSO funded route) been operated by Loganair, usually using 30-odd seat Dornier 328 or Saab aircraft. For a period the route was, of course, operated under the flybe franchise, but it was always Loganair underneath.
The Dundee-Amsterdam service was a totally separate thing, operated by flybe themselves with a Dash-8 (I believe on a W-pattern using a BHX-based aircraft?).
As such, during the life of the Dundee-London PSO operation, the Loganair aircraft allocated to this has never been used for any regular additional scheduled flying in between the London runs.
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Londonderry
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I’ve just heard from a very good source that something is cooking with Flybe. I’m told executives from the airline have been at the airport this week and that some form of route announcement is on the cards soon with the finer details being ironed out over the coming weeks. STN, MAN, BHX are being mooted as the discussed routes, as we would have expected.
Nothing is certain until we see it of course, but it’s still good to hear of some more positive route news in the pipeline.
Nothing is certain until we see it of course, but it’s still good to hear of some more positive route news in the pipeline.
That would be a step change for the airport. Having two successful and established regional airlines at LDY would be excellent. Do you have any timescales on this, should it happen? Fingers firmly crossed in the meantime.