Gatwick-3
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Presuming the daily LCA flights with DE are some sort of W pattern or do they have a based aircraft in Cyprus?
Didn't they operate from UK/MAN in the past alongside TCX? Lets see if it gets off the ground.
Didn't they operate from UK/MAN in the past alongside TCX? Lets see if it gets off the ground.
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Ballymena
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Gatwick arrivals showing a lot of Wizz routes that maybe have been planned but never released for sale. So if the information there is in anyway correct, would seem to show that they have been planning at this stage to have 9 based aircraft?
Join Date: Nov 2000
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FRatSTN
To retain the slots without using them they need to be handed back, at least 3 weeks before the date of operation.
If you don’t hand them back by that deadline, you’re classed as not having operated them, and will be subject to the normal rules of having them removed. The hand-back requirement is so the slots can be re-allocated as a series or as ad-hoc slots to another operator while the historic operator isn’t using them.
The waiver also doesn’t apply to any operator who’s pulled out of an airport completely, so no waiver for Virgin Atlantic at LGW. Can’t retain historic slots at an airport with no flights operating at all.
The hand back rules allow launches such as the JetBlue at LHR that had previously been denied slots.
I think the above rules are important, they protect airlines dealing with reduced demand. But they also protect airports by opening up unused slots to other airlines. Otherwise incumbents would just sit on their slots, not use them, but the airport would be closed to new entrants due to there being no slots available!!
To retain the slots without using them they need to be handed back, at least 3 weeks before the date of operation.
If you don’t hand them back by that deadline, you’re classed as not having operated them, and will be subject to the normal rules of having them removed. The hand-back requirement is so the slots can be re-allocated as a series or as ad-hoc slots to another operator while the historic operator isn’t using them.
The waiver also doesn’t apply to any operator who’s pulled out of an airport completely, so no waiver for Virgin Atlantic at LGW. Can’t retain historic slots at an airport with no flights operating at all.
The hand back rules allow launches such as the JetBlue at LHR that had previously been denied slots.
I think the above rules are important, they protect airlines dealing with reduced demand. But they also protect airports by opening up unused slots to other airlines. Otherwise incumbents would just sit on their slots, not use them, but the airport would be closed to new entrants due to there being no slots available!!
Join Date: Nov 2000
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Great arrival experience today at LGW this afternoon with TUI (from a Green List Destination)
Had been braced for the worst after hearing horror stories about long waits in arrivals at UK airports generally.
Aircraft arrived on stand a couple of minutes early on 47L, followed by a 10 minute wait for steps.
10 minute walk to immigration to find e-gates open and no queue whatsoever. Straight through with a friendly comment from the host asking If I'd had a nice holiday.
Downstairs to find all bags already on carousel. On way to car 15 minutes after disembarking, 25 min after arriving on stand.
Yes it was mid-afternoon and airport was quiet, but still a pleasant and stress-free experience.
Only criticism would be that every single travelator airside in North Terminal was switched off and barriered off as out of use. I know the airport is saving money by doing this... But a lot of the people on my flight weren't young and the nearly 800m walk was a huge hike. Thought it was a bit of a middle digit to many of their customers currently providing vital business to the airport. Personally, I tend not to use them before/after being sat idle on an aircraft for hours, even preferring to walk the tunnel to/from the B/C Gates at LHR T5.
Had been braced for the worst after hearing horror stories about long waits in arrivals at UK airports generally.
Aircraft arrived on stand a couple of minutes early on 47L, followed by a 10 minute wait for steps.
10 minute walk to immigration to find e-gates open and no queue whatsoever. Straight through with a friendly comment from the host asking If I'd had a nice holiday.
Downstairs to find all bags already on carousel. On way to car 15 minutes after disembarking, 25 min after arriving on stand.
Yes it was mid-afternoon and airport was quiet, but still a pleasant and stress-free experience.
Only criticism would be that every single travelator airside in North Terminal was switched off and barriered off as out of use. I know the airport is saving money by doing this... But a lot of the people on my flight weren't young and the nearly 800m walk was a huge hike. Thought it was a bit of a middle digit to many of their customers currently providing vital business to the airport. Personally, I tend not to use them before/after being sat idle on an aircraft for hours, even preferring to walk the tunnel to/from the B/C Gates at LHR T5.
Join Date: Aug 2014
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LGW is getting a route to Dakar of its own as TUI are launching a weekly flight in winter ‘22, Covid permitting of course. Evidently a new beach resort is under construction.
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Tui are due to resume Banjul twice weekly from 02/11/21 after possibly a 10 year(ish) absence?
It never really died of death, it just wasn’t a feature of any mainstream operators. The Gambia Experience have featured charter flights for years ex LGW/BRS/MAN (possibly others) using the likes of Titan I believe.
It never really died of death, it just wasn’t a feature of any mainstream operators. The Gambia Experience have featured charter flights for years ex LGW/BRS/MAN (possibly others) using the likes of Titan I believe.
Join Date: Aug 2014
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It looks an interesting place and I would jump at the chance to go - perhaps not the beach resort so much - but I agree it may be a hard sell in the UK. I suspect it will be successful from other parts of the TUI network, it’s only one flight a week from the UK so I guess if it doesn’t sell they will pull it or if it doesn’t sell well enough it’ll be a one-season wonder.
Good on for TUI trying something new.
Banjul was a staple of Thomas Cook's winter flying programme for several years, alongside the Monarch A300s and 757s for Gambia Experience. Ebola was the biggest single impact on the market and there has been little or no mainstream activity there since.
Although it wasn't an every-day thing, I seem to recall more than a few tech stops in Dakar coming north out of Banjul where no fuel was available, after tankering everything you could on an LGW-BJL to keep enough on board to then get from BJL to DKR with sufficient reserves.
Banjul was a staple of Thomas Cook's winter flying programme for several years, alongside the Monarch A300s and 757s for Gambia Experience. Ebola was the biggest single impact on the market and there has been little or no mainstream activity there since.
Although it wasn't an every-day thing, I seem to recall more than a few tech stops in Dakar coming north out of Banjul where no fuel was available, after tankering everything you could on an LGW-BJL to keep enough on board to then get from BJL to DKR with sufficient reserves.
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Crawley
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Interesting choice of destination. Having said that a few other seemingly ‘random’ destinations have popped up over the years with various tour operators. Good on them for giving the Brits who want something different to Benidorm etc.
People will just need to remember that while it’s a secular government, Islam is the main religion of the population and local customs and modesty will need to be followed more closely than in other destinations where tourism is more established such as Tunisia and Egypt. Not that that will be a problem with the tourists it should attract. LGBT+ people should pay particular attention to local laws as the President recently stated that maximum penalities will ALWAYS be used. Included on those ‘suspected’ 😳.
checked the flights, no premium available so guessing it’s a 737Max route?
People will just need to remember that while it’s a secular government, Islam is the main religion of the population and local customs and modesty will need to be followed more closely than in other destinations where tourism is more established such as Tunisia and Egypt. Not that that will be a problem with the tourists it should attract. LGBT+ people should pay particular attention to local laws as the President recently stated that maximum penalities will ALWAYS be used. Included on those ‘suspected’ 😳.
checked the flights, no premium available so guessing it’s a 737Max route?
Daker new IT's?
Good on for TUI trying something new.
Banjul was a staple of Thomas Cook's winter flying programme for several years, alongside the Monarch A300s and 757s for Gambia Experience. Ebola was the biggest single impact on the market and there has been little or no mainstream activity there since.
Although it wasn't an every-day thing, I seem to recall more than a few tech stops in Dakar coming north out of Banjul where no fuel was available, after tankering everything you could on an LGW-BJL to keep enough on board to then get from BJL to DKR with sufficient reserves.
Banjul was a staple of Thomas Cook's winter flying programme for several years, alongside the Monarch A300s and 757s for Gambia Experience. Ebola was the biggest single impact on the market and there has been little or no mainstream activity there since.
Although it wasn't an every-day thing, I seem to recall more than a few tech stops in Dakar coming north out of Banjul where no fuel was available, after tankering everything you could on an LGW-BJL to keep enough on board to then get from BJL to DKR with sufficient reserves.
They wanted to do it as a there and back for the crew - Big hoo hah - my flat mate was a #1 CC for BY at LGW and told me all about it.
The series lasted not even one season I think.
Crew did not want to night stop as they felt it was too dodgy, but OK for Thomson's to sell package holidays to the punters lol.
Now it appears new resorts are being built there so we will have to see if it sells.
Senegal saw the introduction of the first Club Med resort in the 1970s, and tourism has grown to be an important part of the Senegalese economy.
Since the 1990s, Senegal has made an effort to reach beyond visitors from the former colonial power France and was trying in attracting tourists from Spain, Britain and Italy, in part motivated by the example of neighbouring Gambia, which drew a much larger tourist share from Northern Europe.
Having now lost most of the Egypt and Tunisia market for years now, I guess Tour Operators are scratching around for new beaches, or those that do not suffer from ''resort fatigue''...
Banjul as we know gained bigger popularity in the early 1970's, mainly at first discovered by the Swedes, who love the sunshine, and then of course the Germans.
BCAL had the route and had built a new hotel on the beach (Atlantic ?) so it then soon became the darling of the Brits for some exotic winter sun, being not too far away.
BCAL's Blue Sky holidays offered the destination.
In 1976, Alex Haley published his novel called Roots. It was made into a TV mini-series the following year and received many awards. Roots is about Kunta Kinteh and the subsequent generations of his family. He was a slave from West Africa, taken to America from his village on the northern banks of The Gambia river.
It was this TV series that created interest and helped to put The Gambia and the West Africa people on the map.
The site of his birthplace is now a common tourist attraction in The Gambia.
Thomson with Britannia 737-200's in 1977 made the first UK package charter flights to BJL (with a Tech stop) and the crews night stopped.
Tania 737-200 here at BJL https://i0.wp.com/jamoroki.com/wp-co...68%2C780&ssl=1
Most UK charter airlines then started to fly to BJL as we know for their winter staple business, along with the Canary islands.
Business boomed until the military coup in 1994 and the Gambia holiday business was then never the same again.
70% of the business was lost overnight.
In 2006 the Government sought to draw up a master plan to re energise the market by 2020.
A less than savoury part of the BJL travel business for the past 30 years has seen flocks of European women of a certain age seeking ''company and comfort'' at a cost, with young Gambian beach boys known as Bumsters. An issue not specific to the Gambia, but also present in Jamaica, Tunisia, Turkey and Egypt.
The Gambia and Senegal are not Playa de las Americas, nor Benidorm.
Quote from - AirportPlanner1
I guess if it doesn’t sell they will pull it, or if it doesn’t sell well enough it’ll be a one-season wonder as seen before. Yup!