Eastern Airways-3
It's an Italian airline operating the flights using a leased a/c. I'm sure they have justified it's use to the Italian authorities, maybe a because it fills a gap in flights they already operate?. Hardly a unique situation. Will there be many a/c of that size available within the EU?
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Pax figures on the Paris services are, to put it politely, underwhelming.
For July they were: Cardiff = 770, Southampton = 990 and Cardiff 675.
Works out as 23, 31 and 21 pax per day respectively.
For July they were: Cardiff = 770, Southampton = 990 and Cardiff 675.
Works out as 23, 31 and 21 pax per day respectively.
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The CAA maybe but I am sure that there are those in government that would say the free market should regulate such practices, where first are seen to be unreliable then they will lose custom and not make enough money to survive (see FlyBe2 for recent case study). This becomes a problem where the company doesn't have competition and makes a profit irrespective of how badly it treats its customers (take your pick of the water companies).
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To be honest I don’t think 990 is that bad considering it’s one rotation a day with no opportunity for an evening return and that T3 are pretty much completely unknown. I’d say there is a lot more potential there for an AF or EZY.
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Not bad? It's absolutely dire. Assuming they flew all of the rotations in the month, it's a 22% loadfactor on SOU and worse on CWL and EMA. There is nothing remotely promising about any of it.
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You would have a point if Eastern were just selling it alone as a point to point service with no support. It's also being sold on the AF website (as they are using AF slots) and so have all that distribution power at their disposal from the home carrier.
The flights were eventually shown as being flown by Eastern Airways obviously with the AF code. But it's not ideal is it for those searching for flights between Southampton and Paris.
SOU Southampton should be on the websites drop down menu for UK airports without having to search for it. No wonder why the route isn't performing as it should be.
Once Air France has the spare aircraft capacity they might want to look at resuming Paris to Southampton themselves, fingers crossed 🤞 I'm sure if they did the flight would perform so much better with an airline everyone is aware of.
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According to the S24 initial coordination report Eastern has been granted slots from LCY to Paris ORY. Perhaps replacing one of the other regional connections, I would assume SOU given the relative proximity
But Eastern do need to market it heavily to make it work. There are still a lot of corporate accounts with large offices in both Canary Wharf and Paris.
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I was told this would operate “for” Air France. Some even mentioned the E190 would be painted in AF colours. No idea if it’s true.
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Was that before Eurostar moved from Waterloo to St Pancras ? This is a lot less convenient for the LCY catchment area, plus Eurostar giving up the stop at Ebbsfleet in North Kent, greatly extended check in requirements (now stated at 60 to 90 minutes), and regular accounts of queueing chaos, may make things notably different.
But Eastern do need to market it heavily to make it work. There are still a lot of corporate accounts with large offices in both Canary Wharf and Paris.
But Eastern do need to market it heavily to make it work. There are still a lot of corporate accounts with large offices in both Canary Wharf and Paris.
The fastest way of getting from Southampton to London City Airport by train will take approximately 1.45 hours (if your lucky).
Train travel is expensive and unreliable .
Travelling by car is not only inconvenient but very expensive taking into account fuel, London congestion charges, and of course the hated ULEZ. And that's not taking into account the fact that you would have to reach East London through dense traffic.
London Heathrow is only 61 miles from Southampton with an approximate journey time of one hour.
If I was looking for a flight to Paris I definitely wouldn't consider LCY as an option especially as LHR is only an hour away from Southampton with a good schedule of flights from BA and AF.
Flights to Paris can easily be operated from Southampton regardless of the close proximity of London Heathrow. There will always be demand for a Paris route from SOU. Paris has in one way or another been served from SOU since the fifties.
And you're suggesting, "I would assume SOU given the relative proximity".
I have to admit that I totally disagree with your assumption.
perhaps one means the relatively proximity of both to Paris? Keep the same ORY slots and just use them to fly somewhere else. If you replaced say flights to EDI the ORY slots would also need reapplying and no guarantee of getting them
bacf of course had the hotac costs which may not be the same here?
bacf of course had the hotac costs which may not be the same here?
The relative proximity means that the flight times will be similar, so if it is at the expense of another route it could be the easiest operational fit. However, is there anything to suggest it is at the expense of anything else, the Eastern fleet doesn't look over stretched.
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The sooner they depart SOU the better. Their punctuality is appalling and has been for many months now on this route, I pity LCY if they end up there. Hopefully this will open up easyJet CDG from SOU.
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It was a throwaway comment however not without some backing. My understanding is that people in the Southampton area will tend to use London airports where there is no local alternative. However despite my username the one thing I have never done is lived there, and I therefore assume that you probably benefit from more local knowledge. Not really the main part of my post though...
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From a reasonably reliable source, the Orly operations are slot sitting for Air France until Transavia France has enough aircraft and crews to fly the Orly operations. AF sound to be mightily unimpressed with the whole thing and expect this to be wrapped up as soon as they are able to fly the Orly slots in some other way. It's a bit like the whole ITA and TAP gambits for Eastern - nothing ever seems to last. The pilots who weren't already applying for other jobs now are as there's a view that the owner will just pack the whole thing in before too very long.