Star Alliance at BRS
 

Hello,

I'm wondering what the chances of seeing a Star Alliance airline set up shop at Bristol? OneWorld and SkyTeam are represented, but it's a bit hard for us Star fliers to keep trekking to BHX and LHR.

I use Star (LH/UA/OS/TG/SQ) to do long haul out to the US, Asia and Australia, as well as short stuff into Germany and Austria. In that respect, having the MUC and FRA routes run by BA isn't as helpful as if they were run by BD/LH. The hubbing opportunities through FRA/MUC would be so much better when hooked up with a Star airline rather than BA, which is a bit "dead-ended".

I've asked LH, and they were very non-commital (they used to run BRS->DUS in the late 80's), and the airport was similarly unable to give any firm information. Maybe I'm missing a trick here? Maybe the existing KL arrangements through AMS are thought to be good enough (surely nobody takes SN through BRU as a serious hub?).

(In case you're wondering, I choose the Star airlines because a) where I fly is where they go and b) the service I've experienced has always been better on LH/SQ/OS/TG than BA/AF/QF etc. It's not a case of chasing my points around!).

I flew BRS->EWR and then LHR->JFK (on UA) in the same week, and the BRS flight got it by a whisker because of the convience. I can bear 31" seat pitch if it's only 20 minutes to the office when we land! Otherwise, I'd be in UA's Y-Cabin....


Nick

I think you will find that its is a matter of when not if the Old Terminal will be demolished. The area would be used to put at least another 6 Parking stands on.

I know there were talks a while back on one of the airport press releases about routes to Shannon, Lisbon and Dusseldorf and surely it is only a matter of time before we see some routes to Scandinavia Copenhagen/Stockholm/Oslo etc. Warsaw and krakov and other Eastern European Countries have been Voiced and we have recently heard of a possible Boston route. According to another aircraft Forum it looks as if AA are targetting BRS as one of their next Wants in Europe, how true this is I don't know. Domestically there is still plenty of scope for NWI,LPL of course LON (When Brs has got all the Long Haul routes it wants) not to mention Ireand Scotland and the North East. Finally routes to Northern and southern France are so popular at the moment we may see some increase in these.

All of the above are of course Schedule Destinations so there is plenty of room for expansion and B_T may find a Star Alliance route or two coming into BRS.

Just had a look at Freedom Flights website for next summer and they are showing a reduction of flights from Brs:{

Denim Air are/were flying for Aer Arran. And talking about different aircraft, what about today? A Dutch Air Force C130 and a Canadair CL229 fire-douser on delivery. At least I think it's a 229, it's one of those bright yellow things that looks a little like a Catalina!

We have a FR on finals from MJV aparently for a fuel stop. Fuel must be axpensive in MJV...


....Isn't it wierd how it is not stopping with our friends and their Orange dot out in CWL?!!!

Fernando,

Many thanks for that.

On a different topic does anyone know why KLM Cityhopper have begun cancelling flights recently?

I note that the morning inbound (KL 1047) plus the return (KL 1048) have been cancelled today. This flight was also cancelled on 20 May (the day of the first CO to EWR).

In recent weeks one of the two afternoon rotations has also been cancelled on more than one occasion.

As someone who has used this service a lot over the years, and would hope to do so again, this apparent unreliability is a source of concern, especially when inter-continental connections at AMS are involved.

Afternoon Flight also Canx MV.

Seems KLM are having a few problems in their fleet at the moment or at least on the aircraft operating in and out of BRS

I see FR STN-NQY diverted in again this evening, Mr O'leary why not do us all a favour and set up STN-BRS, you know you want to really, London route covered done and dusted!

Winter 05/06 scheduled flying
 

Any rumors or idea's on the scheduled airlines plans for the winter? I see BA have added a Sat service to ZRH over the ski season. Are Easy or BA likely to add new destinations?

How are SN Brussels doing at BRS any indication of larger a/c required? Also are KLM likely to add any additional frequency or increase capacity?

easyJet will commence services to Mahon from the 23rd July. Operates for the summer only.

Flights depart Tuesdays and Saturdays.

http://www.easyjet.com/EN/News/20050602_01.html

Given that INV/MJV/PSA will have started by then, which Tuesday/Saturday flights will they be dropping?

Or are they going to introduce an extra flight per day for one of the aircraft, it's already tight with Nice/Palma flights daily.

MH.

From what I can see the BUD is taken off its tuesday rotation and the MAD is taken off its Saturday rotation to accomadate the Mahon.

Can't see a LON route for a few years yet probably sort out all of the routes they want direct before offering a LON with connection. It would be nice to see a FR dot over BRS though!!!

Bet BY and FCA are well happy about EZY coming in on that route - not!
Suprised they didnt pick IBZ insted, thats the info i had from a crew member a while back:confused:

I think they might have looked at which flights were not performing on specific days (BUD/MAD) and then looked at the slot situation. It would be nice to see IBZ but I think MAH would work.

Interesting move, although the MAH is only on for five weeks - basically during the long school holidays.

I wonder if easy will do better with the MAH on the two days a week it is to operate rather than keeping with the MAD and BUD on those days.

A look back suggests the MAH will need huge loads to better the MAD and BUD.

The now defunct CPH route commenced 12 months before the MAD and BUD routes but started slowly, with 4102, 6012, 6358 and 6573 monthly pax in the Jan, Feb, March and April of its first months of operation. However, by July and August it had built up to 7534 and 7608 monthly pax respectively.

The MAD and BUD have started more strongly. MAD shows 5446, 6547, 7972 and 7275 monthly pax in Jan, Feb, March and April respectively whilst BUD had 5851, 6588, 7789 and 7154 in the same months.

If the CPH experience is followed it might be expected that by July and Aug both MAD and BUD would be around 8,000 per month, so MAH will have to do exceptionally well in capturing passengers to even equal this (pro rata).

However, I am sure easy knows what it is doing, and of course loads are secondary to yields as I keep being told.

Lovely day in the south west so I thought I would have a wander out to Bristol Airport. It was very busy in the middle part of the day with the added 'attraction' of the callibrator aircraft operating most of the time.

At one point nothing appeared to be able to land for a while with the interesting spectacle of four or five aircraft circling overhead. Not sure if this was directly related to the callibrator although engineers seemed to be working on the equipment towards the western end.

However, my main point is the CO from/to EWR. It had an interesting day, arriving over four hours late, then finding that an interloper had sneaked onto stand two and had to be pushed back and 'banished' to the western apron (apparently still full of pax) for the late running transatlantic to gain its 'rightful' berth.

When the time came for the CO to return to the USA the live runway had been changed from 09 to 27 for callibration purposes, despite a downwind breeze.

The CO was asked if he could get off on 27 and replied in the affirmative. Immediately before its takeoff run the wind was out of 90 at 6 knots (it seemed to be moving between 90 and 130 and between 6 and 8 knots in the minutes either side of the take-off). The 757 (still no winglets) seemed to have considerable runway to spare as it lifted off.

I don't know how heavily it was loaded but an unwingletted 757 getting airborn with a following breeze and with apparent ease (the day brought out the poet in me) can surely be no bad thing for BRS's confidence. Furthermore, does this mean that a wingletted 757 could get off under the most unfavourable conditions and, if so, is this an end to the conjecture about BRS, CO and the runway?

Bless the little Aegean 734, we were most suprised as he trundled onto stand 2. Never seen a push back team appear so quickly!

I had a to do a double take aswell with the agean. Did he just decide to park there or was he told to?

Had a great view, comedy absolute comedy

Missed this one, owing to being at home on my hols, good to see things are going on as normal :E

I saw two ambulance on the airfield today. One at the Easy AMS and one attended a Flybe. Was it an emergency day at Bristol today?

I take it people don't fall ill in your part of the world then?
Not rocket science to work out that an ambulance = sick people.
Nothing special to report, just another day on the hill.

Ref: the Aegean on stand 2, he was supposed to park on 23 beside the other one but decided he liked stand 2 better.....DOH!

Do you know, I would never have worked that one out. Thank you for telling me.:rolleyes:

Well, you know what they say, ask a silly question.........:rolleyes:

There wasn't another Aegean in when he trundled on to stand 2, funny to see the sticker on the side of the a/c, it said 'europes best airline'
think the small writing below said 'with the dumbest pilots':E
Sorry bit harsh wasn't it!

Heard today that we’re getting another coffee bar in departures! This one will be between gates 6 and 7, afterall it's such a long walk to gate 1! No doubt this will mean the removal of yet more seats from the lounge.

A rumour flying about the dept today, is that Continental may be using 767's out of here starting sometime in July, as the 757's are to be used mainly on internal US routes.
It sounds like they will be operating with less seats so that the performance should not be a problem :ok:

767 only to be used in the event of 757 not being available. 757 still a lot cheaper to operate.

A 767 wouldn't be able to park on stand 2 would it?

Would it not have to be parked 'in the country' on the Western Apron?

Western apron it will be...still waiting on when the winglets will arrive for a show

Thanks for that C M R.

terrier,

The only flight I can see not operating next summer compared to this is the SKG.

And do you know what happened to the ALC and FAO flights for this summer that appeared on Freedom's original list of destinations from BRS. They don't seem to be operating and are no longer in Freedom's web timetable?

I see also that there is a long list of flights out of CWL next summer on both the Freedom and Excel web timetables.

Talking of CWL, I was over there working the other day and someone told me that Air Wales were looking at a New York service!!, Are they dreaming? or taking the p**s out of me cus i'm English, because they did seem pretty certain that it was being looked at, good old ATR's fly anywhere in them nowadays!

I heard that roumor when I first started working here just as Air Wales were starting out. If I remeber they were thinking of using a 757. I have also heard a roumor that Air Wales would be signing an order for A319's at Paris this week.

Anyway, how are things at brizzle this week?

Euromanx managed to find a Jetstream 31 for tonight's flight in from the Isle of Man, can't see it being a popular choice for all the holidaymakers going to Olbia and Split later on today.

I'm booked to Olbia in August, hopefully they will have managed to sort out some sort of service by then.

Who flew the routes last year? (Booked with "Holiday Options" this year)

MH

Duo were to operate the summer 2004 Olbia service but then went out of business.

From memory I believe the first week of the 2004 season was operated by a Flybe DH-8-400 before the German airline OLT stepped in with a Saab 2000. It used to work across the city from Filton on Saturday mornings (or was it on Friday evenings?) to carry out the flight from BRS down to Sardinia on the Saturday.

However, I have a recollection that bmi substituted for OLT with an ERJ 145 on occasions.

This summer there seems to have been an interesting variety of Euromanx subs already.

Haven't been in here for a while.....!!
Air Wales were looking into the New York thing pre - september 11th. If they do go ahead it will probably be a wet lease type deal, with them having very little to do wih it except selling seats.

As far as the Continental 767 thing is concerned, I reckon they had that planned from the offset. They can split it with shannon or Glasgow (eg's), and not panic too much about filling BRS alone.
Makes sense to me, give it the big marketing BRS to New York direct thing, keep it up for a couple of months until the big Wow dies down and then pull the ladder up and protect their interests.
Unless they are filling it more than 80% every flight they will do it!!

How are the figures at the moment anyway?

WATABENCH me old mucka!

Ahh Windy old Welsh chum, nobodys saying too much with regard to figures on CO out of BRS, hopefully someone reading may be able to help us with that, however, a family member of mine flew out on the 10th returned 13th, apparently quite a few spare going o/b but chocca i/b, so hopefully (and i know we can't base anything on this) it seems to be doing well for east bound pax, they also said service was pretty good but i/b meal was terrible, burn't rock hard lasagne! mmmmm!
Anybody got info about the BY delay from Sun night? heard on local news yesterday, they were saying that pax had not spoke to any Thomson reps! hmmm I smell journo bulls**t there!

I beleive the LF is about 70% for CO

WATABENCH

There is a big story in today's Bristol Evening Post re the cancelled BY to Larnaca on Sunday evening. The scenario seems to be that the 757 went tech at BRS prior to the flight and no replacement a/c was possible on that evening.

The pax (according to the paper there were 235 of them) were told they would be flown to Cyprus from Gatwick the following day. Some went home and others stayed in a local hotel.

They returned to Lulsgate on the Monday to be told the Gatwick idea had been shelved and they would be bussed to Manchester instead. They were and took off at 1800 hours on Monday - just under 24 hours late.

A Thomson spokesman said the original Gatwick idea had to be aborted because that a/c was needed for the Caribbean.

Needless to say the paper carries lots of personal stories from pax and one can have nothing but sympathy with them. It wasn't their fault the flight had to be cancelled.

Some unanswered question though:

How did the returning pax from LCA get back to BRS?

Why were the pax taken to MAN instead of the replacement a/c being brought to BRS (I assume it was a case of the pilots being out of time if they had to fly to LCA and back with a stop at BRS but this was not apparently explained if it was the reason)?

Why could a company as big as Tui not have found a replacement a/c and crew from somewhere (even from another operator) either that evening or the following morning to operate the flight from BRS? I have used the Thomson/Britannia organisation for as long as I care to remember (over twenty-five years), partly because they are so big that I felt I would not be bu**ered about so much as possibly with smaller outfits. And that has been my experience down the years so this is particularly disappointing. Indeed, back in February my son and his family flew from BRS to Monastir with this company. The Britannia 757 went tech at BRS prior to the flight but Tui had a replacement 757 at BRS within two hours of the scheduled take-off time (from MAN ironically) and they were away less than four hours late on that occasion.