Bristol
 

Don't know if this was mentioned on the other thread but BritishJet.com will start 1x weekly Malta flights from 22/07/06 to 02/09/06.

Anyone got the latest CO figs, just wandering if they've managed to maintain higher yields since school hols, as there were reports just after the US hurricanes that US carriers would start pulling out of the routes that aren't doing great in order to save on the hike in fuel prices, hopefully BRS is starting to prove itself a useful little number for them by now.

CO figs are still OK - 144 yesterday on the outbound. Winter is 5x weekly but the Thursday flight is reinstated for 2 or 3 weeks in December.

WATABENCH

CAA provisional stats for August show 8777 used the route - average of around 142 per flight or roughly an 82% average load factor.

At the time the route commenced the airport and airline suggested they were looking to carry around 75,000 pax in the first year. The published figures for June, July and August indicate a total of just over 23,300 carried in those months, so although these months are amongst the busiest of the year normally, and the fact that the route goes to five a week in winter, one hopes the target will be achieved.

There seem to have been plenty of initiatives in recent months by both the airline and airport to promote the route, including fare and car parking deals.

I have both read and heard anecdotal evidence to suggest that American travellers (the ones the route initially struggled to attract apparently), once they have discovered the route, like it.

For instance, on the website of a hotel serving Bristol Airport one US pax described how his party could not get a return flight from London on the dates they wanted so motored to Bristol, stayed in the hotel "right in the midddle of the countryside", went to a recommended nearby country pub for a meal and were taken to the airport the following morning. They intend to use this route again.

Nice to see :ok:

September was good month for CO. Higher load factor than alot of their other EU routes.

Also 757 fleet being reconfigures to add 3 Y class seats and brand new AVOD IFE in Business First. First aircraft has been completed with rest of fleet to be completed by end 2006.

Whats the winter timetable looking like this year 2006/06? Any new charters or routes? I noticed the AEA route to BGJ is already started on fridays for this winter.

How about the following,

New Based Air Malta A320 operating ACE, HRG,SSH,SZG,PFO and
CMF
New Based Excel B737-400 operating TFS x 2 , LPA, MIR , LYS , FUE
More ski including Austrian Dash 8 400's to Bolzano and B738 to INN.
AEU B737-700 to TCP and BJL ( 2 ) and CMF ski.
Thomas Cook A320 based now Weds - Sat with extra LCA , and LPA series in addition to previous ACE and TFS.
EAF operating B737-200 with ski flights to LYS and GRO.
BH Air A320 to Plovdiv as last year.

Flights in addition to based FCA and TUI a/c.

EZY replacing 8 based B737-700's with A319's from end of the month.

New scheduled flights to MME , HAM , SNN and GNB and first winter with flights to some place called New York!

Not bad - ATM and pax growth should be around 20%+

Have read that CO have been talking to CWL reference moving capacity across the channel. Would make sense given the significantly longer rwy.

Considering that the runway at BRS has yet to have caused a problem to a continental service and that South Wales has such a poor catchment area I would be suprised by any move to the other side of the bridge.

Cheers

WWW

FCA have 3 new ski routes for this winter to GNB/SOF/TRN, they're still doing TLS but have dropped their GVA,
What a load of rubbish CO talking to CWL, someone have a word for godsake!

As much as I would love to see a New York service from CWL, CO are not going to move from BRS! What a load of rubbish! CO from BRS is very successful with very good pax loads runway hasn't caused a problem so far so why should it in the future? Being Welsh, I would love to see Cardiff in the same league as the big guys but its just not gonna happen anytime soon!

BYCREWLGW

Bristol Airport. A fine example of how to do things right. I salute you.

Not like the rubbish in charge here at Cork.

Mr Tenor! Ouch! Don't like the ORK managers then? Mind you I'm not sure that ORK could warrant a daily New York - is the catchment area large enough?

New York is very far down on the list of priorities. A daily flight would be impossible and would never have a chance of working. Two or three a week at a max but that is now a long, long time away.

Getting the infrastructure right at Cork is much more important, ie, completing the terminal, more ramp, (not for a long time) more runway, (never), ILS CAT 2 and 3 (never will have cat 3).

Cork Airport is banjaxed.

Perhaps, the Cork Airport board could buy cheap tickets off FR to fly snn-BRS and get lessons on how to do things better. At least snn and BRS would be winners with the few extra pax!

A Bristolian - Just to confirm, EZY replacing B737s with A319s from end of October yeah?

Easily confused...cough.

Dan.

It is true on the 31th of this month the first A319 will be based here in replacement of the 737 and the 737s will be changed over to airbus once a month after that til 8 months later when the fleet will be all airbus!

It seems the disparate groups that, for various reasons, want to stop any expansion at BRS have now formed themselves into a Stop Bristol Airport Expansion (SBAE) coalition.

They include environmental organisations such as Bristol Friends of the Earth, the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England and the local Parish Councils’ Airport Association.

The usual mixture in any campaign group’s armoury of selected facts presented in a slanted way, embellished with half truths and outright lies, has been put forward as part of SBAE’s opening shots and its members have enjoyed much local media publicity in the past couple of days.

It will be interesting to see how these unlikely bedfellows conduct themselves over the coming months. Some want air travel reduced everywhere whilst others merely want it curtailed at BRS, apparently quite content for some other airport’s neighbours to be the recipients of the sort of thing they don’t want themselves: the classic Nimby.

One of the mutual concerns appears to be the increase in road traffic that airport expansion would bring. However, this does not appear to worry these people when it comes to the many thousands who have moved out to the pleasant, yet ever expanding, Nimbyland in recent decades who then, by commuting daily to and from Bristol from their rural retreats, cause the kind of pollution they object to in aircraft and airport users’ cars.

The impetus that has provoked the coming together of those opposing further development at BRS is the publication of the airport’s draft master plan, due next Wednesday. I am sure that many of the ordinary folk in the wider Bristol and district will be waiting with baited breath to see if a mini Heathrow really is about to appear on top of that misty hill adjacent Goblin Combe, because they would be forgiven for believing that from some of the statements of the SBAE people.

Whilst I would never advocate that airports be allowed unrestricted and uncontrolled growth, it is a great pity that so many opponents fight from entrenched and unrealistic positions.

NIMBYs, one of the many pointless creations on this planet. As I said in my email to ITV West news (which was read out) if an airport wants to expand, then it will and there is NOTHING the NIMBYs can do about it.

They need to give up and find themselves a hobby, at the end of the day if they want to go abroad, they dont walk do they?

Dan.

Funny they dont want the airport to expand, yet they like the fact the airport is on their doorstep. And like the fact they dont have to travel far to a airport when their going on holiday. But they do moan over noise and increased traffic. hello no one forced these ppl to live near an airport and ppl must of knew in time it would expand to take the pressure of bigger london airports and spread the traffic across regional airports to improve and help local business & create more jobs which is good for the southwest, etc

Slightly off topic but................

MacQuarie........

MacQuarie bought a ferry (as in shipping) company yesterday, the Isle of Man Steam Packet Co, lock, stock and barrel, including ships buildings, land holdings.......

And I quote...

"The Macquarie Bank Group is a diversified international financial services group and a global leader in the infrastructure sector. Macquarie manages a portfolio of infrastructure and essential service assets and businesses around the world and has a track record of successful and responsible management."

"Jim Craig, Head of Macquarie in Europe, said Steam Packet fits with Macquarie's philosophy of investing in quality infrastructure and essential service assets. This is the type of business we are keen to invest in, with stable revenues, a strong customer base and a proven management team. The Island itself has an excellent record of stability and economic growth"

Macquarie's holdings in the In the UK include

Wightlink (Ferries), South East Water, Wales & West Utilities, Energy Power Resources, Birmingham Airport, Bristol Airport, M6 Toll, M1-A1 Link, BBC Broadcast and Arqiva.

Many fingers in profitable pies I think, what will they take over next? (apart from EXT)



Note to ATCO1987, 2 EZY 319s in 2 days, both in/out from STN :*

Yeah I noticed those two minibuses!

The London Stock Exchange has been rumoured

Poss new domestic services?

Just found this whilst flicking through a mag in the office,

Alphaone Airways, the Oxford based start up founded by local teenager Martin Halstead, will initially launch services on a round route linking Oxford, Manchester, Shoreham, Bristol and Liverpool. The daily rotation will be operated by a piper chieftain but will be upgraded to a BAE Jetstream 31 in the future.
Any views?

It has been anounced that Macquarie/Ferrovial (via their South West Airports Consortium) have withdrawn their bid to buy Exeter Airport.

SWAC were the preferred bidders but following much business and political protest in the far southwest the whole thing was referred by the EU to the OFT in the summer on the grounds of a joint owner for BRS and EXT being anti competitive. Only last week Flybe put in its three pennorth and said it didn't think the sale should be allowed to go through.

The regulatory enquiry that was put in train as a result of the OFT referral was not expected to report until next spring and SWAC say they cannot wait that long so have pulled out.

A Macquarie spokeswoman was quoted by Bloomberg, "There's been no decision against it, but the process just kept dragging on and it's a very small acquisition from our perspective."

I always believed that a jointly owned BRS and EXT would have brought more to EXT than to BRS. Now it seems that Macquarie/Ferrovial will have to put all their efforts in the south west into further developing BRS without having EXT as part of the equation.

International Pax - Sept05
 

Be grateful for any assistance on this.

Presently doing some some research which involves analysing international scheduled pax from various airports.

My numbers for BRS from the CAA data are as follows:


Sep-05 Sep-04 %

Brussels 6117 5805 5.10
Copenhagen 0 6662 -100.00
Bergerac 4478 3487 22.13
Bordeaux 3873 3477 10.22
Nice 8098 7670 5.29
Paris 8524 9128 -7.09
Toulouse 3834 4122 -7.51
Berlin 6895 6679 3.13
Frankfurt 2703 1360 49.69
Munich 2055 1516 26.23
Cork 1417 1165 17.78
Dublin 24613 22206 9.78
Milan 2005 0 100.00
Pisa 7353 371 94.95
Rome 7431 0 100.00
Venice 7949 7544 5.09
Malta 1005 0 100.00
Amsterdam 23327 29167 -25.04
Faro 9099 9352 -2.78
Alicante 15769 16599 -5.26
Barcelona 7928 7661 3.37
Bilbao 0 7059 -100.00
Madrid 7424 0 100.00
Mahon 187 0 100.00
Malaga 16234 16513 -1.72
Murcia 7975 0 100.00
Palma 9268 8997 2.92
Valencia 7949 0 100.00
Geneva 7566 0 100.00
Zurich 1581 0 100.00
Prague 7848 7640 2.65
Budapest 7472 0 100.00
New York 8249 0 100.00

236226 184180 22.03

Which is all very interesting but it doesn't equal the numbers on the BRS airport website - total 233,933, difference of 2293.

The CAA states that diversions are back calculated to their scheduled destination.

Does anyone know if there were a number of diversions in Sept and if so does BRS reflect this in their website.

Be grateful for any feedback

BRS dont include lost diverts in the pax numbers but the CAA do.

The CAA numbers haven't included some other BRS flights including Olbia and Split which operated in Sept with Trade Air which makes the difference bigger!!

There was only one or two divs out in Sept - not enough for the difference.

ATCO: Easy's 319's arrive as of the end of October: the first one appears on 29th, then November 6th and the third about two weeks after that.

The first BRS EZY 319 sat up on whisky tonite, shining away under the floodlights, Think reg when i drove by it earlier was BS anyone know if this is a brand new delivery or has it been on line for a bit? looked very smart whatever, anyone know when ezy planning a 9th ac for brs?

EZBS - been with the fleet for a while. The 9th a/c might be in Easy's plans but where will it park???

.redfield

I know you are au fait with the stands and apron at BRS, you have kindly helped me with details of this in the past on this MB.

Are you saying the point is now reached where there is no room at all for a further based aircraft to park overnight?

I note that BRS carried over 5 million pax during a rolling 12-month period for the first time in September.

A non-industry person like me can't help thinking that more room will have to be found pretty quickly then if the passenger growth is to continue

There trying to increase the size of the western apron at the mom, where the mail tent was and soon when the helicoper maintenance hanger is which is going south side. One would prob only get 4 EZY A319s up on whisty i.e 23,24,25,26 n the other 3/4 on 8,9,10 & 11 until the new stands are built cant really see where the ninth one would go wth all the other charters there too. When is the secord EZY airbus coming? 5th of november? or one every month?

MV: It's pretty close to that now. The other week there was an Astraeus 737-700 a/c parked between 21 and 22 because there were no suitably sized stands left to park it on. The problems have mostly arisen since stand 27 was closed due to the W.I.P. on stand 62: Emerald parks on 27 now so we've essentially lost a B757 sized stand. At certain times over the winter there'll be a second DP 321 and a Thomas Cook 320 to park as well as all the based winter a/c, and bear in mind that some of these a/c will be at times on the ground for over 24 hours. Rampboy: I've seen the plans for the proposed extension, but I feel that it's come too late for this winter! There'll be another 2 A319's here before the end of November.

Redfield, theres not a 2nd DP 321 at all during winter, just the occasional visit of the EXT based 320 on a W pattern thru AGP and maybe an odd visit by a 757, so it wont be taking up any stands overnight, so in theory that frees up a large stand. We had this discussion bout this time last year, worrying about stand space for the summer just gone and the airport managed fine, I dont think it'd pose a major prob, and by the time EZY would of got round to the 9th it'll prob be summer again and the extra stands will prob be ready

As reguards to the nightstopping a/c, the MYT has left and one FCA, since the TCX will be parked up most days. With the 8 EZYs mixture of A319s n 737s, The Brit can go on 3, EZY A319 on 2 & 1, FCA on 4, KM 5, SN stand 6, KLM 70 stand 16/ F100 Stand 21, XLA 734 stand 12, 4 EZY 737s on 8,9,10 &11 and the other 2 or 3 on 23, 26 or 24R & 25R with the TCX parked up there too i think the airport will manage. At the mom EZY A319 G-EZIW is parked on 2. When will the 2nd one come?

It's not always that simple though Rampboy, as I'm sure you know. As W says, we had this discussion before, and the stand plan doesn't take into account tech a/c, delayed flights etc. As mentioned previously, the Astraeus has already been parked between 21 and 22 because there wasn't a stand available. It might just work, but there's not a lot of room for manoeuvre!

On a different note, Easyjet's passenger figures were pretty high over the half term - several flights went out with all 149 seats taken, especially on the BFS and NCL routes.

I went to the BRS Master Plan public road show at Bristol’s Mall Galleries shopping precinct last week and managed to have a long chat with none other than the MD, Andrew Skipp. I don’t regard it as a private conversation as it took place in public with other visitors in the vicinity quite at liberty to earwig if they had wanted. Furthermore, I presume he would tell any other member of the public what he told me.

I was impressed by his willingness to engage a stranger in conversation for so long (at least twenty minutes) and with the straightforward and open way he answered my questions.

The following is a summary of some of the points that emerged, some as responses to my questions and others brought up by him.

There will be three new a/c stands next summer and he sees no problems in the meantime. This is in line with the incremental approach vis-a-vis increasing passenger numbers outlined in the draft Master Plan.

Next summer he is expecting Excel/Freedom Flights to operate two B 738s out of BRS, replacing this summer's B 734 and Air Malta A 320.

The CO route to EWR is now establishing itself well, although he thinks fares were pitched wrongly at first (too high) and now at times may even be too low.

He thinks the purchase of EXT would have been useful to BRS but doesn’t seem too bothered that it has fallen through.

He seems as perplexed as many in the local aviation scene that Flybe have not built up a stronger route network out of BRS, but could not say why this is (he may have been understandably reticent to say any more given commercial considerations).

Similarly, he is at a loss to explain BRS’s lack of flights to such destinations as Toronto and Florida.

I gained the impression that a Ryanair base is not top of his wish list although more FR flights working into BRS on W rotations would be very acceptable, and there was a hint that there might be more (to complement the DUB and SNN rotations that are already operated in this way). He mentioned that he would like more French destinations, whether by FR or anyone else.

He has personally noted the unacceptably long time it can take the Flyer dedicated coach to the bus and railway stations to load pax at busy times (something I highlighted on PPRuNe some months ago), and he assured me that the matter will be rectified.

It can be seen that I was never cut out to be an investigative reporter, but I thought these snippets might be of interest at least to some of the regular BRS followers on this MB.

The Flyer coach is a vital tool but it suffers due to the fact the driver has to collect £5 or £10 off every passenger before getting underway. Inevitably this takes 20 mins for a full coach and that's as long as the journey takes. Until the technology improves could they not employ a ticket collector for at least the peak periods?

WWW

WWW

The Master Plan is looking to having the Flyer coach operate every ten minutes with one always at the airport loading pax. It would also run into the early hours, although doubtless at a reduced schedule during the night. The idea is to have the Flyer carrying 13% of airport pax by the time 9 million is reached compared to 5% at present.

Having an assistant at the airport coach stop at the busiest times seems the obvious thing to do, and I believe this is what will happen. I too have seen the Flyer take twenty minutes to load on occasions, because drivers usually load some of the travellers' suitcases in the luggage compartment under the bus before admitting the pax and taking fares.

With that and Bristol's nightmare traffic no wonder it is sometimes difficult for it to maintain its schedule.

Interesting initiative starting in the Chew Valley, even involving some who are opposed to the airport's expansion. Community mini buses are being set up, running on bio-fuel, and they will pick up commuters (mainly) from surrounding villages, take them to the airport and load them on to the Flyer for conveyance to Bristol. It is partly the idea of the airport bosses.