Newquay
 

With Newquay or RAF ST. Mawgan being in the Southwest news a lot of late.

Air Southwest and Monarch are trying to get traffic to and from the southwest but not forgetting Mr O leary with Ryanair or though they have cut back.

The U.K. goverment are not helping in keeping the airport going,
it is a major airport for the southwest when you look at it geographicaly, it is a good location other.

When you look at the nearest commercial airports around Exeter Bristol and Plymouth they are a long way away.

When the airfield has warm sector conditions it will suffer from foggy conditions, but the airfield with the help of Mrs Windsors boys and girls will be there providing they do not pull out with radar and vectoring for the ils.

Providing the military do not pull out ,otherwise it might end up like Manston a very long runway and not many people to use it.

We would hope that Newquay is around for a very long time to come as i believe the old Brymon was one of the airlines to keep it back on the map long live BILL Bryce

The news today is that the airport will be mothballed in 2007 and the EFA is going to Scotland.

I have posted on this in the Air Southwest thread but here goes again.

The airport ( civilian) is owned by the Council and they have only vague ideas about running the airport or how to develop it. The best case would be if the airport were sold to someone that does, someone that understands what other revenue the site can produce.

Newquay was on the map long long before Brymon, I worked for Westward Airways in 1966 which was possibly the forerunner of Brymon and even we were latecomers. You need to go back many years before that.

Newquay is not in an ideal position, if you live in the area of Cornwall east of say Bodmin it is almost as quick to go to Exeter. Not enough traffic can be generated from the rest of Cornwall to develop a significant and viable route newtork. It will always support a limited number of routes, especially to London if the night sleeper is cancelled, the airport has to make better use of the routes it does have and find other activities to bring in the cash. Never forget as well business is of course very seasonal.

There is plenty that can be done here but I feel nothing will change until the owners shape up or ship out.

Groundhog, read the announcement carefully...

St Mawgan is not going to be "Mothballed" it is closing, and in all probablity the MoD will dispose of the site.

The Council do own the "Airport"... if by that you mean a terminal building, a hanger and a carpark, everything airside is MoD property (see above).

Civil flights into Newquay began well before 1966, way back in 1939 in fact with Western Airways using Trebelzue Airfield (which is now part of RAF St Mawgan).

New bmibaby route to Manchester, all helps

Don't know if they are just in middle of updating it, but bmibaby's website lists MAN-NQY as a new route, but don't yet seem to have told their booking engine! Anyone know the planned schedule?

** edited to say that it is now done. flight is daily, and even the first week of the school summer holidays look cheap.

Newquay
 

I believe that Cornwall Council are short sighted and totally unable to run an international airport. First and formost the MOD will probably have to sell them the land with the runway and atc on and with the councils fiancial constraints that alone would be a problem without trying to find the running costs. They should have bit the bullet and gone whole heartedly into trying to get the JCA at St Mawgan and tried to slowly invest in the airport.Once again the unjustified wurzel gummidge image of people from the south west has been seen in the attitude of Cornwall County Council (not much up top).They deserve what they get.

Footster - For someone who comes from Devon ( joke) you are spot on. Not only are the CCC totally incapable of doing anything productive about the airport but they are also have an arrogance I find astonishing. See if you can get them to reply to an e mail or letter.

I believe the call has gone out for the resignation of Cllr Whalley over the handling of this farce. Probably Conservative posturing but it has been a farce!

I have come across at least two ex airline C.E.O's retired down here plus other professionals from the industry who I know would assist but will the Council listen... will they @"?*

Heard on the news last night that Ryanair is pulling out of Newquay. Any idea if anyone is going to take over the Stanstead route?

Think what you heard was the morning flight is cancelled and the later one under review - aren't all flights always under review!

The Council spokesperson did say that he had received approaches from other airlines and I have no doubt that if Ryanair did pull out others would take their place quite quickly.

My guess is after the long cold winter they will be back to twice daily.

As mentioned on another thread Air Wales seem to be about to launch ORK-NQY.

Announced on local teletext this morning - wish them well with it.

Ryan Air have been pulling out of NQY for a while now and it is all to do with the onset of £5 charges to all outgoing passengers by the CCC. This is a redevelopment fund they call it. Last I heard Ryan were pulling 5 flights from NQY. Whilst I don't live down there I do holilday in Newquay and these new arrivals will give me another reason to visit the old air base

Rob

You can't book the Stansted Ryanair service after March it seems... What bloody fools politicians can be.

Don't worry too much as you can't book any flights out of BOH after saturday 26th March. They haven't loaded up the summer schedule yet.

I know its early days since the Goverment announced the closure of St. Mawgan but according to Cornwall County Council they had airlines banging on their door to operate flights from Newquay. All that has happened is Ryan Air have cancelled the morning Stanstead Flight, Air Southwest have added a couple of flights along with one from Air Wales. Well CCC if thats the size of it then CCC really are out to play with the fairies.:O

bmibaby will be doing flights on a daily basis to Newquay from Durham Tees Valley & Manchester for summer 2006, although the airline has pulled the daily flights from Birmingham. I'm not BHX based so have no idea about loads or profitability, but would've thought that it was a nice little route for predominantly leisure pax as I believe it was once daily.

BILL Bryce
 

Sorry to be sooo nieve, but who was/is BILL Bryce...? :=


:ok:

ASCIL REF Bill Bryce
 

Bill Bryce was the person who founded Brymon I believe back in the 80.s i think.
He was either Australian or a New Zealander.
Back in the early days of there operation they had a twin otter aircraft with the registration G-BWRB the last three letters standing for William R Bryce,
Hope this clears this up

Thanks "Matey" ;)

Bill Bryce
 

Bill Bryce was indeed was a New Zealander. Sadly he past away last year after a long illness in his homeland . If my memory serves me right he started Brymon flying Britten Norman Islander aircraft out of Plymouth and using a Handley Page Herald on the Newquay- Heathrow service. He was one of the founders for using STOL aircraft first the DHC6 Twin Otter and then being the first airline to fly a DHC Dash 7 into the London Docklands on a trial flight and eventually selling his share in Brymon to concentrate on the construction and running of the London Docklands Airport. Regional air travel has alot to thank Bill Bryce for.:O

Ihave a recollection that Bill Bryce also took part in the London to Sydney Air Race in the 1970's.

Also had a hand in Fairoaks Airfield

All before your time, now off to bed you've got a busy day tomorrow little ones.

Sir George Cayley

FR will give up Newquay - STN on March 25.

No more flights are shown after this date.

Thats a pretty bold assumption - maybe they haven't yet put the summer schedules out!

Ryanair were due to release all summer 06 flights by yday (23rd).

Re: NEWQUAY
 

Monarch's flights will apparently cease on 30th April.

Re: NEWQUAY
 

Wowboy - Enjoy your posts but please try to get your facts right.
Ryanair are not pulling out of Newquay - I just booked flights in June. Monarch were only ever running a short season anyway and are now considering longer I believe!

Re: NEWQUAY
 

I took a flight from Dublin to Newquay last saturday. The Dash 8 was a bit long in the tooth but I thouroughly enjoyed the slowish (compared to a jet) climb over Dublin city at a low altitude. My first time in a turboprop out of Dublin actually.

From an Irish point of view its was real handy compared to having to drive from Bristol. I believe Air Southwest are going to be spending a bit of money promoting the area in Ireland so that should sustain it, the hostie told me they are getting about 25 people a day. She was real nice too:E

Long may it continue

Newquay
 

I saw on tonights BBC local news Spotlight that Cornwall CC have admitted that it will take Newquay 5 years to break even financially and they to hit the 600,000 passengers a year double its current number todo this.CCC are now being seen to eat their words when they said they did not need JCA and could run the airport as they had airlines queing upto operate out of the airport.Well at this rate Newquay Airport will be joining RAF St Mawgan if this council dont start getting their fingers out.But then a council running an airport !!!!!!!!!!!!

Now here is a question for the lawyers. If the Council fails to develop the airport and it does eventually close does that mean that all those punters that paid a £5 development fee might have a legal right to ask for it back?

Airport to name lounge after DJ
BBC News + Radio 1

A departure lounge at Cornwall's airport is to be renamed after a BBC Radio 1 DJ following a campaign by presenter Scott Mills. Newquay Airport has decided to rename its departure lounge after popular DJ Jo Whiley.

No one from Newquay Airport was available for comment but Radio 1 confirmed the news on their website.

No such thing as bad publicity!

Been listning to all this on radio1, ha ha brilliant:ok: , apparently Blackpool airport were going to name an aircraft after her too

Perhaps the Beeb will sponsor the new hardstanding that has just been laid down at great expense. Apparently, the local environmental health people will not allow aircraft to use it as there is no drainage in the event of a fuel spillage. Sounds like a bit of a major own goal by the local councils as they must have commisioned and then approved the plans and once the work was done sign off the project!

So using the hardstanding as an advertising hoarding seems the only option left - its cock all use for much else!

Newquay
 

I rest my case when it comes to CCC. Thats not the first own goal CCC have made. Thinking they can run the airport without the RAF was the biggest one and it is slowly coming back to haunt them bit by bit.

Once the RAF move out of St Mawgan Newquay Airport will become another Manston, a large airfield but without the catchment area to justify it. What Manston has in it's favour is that it is ideally placed for weather diversions from the London area and the close continent whereas St Mawgan, well it might attract a St. Just, Penzance helicopter or PLH diversion but that's about it and it is a very much larger airfield than Manston, it has the widest runway, 9000ft x 300ft, in the country and with the tower etc. on the RAF side.

What Cornwall needs is a centrally located modest airport, perhaps a 7000ft runway but a longer one might be convenient for the occasional fuel stop before a heavy crosses the pond, a modest terminal, perhaps a freight facility, and with good road and perhaps rail connections and not a bl00dy great airfield & RAF camp the size of St. Mawgan, particularly one at an elevation of some 600ft.

So why not develop somewhere like the former RAF Portreath:

http://www.multimap.com/map/photo.cg...&scal e=25000

OK, it seems to have about 4 runways but from the pic it appears only one runway has been maintained, a cross runway is always handy for crosswind conditions, but development can be concentrated on a tailor made commercial airport rather than an RAF base with a civilian terminal as far away as possible.

Portreath is about 2 miles off the A30 and about 3 miles from a railway line and Redruth station, it is in a non built up area and has approaches over the sea.

If the RAF are to pull the plug on St Mawgan then perhaps it might be the right time for Cornwall's airport to make a clean break and start anew.

I would like to add that it was only from reading this thread that I just learnt of Bill Bryce's death last year. Having worked for Bill in the pre BA days of Brymon I would like to say that he was a character, all be it sometimes a short tempered character, but he was a good guy and with a heart of gold and he did a lot for aviation, in his own unique way, for Devon and Cornwall. Rest in peace WRB!

Bill Bryce and Chris Amon, 2 Newzealanders created Brymon Airways. Amon was the number one Ferrari Grand Prix driver in the 60`s.
Brymon’s first schedule was from Newquay to the Scilly Isles in 1972 using an Islander aircraft
Brymon were the first UK operator of the Twin Otter from 1974
They bought the Newquay-London Heathrow route in 1977 from Michael Bishop for £200,000 using Herald aircraft
Bryce, the ex journalist and farmer helped to build the new runway at Plymouth in 1981
In 1982 Brymon`s test pilot flew the Dash-7 into Heron`s Quay before the airport was built that was to become London City Airport, named by the Plymouth airline
Bryce sold the airline in 1983 to an ex British Airways manager, Charles Stuart

"What Cornwall needs is a centrally located modest airport, perhaps a 7000ft runway but a longer one might be convenient for the occasional fuel stop before a heavy crosses the pond, a modest terminal, perhaps a freight facility, and with good road and perhaps rail connections and not a bl00dy great airfield & RAF camp the size of St. Mawgan, particularly one at an elevation of some 600ft.

So why not develop somewhere like the former RAF Portreath: "



A centrally located airport might be a good idea, but you could hardly call Portreath central. St Mawgan fits that bill far better. True, it might be a large airfield, but surely if you want to develop an airport, and one that includes features such as a freight facility, then space and hangarage is what you need. With the improvements to the A30 currently in progress, road links for St Mawgan will better those of Portreath. Agreed the local rail connection is paltry, but surely that is not a major consideration here?
Bear in mind that it is only the airfield that the MOD is disposing of, not the whole station. And the elevation is actually less than 400ft at its highest point.

I realise that you mentioned Portreath as an example only, but as an aside, it is also the site of Nancekuke, which as a former Chemical Defence Site responsible for the production of nerve agents, might not make it first choice for a regional airport!

Having just made my first visit to NQY via BMI Baby, have to say a bit disappointed.
Firstly an airfield approach aid failing in very poor vis, resulting in holding for 20 minutes. Then having landed, being kept on board for a further 30 minutes, due to NQY only handling one aircraft at a time.
A £5 fee charged to use the arrivals/departure sheds takes the biscuit.
On departure, nobody at the gate checked boarding cards with any ID which I thought was a UK DoT regulation. Even then, a lady bound with WOW to LGW mangaged to board the flight to MAN, fortunately, at least the Baby crew were on the ball - even though they looked slightly bored.
NQY, probably not top of my list to revisit unless it was absolutely essential. Hope you spend my fiver wisely !!:rolleyes:

Raven,
I'm aware of the chemical background of Portreath thus why perhaps ideal for a commercial development rather than perhaps a housing development!

Hear what you say about St. Mawgan regarding hangarage & Freight but just look at the location of the hangars to the pax terminal, if you were starting from scratch would you not put them next door to each other?

The railway, indeed any public transport, features in any airport development & growth. When they rebuilt Stansted they put a railway line & station in and let's face it, holidaymakers flying to NQY are leaving their cars at home, costs of taxi's etc. may persuade them that it's cheaper to take the car than to fly.

Changing the subject slightly, I can recall the days of when jetfoils operated from Ramsgate to Ostend, 90 minutes compared to 4+ hours by ship but the punters destination wasn't Ostend, in the same complex as Ostend harbour was the train station and it was an optimum route for getting to the continent.

NQY is trying to attract punters destination Cornwall, not necessarily destination Newquay, thus there need to be public transport connections.

PF

Was air southwest not meant to be flying to PIK a while back.

Mr A Tis,
Understand the frustration at having to hold for 20 mins, but equipment failure is unavoidable, and hardly the fault of Newquay, as RAF St Mawgan provide all airfield and nav aids. I'm sure that holding while waiting for the kit to come back up is preferable to making an approach in what was very poor weather, with no approach aid. Safety first...
As for your other comments on the terminal, can't really comment other than to say that whilst the situation needs to improve as regards passenger handling, the staff have an unenviable task, and like most operations run on a tight budget, there are going to be problems at peak times. Not an excuse, and I'm no expert on their ops but the problem as I see it is one of financial constraints. They are still not geared up to handle multiple arrivals and departures efficiently.

Phileas,
In an ideal world, a new centrally located airport would be a sound plan, however we do not live in an ideal world, and working with what is physically and financially available is the next best thing. On that basis, you have to adapt existing assets. The hangars south side would be ideal for a cargo operation, or even as a displaced servicing location for Air SouthWest, for example. I have no idea what is planned for future development, but if I were asked, then I would suggest relocating the passenger operations south side. This would provide the co-location you mention, and improve the road access. All these points will be decided by someone much higher up the food chain than me, so my musings are just that!! Until the MOD relinquishes control of the real estate, then this is all conjecture anyway.

Raven

Newquay
 

Has anyone any info' on the delays at NQY today which appear to be averaging between 1 and 2 hours for all airlines and are much worse than yesterday. For a tinpot little airport which is hoping to raise £20 Mill of public money for expansion they are certainly making hard work of things at the moment.