flybe/london
 

With flybe using LONDON SOUTHEND maybe this is a chance for WATERFORD to get its LONDON flight back

Assuming that Flybe's SEN service to NQY is a success. Presently its only a seasonal summer service & is not operated by a SEN based aircraft so there's no slack in the schedule to fill with another route.

Wallp, based in your rationale I'd expect Belfast city to get a daily flight as EZY have withdrawn from the market ie BFS SEN. And given that a significant number of people consult BE for flying between BHD and London, it might be prudent to try SEN . The numbers easyJet were attracting may work with a daily q400.. But who knows!

With Flybe to launch their Summer 2015 schedule in the coming week or 2, I wonder what positives or negatives it will bring for WAT. Hopefully MAN returns and BHX continues for S15!

FlyBe announce that they are terminating services to Waterford from Manchester and Birmingham as of the 27th March '15.

Although Mancheter was finished at the end of October, it was hoped that it would return as a seasonal route.

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Also, the airport was granted a 350m phased runway extension as of today.

The extension will be 150m, then a further 200m.

So is that Waterford left with no airline again?

Cancel the runway extension?!

use the funds to extend the runway in Cork instead

Its largely being privately funded and not by government.

Huge swing away from Regional airports both in Ireland and the U.K. in recent times. Flybe have no problem going head to head with BA City Flyer and City Jet on London City Dublin even though 3 carriers on that route isn't going to be sustainable. Yet they withdraw from routes from Waterford where they have a monopoly. It seems as if everyone wants to fly from the big busy airports to the detriment of the smaller user friendly ones.

When LTN-WAT route was at its peak, there was enough demand for up to 3flights a day. Has all that demand to fly to/from Waerford dissapeared?

Perhaps an opportunity for another carrier to open up routes from WAT to points in the UK?

The beginning of the end was when LTN was dropped for the east coast at the insistence of a certain airport owner.

If that market still exists, maybe another carrier could come in and give it a try?

What other carriers with suitable spare capacity are available?

The SE market is small in real terms and very price sensitive.

This is the nub of the problem, too high a price and the passengers go elsewhere, too low a price it becomes uneconomical to provide a service.

And it lacks the critical mass needed to sustain a larger aircraft.

For Operators the question arises as to whether you can get a better return (more profit) on another route.

Sadly it would appear that FLYBE can.

Anything to back this up?

No need to back this up, it was well known at the time. Stobart owned an airport, bailed out Aer Arann and part of the deal was that both Galway and Waterford moved from Luton to Southend.

Both airports fought the decision but to no avail. Galway was effected the worst and all their Southend flights operated via Waterford due to the loads.

Waterfords not finished yet, they might have one final card up their sleeve.

If known facts so why not say so as oppose to being cryptic.

A major factor in the end of Galway was the decision to concentrate the limited funds available in airports that were perceived as having a chance.

And the final sections of the M6 were completed in December 2009.

It is awful that Flybe have pulled out but what can we do ....
We lost Aer Arann due to the London Southend switch from Luton which was mentioned above. Luton was well able to maintain an ATR72 operation 13 x weekly (2010). Flybe obviously are able to make higher yields elsewhere hence the decision to pull the plug! MAN & BHX have recently proved that they have demand and are able to maintain steady load factors. So there may be hope!

I hope the airport are in talks to get a replacement for the 3 routes; MAN, BHX and LON. Hopefully some carrier might base and take all three routes but only time will tell. Hopefully good news early next year......

WAT
 

Based on the current runway length, As far as I can see the only show left in town is the that Cityjet base a Fokker50, though that's unlikely and given their approach to pricing and marketing, not going to break any delph.

Now an extended runway is a different matter. Long enough for a 738 and we could see Ryanair returning to its roots.

The switch to Southend happened too early and before the new terminal and linked station opened. Once passengers tried the difficult to get to old terminal they didn't come back so when the new terminal opened the writing was already on the wall and the route never recovered.

Stobart thought that the passengers would just follow the airline to the coast but as they found out the hard way they didn't.

Congratulations to everyone involved at Waterford Airport on securing a 12 weekly return service to LTN and retaining the BHX route - Vlm.com

CP.