Interestimg Points Ref Takeover of BA Connect
 

There has been and may still be talks of British Airways bringing the Heathrow back, the reasons could be a number of them.

!. With the Boeing 737 fleet slowly being dispossed of no suitable aircraft at Gatwick to operate the Jersey flight.

2. With B.A. having a 15 per cent of Flybe would they carry on in competition on the Gatwick or give it all to them and open up the Heathrow??.

3. Aurigny could be in a position to operate a Jersey Gatwick in competion as per the Guernsey Gatwick flights.

4. With B.A. selling Connect due not making money will W.W. be looking at cutting routes that are not producing the revenue, but to keep the valuable Heathrow slots, operate a bus down to Jersey just to keep them.

The Paris route from what i can make out is not dead yet.

The main concentration over the last few months has been the talks and planning for the take over.

Now this major hurdle is over, Flybe quoted two dates for more things to happen the first of January and then the twenty seventh of March this must be the end of the winter timetable when Connect will be fully gone.

From what i understand the Connect fleet of Dashs and Embs were on a lease bases so they will not be able to trade them in for more 400s and 195s shame:sad: .

Once Flybe start operating the Jersey Manchester in there own right there will be two a day and the fare structure will be a lot less than the B.A.Connect fares good for the travelling public.:ok:

Interesting year ahead for what flybe have up there sleeve

Jeresy and Guensey will be the last places for the BAE146 to be based before they leave the company, Jersey will have there EMB195 but i think things dont look good at the moment for a Guernsey EMB195 unless they can sort out there runway length, if they can't then it would look like a two Dash 400s based in Guernsey.

Really good news here; Jersey will be regaining its scheduled route with Durham Tees Valley. Flyglobespan are to launch Saturday flights as of 30th June 2007. Flights are as followed:

GSM047 MME JER 14:05 15:30
GSM048 JER MME 16:00 17:25

Great to see a new low cost airline for the airport. The flight operates 1x weekly (compared to baby’s 3x) but that is more than sufficient for tourists. The loss of bmibaby was unfortunate considering that the route performed well so hopefully Flyglobespan can make a success of it.

Good news - and always welcome to see a new airline; possibly 737-600s? I'm surprised that they'd operate from MME; wasn't sure they had a base there. If they start with MME, they might try EDI and/or GLA direct?

As for LHR, as much as I'd love to see it, I still have my doubts - particularly as far as BA is concerned. OK, the 737s aren't getting any younger, but the -500s operating to JER always seem to be in pretty good condition, but more to the point, there's no way (as far as I can see) BA would use a slot for short haul when they could use it on long haul. Any available slots will be used for this purpose and if/when Open Skies comes about, BA will need every last slot it can get it hands on. Indeed, at that stage, I can see a lot of mainland domestic routes losing access.

Similarly for Bmi; even though they don't seem to be getting things quite right at the moment, they too will be waiting for O/S and the opportunities that will bring (assuming VS hasn't bought them out before); I see BD being a better chance than BA, but that's really not saying much. While access to LHR should remain a long term goal, I believe that other hubs such as CDG provide a better opportunity for plugging into worldwide networks.

New base opening next summer

Good news to see GSM moving into operate down from Teeside or what ever one likes to call it now Durham Tees Valley or the good old days of Middle St George down to Jersey it might only be once a week at least it is a start.

Would the next move be operating once a week from Glasgow as this must need some support looking back many years ago British Midland operated a big programme in the summer months especially the months of July and August many a DC9 would be seen trucking its way down the airways to Jersey:ok: :ok: .

LHR and MME
 

Good to hear Flyglobespan are going to operate the MME service, its true that with baby these flights were almost always full. (and had the nicest crews lol).

As far as BA goes, I've heard on good account that JER is one of BA shorthaul's most profitable routes (and with regularly 30+ in club on a 100 seat A/C its understandable why), so if LHR takes on one JER is a likely candidate.

I, however do agree that it is fairly unlikely over the next few years but as GBALU states it isn't impossible that BA could leave BE to take over LGW and for BA to take LHR, and would give JER back its 'real' link to London which would be great to see.

Good luck to flybe and all BACON crews for the future, I will miss the daily Dash 8 300 we see here, but understand that its for the best of the business as a whole.

However great it would be to re-establish the Heathrow link, I agree it is still very unlikely. Jersey’s efforts to gain new access to European hubs are of increased significance nowadays and are more viable, long term options.

The entrance of Flybe on to the Manchester route is welcome. Along with bmibaby, Flybe should be able to reduce fares further and generate passenger growth. The amount of seats available to Manchester will, of course, be an issue, especially out of season. Nevertheless, Flybe’s schedule is likely to be more accommodating for day returns, which I have always thought was needed to a major city like Manchester.

But again, really looking forward to seeing Flyglobespan. Hopefully one of a few more routes to be announced for the summer!

And the good news keeps on coming...

British Airways will launch an additional service between Jersey and London Gatwick for the beginning of the summer season following successful negotiations with Jersey Airport. The extra afternoon flight will bring flights up to 6x a day during the week and 7x at the weekend. Flights are as followed:

BA8045 LGW JER 12:55 13:55
BA8046 JER LGW 14:30 15:30

By the way, I noted the other day that BACON had applied for slots for a saturday flight to FRA between 05MAY07 and 08SEP07.

Good News
 

Good to see another rotation to and from Gatwick for the summer 2007 although not a new route, there must be the passengers or is it to protect a slot or two?:ok: :ok:

With Flyglobespan starting the Durham-Tees to Jersey from the end of June due not having an aircraft until the second aircraft is based a Durham they will be able to see the public demand for some route before they start and might have to add a second rotation a week on some route hopefully the Jersey sectors:ok: :ok: .

From what i understand the loads when Baby operated were good so you would think there must be the demand.

With the application of Bacon applying for a German slot on Saturdays, this must just be an end use chater type opperation ,which i think Eurowings operated on behalf of Lufthansa last year so it might be a smaller aircraft on the German weekend charters for all of them?????:sad: :sad:

Would this explain why the Jersey-Southend service has (apparently) been ditched for 2007?

Always wondered why Jersey doesn't get alot of passengers looking to make duty free savings.

I know for example that say on flights from Ireland you can save about €45 each way for 200 cigarettes because of duty free - so if you smoke you're €90 up if you use your allowance each way - more if you save on drinks or whatever. Does the same apply on flights from England - presume it does.

With that alone there should be a good demand for flights as long as the frequencies are OK.

The extra British Airways Gatwick flight is certainly good and a success for the airport authorities and their attempts to build partnerships and offer incentives to airlines.

According to an earlier JEP article, airlines that add additional flights on existing routes will receive a 50% decrease in landing charges, so no doubt BA must have received a good offer. Certainly, this is the first major signal that the new strategy is working and hopefully there will be more developments in the future and cause for more optimism.

Would the slot application not have to mention Guernsey as well considering all German charters operate to both islands? Also, the tour operator dates conflict with those mentioned in the slot application. Wolters Reisen states that flights begin on 28th April and end on 22nd September, whereas the slot application suggests that flights begin on 5th May and end on 9th September. It is still early but there are some conflicts in the information.

Last year was FRA was offered for the first time by TUI Wolters with a Contactair aircraft. Don't know if the BACOn application was a replacement for that, but I doubt it as TUI Wolters is quite keen to sell all their flights to the C.I. as "Lufthansa" flights (it is Eurowings and Contactair).

In 2007 there will be a bunch of saturday charters operated by Cityline for TUI Wolters. A new addition to the destination list is MUC, this on top of FRA, DUS, STR and HAJ. in the past, there have been BA flights to Germany, I remember a regular saturday service to DUS in the 1990s with Dash 7s or ATPs.

BAC !-!!s
 

Virgin Blue

If we go back a bit further British Airways operated a German Flight in the summer a long time ago.

Could we be seeing a bigger return to German traffic for the summer of 2007???:ok: :ok:

The are plenty of towels available.

Sorry, I just keep on posting the news :ok:

New for summer 2007, daily Thomsonfly flights to Luton operating a 'W' pattern from Doncaster, except Wednesdays when the flight seems to be on a Luton based aircraft. Flights are as followed:

TOM 4134 JER LTN 09:20 10:20
TOM 4133 LTN JER 11:00 11:55

Also, Cardiff operates 5x weekly, Coventry daily, Doncaster daily.

This is turning out to be a bumper summer for Jersey. I had a suspicion that Thomsonfly would launch Luton; the Airport Director sort of hinted it in a radio interview a few weeks back.

Great news, BE's once weekly service (for the past few years) has never really been enough; hopefully we'll see a few more developments in the near future.

Perhaps RE might increase the ORK frequency and (given EI's reduction on the DUB route) consider that too; there really should be a year round Irish route.

If I may add to J-Guy's comments, the CWL flight not only operates on an extra day in Summer 2007 (4x weekly Summer 06, 5x weekly Summer 2007), but the aircraft operating the route is a Thomsonfly Boeing 737, compared to the Aer Arran ATR-72...therefore well over double the capacity on the route.

Summer 2007
 

Good news does Jersey have enough beds if all these flight are full??

What else is up Jersey Airports sleave for this comming summer 2007.

With only four and a half months before the summer schedules come into play it is look a lot better for 2007 so far, as they say, bring it on ,it is good for Joe and his public?:ok: :ok:

Will FlyBe retain the Luton route in competition with Thomsonfly?