Wonder how that will affect Easy's BCN route.....

1. Ryanair to Girona commences 25 March next year and operates 4 x weekly (M, W, F and Su) - mid-evening arrival/departure.

2. WindSheer's and WATABENCH's comments re saturation at terminal are interesting and relevant because I believe they both have work connections with the airport.

I speak from the point of view of a customer and when I last travelled in early September it was at lunchtime on a Wednesday when the airport, although fairly busy, was a comfortable experience.

I take the point about the early mornings when thirty or more departures are scheduled in those first three hours.

I should have had two early starts in the past couple of months or so but these failed to materialise thanks to easyJet's habit of cancelling flights.

From what has been said they may have done me a favour.:eek:

Incidentally, a look at the Newcastle thread reveals almost identical comments about overcrowding and lack of check-in facilities as Bristol.

I suppose this is one of the penalties of success.

Good news with FR route if you ask me, the competition can only be good for pax in the long run(price wars), lets face it FR are the only company really that can both afford and make a good job of challengeing EZY's dominance at BRS, if only we can find space for more of them :uhoh: . I am getting the impression first with the SNN route then extra DUB and now GRO that CWL may of wished they didnt have that fall out with MOL and Co, I remember on their website a year ago they showed CWL as a growth area, this must bode well for BRS now i guess!

:} CWL may of wished they didnt have that fall out with MOL and Co.

Not! Who would want to fly on such a crap airline is beyond me:}

BAforever

Idiot !

MM

can any one tell me how excel are doing out of brs they obviously didnt do as expected at cwl?

Rumour has it BE pulling out completely??

CMR

Well, they almost have already.

Their only route this winter will be the JER which is down for daily except Sat.

This summer they reduced the BHD, BOD and EGC rotations from previous summers. The TLS is also to go this winter.

It seems that the easyJet competition to BFS and the new daily Orange route to TLS has had its effect.

If they don't return next summer it will be a particular shame about the BHD (maybe Air Southwest will look at it, although the easyJet at BFS would come into the equation with them too)) and the BOD, as the latter is one of Bristol's earliest twin cities and the former very convenient for the centre of Belfast.

Flybe seem well set down the M5 at EXT so it probably makes sense to concentrate their southwest efforts from there rather than try to give easyJet a run for its money at its biggest UK base outside London and, of course, Flybe never based aircraft at BRS.

babymax

Unless an Excel insider is prepared to divulge yield etc figures on here (unlikely) one can only assume that Excel is satisfied with its BRS base.

It has had one of its own B 737s and an Air Malta A 320 based at BRS since summer 05 and they continued through last winter and this summer and, as far as I am aware, will continue through this winter and presumably next summer.

Finally, I note from Mayfly that the first-ever scheduled service from BRS to the Canary Islands will commence this coming Tuesday on behalf of BAConnect using an A 320 to TFS.

BA connect starts its 3xweek flights to TFS from BRS tuesdays,fridays & Saturdays, Also i found out the First Choice long haul routes starts in Feburay apart from Cuba which is starts in May. The day and flight times for the 767 is Dominican Republic Tuesdays and departs BRS 0800 and Florida departs BRS at 1020 on Sunday morinings. Flybe is operating just the JER route til April next year and then the plan after that is they will pull out all together, the JER route i think some days will be operated by the new E195.

Not sure if its been in BRS before but just seen the new BE E195 taking off on 09, very nice! :8

I fancy the pulling out of Cardiff could be down to a company issue rather than lack of sales. Their a/c this summer was/is operated by Canadians, suggesting a lack of initial commitment!

Anyone from the inside of excel care to add...

Or, could an existing airline at Cardiff be poised to replace Excel...

I to agree with this as loads on most routes were generaly good (although I dont know about yeild). Airlines to are increasing their own routes too-

• FCA to CFU instead of using XL as in this year
• The supposed TOM 'MAJOR MAJOR' expansion
• Various others

As for the lack of commitment theyve just not enough planes in the fleet.:ok:

XL
 

Main Speculation was that the Canadian A/c was going to replace the Air Malta at BRS. It seems now the KM A/c will be running between BRS, CWL (x2 flights) and i think EMA & HUY (correct me if im wrong on this)
Also as already said XL may be struggling with their fleet, but there is the new Ireland base to consider on this, so maybe the a/c are to go over there instead.
MYT had quite a few allocations on XL flights from CWL, does anyone know if this is the case at BRS? Would this also result in yield being less for XL? obviously depending on the demand for their own product.

Too true! KM at BRS, VIK at EMA, Canadian at CWL and GLA, and i believe some Finnair a/c, all operating on behalf of XL, surely they should sort out the UK fleet before expanding elsewhere!

I imagine that XL will utilise their BHX based KM 320 for some of the CWL/EMA/HUY flights, and heard yesterday that MYT will be back year round from next summer, can anyone confirm?, also TCX are fully based this winter with the rumour that they too will be back year round based from next winter 07/08 :confused: .
Dont get me wrong because i think XL at BRS is great, but the company as a whole XL/Air Atlanta or whoever they flipping are seems a complete mess, way to many airlines operating under different names it ridiculous, take the BRS-SSH, this is operated by the Air Malta, under XL tickets and check-in screens with an Air Atlanta flight number on the tickets and on the screens??? not so bad for us in the industry but for pax it must be a nightmare, especially checking in down route :ugh:

Canada
 

Canadian Flights. Toronto etc. Any Gossip?
A weekly service must be viable, even with EXT & CWL doing them?

I've not heard any rumours.

It is a strange anomaly given the number of pax that fly from BRS on other routes that it can't get a Toronto service.

It has been unlucky of course. Some of the past carriers that did fly the route went out of business: for example Odyssey Air around sixteen years ago and the most recent, Canada 3000, that had absorbed Royal Air, the previous operator.

Perhaps the loads from BRS were poor and caused these airlines to fail. Only joking because I seem to recall load factors were actually very good. Before anyone mentions it, I know about the importance of yields but I have no access to them of course.

These flights had to operate the outbounds via another airport (GLA in the case of Canada 3000) because of the runway at Lulsgate.

However, the weekly Toronto from EXT operates via another airport (BHX from memory but could be wrong) so that presumably is not a bar.

Incidentally, the last time I looked there were two Toronto flights scheduled from EXT next summer, both at Wednesday lunchtime - one flight to Pearson Airport and one to Hamilton Airport.

MerchantVenturer

I remember all that you mentioned. Odyssey was a nice airline-with a bone china service. Very posh for the time. Yes the loads were good.

Canadian flights I am sure would do very well

Lumberjacks of the west unite! Was that the Smiths or the Wurzels?:}

Aer Arann
 

Not sure if it's been mentioned on this thread yet, but Aer Arann's winter timetable is showing an increase to 6 flights per week.

RE431/432 Mon/Wed/Thu/Fri/Sun afternoons
RE431/432 Sunday morning.

BA/GB Airways started the TFS flight today with G-TTOB.
MH.

airvanman

I have some cine film of the first Odyssey International landing at BRS from Toronto on 9 May 1989. It was a Boeing 757. I also filmed it taking off to return to Canada via NCL.

My note with the film says the aircraft was 'booked solid' until the middle of June (it was to be a weekly flight) and, although it routed outbound via NCL because of the runway at BRS, my note continues that most of the bookings were from BRS.

On the apron at the same time as the Odyssey were a Capital Air Short 360, a Hispania B 737/300 and a Dan Air HS 748. As I panned the apron to get this shot a Paramount MD 83 can be seen taking off in the background.

The sad thing is that all these airlines had ceased to operate within the next two years.

Morrihell

Yes, these things have been mentioned on here. Good news to get the Arann back to 6 x weekly to ORK.

A report in the Evening Post today quotes an airport spokesman saying the A 320 operating the first BA scheduled flight to TFS yesterday was full and forward bookings are very strong.

Flybe routes
 

With the Winter schedule starting at the end of this month and this winter the only route showing is the Jersey-Bristol-Jersey and the company has released there 2007 schedule and the Jersey flight does not show at all is this because they do not have all the summer routes planned yet or does this mean the route will be droped as well??
This would mean no Flybe connection with Bristol.
If this is the case i can understand in view of Exeter down the road and more flight being generated form there it would seem a good idea if this could be correct.
If flybe pull the Jersey service i would think there are a number of carriers in the wings with similar type aircraft to offer to take the route a the drop of a hat in view of no Cardiff service showing at the moment.:ok: :ok:

Canada out of BRS? I think the runway will get in the way again!

Zoom are doing fairly well at Cardiff with their 767, but they operate as low cost i.e high number of seats and high payloads. Too much weight for Brs.
An airline would have to be willing to put in an a/c with a lower no' of seats/lower payload but higher price per seat, and try to compete with Zoom's low cost market.

It sounds do'able when said quickly, but sit down and look at the technicalities that make it a tad un-justifiable. Would be nice though!!! :)

Flybe are pulling at out BRS by spring 2007, the winter JER route will be the last!

It is not stopping Conti and FCA doing long-hauls soon. I am sure a 757 or 767 could do a Toronto now with little or no restrictions?

FCA Long haul from Bristol, or at least Orlando, will be via Manchester most of the time. It will go direct a couple of times apparently but mostly via Manchester. So, false advertising! Since FCA are advertising direct.

Not false - a tad misleading maybe though.

If they were advertising 'non stop' then that would be a different issue....

Direct does not equal Non Stop.

Well I did not know that! Misleading yes!

When you book FCA longhaul ex BRS, it advises you on both travel agent and internet systems that the flights operate via MAN for fuel stop outbound only, also if pax read their details in the backs of the brochures (which is your contract with your tour operator) it also says there. A flight under aviation regulations(as far as i know) is direct as long as pax don't disembark (pax do not disembark in MAN), however all the advertising I've seen has not mentioned direct or in-direct, if it says direct then yes slightly misleading as airvanman says, but I know what i prefer, 1hr stop in MAN flying from BRS 20mins from my home address or 3 hour drive to LGW, plus fuel costs plus parking/hotel costs, hassle of getting around the crap hole that is LGW and the mile walk to FCA's long haul gates at LGW, then 3 hour drive home after an overnight trans-atlantic flight with a nice bout of Jet Lag and a restless night behind you and indegestion from the sorry excuse that airlines like to call a breakfast, you got to be nuts to want to go from LGW if you live in this area, especially as the IB to BRS sectors are non stop. For the sake of an hour spent in MAN going out!!! C'mon you dont have to be a genious to work out the better option.
Also do you think a company like FCA would get caught up in the 'False advertising' trap, hmmm me thinks not, they're not Ryanair!
Also think you'll find that most Thomsonfly long haul from CWL routes via MAN too(spoke to a crew member yesterday who said the POP flights usually do), so does that mean they're false advertising, what bout flights such as YYZ from EXT, these are not direct either yet the advertising doesn't state direct or in-direct, it just says 'fly to TORONTO from Exeter International'.
Also just adding something re Flybe pulling out, i dont think anyone has mentioned on here about how busy BHX is for them, everyone has said about EXT, but lets not forget BHX really is not that much further, nor is SOU really, so perhaps its good business sense really, why fight a losing battle against EZY when you have 3 airports all about the same distance from BRS where they don't have to fight for custom, will be a shame to see the BOD go though, i know loads of people that use that route, ah well.
My weekly rant over :}

I love your rants W. They are becoming a must-read in this thread.:ok:

I think that once Flybe realised that EXT was a viable base for a host of routes the BRS flights were always on borrowed time, mainly for the reasons you have outlined.

The only lost destinations will be Bergerac and Bordeaux (and Belfast City but easy have the Northern Irish capital sewn up with their BFS operation).

I agree that BOD will be a pity, especially with Bordeaux's historical Bristol connections.

La Rochelle (assuming easy bring it back next summer) and TLS are probably a bit too far to attract that many would-be BOD travellers so I wonder if easy will look at BOD themselves; conversely they might think that La Rochelle is too close to Bordeaux for two routes from that area of France to BRS.

Or they might simply switch the La Rochelle to Bordeaux next summer. They know there is a market and when easy came alongside on Flybe's relatively well-established TLS route they immediately upped the monthly pax figures from the 3-4,000 that Flybe carried to a joint total of over 11,000.

Some people say the aerospace connection is a particular ingredient of BRS-TLS but were the extra 7,000 pax mostly aerospace people? If so, how had they been getting to TLS before? Furthermore, there is a daily Mon-Fri service from Filton to Toulouse for those associated with Bae.

i remember in mid nineties we flew to Orlando-SFB from BRS and we made a tech stop at Bangor-Maine, this was on a Britannia 767-200 when thomsons ran a summer series,so surely toronto would not be that much further out of the way,especially if the a/c was configured for less seating and more leg room as FCA have initiated and other airlines seem to be looking down that avenue

Middle East? LBA?
 

What is the latest gossip/news on Emirates, or any other Middle Eastern operator going from BRS?
This would open up a lot of destinations.

Or... Who’s up for starting Lulsgate Bottom Airways? An old 767 should do it.
Based on no market research just the ‘for gods sake punters will flock for ‘em’ theory! The destinations for starters are:
Toronto
Sydney (via some rich sandpit)
Bangkok (via another rich sandpit)

Must be a winner. Flywho nah! Flyarse yes! :ok:

Thanks MV! Thats what you get when your company makes you get up for work at stupid o'clock in the morning ha ha, i tired rant at what ever just to make me feel better about getting up for work at 2am!!! Ba:mad: s! LOL, love em really huh hum!
Airvanman - Going back a year or so my prune partner in crime 'Windsheer' came up with the idea of starting 'Chav Express' that was a comedy thread, you'd of loved that one :}
No haven't heard a squeek from anyone bout a DXB route, it could probably be done on a 757 as it's approx same distance as EWR, however EK don't operate 757's infact most operators to DXB from UK apart from poss BA don't. And 777/767/330/340 would be to heavy to do direct and theres no point operating an A/C half full, Hopefully it wont be long until DXB opens it's doors to the charter market, may give BRS a few more options for DXB, I fancy FCA B787 in 2010 myself. I can't see BA doing it, however stranger things have happened in BRS, you never know!

Who gives a monkeys if it stops at Manch? Two weeks ago, the tw*ts at Thomson couldn't even get us on a 767 from Taffy International (with it's big gigantic runway) to Sanford on the same flight as our luggage (and by 'our', I mean any luggage belonging to the 280 paying pax). Oh yes, Cardiff is such a wonderful airport, so much better than Briss cos it's got a big long runway. What utter sh!te!!! I'll go from Briss next time and I couldn't give a monkeys if we have to stop at Manch, as long as our bags get there as well.

Mutter, mutter........longer runway my arse! Thomson, bah, useless tw*ts!

Standard Noise

I guess your bags did not show then!:ugh:

Err in CWL's defence, That was down to the particular replacement a/c used on the day due to the other being tech.

Haha poor old Noisy!

Yeah, Bristol will beat Cardiff anytime; runway length aside. Notice the difference in movements? Wonder where the airlines prefer to fly from...cough.

That's as may be, but they used one which was incapable of doing the job required of it, namely transporting 280 people AND their luggage to Florida. Mind you, I was told they'd replaced a 300 series with another 300 series, but there you go, proves you shouldn't listen to what they tell you.
So in the grand scheme of things, a longer runway means b*gger all if the airlines cock it up. Still, does beg the question how the same company can get a 767-200 off Bristol to the Carribean with such a puny runway?:confused:

Wellington we arrived in Orlando Thurs evening and got the bags on Sat morning (Thank You Monarch for rescuing us from Thomson's cock up!)
Two days in the same undercrackers, I had to soak them before they peeled off!! Still, when they land on the desk of Thomsons MD (actually, he'll prolly smell them before they arrive), he'll know not to fanny around with my hard earned leave time again! SN is not accustomed to going overseas for the very reason that no matter how well a trip is planned, you have to put yourself in the hands of lackwit bumpkins at some point, and that is when your planning tends to unravel. Mrs N has been told not to expect foreign travel until I have calmed down, 2009 is my current target although that depends on Thomson's response to my forthcoming letter. Cornwall looks good for the next few years!

1987 - never mind the movements, Cardiff's terminal (and isn't that just the right word for the dump) reminds me of Luton back in the 80's. To be avoided at all costs!

its not about what the terminal looks like, its what the inbound market wants, what the businesspeople need and where the critical mass market is. Cardiff will beat BRS hands-down when it comes to the long-haul inbound market. Americans don't know Bristol, but they know Cardiff and Wales. Business people will be sent where business contracts send them.

loveJet - as most of this lot would have you believe, it's about runway size. And Cardiff's terminal is still a sh!thole, even worse for an arriving pax (plywood floors, ceiling tiles caving in cos the roof leaks, or is that leeks?) It looked like a hurricane had hit it, still, we live in hope.

It's such a 'critical mass market' in Taffy land that they're managing to push 2M pax per annum, whoa, steady on, big market there.:eek:

I use BRS a lot. It's my local airport and I am very fond of it, but it ain't perfect.

There was an article in the Bristol Evening Post a week or two ago about an Excel flight from BRS to one of the Greek destinations that had to leave numerous bags behind.

I like CWL as well as it provides some routes that BRS doesn't. I know the terminal needs a bit of attention but I've seen a lot worse and there was a time when it was better than BRS's.

I hope this doesn't go down the path of BRS v CWL. We've seen all that before and it invariably deteriorates into a Bristol City v Cardiff City football-type slagging match, but without the 'fan' violence, thankfully.

As a customer I regard the airports as very useful complements and I increasingly regard EXT in this bracket too as a Bristol resident.

I am surprised at loveJet's comments about the relative merits of Bristol and Cardiff for inbound American travellers.

I concede that many Americans are extremely insular and probably most have only heard of London and the likes of Edinburgh, Oxford, Cambridge, Stratford and Bath.

Indeed, at the time of the Manchester bomb in the1990s I was in the USA and one of the major news networks headlined their story as 'London Bombing' before explaining in the report that the bomb had actually detonated in the northern city of Manchester, about two hundred miles from London.

I would be surprised if CWL were to beat BRS 'hands down'. Bristol is a larger business centre; it has the highest GDP per capita of the eight English core cities with a lot of foreign business links; it is always in the top ten UK (not just English) destinations for overseas visitors (the last figures made it number seven as far as I recall); it attracts over 9 million visitors annually; Bristol is an ancient city with a lot of American connections; Bath (an American tourist Mecca) is almost as close to BRS as Bristol and BRS is at present the only airport serving the huge tourist region of South West England from the USA.

Now Cardiff and Wales certainly have a lot going for them of course, but whether CWL would really attract more Americans than BRS seems able to do is a moot point. Perhaps we shall soon know if the much-rumoured US scheduled CWL service commences.

Yes, there is such a demand for routes out of Cwl, that every time we read a press release about new schedules and see photos in the press the airline concerned has announced they are pulling out before the photos are even dry !!!! Yep Brs management should be shaking in ther boots, Cwl only have triple their passengers then they,re level with us. !!!!