BRISTOL - 2
 

BAConnect is to commence a three times a week service from BRS to TFS commencing on 3 October this year. It is also to begin a similar service from Nottingham East Midlands at the end of the same month.

Must be the first scheduled route from BRS to the Canary Islands. I believe the equipment may be A 320s but it seems they won't be BRS-based.

Nice one BA :ok:

03OCT - 28OCT -2--56- BRS-TFS 1750 2150 BA6834 320 GT
31OCT - -2--56- BRS-TFS 1735 2135 BA6834 320 GT
03OCT - 28OCT -2--56- TFS-BRS 1235 1635 BA6835 320 GT
31OCT - -2--56- TFS-BRS 1235 1635 BA6835 320 GT

Just yer boarding pass please
 

<rant mode>

Every bl**dy time to practically every bl**dy passenger! :ugh:

Yes, you, the pre-screening wallahs at Bristol International!

It's in the passport! I'm holding it with my finger in the photo page where the boarding pass is sitting since I got it from check-in! I keep them together so I know where they are, just like almost every other Tom, Dick or Harriet you see every day! Have you not got used to it by now? We keep them together, get it? So when we come towards you at the pre-security check and give you our passports, clearly in many cases containing boarding cards, no more of the "Just yer boarding pass please", just take the bl**dy passport, check the boarding card and give it back.

</rant mode>

Ah, I feel better now :)

Cheers,

Rich.

Not every passenger is as efficient as you are.:E

Last visit I was just pleased they weren't laptop swabbing, as I had two of the buggers.

How's the extended coffee shop on the upper level going? Chaos last visit (Bank Hol) as I think it'd just opened and there was the usual too many chiefs, startled rabbit indians circus that happens on such occasions going on. Like the extended comfy seating area next to it, particualarly as there is another socket for use of aforementioned laptops! (There was previously only one accessible one on the whole upper floor.)

Cheers,

Rich.

fyrefli

I have the misfortune to use the upstairs catering almost every week. It must be bad as it's forced me to break my PP virginity. The Echos(?) bar is appalling, even on a quiet Monday morning the service is abysmal. On the Sunday of the last Bank Holiday it was absolute chaos with the coffee shop closed, lots of pax getting compensation vouchers for a delayed flight and the usual busy Sunday afternoon crowd. I imagine that the staff are treated pretty poorly as they show no interest in customer service - on asking what had happened to my order the responses from them ranged from "I'm going home now" to "I just pick up the dirty plates".

On Tuesday this week, asking for a receipt produced the answer that "all the till printers are broken" and a shrug of the shoulders.

I like travelling from Bristol but they really need to sort out the airside catering (they've spent enough building new shops). I suppose that at the end of the day they have a captive eating audience.

Birmingham Diversions
 

Did Bristol get any of the diversions from Birmingham yesterday after the problem with runway after the emergency landing of the TNT 737?

Anybody had a look at the Gibralter thread? rumour of GIB-BRS, nice little route for pax if it turns out that way

Nowt much going on latley then people? Does this mean its all been running tickedy boo? surely not!
Anyway if anyones interested the new route to AGA being operated by TCX this winter instead of FCA, fraid thats all i got folks, must be something juicier out there surely:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Whats the latest on Menzies setting up at Brs, rumours are rife that it has been confirmed they will be here within the next couple of months,if so where the hell are they going to put them ?

Air Scotland are to start a weekly GRO on 22nd July using an A320.

Watch out for an orange quiet culling of some routes from Nov 06 onwards!

:eek:
Easyjet cutting routes?
If so wonder what ones?:\

Now called TopJetAir :}

Easyjet
 

WOWBOY

Had a quick trawl through the booking engine and ones not bookable
in November are: -

Budapest, La Rochelle, Hamburg, Marseille, Mahon, Pisa and Rijeka.
With Grenoble I got an error message rather than "the flight only operates
until 29th October.

As for the rest, there is work for eight aircraft with few gaps. I might have
made a mistake but I had nine evening flights plus the Belfast & Newcastle
originating aircraft.

Krakow ops Mo, Wed, Fri and PMI on Tue & Thur (did not check weekends).

I am not sure how this compares to now or last winter but I have always
been impressed with Easy's Bristol operation for destination choice.

OltonPete

Pete

I have also done a trawl through the booking engine and discovered that thus far next winter there are 25 daily weekday rotations allocated to BRS-based aircraft (this includes PMI on Tu and Th mornings plus KRK on M, W and F mornings making one rotation for this purpose, and the second daily GVA which commences in December).

In addition NCE operates on M, W and F. So this gives one spare rotation each day and a second spare on Tu and Th, assuming the nine based Airbuses each does three rotations per day, and they will need nine because you are correct when you say there are nine evening arrivals between 2145 and 2225 - ALC, EDI, GLA, AGP, MJV, CIA, TLS, VCE and SXF.

Changes from last winter and indeed from this summer include a second daily AMS rotation and the SXF route being operated by a BRS-based aircraft for the first time instead of a German-based aircraft.

As to the routes apparently dropped, Mahon is a high summer venture only and the new routes (commencing next month) to La Rochelle, Marseille and Rijeka may well be considered summer routes too. BRS is the only easy route from La Rochelle and Rijeka flies only to BRS and LTN. LTN is not bookable after October either, and neither are the Marseille routes to LGW and LPL as well as BRS.

The other routes currently flown from BRS not bookable at present are Budapest, Hamburg, Valencia and Pisa. Apart from Pisa to Paris Orly, no easyJet routes from/to these cities are currently available to book.

Last winter (and this summer) Budapest was/is only flown on M, W and F during the week. Valencia, although daily in the summer, was also M, W and F last winter. Pisa is also daily in the summer but was Tu and Th only last winter. Hamburg was daily during the week last winter and this summer. Grenoble was Tu and Th only last winter.

It may be that some of the destinations not yet bookable from anywhere may well come into play eg Valencia M, W and F; two of Grenoble, Budapest and Pisa on Tu and Th.

In addition the BFS (operated by Belfast-based aircraft) remains at three per weekday whilst the NCL (operated by Newcastle-based aircraft) increases to four per weekday from the previous three with an additional mid-morning arrival and with the last arrival of the day put back to slightly later in the evening.

I have not mentioned weekend flights but the programme seems reasonably full already.

Although some routes are apparently ceasing this winter (some will doubtless return next summer) the net result seems to be that BRS will have more easyJet flights this coming winter than last winter because there will be nine based aircraft instead of the eight last winter and the schedules seem to need them all, albeit there are still one or two gaps as stated earlier.

In summary the winter weekday daily flights currently bookable in the web engine are AMS (x2), ALC (x2), BCN, EDI (x3), FAO, GLA (x3), GVA (x2), INV, MAD, AGP (x2), MJV, PRG, CIA, TLS, VCE, SXF, KRK (M,W, F), PMI (Tu and Th), NCE (M, W, F), plus BFS (x3) and NCL (x4), the last two being operated by non-BRS aircraft.

Hope you've got all this - there will be a test later. ;)

Blimey MV, No offence but you must of been daaaaaaaamn bored last night mate :E

Easyjet
 

MV

Cheers for that, restored some faith in my own counting ability!

Assuming aircraft number 9 is fully occupied then this is quite a decent
spread of routes (still pretty good even if it was 8).

Off to do some revision :ok:

OltonPete

Just reading in the GB Airways thread, someone has written that 'TFS will not be the only destination served, news of more routes will be along soon' Page 3 of the thread, could be intresting as GB do some nice little routes from LGW and MAN.

No, I was watching Argentina v Mexico at the same time. More entertaining than England v Ecaudor that I've just sweated through but at least we won and live to face another potential defeat.

It doesn't take long with high speed broadband and I always look at the easyJet schedules when they are published as I like to use the airline for cheapies (I shall give them another chance despite being let down by them recently), and the best fares are to be had at the beginning.

Interesting that all nine 'late' evening arivals are scheduled in between 2145 and 2225 because even in the winter the last Orange arrivals are usually just before midnight.

Doubtless this is to assist the £20 million (that's the figure given in the Consultative Committee minutes on the BRS website) runway resurfacing due to take place overnight this coming winter. The MD spoke of 'enormous logistics' with the runway being handed over to contractors each night from October until the job is done.

I suppose having a short runway must save a few quid when it comes to resurfacing. :)

Got a funny feeling, I know which dept will be making sure its handed over each morning:}
Cheers :ok:

It is very annoying getting handed every other document apart from boarding cards!!! The signs clearly say "have your BOARDING CARDS ready for inspection" so just give us those! You say the boarding cards are in the passports, yes, with EZY that is very often the case, but we normally just get handed a passport and nowt more...Ive even been handed those little green cards you have to fill in when travelling to Tunisia before now, deary me. Shoot joe public is what I say.

Thats my rant over :).

Just putting 2+2 together and probably getting 5 here, but as I mentioned earlier, it was said on another thread that there may be a possible GIB-BRS flight coming soon, also as I mentioned earlier from the GB Airways thread apparently TFS may not be the only destination served by GB from BRS soon, so do we think possibly GB BRS-GIB a couple of times a week in the near future?

WATABENCH

I think GB are more excited about the bucket-and-spade brigade than anyone else. At MAN they've cut it down to TFS and PFO and as you see TFS has been their first choice for EMA and BRS. So maybe you might get a PFO or HER coming your way before a GIB.

Looks as though Flybe is continuing its rundown of services out of BRS, as some of us anticipated earlier in the year.

The winter timetable shows no Belfast City, Bergerac or Bordeaux departures although, perhaps surprisingly, the Jersey is to run six times a week through the winter (no Sats) and, even more surprisingly, the Toulouse is also to run six times a week through the winter (again no Sats) against easyJet's daily Airbus.

I wonder if someone like Air Southwest will look at BHD or will they be scared off the route as Flybe apparently were (used to be three daily departures) by easyJet's three Boeing 737s a day from BFS?

Bordeaux is a pity because it is one of Bristol's twin cities. None of the other European twin cities have air links to Bristol either. One might think Hanover was a candidate but Tbilisi (some say Georgia is in Asia not Europe anyway) is probably a bit remote for an airport like BRS.

At the moment it looks as though BRS will have nine less scheduled routes this winter compared to the summer, viz Pisa, Budapest, Valencia, La Rochelle, Marseille and Rijeka with easyJet, plus the three Flybe routes mentioned above. I haven't counted Mahon because that is a high summer scheduled route and Hamburg (also apparently dropped by easyJet) will presumably continue to be operated by OLT, albeit with somewhat more expensive fares than the Orange machine.

It's a bit of a surprise following recent years when new routes seemed to be appearing at BRS like weeds in my garden. Continuing with the gardening theme, it's always a good thing to prune the dead wood to make way for new, stronger growth so perhaps that's what's happening with these routes, although doubtless some will return next summer.

Maybe EZY just cannot provide enough crew, simple answer i know, but probably correct going on the chats I have with EZY crew, also as MV mentioned before, a lot of the routes axed for winter are really summer only La Rochelle, Mahon, Reijka, quite suprised with Pisa and Valencia though, as for Budapest I'm sure its a lovely city but cant imagine many people wanting to go there in the middle of January, its dull and cold enough here thank you, shame bout BE but who's really suprised after the brown nosing that has gone on 70 miles south, i mean even the new extention on the front is BE colours.
At least on the funny side, can you really see any other operator wanting to go in to EXT? Not even the South Wests own airline wants to operate from the South Wests 2nd busiest airport, what does that tell you?
So probably any potential routes/airlines looking at EXT are going to see that the place is so 1 sided that they wouldnt get a look-in.
I spoke to a FCA GOC who said even they in the winter have been either unable to let pax off as a BE was coming on stand and took priority to off load or the same situation boarding flights with BE taking priority, and this is with the only charter mad enough to operate down there, albeit just in winter, apparently some of the flight deck were Livid!
Sorry didnt mean to go EXT bashing then, it just popped out, i guess what i'm saying really is that the loss of BE in BRS is nowt to worry about in my opinion, as MV put it, makes way for new growth

Turricon,

Thanks for the info bout GB, what routes do they operate from LGW? have they been cutting back there too?

BRS Cat 1 This Winter.
 

I have heard that BRS is going to be undergoing runway repairs / upgrade this witer and hence will be reduced to CAT 1 capability only. BRS doesn't have the best weather record during the winter months so it looks like CWL and EXT could be a tad busier than normal?!:confused:

I wonder how long the CO flight will last??? Does it go 4 weekly for the winter?

Last winter EWR-BRS-EWR went down to five rotations per week in November, December, January and February (apparently only four per week were planned originally during this period).

It returned to daily in the first week in March. There were also some extra rotations in December giving six per week some weeks.

I don't know what is scheduled for the coming winter.

Why do you ask how long the CO service to EWR will last?

CO
 

MV & all

There is a long long thread about CO on another well known International forum and if one "respected" user is correct then Bristol-EWR seems fine.

It started from a claim that one existing route will be pulled but not one of this years "new starters". The doom merchants predicted Bristol & Belfast
(one even BHX) but they were told "why look to the UK".

All speculation but as I say this guy seems to know what he is on
about - fingers crossed it is not UK service.

OltonPete

Pete

I remember that last summer there was a long-running thread on another international forum (well-known for aviation pictures) that predicted an early end for EWR-BRS, on the basis that the loads didn't seem good.

The first year has now passed and the target figure publicly announced by CO at the outset for that first year (75,000 pax) was comfortably exceeded. However, we of course don't know whether fares were discounted to achieve this or what the ultimate yield is.

The CAA stats for March and April seemed all right with 7,930 and 8125 pax respectively (percentage load factors in the high 70s). The provisional May figure isn't so good (low 7000s but for some reason the BRS-EWR route is always increased by several hundred when the final figures are published - as far as I can see it is the only BRS route that is treated in this way on the CAA stats pages, don't know why).

In raw pax figures BFS has done better than BRS in the first full twelve months of the routes - BRS around 86,000 pax and BFS around 95,000, again all extracted from the CAA stats.

Of course we know that bare pax figures aren't the main consideration when it comes to route profitability.

In the latest BRS Consultative Committee minutes, published on the airport website, the airport MD said the route is still predominantly used by pax originating this side of the Pond. They have tried and are trying various ways of bringing it to the attention of US travellers.

My son has used the route several times this year and speaks highly of it. He is not remotely interested in aviation so speaks as a punter, although he is lucky in that his company pays the tab for him to sit in the front part of the 757, so the views of those at the back might be more revealing.

Hope the route does succeeed but I keep hearing of people who still use LHR and, in truth, for those living to the north and east of Bristol the trip to Heathrow is not much more difficult than getting through or around Bristol to Lulsgate.

BRS is a much more civilised experience though and the M4 is liable to chronic congestion and sometimes closure.

CO
 

MV

Yes Belfast in terms of pax has done well even beating BHX in April.

A lot of what you have said is similar to what people say about BHX
(on a local BHX forum). CO did upgrade to two a day last year but
although the load factor was fine yield was not (per posts on
other threads).

I still listen to people at work going on about the lack of choice
from Birmingham then in the next breath tell you they went to
New York from Heathrow. Some citing the cramped narrow 757
(non aviation individuals) although it is usually price that is the
main reason.

Anyway straying off topic here but lets hope that CO expand
their current UK routes (Newcastle?) rather than contract.

Pete

I flew Bristol last week, and the week before. There was 71 people onboard. I coudnt get a seat out of BFS. I'm flying from Bristol again next week, because there's so much space to spread out in!

Hands up who thinks the Air Malta looks daft? :p what silly bugger at their HQ ok'd for XL to plaster themselves all over the side?
It may sound a bit old fashioned but KM is one of the only regal looking airlines left in europe? why spoil it by putting a humongus XL.COM on the side? sorry but the Hound dont like it.
Why not something a little more subtle, like Skyservice/FCA have with their CWL aircraft, i saw it come in the other day with a little plaque by the doors saying 'Operated on behalf of First Choice Airways by Skyservice' whats wrong with that? Bloody marketing department!

The reason for that is, that it also operates XLA flights, and I think there were complaints or something like that. Joe public will complain about anything <G>. So they just stuck the XL.COM on it to show it operates for them too!

Gonzo,

You should have flown BusinessFirst. Your 5'7 body would have been a lot more comfortable, and the food is good!

Hurrah! An end to wasting two entire days' work per trip! Now I can actually take the occasional day off again :)

Cheers,

Rich.