Well the same was said about DUB before that was announced so im am now slightly more optimistic. Yes i agree they could have done far better, and they should have pulled their socks up as soon as the low cost airlines came onto the scene instead of seemingly passing them off as unsustainable.

Yes people vote with their feet but when offered the choice i dont suppose people of lincoln etc would shrug HUY off. There are seperate markets for the two airports and i hope its not too late for HUY to get back into the game and start off where it should have done ten years ago.

niknak
I have absolutely no doubt that in time DSA will become the main airport of Yorkshire and North Midlands. I am not dissing LBA, its just that I believe DSA is far better placed, both logistically and realistically, for expansion. I do, however, feel you are being disrespectful to HUY. HUY is not a mickey mouse operation and it will continue to grow. Not in respective proportion to DSA, but nevertheless it will grow. Rather than try to discredit HUY, please try and embrace the fact that the region between Hull and Sheffield have two airports, both of whom are increasing operations and giving its people a choice of destinations and AIRPORTS of origin. This surely should be applauded, not criticised.
I can leave my home just outside Hull and can be at DSA in 45 minutes and HUY in 20 minutes. Is this just great or what? I have a colleague in Scunny who can be at either airport in 25 minutes!!
I think it is absolutely fantastic and long may it last.

Tue a.m PMI now on sale with XL!

The programme is filling up nicely.

Also, FR have announced they are very pleased with the HUY-DUB route so far, with approx 20,000 seats having been sold so far.

What is comforting is that FR have said that LPL-INV and LPL-ABZ sales are above expectations at 3200 and 2550 seats so far, indicating that 20,000 for HUY-DUB is an excellent figure!

Seems the critics have been proven wrong, there IS room for both DSA and HUY to co-exist, and HUY appears to be going from strength to strength!

Regards

Mike

They just keep on coming!

SSH now loaded up into the XL timetable.

Dep HUY every Sunday at 11.00.

Regards

Mike

:confused:
nik nak wrote:

"whereas I fear that HUY will continue to bumble along and gradually lose the majority of the revenue earning trade."

I don't think so, because all of a sudden it is not 'bumbling along' it is starting to boom. And now that it is providing destinations then people will fly to them. I don't believe either that they will be passengers who are necessarily other airport customers. Half (or more) of the hassle and a considerable amount of the expense of flying is involved in getting to the airport. It is a big put-off, but suddenly if your local airport just around the corner starts flying to all sorts of destinations you'd always wanted to go but couldn't be bothered with the airport hassle, then you think twice. How often do we hear or read that demand for air travel outstrips capacity? Well this is the living proof

In the cold light of day what ticks me off about the whole HUY thing is that if there are this many people (and probably more) wanting to fly from there now, then most likely there always was. The economic benefits to the Humberside region that must have gone begging for years don't bear thinking about. Somebody should be strung up:yuk: The apparent years of neglect which I can't believe wasn't in some way part of a management policy is the main reason DSA has outstripped HUY so quickly.

By the way, nice to see we can work together. I bet the pax on last nights Malaga-HUY flight weren't complaining about DSA when it had to divert here, probably because of fog. It must have been so much better and easier getting home than having to get back from MAN.

Tim

The full XL programme has now been released;

MON
Corfu

TUE
Palma
Heraklion

WED
Paphos
Rhodes

THU
Arrecife
Malaga

FRI
Tenerife
Tenerife

SAT
Palma
Alicante
Las Palmas

SUN
Sharm el Sheikh

Regards

Mike

Can anyone confirm a rumour that has been passed to me that some of Ryanairs flights from HUY have been culled?

Just the tuesday flights at the moment, that is the badly performing one of the lot but should bring the loadings back up to a better figure as friday to monday the flights are going out with very good loads but the weekday flights are quite low, with the lowest being 49 a few weeks ago on a tuesday.

As things stand all flights have been culled from the winter timetable :{

Anymore further information on who the Humberside and Air Southwest meeting went on back in May?

Air Southwest has no interest in operating from HUY unfortunately.

Regards

Mike

It would appear that FR have culled all flights from HUY after the summer season, quite disapointing news as i do not think it will be replaced and i feel it may have ruined any chance HUY might have had for low cost expansion.:ugh:

Pug,
if true that's a real kick in the nads for HUY and will truely put the kibosh on low cost asperations of the management.

I only hope they put everything into concentrating upon the IT world, its the only thing left in the battle with DSA.

Do the management have any low cost aspirations though? The fopcus really is on charters at the moment

Many feared a daily 189-seat 738 would be too much aircraft for a DUB service, unfortunately this looks like the case.

It seems almost baffling that HUY continues to prosper with charter flights and yet falls flat with scheduled services. There is an obvious demand for flights to the sunspots, but does nobody in the region ever want to travel to other places in sufficient numbers too? The DSA effect can't be blamed too much either, the situation existed long before it opened and even now DSA only offers a handful of non 'sun' destinations.

Perhaps the focus, as already seems, ought to be on continuing to be relatively strong in the charter market and cement it's postion there. Over time, and if remaining successful in this market, then maybe a LCC will take another look at HUY principally for Spanish destinations (which, I imagine is where any money is to be made) and build it from there.

To be perfectly honest i dont think HUY want to be in direct competition with DSA, that would be far too risky. I heard from someone 'inside' that they have said they are to keep playing to their strengths, strengths being IT/charter.

Though i dont believe they actively discourage lo-co ops i dont think attracting one is on the top of the agenda, its all down to money at the end of the day, HUY makes more money for MAG than BOH does, BOH's expansion being predominantly from low cost airlines.

The sun routes would work, i have no doubt, but a lo-co would surely want more than just the potential of operating to the usual ALC, AGP and PMI. A similar operation to that of Jet2's at BLK would be good and it is thought they are still looking at HUY for a base in the future, though the thing thats stopping them is not the catchment size more the demographics of the region.

All that said though, FR have proved that there is at least demand for low cost flights from HUY and maybe some potential lo-co will be watching closely before making that investment.

At least the core routes are stil there and growing KLM going 4xdaily, CFU and SSH with a full based a/c from XL next summer. You never know we may have someone else in by then.

Sure about that?

Dublin
 

Ryanair have a aircraft in their Dublin base that is still unscheduled for winter on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays between 9pm and 11:30pm.

Fingers crossed the may use this aircraft to operate Humberside ;)

4 times a week wouldn't be a bad frequency and those flights times would be OK for the weekend break market as people could go straight to HUY after work on a Friday

Hopefully that aircraft will be coming to HUY

I have it on reliable sources working within the group, i should imagine considerable investment has been put into BOH due to the rapid growth?

I like the sound of those flight times and the frequency, hopefuly theyl take it up.

I'd be surprised because I seem to remember being told that the business park attached to BOH is very profitable.

As an airport I wouldn't be surprised if HUY is more profitable than BOH. BOH does seem to have more growth potential however.

I think BOH is in a much better location with regards to the business park, it is not too far from the city, HUY is central but still some distance away from its main urban areas, BOH has far more potential with regards low cost travel with a better catchment than that of HUY.

Ryan Air Humberside
 

Ryan Air have already axed the Tuesday flight and will not be operating from HUY in the winter, Aer Arran will be operating the Dublin flight using an ATR 42. This is amore realistic size of aircraft for HUY.

Aer Arann and an ATR-42 would certainly offer more manageable and sustainable capacity than what FR offered. True, the bargain fares won't be there, but RE's fares are still usually quite reasonable and if it means HUY retains it's DUB service then I'm all in favour.

I'd just like to see something official on the RE website before I can truly believe it though....

The service wouldnt be viable without a low fares operation, the ATR-42 would be too big for the full fares market.

If it has been axed, which i am lead to believe this as maybe not true, then FLYBe would be the only viable operator of a DUB route from HUY. As we all know though, this is highly unlikely.

We'll have to wait and see what the next couple of weeks have in store. If nothing more is heard from FR then i think we can expect HUY to be dropped. Im sure FR wouldnt want this to happen though, they will do what they can to make it work and the rumoured 4xweekly may just do the trick.

Aer Arann would be ideal. While not a LoCo, their fares aren't that expensive, and nothing like Eastern's. Plus if they start with a ATR-42 they can expand to a ATR-72 if demand requires it in the future

But, looking at it from a paying customers point of view, who has no interest in aviation like we do, RE's fares would be considerably more than the £1 quoted on big adverts in the paper and on websites, people would just use FR at DSA as its much cheaper and a well known brand.

As a paying customer myself who has already used the DUB service, i use it because its conveniant and cheap, if they pull HUY i will use DSA because that would still be cheaper than flying with RE.

I just hope it doesnt get pulled from HUY, i much prefer flying from there than anywhere else.

Dsa will probably become the main yorkshire airport but HUY will try and compete the best they can.HUY have just announced that they could be set to see passenger numbers more than quadruple. The airport has released a draft masterplan for the next 25 years which would see passengers rise from 0.6m to 2.5m a year.

HUY to go from 0.6m to 2.5m in the masterplan. Time period of 25 years :ugh:

That is a growth of what 90,000pax per year in a straight-line, that is 10 extra summer flights assuming 200 pax in and out, in year one and just keep them for 25 years, is that a mammouth task?! :rolleyes:

Or, more realistically, it's a 6% compound growth annually, meaning you only need to add 36000 pax in year 1. Looks fairly reasonable when the CAA projections are 5% a year across the industry as a whole.

Well still nothing from FR regarding winter DUB flights, looks as though this is another short lived venture for HUY :{

Another nail in the coffin perhaps? Going on previously dropped routes i cant see DUB being replaced either, the demand is there as has been proved. Will anyone be willing to take over?

The route is definitely being dropped. 189 every day of the week was overkill, but with over 5000 pax a month using the service, demand is there. I doubt there will be a replacement service in place in time for the winter, but bosses are hopeful for next summer.

It is not the final nail in the coffin, it just shows that the right aircraft from the right operator is needed for the HUY market. Flybe would be the ideal choice, but their recent expansion at DSA would indicate this unlikely. Jet2 appears to be the only hope, and with a considerable capacity cut from 189 to 149 seats, the route might be more suited to this size of aircraft, bringing the load factor up to around 70%.

If nothing is achieved on the low cost front, it will prove negative on 2007s pax figures, as FR will have brought in an extra 25-30,000 pax for HUY in 2006.

Regards

Mike

aeulad

It just doesn't work that way though does it? No one owes HUY a favour. Jet2 wouldn't be looking to employ an aircraft on the strength of a possible 70% load factor. If they were to utilise an aircraft they would be looking for somewhere who could guarantee 85%+ load factors together with reasonable returns with the size of aircraft they use.
The only people to blame for the FR service is the public of Humberside. Lots of people go around bleating about the lack of growth etc, but most of these haven't even seen their way through the terminal at HUY more than a couple of times. I wanted to make the DUB service work, so I put my money where my mouth is and used it 6 times in 3 months. It was so disheartening to see 30 or so people in the departure lounge, and trying to kid yourself that there's going to be a sudden rush. People who want an airport in Humberside, NEED TO SUPPORT the airport. It's as simple as that.

The demand shown from the Ryanair experiment is that there were 5000 people a month who were willing to pay peanuts for their flights. Will Jet2 consider dropping their fares to a Ryanair early booking level with 50 less capacity? I'm not sure Ryanair will have made good on their investment.

IF a regional player was to come on board will a smaller aircraft would these same people who paid £40-50 pay double that to travel?

Well said NorthOfRiver & gary4444, I quite agree.

It goes to show how the market is HUY is finite with little or no inbound potential. This is sad for the airport - but makes sense. The airport is heavily dependant on outbound travel - people wishing to leave the area for whatever reason. That alone cannot justify a low-cost network. The airport did its utmost to promote the service -but that holds little power when the demand just isn't there.

People also forget that fares offered by FR on this route were at rock bottom and only managed to attract 5,000 pax per month. The average fare if Jet2 or Aer Arann came on the route will be much higher - thus restricting demand. Unless an aircraft has the same seat cost as the B737-800, the demand will not be the same with a simple switch of aircraft type.

IF jet2 do come in, i would have thaught itd be just to sun routes only. I was going to say something simillar to BLK operation but after reading their FR figures are over 9000 (more than DSA and MME) maybe even that type of services would be overkill with the charter flights too.

Said again, FLYBe could make some regional routes work from HUY, as said i dont think they will as theyre at DSA soon.

The only real form of scheduled expansion i can now see in the future could come form Eastern airways, but even they dont seem to want to support their home airport.

It does tell you something doesnt it. :ugh:

Flight/seat/route analysis
 

If Ryanair cannot make it work with 189 seats, could someone make it work with say an 80/100 seat plane, without MR O'Leary trying to bankrupt them. What seems to be forgotten is HUY is a small catchment airport and needs to concentrate on specific routes, 'out of the ordinary' flights, specialisation is the name of the game, something different to the 'bucket and spade' general tourism etc.Cheers
7006

I dont suppose MOL would be so bothered about HUY to be honest, not if theyve had to pull out due to crap loads.

In theory an 80-100 seat daily rotation would work, looking at the FR stats, but as has been mentioned that figure is at FR's rock bottom fares, cheaper than most other potential operators.

Regarding the less common routes, i wouldnt be surprised if thats what HUY would be after if they are trying to attract Jet2, so not to compete with their charter operations. It says on their masterplan that they believe potential routes from HUY for a lo-co would be, among others, Frankfurt and Paris but i suspect they may try for places like Barcelona and Nice so to compliment the existing route 'network'.

Im starting to think that none of this will ever happen though, maybe at best we will see something from EZE like LCY or BRU at a push in the next few years.

Can anyone tell me what going on Excel's plans for HUY next summer?

XLA had intended to base an aircraft at HUY all week and put the full schedule on sale a few months ago. Now only Paphos and Heraklion are bookable

XLA have done very well at HUY this summer and if the plan to have a based aircraft next summer has been scrapped it seems a very shock move, especially as flights had already been put on sale for this summer

Another nail in the coffin, charter flights do exceptionaly well at HUY, it seems like its one step forward two steps back all the time:{