another one leaving the ship... when does it officially start to sink?


Travelmole

Atlantic moves to Gatwick

Atlantic Airways is moving from Stansted to Gatwick to operate an extended service to the Faro Islands.



The Faroese airline will fly twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays from late May to mid September, as well as flights at Easter.



Chief executive Magni Arge said: "We are delighted to be able to move our UK operations this year to London Gatwick, which is the preferred London airport for both our Faroese customers and for our UK outbound market."



The Faroe Islands, mid-way between Shetland and Iceland, have enjoyed increased interest due to the hit Danish TV drama on BBC4, 'The Killing'.

LAX
 

01.30 TST002 STN LAX any thoughts on this flight?

TST = Test , just a thought

OK, I can see why Faroese customers might prefer Gatwick due to its connections but from a UK passengers point of view is Gatwick really that much better than Stansted:confused:

Whenever I think of Stansted I think of this:


To me it sums the place up!

@crewmeal
 

Really?? It might sum up the 90% of flights operating out of STN but the airport itself really is a pleasure to use these days. Facilities restaurants and shops to rival the likes of LGW. Try LTN for what is a tin shed low cost hut that was designed by no doubt someone who's blind.

Turkish carrier Atlasjet has suspended ticket sales for the STN-IST route which was due to start next April.

Only the weekly charter flight to Antalya (on Saturdays, summer-only service) seems to be confirmed.

TIN SHED
 

Actually pamann the Luton ´tin shed´as you call it was designed by Sir Norman Foster one of the UK´s leading architects who is also one of the leading lights regarding the proposed new airport on the Isle of Grain. In my experience over the years practically all passengers I have been in contact with are not too particularly bothered about what the airport looks like, etc. it is just a matter of convenience or no alternative. Who in there right mind would want to travel through Heathrow unless they had to!

Me, T5, redeveloped T4 and new T2 coming have changed the passenger experience greatly in recent years. STN is something of a pleasure to use as it was built for a more civilised era when the future was Air UK and Sterling Service. Even Sat 3 has to be the finest Ryanair facilities anywhere. Now I know there is no even playing field between both airfields but the superior facilities were put up by the BAA.

I think the issse is that the Ryanair driven bubble was unsustaniable given their reluctance to pay for use of.....anything frankly. Long haul was a long shot which leaves short haul, and Ryanair dominate. STN was a victim of an overnight success.

Where does Stansted go from here then? It seems nobody apart from Ryanair and Easy want to use it?

I find it very difficult to believe that no airline apart from Ryanair, Easyjet and the odd beach route airline would contemplate using Stansted. It is after all a large well-equipped airport with a long runway, large terminal, capable of handling a wide variety of operations, and good ground transport links.

I suspect that under BAA ownership, there is political pressure within the company to encourage major airlines to look only at Heathrow. At the very least, with the competition appeal process dragging on, Lufthansa opening a Stansted-Frankfurt route as an example would be seen as highly undesirable to Ferrovial's overall aims.

Remove this ownership / internal political pressure restriction and I suspect the business development / marketing team at Stansted could be rather more creative in their propositions to new airlines.

With that in mind would MAG be the best potential new owners, with them keen to take business away from rivals LGW and LTN in particular - assuming BAA's LHR is always going to be more desirable for Flag carrier long haul.

After BAA upped their parking charges a couple of years ago, and refused to negotiate with my airline, I found myself out of work when our aircraft was moved elsewhere. By that time, STN had become a complete **** hole for a customer experience. I would walk through the terminal hall at 2am to find hundreds of eastern europeans in their sleeping bags waiting on the first flight of the day. It looked awful. Coupled with scumbag airlines, it has become a low cost airport. I'm sure that was not the vision when the excellent facilities were built.

It would not surprise me that BAA now have a scorched earth policy. Selling the airfield to someone else can only be a good thing. I now operate out of Gatwick, and the amount of investment being put into the airport is staggering. The new owners are really impressive, and have a policy of attracting operators to maximise the runway. Basically, BAA let the airport rot, and now a new owner has bought change and investment which is well overdue. One hopes that once BAA are out of the picture, then STN has a chance to become a much better airport with more than RYR and EZY.

GLA and EDI are also awful under BAA.

Atlantic going isn't the end of the world, yes it's an airline to cross off the list on Wiki but at the end of the day they carried 40-odd pax twice a week for 3.5 months of the year.

On the plus side, over the same period Iceland Express are coming back, so 2x A320s replacing 2 Avros. Plus the 3 weekly Wow Air.

Also on the up is Turkey. Pegasus more flights than last year, Anadolujet 4x weekly Ankara returning, Sky to Gaziantep returning, and the new Atlasjet to Antalya.

Also of interest, though it's one that you can't rely on until it's on sale and actually operating, is Mokulele Airlines of Hawaii, who have got approval from the US DOT for charter flights to Honolulu via Chicago Rockford. An ATI 767 supposedly been secured to fly it.

It’s not an intentional one but yes they do. The entire basis of the BAA argument was that Stansted serves a different market than Heathrow, any sniff of a full service carrier wanting to move to Stansted would have to be discouraged in order not to undermine the argument. The sooner the airport is sold and a new more active commercial team are brought in the better for everyone. Gatwick is a shining example of life after BAA and hopefully one that Stansted can emulate.

The point is that the number of airlines continues to decline even if the flights by the remaining carriers are going up. Easyjet and Ryanair now account for about 90% of the traffic and that is NOT healthy. Easyjet have made their intentions clear with the deal with Southend and three aircraft will be moved next summer Stansted is dying a long and painful death and that needs to be reversed as soon as possible

I agree with your concerns about dominance Ramp Rat but there are green shoots...of late, there have been more airlines coming in than going out. FR might not pay much but the owners will be pleased with the extra pax for the shops, car park etc, particularly as many of the new routes are leisure orientated who tend to spend more.

What would be a massive blow is if Germanwings went. Then the departure board really would lack variety.

But yes, the sooner BAA go the better.

LGW has improved markedly since BAA got on the bus, really shocked at LGW the last time I went through it at such a huge change.

Love to see the same happen at Stansted but BAA fighting to make sure it doesn't.

Biding their time
 

I would think that the appeal process for Stansted is merely a delaying tactic to get through the Olympics then the for sale sign will go up immediately and not before time..

Couldn't agree more - it's almost (almost!) a pleasure to use LGW now and they certainly seem to be more focused on getting air travel right rather than converting airports into shopping centres with a few planes parked up at the back of the shops as an afterthought. If this is in an indication of what can happen in a fairly short space of time, good luck to STN after the divorce.

Sir Norman Foster
 

And the very same Sir Norman Foster (now Lord Foster ) who designed the rather more attractive terminal at Stansted.

Luton is a big tin shed and as I often drive from Southampton to fly from STN, I never ever give LTN a look in even if the flights were cheaper it is a horrible airport, it always has been and it always will be!