Looking at the Jet2 aircraft based in ALC and PMI for Summer 2017 it seems there's one or two gaps in the schedule... Notably Monday mornings on the ALC based aircraft and both Thursday and Saturday afternoons/evenings on the PMI aircraft. I'm guessing these may be for STN flights?

Another thing also about today is it begs the question how long before a New York flight is confirmed? As brief a schedule it may be, I'm sure we'll be seeing these come Christmas 2017/18, but who knows there may even be a regular operator to New York by then?

I wonder if Jet2 could even announce this when they reveal their Summer 2017 destinations... when does Jet2 normally release Winter schedules?

A Jet2 base at Stansted well well - just goes to prove that some snippets posted on here are hints rather than rumours. The next rumour is that it will be more than 5 aircraft but less than 7.

As I have said before though a "good fit" for Stansted and much needed if Ryanair have reverted to type and are trying to hold the airport to ransom (again).

It is worth remembering that while Easyjet have a base, even if it is not very big, they retain some degree of negotiating power with Luton and, to a lesser extent, Gatwick.

If Easyjet were to close their Stansted base, that negotiating power is lost. Of course, the negotiating power depends on Luton and Gatwick believing that Easyjet have the stomach for a fight against Ryanair and that Easyjet are able to make money out of having a larger base at Stansted.

Once a base is closed, it becomes much harder to restart as anybody working for a different company in aviation is that bit more cynical as to an airline's long term intentions

Senior management at Easyjet will want to think carefully about long term strategy negotiating tactics before closing a base at Stansted given the shortage of London airport capacity. I'm not ruling out, but it's a major step to take for an airline that claims to be pan-European but gains a very large amount of its profits from flying to/from London.

Welcome to the Jet2 Network STN! Healthy competition for the likes of TOM & TCX just like up here in the north

Let's hope Ryanair and Easy do move some aircraft away from STN. The place cannot cope with current pax numbers (lack of seating, dirty toilets, long immigration queues etc) now, so God only knows how it will cope with extra numbers.
This announcement merely strengthens my resolve to avoid the place like the plague.

If the rumours are to believed about up to six B737-800s being based with some flights coming from Spanish bases this is a huge flying programme to start off with and I would guess practically all the destinations are already well served from Stansted. Where Jet2 might score is selling the whole package (I know Thomson and TC do) but I would suggest Jet2 will undercut on price. Also nice to see a civilised discussion on this forum instead of this silly my airport is better than yours carry on. With the amount of traffic set to grow in the future even with the yet unresolved discussions regarding the UK's relations with the rest of Europe, all airports in the South East of England should be able to live in some sort of harmony - let us hope so.

Jet2 is a holiday airline, they are not at Stansted to compete on seat only sales. They are in the South East to sell the whole holiday package.

Destinations will be typical Med ie: Palma Alicante, Malaga, Ibiza Canaries. Faro, Cyprus and Greece.

Mention was made of regular New York flights for Jet2. This will not happen, the 757's are far to busy in the Summer to be waisted going to New York and back.

The new 737's will be turning up at more than one a month so leasing in will not be necessary specifically for Stansted though they may well lease in airframes in the peak season as they have done for many years.

I agree it will be mainly Med, they do a few other other routes though that aren't currently served from STN - eg Jersey, Düsseldorf, Paris so there might be a few surprises in there. I wonder if they might also fancy going up against EZY to Belfast.

Do you think we'll have an announcement tomorrow or this week on the proposed schedule and aircraft basing for Jet2?

Normally Thursdays for new routes I think; probably with a big media setup for an official launch. I would've thought it will be this week, time is ticking on a bit as it is.

They may be waiting on the arrival of a shinny new Boeing for the fanfare launch? I'd expect it this week so they can maximise forward bookings.

Don't expect any surprises... I think it will be the usual network of sun routes. Be good to see some competition mind on the likes of ALC and FAO. Watch this space.

I'm starting to get the feeling that Ryanair and Easy at their London bases are becoming a bit complacent; apparently a notably high proportion of their profits comes from there, as opposed to the less dense routes across other European points, and they seem to be allowing the likes of Norwegian at Gatwick and Jet2 at Stansted (and even Wizz at Luton) to come in and start picking off markets they have developed.

Easy gave up Gatwick to Moscow while Aeroflot moved even more onto widebody A330s on their London route - maybe Easy were just too believing about Foreign Office anti-Russian hyperbole. For Ryanair, I'm still hacked that they abandoned Stansted to Tampere, Finland's second city, where we were regular users, and so are a fair number of Finns as well.

I don't consider companies of this calibre to be complacent, but I do catch vibes that they feel a little under siege. Neither of them have the equivalent of the "capacity fortress" that BA occupies at Heathrow.

Which explains why the new predators/chancers are pushing in.

Travel Agents in the east of England say Jet2.com’s decision to open its first southern base at Stansted will finally give the trade a “look-in” at their local airport where Ryanair has a “stranglehold”.

Agents welcomed the unexpected announcement by the trade-friendly, low-cost carrier and tour operator, traditionally based in northern England, particularly as many had “given up” on using their closest airport.

Jet2, the fourth-largest registered airline in the UK, revealed last week that the airport would become its ninth UK base. Flights will start next spring, but routes have yet to be announced.

Paul Bennett, director of Colchester Travel, which has four branches including one 10 miles from the airport, said: “It’s very positive news to have competition at Stansted, traditionally a Ryanair stranglehold. When Ryanair moved in, it killed everything [trade business] because it’s all direct.

“The trade don’t get a look-in; we gave it up as a local airport. We send most people from Gatwick or Heathrow and rarely use Stansted.” The agency hopes to establish a relationship with Jet2.

East of England Co-op, which has 13 branches across Suffolk and Essex and a new store opening in Ipswich next week, said the move would open up Jet2’s low fares to its customer base.

Sean McLaughlin, head of specialist businesses, said: “With Jet2 coming to Stansted, a popular airport for our customers in East Anglia, we’re looking forward to seeing a growth in sales of Jet2 flights and package holidays.”

Fred Olsen Travel group retail manager Paul Hardwick said: “We tend to sell four and five-star properties, but if we can fly from Stansted and put together our own accommodation and tours, we would definitely work with 
the airline.”

In July, Jet2 revealed Birmingham would become its eighth base, and two weeks ago it launched a recruitment drive for nearly 1,000 staff, including cabin crew, pilots and engineers.

Jet2 has already recruited a new sales executive dedicated to the Stansted area to work with the trade from October. A spokesman said: “Agents should expect, and will receive, the highest level of support from our dedicated team.”

Jet2’s Stansted announcement comes seven weeks after Ryanair said it would cut capacity from the airport following the Brexit referendum vote. Stansted is Ryanair’s biggest UK base.

Philip Meeson, chairman and chief executive of Jet2’s parent company Dart Group, said it saw “great potential” for business out of the east of England and north and east London.

Ryanair have a way larger % at STN than BA do at LHR though?

Ryanair behaviour this winter and next summer points to a cooling of the relationship with MAG/STN, the latter might be relaxed about this dominance being erroded slightly for 2017.

How about the big increase announced this week by Ryanair at Manchester for next summer, MAG must be doing something right?

Nothing to do with brexit nor a cooling of friendship it's all down to early morning slots or the lack of than it will be interesting to see what jet2 has managed slot wise and how many A/C are based at STN also might be some jet2 routes not using STN based A/C very interesting times ahead at STN and if what I heard is correct 2 or poss 3 new Airlines before S17 don't ask me which ones because I wasn't told the full story but my contact has inside knowledge of both MAN and STN ops

People still use Travel Agents?! Stone me!!

They need to invest in some cleaners - the place was absolutely filthy last time I was there.

Sinbad73
 

That has really surprised me I went through last week twice and noticed how spotless the airport was I was very impressed with the whole experience the security area was very easy and the time it took to get through was amazing in peak time it took me 15 mins but back to cleanliness SAT1 looks very impressive and was also spotless.
Not sure why we both had so different experiences of the same Airport

[QUOTE]Not sure why we both had so different experiences of the same Airport[/QUOTE

Maybe because you both travelled through in different centurys.

Jet2 routes on the timetable on their website.

Looks like just sunshine routes, 16 destinations at present but no City breaks as yet!

Jet2.com
 

Flights are now available to book - with inaugural flight leaving on 30th March 2017.

Total of 21 destinations across Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Portugal and Spain with 83 weekly departures on six based Boeing 737-800s.

Alicante - 7x weekly (daily)
Crete (Heraklion) - 3x weekly
Dubrovnik - 3x weekly
Faro - 7x weekly (daily)
Fuerteventura - 2x weekly
Girona - 2x weekly
Gran Canaria - 3x weekly
Ibiza - 7x weekly (daily)
Kos - 2x weekly
Lanzarote - 4x weekly
Larnaca - 3x weekly
Madeira - 2x weekly
Malaga - 7x weekly (daily)
Menorca - 3x weekly
Palma de Mallorca - 9x weekly
Paphos - 2x weekly
Pula - 2x weekly
Reus - 4x weekly
Rhodes - 3x weekly
Tenerife-South - 6x weekly
Zante - 2x weekly

Wow, that is a lot of routes. MAG must be delighted.

This news is amazing for Stansted and will work well for Jet2
Well done Stansted for gaining such a massive schedule and so many routes :D

Jet2
 

Whilst no major surprises, that's a pretty impressive network of routes! Nice to see Madeira and Pula in there. :ok:

I'm surprised to not see Corfu on there and would've thought maybe 1x weekly to Dalaman or Antalya.

Madeira is definitely a welcome addition and Pula perhaps the biggest 'surprise' in there.

Great to see them filling in the much quieter afternoon period around 14:00 / 15:00 too.

Some decent frequencies as well. Unusual for LS to not have a single route at just 1x weekly.

Bookings to Turkey are down in some cases by 40% with the tour operators. Given the current offerings by Thomson/Thomas Cook, something tells me this is a wise decision as the travelling Brits are reverting back to the traditional package destinations seen as a safe bet.

I too was surprised at the lack of Corfu, would have been nice to see Thessaloniki too, but let's give them scope for expansion in the future. Such scale as we see as a base launch is impressive to say the least.

Looks like another nail in the coffin for EZY's ailing presence at STN as they will compete with LS on AGP, PMI, IBZ, ZTH, DBV & possibly GVA + GNB over the winter.

Or is it time for easy to up their game? Why assume it's a nail in the coffin?

With regards to EZY, I very much doubt this announcement is a 'another nail in the coffin'. If you compare other regional airports across the UK; FR, EZY and LS competition is far heavier than what will be STN.

EZY won't close their base at STN because if anything it used as a bargaining chip to get lower rates at Luton/Gatwick. The growth agreement signed by MAG and EZY back in 2013 was used for EZY to get a better offer at their home at Luton.

Load factors and yields from STN on EZY's routes seem to be extremely good on all their routes, even on EDI and GLA with stiff FR competition.

I'd put a bet on EZY expansion at STN in the near future. With LTN and LGW full and still many unserved or underserved routes from STN. EZY could tap into Paris CDG, Rome FCO, Venice VCE, Barcelona, Gibraltar, Zurich, Geneva, Tel Aviv etc (to name a few).

I think this announcement is a blow for Southend. I reckon at the end of the 10 year agreement with Stobart, EZY will pull out. So many failed routes... EDI, BFS, NQY, KRK, SXF to name a few and with BCN and VCE ending Q1 2017.

As I mentioned earlier, that is an awfully large programme to start off with. Other operators and/or Jet2 are bound to suffer because there are not the extra punters out there. Very interesting times ahead as I cannot see especially MOL giving in lightly!

Great news from Jet2! easyJet will definitely have to step up at Stansted if they are to keeping a base there, maybe try serving routes that aren't currently operated like Paris CDG for example which I think could be quite a popular route and could offer different times from Luton. What other routes could EZY try?

I'd like too see Jet2 introduce some city break destinations but we will have to see what they bring in W17/S18

Compton3bravo, true that is a lot of additional capacity but having endured the 'Luton experience' I've heard so much about for myself last week I could see them attracting a fair number of people who might otherwise have used EZY/MON/TOM from LTN.

The impact on SEN will be interesting - though I personally would rather use SEN given the choice. On the one hand it will also compete with SEN's market, on the other EZY coming under pressure at STN could see them move an aircraft or two over.

Wow!

Jet2 have massive confidence in the launch of their STN base being a success!

I was expecting 2-3 aircraft and just a handful of routes, or a larger number of routes with lower frequencies... They have done both, a decent number of routes with decent frequencies.

A base this size is immediately bigger than Monarch's base at Luton, and for some reason I consider both airlines to be very different. Offering similar destinations and having a loyal following.

Just out of curiosity, how many aircraft does easyJet base at Stansted?

Regarding EZY at STN
I have never understood why they don't fly to LPA, FUE, TFS, FNC and ACE
As they are a good year round route.
I'm not sure what response EZY will have to Jet2's Stansted base but things look as though it's going to get interesting.

EZY is currently sitting on 6x A319s and 1x A320 with a few others flying in on the domestic routes.

Whilst only one more aircraft than LS will have, it's worth pointing out that EZY will still be by some margin Stansted's No.2 carrier... providing they don't downsize any further of course.