I am definitely not doubting that Stansted could sustain a daily flight to New York it surely could along with a daily EK flight to Dubai but IMHO I think that any New York flight we'll be down to JetBlue 'if and when they announce transatlantic operations' which seem to have some relevance if you have read other aviation forums of late.

If JetBlue do intend flying JFK to London they would have no transatlantic competition at Stansted and it could feed it's New York JFK hub along with feed by Ryanair at this end.

You may well feel so, but the substantial spread of both departure times and operators from Heathrow means that a (maybe considerable) proportion of those who appear geographically favourable to Stansted would continue to go to Heathrow.

If the daily flight left at say 1100 you would be looking at an 0900 checkin, losing any business pax who wanted to go into the office first, and likewise those high-paying business travellers who change their flight, forwards or backwards, on the day as their meetings change. Heathrow allows this.


Likewise if I am a US high-mileage traveller with miles (possibly backed up by a corporate discount agreement as well) built up mainly on United, going to Canary Wharf, a Delta flight from JFK to Stansted won't have that much appeal.

Somewhat later on in the thread but still perhaps interesting ...

As a local resident (and user) when the current terminal opened, the USPs of the design were

1) that it was only a short distance from the front door to the shuttle to the gates ... and flat, so that everyone could have easy access and

2) that there would be plenty of natural daylight. (That seems so far-fetched once you enter the shopping mall airside nowadays!)

How are Menzies getting on with the Jet2 contract.The grapevine suggests they are not overachieving.

With only 2 airframes is it a little early to judge?
They seem to be leaving on time if that's a measure of anything

Its BECAUSE there are only 2 A/C,but maybe you are right,its early days

I think it's wrong to say that STN couldn't support a JFK service, STN is the closest major airport to the financial district and Canary Wharf in terms of travel time compared to LHR and LGW. It's also located in one of the most affluent areas of the UK, with Cambridge up the road and IT businesses in particular growing there at a high rate, there is plenty of demand.

We're going to see major changes in the long haul market in coming years with the rise of long haui LCC's and new aircraft types such as the A321LR. My guess is that what we saw with the rise of low cost, high frequency european travel will happen with the long haul US market in particular. Frequent flyer clubs will become less and less incentified and demand will focus more on price and connivence. I am a massive believer in Stelios' theory on the ignition price within aviation, if the price is low enough, demand will create itself. Based on these reasons STN could easily support a NY service.

However the airport is less known the US travellers and has a bad reputation within the industry because of it's Ryanair LCC image and a history of failed long-haul routes for whatever the reasons were.

The airport will get a NY service eventually but I hope they're wise in who they chase for one as it has to be a success, the likes of Thomas Cook to JFK would be a mistake. A Norwegian 787 service to a MAJOR NY airport would be a good fit.

The truth is the airport cannot cope with any new carriers until work is done to check-in and the main departure lounge waiting area, both are extremely overcrowded. They should never of knocked down Zone J/K.

Also if Norwegian Long Haul or any other carrier is serious about interlining with Ryanair, it will be most appropriate at STN with the sheer volume of destinations and frequencies to destinations across Europe.

Just a question, but why would TCX be a mistake?

They offer a daily service to JFK from MAN, which is probably right and fit for STN to have too at this moment in time, no point going more than daily at this stage. From MAN, They also offer LAX/SFO(not OAK like D8), MIA, BOS and MCO as well as a plethora of Caribbean and rumours of TPA/SAN, which would be a great route portfolio for STN if they could be convinced. I think people overlook just how much TCX can do, and what it currently is doing for MAN, they seems to be pulled in by the Norwegian hype while TCX just get on with it.

Always gets me how enthusiasts of an airport with no service at all to places then become very picky of who should serve the route, surely any service is better than none, it may also stimulate the market?

When Crossrail opens Heathrow to Canary Wharf travel time reduces to 40 minutes according to the Crossrail website and that service is direct from most of the terminals.

New Route
 

Jet2 to launch weekly Grenoble service. 1 weekly Saturdays, commences 23 Dec.

Thomson
 

Looks as if TOM have cancelled all long-haul for S18.

Remains 2 based aircraft but down to 26 weekly departures.

Cancelled Routes
Antalya
Cancun
Montego Bay
Orlando-Sanford

Frequency Cuts
Heraklion

Hardly much of a fight to Jet2!

[QUOTE=FRatSTN;9746380]Looks as if TOM have cancelled all long-haul for S18.


Hardly much of a fight to Jet2![/QUOTE

Maybe thats what Jet2 had reckoned on when they first decided to open shop there.

Are they retreating to South of the Thames or is Gatwick down as well?

Thomson Summer 2018
 

Here's what's planned

Corfu - 2 weekly (Monday & Friday)
Dalaman - 2 weekly (Monday & Thursday)
Faro - 2 weekly (Thursday & Sunday)
Fuerteventura - 1 weekly (Wednesday)
Heraklion - 1 weekly (Thursday)
Ibiza - 3 weekly (Wednesday, Friday & Saturday)
Kefalonia - 1 weekly (Sunday)
Kos - 1 weekly (Tuesday)
Larnaca - 1 weekly (Sunday)
Las Palmas - 1 weekly (Monday)
Mahon - 2 weekly (Monday & Friday)
Palma Mallorca - 3 weekly (Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday)
Paphos - 2 weekly (Wednesday & Saturday)
Rhodes - 2 weekly (Wednesday & Saturday)
Tenerife - 1 weekly (Friday)
Zakynthos - 1 weekly (Tuesday)


So apart from the loss of AYT and one less HER no real changes to the short-haul programme compared to this year.

Jet2 Summer 2018 being put on sale at the minute. Possibly another aircraft for next year.

Jet2.com Summer 2018
 

Looking a bit more encouraging than Thomson's release.

Increases to 8x based aircraft with several additional sectors flying in on ALC and PMI based aircraft.

No cancelled routes with a number of frequency increases.

Brings total so far from 96 up to 114 weekly departures with still a few gaps in the schedule, so new routes I dare say are imminent.

8 aircraft is staggering!! That's probably more than Thomson and Thomas Cook base at Stansted and Luton combined!

I don't believe there was ever this big a gap in the market. It's pretty clear as to why TUI are making capacity cuts north of the river.

Fantastic news....Jet2 to 8 a/c base in just one year of ops....must soon leapfrog into their 2nd largest base after that other MAG airport....& yes looks to be having a detrimental effect on sun route numbers @ neighbouring airports in Essex & Beds.....

I mentioned in a previous post 3848 a few weeks ago that TUI would not be flying long haul from STN in summer 2018 but it was disputed by others.

I think maybe one person might have had a different view to that of yours. I think to the rest of us the fact that CUN had been dropped for Winter 17/18, we knew what was coming. Anyhow, if it makes you feel better, you were right.

But at the time of my post 3848 I wasn't assuming that TUI would be ceasing long haul operations from STN for summer 2018 it I had actually read it before hand hence my post regarding it.

With CUN being withdrawn for Winter 17/18 I wasn't actually expecting any other long haul
destinations being cut a complete opposite actually as I expected CUN to be replaced by another long haul destination. When I had previously read what I had regarding a total withdrawal of long haul from STN I was shocked and now it has been officially confirmed.

And as you politely commented, I was right :-)

Such a shame of the loss of TOM long haul after this summer.

I can understand why they wouldn't operate Cancun through the winter again as loads and yield have been rather poor on the route outside the summer.

I'm quite surprised they've abandoned long haul entirely as Orlando flights for this summer are almost full already and Montego Bay seems to be performing well sales wise. Both SFB and CUN were at 95%+ loads throughout the summer last year.

The demand is there but a complete lack of advertising and constant changes in the days of operations throughout the schedule I can imagine affected loads. TOM may want to focus on BHX and MAN where the crew and aircraft are based, as apposed to ferrying the aircraft down and back every week.

The reality is Jet2 will have more aircraft at Stansted than Thomson and Thomas Cook at Luton and Stansted combined next year. There is going to be over capacity on the short haul routes. I would of thought they would focus a bit more on long haul at STN because of this?

I'm sure there will be a new TOM short haul route announced with two gaps in the peak summer schedule to have the standard 4 flights a day schedule on two aircraft. Maybe Santorini, Mykonos, Preveza or Catania if they want a unserved STN route?

Thomas Cook short haul schedule for next year appears the same with two based aircraft between May and October with a 3rd based in July and August. Long haul appears to also been cut by 50% with just one long haul aircraft as apposed to two, although the second aircraft may yet to be sourced with the air tanker lease ending.

There's no gaps in TOMs schedule for new routes unfortunately. Two flights a week do a W-pattern away from STN, one to HUY from PMI on a Tuesday and the other to BRS from FAO on a Sunday.

Oh that is a shame. Suppose STN are lucky they haven't lost a entire aircraft as Luton has.

Mentioned already in the trade press but not on here I believe....RYR bringing forward the start of 5 new STN routes from start of the Winter scheds as first proposed to the first week of September....comprising... Aalborg..Kiev..Lviv... Oradea & Pardubice...

LBA currently has 13 based aircraft.

That's strange - I thought there were only grass strips north of STN/LTN!

Stansted's looking a firm No.3 for Jet2.com in Summer 2018 behind Leeds/Bradford and Manchester

Excellent...I guess that`s the sentiment I was pursuing...A great & solid start for Jet2.com @ STN & into a firm #3 base for them next year all in a comparatively short time scale....

I know that Easyjet and Ryanair are much larger than Jet2 and either has the resources to win a price war against Jet2 if they want the fight, but what impact has Jet2 had on Easyjet/Ryanair ? It can't be just Thomas Cook and Thomson who are losing out with 7 or 8 new Jet2 aircraft flying beach routes

I can see direct competition on the following routes flown by Jet2 from Stansted (more if you include Luton):
Easyjet - Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Dalaman, Dubrovnik, Geneva, Ibiza, Menorca, Split, Zakynthos
Ryanair - Alicante, Corfu, Faro, Fuerteventura, Girona, Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Pula, Reus, Rhodes, Salzburg and Tenerife

I don't think Jet2 so much compete with EasyJet / Ryanair as show them the size of a market that they're missing out on by the way they market themselves. They must surely be tempted to make a better than half-hearted attempt at entering Jet2's holiday market?

Competing would be predominantly an IT and marketing thing, backed by a few extra customer service staff that could be outsourced?

It could well be the case Jet2.com are taking more than custom from just STN based services & airlines...Jet2.com are advertising extensively throughout the South & as STN is their only Southern base it perhaps stands to reason they are pulling from more than just the STN catchment...You may well need to look @ LTN which you bracketed & with not too much hope for further sun flight growth @ SEN I would expect....time will tell...

davidjohnson6

By coincidence yesterday I had a look at easyJet prices on the affected routes from STN, LTN and SEN this summer to see if there was any visible impact from the new Jet2 operation at STN. I couldn't detect any to be honest and certainly STN prices looked pretty firm in comparison to LTN and SEN. Obviously I couldn't compare these with last year's prices and it could just be that LTN and SEN are equally affected. SEN is offering additional capacity to PMI this year so it should be possible to look at their actual pax numbers at the end of the summer to see if growth is proportionate to the increased capacity.

Edit: I posted before I saw southside bobby's post so maybe I have partly reflected his thoughts inadvertently.

I suspect Jet2's main targets are Thomas Cook, Tui and Monarch - particularly across the Birmingham, Luton, Stansted catchment areas.

Possibly extending into the Gatwick catchment area south of the Thames.

Jet2 New Routes
 

Five new routes showing for Summer 2018... Almeria, Bodrum, Kefalonia, Thessaloniki and Verona

Security malfunction
 

According to the Daily Mail ( I know!) there were major issues this morning for 4 hours due to a breakdown in the x-ray equipment (confirmed by airport management) The pictures posted looked pretty horrendous. Any chance of any compensation for the many pax that missed their flights?

I very much doubt airlines at STN will pay a penny without a judgement from a senior court. MAG will say there is no contract with a passenger (unless a senior court thinks otherwise)
Best guess is that pax will just have to accept it and hope airlines are lenient when selling a replacement ticket

I agree that the airlines are not liable, however MAG is. I assume that travel insurance should cover a the cost of the missed flights, but probably not for subsequent expenses.

wowzz - I agree there might well be a case for saying MAG is liable, but MAG will be very careful in what they say publicly to avoid admitting any liability, pointing to the lack of any payment by a passenger to the airport (contract law 101 - no consideration generally means no contract). A passenger would have to go to significant effort and expense in the High Court before any kind of liability might be found. Alternatively there is the option of complaining to the CAA but this will probably not achieve a worthwhile result

MAG *should* in my view face some penalty for this but without politicians focussing on getting reelected, neither the Dept for Transport or CAA will want to get involved. Passenger just has to put up with it.