That's just it though - they don't have the clout, so why play the game? There's no lasting benefit to passengers in an airport prostituting themselves before the likes of MO'L, bowing to his demands only to have him pull routes a year or two later because the same passengers who said they'd like a posh terminal in a survey decide that, actually, they're quite happy with a portakabin after all because the fares are £15 cheaper somewhere else.

'That's just it though - they don't have the clout, so why play the game?'

Well that's a whole new discussion. The airport is in the capitalism 'must increase profits / grow etc' game as much as any other company, especially as it's part of MAG.

I don't have an answer to that!

What a mess

I met the dalaman flight today cant believe the complaints

No airport staff for an enquiry

No trolleys

Old trolleys had 20p stuck in

Long delay for luggage

Same zigzag customs lines with no extra desks

No smart passport machine

No cashpoint machine

Bo bus it dropped of and went

Even the thomas cook staff commented on 2.50 drop off

All this heard in 40 mins of waiting inside the building

The problem is there is now a big and growing gap between tier one regional airports and the rest, MME, BOH, CWL, BLK all have airports near by that are bigger and as airport operating companies do deals based on volume of passenger ( because their rental deals to the shops are based on the same volumes) it becomes more and more difficult to attract new business, once over say 5 years ago someone would have already stepped into WW shoes at CWL look what happened to MME when WW pulled out, Globespam had a quick flirt before going under.

The cost of providing security, immigration ATC fire, fuel farm and all that goes with it is colossal and a few charter flights a day don't cut it an extension to stay open for fire cover for an hour will cost at least a couple of grand, do the math it just doesn't add up.

The likes of Exeter 7 NWI will probably keep going and CWL but if your a spotter you'll need a big flask and a lot of patience if you want to see anything other than the odd flybe dash

Please can someone confirm that the domestic belt is going in and not being left abandoned/not completed? Surely having a ready to go domestic baggage belt will be important to showcase to potential carriers for these kind of routes, or has BOH management just given up, realising that the liklihood of getting domestic/channel islands traffic is nil?

The space around the 2 international belts is incredibly tight, and with 189 pax from a Ryanair or Thomson flight the belts look choked with people. Plus the belts themselves look smaller than the ones they replaced in the portacabins.

Where is the advertising in the arrivals hall? The signs (belt signs, arrival signs, channels, etc) look like they have been 'stuck in' as an afterthought....

Right now BOH looks like a (very expensive) cherry placed carefully on a giant and very smelly sh*t - no real improvement (space/capacity/handling wise) at all apart from perhaps internal savings on energy/cost of operating.

Its all gone horribly wrong at Bournemouth at this present moment in time with the travelling public in uproar over the crazy car parking system and lack of shops being open for departure and for the airport itself a dramatic fall in operators and destinations just when really it should have been all systems go

My understanding was the old arrivals building was going to be smartened up and used only as a domestic arrivals hall ( not that there are any at this moment in time ) when ever it was required . The front of the terminal area between the new terminal and new arrivals hall was also having boarding put up and landscaped . There is a large area of flattened land now between the two areas , ready i would imagine to expand the departures area towards the arrivals building when needed ( again not for a while now )

MAG now looking at building a hotel!


Bournemouth airport hotel plans revealed by owners (From Bournemouth Echo)

"A spokesperson for the company said: “With the £45million programme of investment at Bournemouth Airport due to be completed by the end of the summer, MAG Developments is investigating the potential requirement for a new on-site hotel which would address the lack of airport hotel accommodation in the vicinity of the terminal building and cater for the larger numbers of passengers using Bournemouth"

What "larger number"? I suppose you'll need to spend a night in a hotel to recover from the long walk in!

Why not spend the investment on a coach/bus station and trying to get National Express to send all of their coaches into Bournemouth via the airport (its hardly far from the A338) and get some of those yellow buses to serve the airport regularly from the surrounding towns and villages.

I think the main problem with the drop off charges is that there is literally no alternative. The airport 'shuttles' are useless and always empty, get some regular buses in there.

Here here StevieW
 

In regards to the hotel, it is rumoured to be replacing the old NATS college building. It even has a ready made car park and is a very short walk from the terminal building - i'm sure if it does get the go-ahead (i think it should) it will get a covered walk-way or at least a pedestrian side-walk!! I just hope they select the right brand: 150-200 bed Novotel or Best western rather than Radisson or Mariott.

The viability of the hotel is not just based just on scheduled flights, but the likelihood of diversion traffic which Bournemouth sees a significant amount of - especially for crew needing a night.

My wife works in a budget hotel in poole.

They regulary call taxis for guests to the airport.

Southampton is a great set up with budget hotel

I can safely say there is a Large amount of Staff that arent happy with the New Car Park Drop Off charges and the PR effect it is having on the Airport.

There is a New Marketing Department that, instead of getting New/More Airlines into Bournemouth decided it was a great idea to do ruin the Catering Department, Create Magazines for the Few remaining Passengers that are present, Distroy the PR of the Airport by introducing the Drop Off Fee etc.

Although the Marketing Department can't be the only ones to blamed for the Lack of Airlines. Certain Management Reputations are getting in the way of new deals being generated as Airlines walk away when they find out who is still Present!

However,

The Airport is still being developed, in answer to a few points made....

Yes there is plans to put a taxi concession inside Arrivals (it in progress of being sorted.

Yes the Domestics Belt in being put in right now (due 20th June).

The Landscaping is in progress The Entrance to the Car Park is moving to join the Exit Barriers, There will be a bus & taxi only drop off outside Arrivals, The Old portacabin Arrivals will be flatten once UKBA have moved out to the new offices. The area will then be developed to be either a open Plaza area, Staff Car Park or a Drop Off/Pick Up Point (Yet to be Decided)

The Grass/Weed Mound HAD to be put in as part of the planning agreement (Council Orders)

There is no control over the Retail Units (as such) they open & shut as they want BUT it has been stated repeatedly about the complaints recieved with them being shut while the Airport is open.

In regards to a Hotel/NATS the possibility is being looked into (no further details at present)

Hope This Helps A Little

The Truth
 

Indsider if their are objections to management and your whistleblowing on here why dosn't somebody whistleblow to management at MAG to vent your views.:ok:

Aninsider
 

Great Post. Please keep us updated! Certainly sounds like there is a person/persons within MAG at BOH who are really holding things back. I hope someone has the guts to stand up and be counted...but realise that is not easy.

Great post as well and good to hear of the inside perspective , something we have all felt as well

Hard to think though that someone in the management side of things at the airport would have that much " CLOUT " for airlines and new routes being offered to Bournemouth for them to walk away from the airport because of personal differences ? ( am i understanding things correctly )

Any news on winter routes particularly ski routes having lost the Innsbruck route with " Inghams Ski " which must be a massive blow !! always full up and to leave just Turin with Crystal is mad considering the demand over the last 15 years

Easyjet - Geneva!

groundloop
 

no wonder people are forgetting easyJet to Geneva - it's not even in the time-table. And before you tell me the time-table is for summer flights only, guess what: the one-off departure to New York is included (november)! They really have their priorities sorted don't they.

No wonder airlines are turning away (assuming AnInsider has his facts right) because there is practically no support from the PR side. This is a very important part as it provides free media exposure, and LCC's need as much free exposure as possible.

hey was flying into bournemouth the other day and one of the hangers has jet2.com advertised on it
any reason why?

Ironically, jet2 is headquartered at Bournemouth busnow has it's bulk and core at Leeds. It used to operate from Bournemouth but now doesn't and that's about it. Surprised to see route advertising, or did you just see the logo?

JSCL.....Jet2 are Head Quartered at LBIA.

This is Building 470, which is the old Head Office of Channel Express which became Jet2...All that is left is a couple of the old gezzers who escaped the move up oop north and look after the Royal Mail and Cargo bits for Panair
( Jet2 + Titan).

They also screen various bits and bobs for the terminal shops and there's a bloke who lives in a portakabin who likes to thwack GE stuff with a hammer...but thats another story !!!

I think you will find the advertising logo on the hangar is actually there to keep the wind and rain off the x-ray machines inside :eek:

Also when the Royal Mail is sold off to PostNL and TNTPost by Cameron and chums, you will find that this last bastion of Channex will be extinguished...the embers left to burn bright in a far corner of a field at EXT airport :{

Who's Panair?. The building is 268 and they look after Titan and Atlantic for the royal mail

Frustrating
 

Hi

This is what really frustrates me about Bmth Airport and the people who are supposed to be running it.I found this article on Exeter Airport website about 2000 Austrian tourists coming to Devon and even visiting Dorset.

Airport News – Exeter International Airport

I have been in contact with Bmth Airport on numerous occasions talking about this exact thing,Bournemouth and the surrounding areas have got loads to offer and I have asked them why they do not talk to overseas Tour Operators and Tourist Boards here and try and get incoming tourism,I read recently that Germans visited the area the most and the reply I got from the Airport was "Our marketing department are talking to new and existing operators on a daily basis"What rubbish.Why do we have people running the airport who do not have a clue?everyone who posts here about Bmth Airport can not be wrong,our economy may be up the swanny so surely try a different approach,other Airports have and its working,its the Olympics next year and it would have been a perfect oppurtunity to attract people from abroad to come here take in the Olympics and enjoy the local area.

Martin

Chill out and leave it to the professionals :ok:

Big Tony :Panair is the POSTAL AIR NETWORK LIMITED,ENTERPRISE HOUSE
STANSTED AIRPORT.STANSTED,ESSEX. ( Titans' Registered office )

The joint venture between Jet2 and Titan to provide the Royal Mail with Q/C aircraft to move the first class post across the uk overnight

Bournemouth handled 67 , 953 passengers in May down 10 % on last year

I guess if you take out Dublin , Valencia , Malta , Heraklion and the Palmair operation its not to bad

Top 5 destinations were
1 ) Palma 11065
2 ) Alicante 8852
3 ) Gerona 6379
4 ) Malaga 5926
5 ) Tenerife / Dalaman 4522

Still no conformation from Ryanair about any operation from November onwards but its pretty much a for gone conclusion now , there will not be anything again and nothing is bookable on there web site

Thomson have dropped Las Palmas for next summer , it was probably a mistake in the first place as it clashed with the Dalaman flight on Mondays

Good news for Southend in getting Easy Jet in with 3 based aircraft and even Exeter airport is miles ahead now from Bournemouth with routes and passengers , Air Transat are upgrading there Toronto service to a A330 next summer !! and they even have more Caribbean charters next winter

Always thought a weekly Toronto service via another UK airport would have been viable and its proved its worked for EXT , but Bournemouth seems unable to secure anything with an inept marketing team who seem to know nothing about whats happening in the market

Mark

I think you are being rather unfair to the BIA marketing team, on those figures alone they must of pulled in about £30k for the drop off charges!!!!!

Rob:D

Once again another "small airport" secures a "low cost" carrier while the Bournemouth management team, MAG, continue to bang their heads against a brick wall! 3 A319s from Southend but the major difference is the direct rail route into London! Do you think they'll try and charge £2.50 a car to drop off?
No me neither!!!
Bournemouth will "NEVER" attract EZY or any more RYR the way things are going, to be honest, and anyone who believes otherwise is in "cuckoo" land!
They've "missed the boat"! Leading up to the 2012 Olympics, I think the best BOH can hope for is as a base for Corporate operators.
We'll see.

Bournemouth
 

Mark

You are dead right just like lots of people on the forum,Bournemouth itself not just the airport is full of people who have not a clue,why do we have them all?

1.Airport
2.Imax
3.Castlepoint
4.Surf Reef

Southend have the Stobbards who know how to do business,Bournemouth/Poole/Christchurch is marketed as a rich place to live but yet the authorities say they can not afford to connect the Airport to a road which is about a mile away from the Airport,other countries would have even got a railway link into Christchurch.

I think there is no future at Bournemouth Airport while they have people working for them who have not got a clue and I think they are happy with what they have.Easyjet should be basing an aircraft or 2 at Bournemouth by now and the routes lost like Prague/Amsterdam/Innsbruck/Paris which always went out with high load factors would be a success for them.There must be other reasons why they are not here,the Innsbruck is a no brainer surely as the last 15 years tell us,Thomson/Inghams/Crystal could sell seats on it as well.

With the amount of students coming to Bournemouth then it should be a viable option to have Easyjet here,its all been said many times before and I just dont know where it will end.

:ugh::ugh:

Why dont you go an take-over if you think you can do better :}

Its like people assume management do not want growth, its not as simple as some are alluding to.

Anyone know what aircraft are permaintly stored at BOH. There are 3 European 732's that are permaintly stored missing engines I know about from a mate on MSN and from research

Go to bournemouthairportspotters.com, they have a database of current based aircarft at BOH including the European fleet of stored 737 and new 737 corporate jets.

Comparison with BOH and other airports for May passengers:

BOH 67,953 -10.3%
NQY 20,381 -27.4%
EXT 72,583 -4.2%
CWL 135,890 -5.3%
SOU 157,887 -1.1%
BRS 534,654 2.9%

BRS seems to be doing well. The combined markets of SOU and BOH should be supporting pax numbers similar to BRS. That means there is still a big potential growth area for both SOU and BOH (150,000 pax per month each) currently leaking to the London airports.

SOU should be seeing 3m pax and BOH should be seeing 2.5m pax annually by now.

Its a shame MAG group are displacing the BOH aviation museum from the airport

This shows that you have no clue about aviation and how to make money. Loadfactors are useless if the yield is cr@p. So stop blaming the management of the company that invested millions! :mad:

What a sad planespotters convention this thread is! :ugh:

Whats the matter with Bournemouth?
 

So Easyjet are to operate from Southend with 70plus weekly flights.
When will Bournemouth take-off.
Bob1810

Quote:What a sad planespotters convention this thread is!

Its not about planespotters,its about being able to fly from your local Airport without having to Travel up to London Airports.There are enough people living in this area and outside of the area to support a good operation out of Bournemouth,its down to bad mangement and an Airport who are being held over a barrel by Ryanair.

Martin

Itua330, of course it really is that easy. Thats why the owners have forked out £millions, just so they can sit on it and watch it stagnate 'because of Ryanair'... :rolleyes:

The rest of your post is unquantifiable babble, and offers no explanation as to why routes had been dropped in the past.

Yes, why is it that these large successful international airline companies can't see that routes Is it really all If so, care to clarify?

I think what it is , is that most of us , like any other group are passionate about an airport and of course want it to be a success and develop

Having seen Bournemouth grow slowly throughout the last few years in particular , with many disappointments in the past , probably more than most small UK airports ! we are all happy to see it develop

When the MAG group came in an invested 45 million i am sure they like us could not possibly have imagined how things would have turned out . Hopefully it is a blip and things will improve

The frustration lies in a lot of areas , Ryanair s expectations they will grow and put on more routes and aircraft seemed to have stopped in there tracks and now seem only a 9 month based airline , and yes i am sure they do hold the airport to ransom . The route development / marketing side of things needs looking at . I have spoken a few times to them but no disrespect all i seem to get is a 20 year old girl who seems very un aware of even basics like tour operators / routes etc . The airport web site is very out of date with destinations and timetables .

All these things hopefully can be addressed and things will improve , its disappointing Easy Jet wont operate any more routes but i am sure they have worked things out to the last penny and yield and for them BOH is not for them at the moment

Fingers crossed for the future !!

Still today there are people walking in from the main roads. Everybody i have taken into the airport comments on the unfriendly road cones and signs

The people of BOH that I met during the routes conference had a fair idea of what makes airlines tick.

A spotters guide to what attracts an airline:

1. Low fees
2. High yield
3. High load factors

And preferably all three!

Now let's see: we have had BMI Baby, Easy and RYR all try flying from the airport and it did not work. Who to blame? Well airlines generally pay no or little fees to the airport when they start a new route and they are generally even paid by the airport in marketing fees etc. So issue 1 is covered... :8

So it means either there is not enough spotters or they are not willing to pay enough to make a route work.... Issue 2 and 3 is what you the customer have control over.. NOT the airport. So start blaming your neighbours or the other guys at the fence :ooh:

Rant over :ugh:

Good post.

Although not liking your title.

BOH is very seasonal, with little or no demand in the winter months making it a tough place to be based year-round.

Winter specific routes like Geneva, Canaries, that seem successful are catering to strong latent demand that already exists. They are few and far between from BOH.

One of the major issues is the catchment area. The airport estimates it at between 2.5m and 5m. But we estimate it much lower, depending on the route/awareness/frequency/fare offering. Problem with BOH is that awareness of the airport is low - meaning people are stressed if they think they have to worry about how to get to an airport they never heard of. In reality BOH's catchment is unfortunately quite small and caters to the very immediate needs of Bmth,Xchurch,Poole of around 400,000 people.

This is why the low cost formula is the only formula for BOH. It is the only way they can 'punch above their weight' and attract the volume of people that is required to support a route.