There is a rumour going round that Ryanair want to base an aircraft at BRS & also Air France too :}

I've been saying FR are interested in BRS for a while now, was something i heard on the grapevine, also with the pull out of a proposed future base(was even on FR website) at CWL and the addition of the SNN and GRO routes plus the airline wishing to start a MLA-BRS route in the last year it all points towards them comeing in, however when i suggested it would be a good thing i was kind of shot down in flames by the business travellers amongst us, i can see their point though.
I personally thing the competition for EZY would be great, however BRS still needs a full service carrier to pick up the BACON void, BMI would be great really................, haven't heard the Air France rumour though, they operated a few years ago and couldn't compete with BA on CDG route when EZY weren't operating, not sure how they'd manage against EZY now, also most french routes are covered by EZY, the only one not covered that I imagine might do ok would be Lyon.

He seems to have some experience of the Bristol area already according to the Macquarie press release.

Worked in and around the city for several years, including Bae Systems, after leaving the RAF where he was an air traffic controller.

Has spent time in senior managerial roles within the aviation industry and elsewhere, including a number of years at TBI.

Current job is CEO of DX Services, the next-day mail delivery company.

Says among his first tasks will be the need to push ahead with the master plan expansion.

It's always a puzzle as to what FR will come up with, and often succeed with.

Looking at current destinations from other UK airports the likes of Oslo (Torp), Porto (historical Bristol connections and one of its twin cities), Seville, Poznan, 'Frankfurt' Hahn, Bratislava (for Vienna), Carcassone and Bergerac (Flybe did quite well with this one) might be in the frame.

I'm sure others could come up with a completely different list.

How would easyJet react to this though?

I understood the AF pull-out was more to do with Air France's 'amalgamation' with KLM in that they would be competing with themselves on BRS-AMS and BRS-CDG, for onward connections in particular.

Not been at work this weekend but have heard that a faulty GPU caught fire and was attatched to the FCA 767!! CHRIST :eek:

it’s my understanding that the announcement of AF to CDG is a case of when and not if, watch this space . . .

told last night that RYR are to announce a BRS base any day. It will be starting with 2 a/c for the summer season and another 2 joining them in the winter

I think that a FR could introduce a number of new routes without majorly stepping into EZY teritory. MV, your list of potential destinations is exactly the sort I would expect if they were to base here. EZY after all have a number of well established, profitable routes (particually the domestics) the FR probably will never be allowed to (or want to) compete with them on.

Would be great to see AF back again, but I would imagaine that CDG is the only route they could make work. Despite EZY going double daily the demand void left by loosing up to 5 daily BA flights is being felt. Good to have another flag carrier with possible onward conections though, possibly more reliable than KLM as well. We are now very used to seeing canceled flights due to Tech aircraft. Still no word on potential LH routes though??

Paris - AF
 

Afternoon,

First post from me!

Well, Looks like BRS-CDG has been announced. Just recieved an email from AF and looking in worldspan shows 3 flights a day from the 11th June!

1.X7 #AF2073 BRSCDG-0630 0900 AT4 0
EFF 11JUN DIS 27OCT
2.X7 #AF1373 BRSCDG-1040 1310 AT4 0
EFF 11JUN DIS 27OCT
3.X6 #AF1673 BRSCDG-1725 1955 AT4 0
EFF 11JUN DIS 26OCT

Excellent news, just hope we get some other carriers to open up other routes!

Thanks

Thats great news, when do they start? I've just posted on the FR forum to see if anyone on there has heard anything about the BRS base rumour.............Fingers crossed, also looking on CWL forum the FR rumour seems to be causing a bit of worry, but then again CWL was a future base for them till they fell out.

Who is this operated by as it is using an ATR42 on the Paris

Not sure, as it does not say in Worldspan (when requesting seats) and looking at the AF website, doesn't say anything.

If you look at the SOU operation, using the same a/craft, it shows op by Brit Air. Guess it could be them doing this new route?

AF used Embraers last time.
The security queues lately are absoluty SHOCKING, I arrived this morning at 7am to find it snakeing across the bridge all the way down to Subway, it was also the same yesterday lunchtime and morning, people have been saying that pax prefer BRS as they dont have long security queues, if anybody could of seen it this morning they would of chose LHR anyday, it was an absolute joke!
I wouldn't be suprised if FR looked at the viability of a couple of domestic routes, STN(Business links for London, maybe 1 early and 1 evening, weekdays) or LPL service (But may have a adverse affect on WOW's MAN service)

Give me a break

BRS - LPL on a 737 the flight time will be about 30 mins 20 mins of that time will be taxiing to and from the runways.

Very expensive and a total waste

Watabench,

I was working this morning, and was also amused by the queue (despite it being my occupation; thankfully not search comb though!)

All four positions are open of a morning (or any other peak time for that matter) whenever possible, and was this morning, but unfortunately the queue is still shocking.

I think this is largely down to passenger ignorance regarding the much loved (cough) liquid restriction, as even though its almost a year later, they still dont take any notice of the rules regarding liquids. So therefore, search comb staff spend most of their time sorting liquids out.

Sorry, off subject I know, but thought Id throw in my 2p's worth anyway!

I would like to see FR take on STN and it would probably do well. But I think the BRS management are keen to develop their own point to point services rather than allow an option where PAX could change to low cost operators at STN. LPL is one that we get requests for frequently, but they would proably struggle to fill a 738. Great news about AF though.

Search comb do seem to be struggling at the moment despite having full complements of staff almost every day. I know that G4S has a high staff turnover at the moment and maybe the fact that most of the search comb staff are new faces doesn't help matters. I have seen quite a few of their more experienced (ex) staff members in Servisair uniforms recently!

Could the AF flights be operated by Airlinair?

Correct.:ok:

LPL doesnt seem that much of a daft route to me, Wellington, dont know if you work in BRS but I can assure you theres plenty of punters asking for a LPL route, and if FR could smell WOW's blood from their BRS-MAN service you never know, WATABENCH might not be too far off!
Anyway, have heard from a quite reliable source that FR have been hunting around for engineers at BRS.

I think 738 is way too big for LPL, would prob have worked on something like a Q400 if Flybe had based at BRS. FR will def work at BRS, so many routes not covered by EZY - would be more like LTN, STN and LPL etc.

Given that everyone is going 'green' these days flights to LTN and STN wouldn't go down well! Also the fact that there is a half hourly train taking about 1 hour 30 mins from Bristol to London this wouldn't be a clever route in my opinion.