However if you look at the route map on Flybe's website all the Bristol routes remain, strange!

Lets just hope things work out as best they can for all the affected BA staff both on the ground and crew, I know what it's like to have uncertainty with regards to your job and the future, what they've put up with for the last few months is not very nice at all (I've just come through a very similar situation), in some respects I expect they're glad it all finally seems to be coming to an end.
Good Luck to you all, and all the best for your future careers whether they be at Flybe, Servisair or elsewhere, To see our countrys flag carrier all but dissapear from BRS is a sad day :uhoh:

Yes, sure about the easyJet thing.

It does rather look as though the Flybe take-over is bad news for Bristol. The Bristol routes don't appear in any of the Flybe PR stuff and it looks as though they are being completely cut - Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paris, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Zurich, Milan, Munich - all gone. Suspiciously, new services from Southampton and Cardiff to Paris have appeared (using the BRS slots) and a new link between SOU and Frankfurt is included.

Agreed. I may not like the uncertainty of having my precious travel plans potentially messed up for the nth time, but I appreciate it is nothing compared with what these people have been put through.

I have always found the Ba Connect ground staff and crews very pleasant, helpful and professional - really flying the flag even if BA itself didn't seem to care - so I hope they all manage to find decent alternatives.

Flybe's route map has been updated today on their website. For BRS, it shows GLA, EDI, DUS, FRA, CDG, JER. The former BA Connect routes are in red.

I have to say it is surprising that they've kept GLA, EDI and CDG because surely now that Easy have upgraded that to twice daily and whenever I've been on the domestic routes they have been pretty empty as people usually look straight to Easy.

Yes, that really surprises me also. Our loads are often terrible on GLA / EDI, yet they've been pretty good on MXP / MUC. OK, I don't know what the yields are, but it seems to me that the routes with no competition have been cut & routes left can be dominated by easyJet.

The cynic in me thinks that the slots are to be used for Flybe approved airports, not BRS. And cancelling routes already served by another airline doesn't attract bad press - BA gets the rap for the current route cancellations, Flybe are squeaky clean for the future ones.

Where's LH?
 

I'm wondering what happened to the (sabre-rattling?) talk from Lufthansa about coming out to open up a new regional base? I assumed there was some brinkmanship going on, but now that the German routes from Bristol are virtually decimated, now's the time to show a hand if you're going to.

The FRA and DUS routes staying open does look like slot hogging, particularly as Flybe had be trying to snag FRA slots for a while for SOU.

I've had to rebook inlaws (from MUC) and find alternate routes for others, and I'm finding myself using LCY and LHR to get out to Germany, Switzerland now.

I always maintained that dead-end routes operated in the middle of the day were the most insane way of trying to serve the GSA. I'm in two minds about what's more annoying; using KL to hub through AMS, or trolling down the M4.

Yes it does look like they are just holding on for now, but why for EDI and GLA? Surely they would have been better off keeping MXP, there is something going on regarding todays announcements and I think there has to be more in this.

As for munich wouldn't be surprised at all to see Easy move in on this one. But I would doubt Lufthansa moving in yet, although they did mention BRS and CWL in the press release months back.

Problems again tonight?

4 EZY’s diverted to CWL (inbound from NCL, CIA, MJV & ALC) and 5 heading to EMA (inbounds from GLA, EDI, SXF, TLS & AGP).

Just the one based aircraft (the inbound VCE) sitting at Bristol tonight. Could make for an interesting first wave in the morning!

Could be something to do with:


EGGD 052320Z 19027G37KT 9999 RA BKN009 09/08 Q0995=
EGGD 052250Z 19027G39KT 9999 RA BKN008 09/08 Q0995=
EGGD 052220Z 19027G42KT 9999 RA SCT009 SCT012 09/07 Q0996=
EGGD 052150Z 19027G39KT 7000 RA SCT010 BKN018 08/07 Q0997=
EGGD 052120Z 19026G36KT 6000 RA SCT015 BKN027 08/07 Q0998=
EGGD 052050Z 20025G36KT 6000 RA SCT015 BKN027 08/06 Q0999=
EGGD 052020Z 20026G39KT 7000 -RA SCT015 BKN027 09/07 Q1000=
EGGD 051950Z 20022G33KT 6000 RA SCT015 BKN025 09/07 Q1000=

and our 25kt (incl gusts) crosswind limit on a wet Bristol runway.
Glad I'm not on earlies tomorrow!

When i left CWL 1am this morning there were 3 a/c closed up and the 4th had returned back to ramp after being told the weather in scotland. It still had intentions of going.

This might mean they will be missing out the first sector of either Gla or Edi.

Bristol Traveller you should try trolling down the M4, then the M5, then the A38 - at night - in the rain :)

Selfishly I had hoped for a shift to EXT, but I know I shouldn't blame other people for the lack of ambition at PLH...

I guess I can understand the Flybe focus on Southampton (gives the stock-broker belt an alternative to LHR), but the FRA-BRS planes are always fairly full so I can't believe the route is a loss-maker. You're probably right about slot hogging, though, just a matter of time.

What was this that LH have been saying?

It is my understanding Flybe always try new routes from SOU first before rolling them out at EXT depending on their success. Hopefully EXT will have German routes within a year or so.

Here's what was reported at the end of last year about a potential LH touchdown at Bristol. I did write them a letter (given I'm one of their better customers) encouraging them to follow through, but to no avail.

http://news.cheapflights.co.uk/fligh...nsa_consi.html

I don't want to fly KLM/SkyTeam around the world. I want to get on at BRS, transfer at FRA or MUC and on around Europe and Asia. There's nothing more depressing than Landing at LHR in the p*****ing rain, and having 3 hours drag to go.

Flybe to close BRS Base sorry guys. All routes dropped with the exception of JER. All the best to those affected by this decision.
http://nextgenerationairline.com/pdf/brs.pdf

Thanks for the link Bristol Traveller, and the vague hope.

Don't have your rest-of-the-world problem but couldn't agree more about LHR.
Notwithstanding the distance, on a good day it takes well over an hour from plane to car (thank goodness for Hertz Gold), and then up to 30 mins in the rush hour to leave the perimeter.

Compare that with BRS where I would swear that one morning I was sitting in my car before my seat on the plane had had a chance to go cold.

What a shame BE have made that discission, although most of us could see it coming, I still believe that FR would fill the void quite nicely, they've added extra DUB with the closure of the CWL route, and added SNN & GRO recently, they have no bases in the south west at all, so surely it would make good business sense, I imagine the airport is a bit worried with regards to making BRS seem like just a LOCO hub, but hey beggars can't be choosers, get FR in now, fill these lost BA routes, plenty of crew available to work in the area, and give EZY a run for their money.
With the BRS marketing team being as good as they are I cant see the airport being without these routes for very long.

Can't really see how RYR can take over these routes seeing as they serve none of the lost airports, and since most of the pax that used the German routes were primarily business people I can't see many choosing to fly to Hahn instead of Frankfurt so really many will just go down the LHR from now. Although if lufthansa come in then it is possible to see these replaced, wouldn't be surprised to see MCH taken on by Easy though.

I think the difficulty that BACon faced (and Flybe might have faced) is that "once a day" routes with no onward connections are pretty duff for business users. Aside from the fact I won't fly FR (with the exception of BRS-DUB), I definitely wouldn't want to be dumped, unreliably, in Hahn in preference to a reasonably reliable journey to a well connected airport like LHR. And a lounge at both ends of the journey.

I fear that, unless the Route Development team secure a full service operator to take over some of these routes, Bristol is going to slide towards being a loco airport, with all of what that entails. Maybe it's going that way already? Giving up gate space for retail, closing the frequent fliers programme, spartan/crowded gate areas (yes, I'm thinking of the Bus Gates 8A...).

What are the options now for a business traveller wanting to start a journey at Bristol (and not do a once-a-day-trip with EZY)? KLM? SN? CO? It's not an impressive lineup.

I suppose it all depends on preference, I'm not a business traveller so I wouldnt really know much about the life style.
A good carrier to try and get in to BRS would be Swiss who have a huge hub at ZRH, that coupled with LH serving FRA/DUS would surely give quite a few more options to you guys.
I just think someone like FR would be good for challengeing on the GLA/EDI/CDG routes, either that or as mentioned earlier Air Southwest.

Bristol, how many airbridges and are they all in daily use? Thanks.

No airbridges down here my friend, what do you think BRS is? an international airport or something? There are some cracking new buses though :ok:

Hurrah, at least were keeping the BA - TFS route, according to BIA website the airport is in discussions with a number of airlines to replace the dropped routes, I guess this is just the usual spiel in the circumstances.

Flybe to Jersey
 

Very disapointing to hear of the number of staff to be put down over the Flybe BAcon takeover, some of us do know what is is like but the boys down the road a Exter dont care about lively hoods other than them selves.
My heart goes out to all of those who have lost there jobs as I do know find a job in something you like doing are few and far between.
With Flybe only having a Jersey route operating out of BRS how long will they keep that going after al the agrovation they have sturred up there must be carriers out there to take it on if they were to drop it or are the loads perfoming well?
Air Southwest do have the licence to operate Bristol-Jersey although most of the time it is via plymouth other than the summer when a direct flight operates on a saturday.
With a number of Dash 8 300 comming on the market or have they all been ear marked else where.
I would like to think some of the BAcon whould move to Air Southwest as some form of security as the Dash 8 300 does fit in to there operation after all.
There would be other carriers other the Air Southwest that would look at taking the route on if Flybe did pull the plug.
All the best to the staff made redundent.

Agree with a1234: can't see Ryanair jumping in to fly BRS to Hahn. A few years ago I used to commute via the Hahn to Bournemouth link. It was a drag with a couple of hours' drive both ends, but in the summer it was ok and the times suited me. But as the planes were often virtually empty (no need for reserved seating shall we say!) they scrapped the route.

On balance I think I would also rather fly in to LHR and drive than have to endure a couple of hours to Hahn and then do another drive at the other end. And you can certainly forget connecting to FRA, that's not what Hahn is for...

If WOW had a bit of ambition then there are options for it to extend outwards from BRS, but it's probably extending their model a bit too much, so I wouldn't bank on them stepping in.

My guess if that once again the door will be closed for a while to the international business/regular traveller in the southwest, and BRS will have gone two steps back. Personally I haven't looked into connecting to PLH via MAN, but it's scraping the bottom of the barrel given that I have to hire a car at destination anyway.

One thing is certain though, these people don't run charities: if it ain't profitable for them then they will cut the route. It is wrong to think they are there to serve us, they're not council-subsidised bus companies.

Someone in the know told me yesterday that all the BACon routes are to be filled, some by lo cost and some (German/Swiss routes) buy full service carriers. It will happen, the announcements will follow shortly. Panic ye not.

The loss of BACon, while sad, will not be felt too badly by the punters and the fact that Flybe are almost gone is a good thing. They have never been the same since Uncle Jack popped his clogs and the airline (laughably they call themselves Europe's largest regional airline, whatever that is supposed to imply) has never liked competition or even the threat of it. I remember them dropping routes from Belfast City if Easyjet announced there would be a similar route from Aldergrove, months before Easy started their routes up! Bristol certainly doesn't need an airline like that, the yellow bellied *******!

StandardNoise - I'll be pleased if that's the outcome. Maybe one step back, two steps forward?

Marco - agreed that services from BRS must demonstrate profit, but the airport has a role in helping that happen. If an operator sets up a route on a once-a-day basis, it deters other operators investing in a more frequent service. I felt that BACons FRA/MUC/DUS services were pretty useless with no traffic opportunity other than leisure visitors (to FRA? to DUS? Errrrr..). At least the BHX/MAN to Germany routes can also carry transit passengers, which is probably why they fill up A319/A320s. If the airport can deliver a route development strategy beyond a headline direct destination count, then it's probably a stronger proposition in the long term.

Watabench - that's a very good thought about LX to ZRH. I've used them a number of times this year out of LCY (to avoid the hell of LHR) through ZRH and onto GVA and BCN, and it's been very comfortable. (And very good value, even in C). I'm booked to do a flight to BOM with them in June. If LX can integrate BRS-ZRH into their onward connections, the only place that will suffer noticeably will be northern German destinations like DUS because of increased transit times.

Ultimately, economics will prepare a case for a new operator. I'm prepared to pay a £100 premium to fly from BRS to my destination over flying from LHR. ("Never give your hand away when negotiating"). But in terms of my hassle saved and time saved, it's worth it. I put quite a high value on Touch Down->Front Door in less than 30 minutes.

Hell, BT, I'm prepared to pay over the odds if I can get home from the airport in under 2 hours :). I work with Greeks who can get home quicker than I can.

Don't know enough about the airport's role in route development, so bow to you on that one.

However, would not agree at all on the pax profile on BRS-FRA, at least on Thurs/Fri and Mon (maybe there's the rub). The planes were always pretty full, even in the old slots. Most seemed to be regular commuters like myself, often a lot of IT guys servicing the banks, some financial suits, and a handful of leisure travellers who had clearly been transiting via FRA.

Would have been good to have had more than one dep per day but it never really surprised me. Thankful for small mercies..

Hope the rumours are true that the slots will be taken up by a reputable operator...

> slots will be taken up by a reputable operator

Unfortunately, the slots are owned by Flybe, not Bristol Airport. A new operator will have to bring their own FRA / MUC slots. Flybe will use the existing ones for SOU &/or EXT.

Chaps:

Bloomberg had this yesterday, quoting a Handelsblatt story (which is only available to subscribers):
It would seem to me that Bristol (and to a lesser extent Birmingham) present a particularly interesting opportunity for EI just now.

But i thought Aer Lingus were pulling the DUb route sometime this march?

So the question could be asked why expand from an airport that your pulling your one and only route from?

No chance of EI at BRS, can't see them going up against an ever stronger Easy and the rumour is that the new base will be looking to open up more of a bucket and spade outfit rather than connections to other major cities like Frankfurt, Zurich etc. And seeing as DUB is no longer bookable from March 24 I'd put my bets on GLA or BHX.

B_T

I would preface what follows by saying unequivocally that it has to be compared to the situation those who have lost jobs find themselves in, and on that score is of much less importance.

I speak as a fairly regular pax of many years , albeit a leisure one these days, and have to say that standards certainly seem to be slipping in the services provided by the airport management.

In addition to those matters you have highlighted above I would add that the terminal is becoming down at heel in places, perhaps scruffy might be a better description, and at busy times (as I found again this week) it is no longer a pleasant experience.

My wife and I are still waiting for our final frequent flyer vouchers, promised to be sent out at the end of January.

I have emailed the airport more than once in recent weeks seeking information on other services but have not been afforded the courtesy of a reply. If this is the way loyal and long-standing customers are treated I begin to wonder what is going on.

The airport management says it is in discussions with several major airlines and hopes to replace the cancelled routes as soon as possible.

Well, let's hope they do but this is what one would expect an airport management to say in these circumstances.

Flybe may be taking a gamble turning its face on an important and vibrant business community (by far the largest in the whole of the government South West region and one of the most dynamic economies in the entire country) but, as a pax, I would prefer a clean break rather than some routes lingering through the summer with the uncertainty of when (not if) they would be axed.

2007 has been BRS's worst year for several decades, for all sorts of well-publicised reasons, and it won't become any better with a major battle to get the required expansion plans approved.

Perhaps the loss of the BACon pax might give the airport an opportune breathing space.

What is certain is if the pax growth had continued its inexorable upward progress the terminal would have become an intolerable customer experience at certain times of the day without an increase in size.

As for Aer Lingus (alluded to by other posters), their DUB-BRS was a single daily in early afternoon,and was always going to struggle against the multi-daily Ryanair services, especially when they fell out with CWL and increased the BRS rotations.

Aer Lingus has has a long and almost unbroken relationship with Bristol, going back to the Whitchurch days, when Dublin-Bristol became EI's first ever international route in 1936.

There may be no sentiment in business but never say never.

I'm not sure that the loss of the BACon pax (hello to both of you) will help the overcrowding at times. I'm not sure that adding retail space in front of the gates and a Starbucks stand in the middle of the seating area helped that either. I'm no interior designer, but simply cutting off the view of the apron dramatically reduced the sense of space.

Macquarie are hard task masters when it comes to turning a profit. I know a couple of people who work for various businesses under the Macquarie banner in different parts of the world. If there's a cost to be cut, cut it. That's not to say there's underinvestment, but certainly the objective is to spend as little as possible for most return. A lick of paint won't materially impact the number of passengers using BRS, so it probably won't get licked. A new "Claire's Accessories" unit drops cash to the bottom line within months of it being built.

As I've noted before, business passengers are not very profitable for the airport. We rarely buy anything, and we get free coffee in lounge that uses up space that could be retail. We expect top-notch service, and whisking through the terminal, but our Airport Passenger Duty is the same as a crowd of shopaholics on a weekend break to Ibiza.

There comes a point when events become self-defining. If Bristol becomes primarily a loco airport, it will become the Stanstead or Luton of the South West. That perception will grow, and diminish the likelyhood of full service airlines maintaining a service at an airport everyone thinks is a loco base. It feels like a defining moment.

When an airport chooses to drink with the devil in this case the low service airlines expect to start see the the charter airlines leaving BRS next driven out by Easy.Then the airport will have to start charging realistic fees to the low service airlines and hey presto the transformation is complete the travelling public have got low service airlines at full service prices.Still many of us charter pilots will be glad to see the back of Bristol with its sub-standard runway and location even when its surface is in a proper state of repair.Honeymoon deals from airports to low service carriers do not advantage the passenger in the long run.Charter carriers are studying their long term futures at this airport very seriously at present.

Dartania has a very valid point here regarding charter carriers, TOM seem very keen on creating a large base in CWL and seem to be the only airline showing intrest over there, were all aware of the rumour around that they may abandon BRS, the TCX/MYT merge probably doesnt bode all that great for BRS, the fact that they are looking at consolodating routes and getting rid of staff will probably mean a year round company ac for now, but as MYT tend to share on XL in winter and TCX share with FCA in summer they dont need to do this anymore so will prob just have 1 a320 sat year round and meaning not buying seats from other carriers, the capacity is then taken away also from FCA/XL so there may not be a need for 2 FCA 757s and 2 XL/KM ac.
FCA as a company are looking more towards longhaul so yes BRS will prob keep the 3 longhaul routes in order to prepare the south west market for 2009 and the B787 which will do longhaul direct from BRS, but the concentration on more mid-longhaul routes means a cutting down on their european bucket and spade markets(AGP/FAO/PMI/MAH/ALC) all these routes that are now swamped with LOCO's.
The only way ahead I can see for Charters if all that were to be the case, would be if TOM pulled BRS and FCA pulled CWL and they carried each others pax, were lucky that at the moment both XL and FCA have a good relationship with BRS, both seem commited to the airport so hopefully they can work out a way to hold their ground against the Orange Army.

Looks like the runway/taxiway work is going to overrun by a week or so in to April now, however closing time of runway will be changed to 0030-0500 01st APR-04thAPR, 0100-0500 05thAPR-07thAPR and 0001-0400 on 08thAPR by the looks of things :oh:

Anybody wondering about the return of the BACON german routes should have a quick look at the Air Berlin thread, few people on there including a german member saying that BRS looks a good possibility for Air Berlin routes in the near future.

Hmmm.. AirBerlin. Hardly what I'd call a full service carrier.

Quite a lot of their advertised routes are "Via STN" (!) - For instance, MAN-TXL is actually MAN-STN-TXL. MAN-ZRH is actually MAN-HAM-ZRH. And Bournemouth-Paderborn doesn't thrill me with excitement.

We'd still be stuck with the dead-end option too - no onward connection opportunities. It's fine to run a BRS-ZRH route, but if it's not part of a code-share/alliance arrangement, you'll only end up with the relatively small number of people who want to do BRS-ZRH. I'm convinced that was a significant factor in BACon's struggles.

I did wonder last night if maybe BRS is already struggling with non-Domestic business customers? I don't know how many business fliers use EZY out of BRS, but KL ship around 350 people a day out, and SN about the same. It's not a lot compared with the tide of EZY passengers each day.

B_T
I take your point about an airline like Air Berlin, especially if any service would be routed via Stansted (and a change of aircraft?).

BRS reckons it gets a higher proportion of business pax than many UK regional airports (see master plan).

However, Air Berlin might be better than no service at all and a foot in the door might lead to more direct routes, but how would easyJet take this? At places like LPL and EMA, where other locos have significant presences, easyJet have not expanded in the way they have at BRS, where they are King of the Heap.

Some might say that a lessening of easyJet’s dominance would be a good thing. But what if they took the ‘ump because another loco set up alongside and they scaled back the expansion of recent years, and then that other loco decided it wasn’t that committed to BRS after all?

This must be a bit of a poser for any airport management.

I note that the BRS website is now seeking views on which German routes are required by potential customers.

The 2006 annual CAA stats are now out and the BACon international business routes show the following totals:

Milan 23K
Frankfurt 21K
Munich 19K
Zurich 19K
Dusseldorf (10K - route commenced in June)

Incidentally, compare Zurich to Geneva where 125K scheduled pax were hauled - all by easyJet.

CDG saw 117K sched pax - up from 97K the previous year, and almost certainly due to easyJet coming on the route in the last two months of the year and doubling those monthly totals compared to BACon alone.

Brussels Airlines carried 63K on the BRU route, similar to 2005.

Amsterdam’s figure was 271K, shared between KLM and easyJet.

The most popular route was DUB where 362K sched pax were carried between Ryanair and Aer Lingus, with the latter almost certainly not getting its ‘fair share’.