BFS or BHD won't work with Eastern I don't think.....

Only routes that I could see working are:

BRS/NQY joint with Air Southwest - not sure they would take this on, with them serving LBA and MAN also, though?

Rome - as others have said, possibly one for GSM to look at, 3 or 4 times a week would suffice

Madrid - 2 or 3 times a week, possibly one for Ryanair to look at with their new Madrid base

Geneva - hopefully GSM will take this on in the winter, or maybe Chambery/Lyon/Grenoble. Also note we will have a weekly CMF with TOMfly!


And some notes on current routes....

Heathrow - we need bmi to look at the times of this, different times (early departure to LHR around 0600-0630) - although things are starting to look up for them. They could push Heathrow transfers a bit more (eg to Middle East) and maybe their new partnership (soon?) with Bmed may allow them to do this.

Amsterdam - KLM look to be doing very well indeed on this route, and as previously said they are adding a 4th daily for the first half of the summer, presumably as some sort of test.

Aberdeen - this route is going from strength to strength and is a prime candidate for upgrade to Saab 2000, or a 5th daily flight. Surely a Saturday flight could be introduced on this route.

Brussels - seems to be doing ok, but I really can't see this lasting past the end of next summer

You've missed my point - just that EVERY thread seems to be looking at Flybe and they've got more than enough on their plates!

Not going to say Flybe, but an operator with 70 seat aircraft could do Gatwick, Belfast and Paris twice a day. It is this type of operation that brings in the business pax that bring the higher yields, maybe something bmibaby lacked. On top of that they could do a summer service into Newquay say 4 a week along with a Jersey in the summer 3 a week supporting the GSM weekly service.
Then you have Rome which at its peak was seeing more pax than the LHR has seen at times recently. Its got to come back in some form but once a day wouldn't hurt.
MME4eva I do feel the Gatwick is needed as there is no link to the south coast but also it may give bmi the kick up the a**e on the LHR either that or push them off which may not be that bad if there is already a LGW

Two things:-

1) The Skyteam schedule now shows KLM reverting back to 3 times a day for the summer with 2 x F70 and 1 x F100.

2) Anybody got any definitive news on the basing of the TOM aircraft this summer? Everyone says it won't be here, but that still isn't reflected in any schedules or official announcements.

Ryanair are re introducing the Wednesday Dublin flight, but it looks like just for the month of May.

I see at the moment the bmi flights to LHR are still at 3 a day and the 12.45 flight to LHR is now retimed to 11.40. Is the 4th rotation going to start again with the early morning flight to LHR?

In the latest edition of flightlines it does state that Thomson Holidays will be operating to 12 destinations, but does this mean with Thomsonfly as the airline?? I see there are adverts for Thomsonfly flights in the Darlington area, but advertising flights from Newcastle. Why not advertise their holidays from Durham Tees Valley instead! :*

Ryanair relaunching the Wednesday Dublin flight is encouraging, even if it is just for one month. Shame about KLM Cityhopper abandoning their fourth AMS rotation for a second time, they seem keen, I think that must be more to do with aircraft availablility. Still, at least we'll be getting an F100!

It states twelve TOM routes in Flightlines? I got an e-mail from DTVA about two months prior to the release of the latest Flightlines stating that Thomsonfly would be flying to eleven destinations this summer?

Regards.

Well it seems that the Thomsonfly aircraft base for the summer is safe (for this summer at least) and that it is just the crew base that is shutting, I think what saved our aircraft is the fact that LBA is shutting and therefore they couldn't shut 2 within close distance!

The crews will be working out of NCL instead I guess, and it is the NCL crews that will be flying the MME flights also.

Well I suppose that's a good thing. I'd rather have the enemy flying the aircraft than the aircraft flying with the enemy.

Regards.

Well I sorted through all of the summer schedules, and we have 115 weekly flights this summer, some of the hotspots have a number of weekly flights, such as Palma with 12.

Some of the good points:
- KLM stays 3x daily but the 1537/8 gets a F100 every day.
- bmi run 3x daily A319/A320 (1 A319 on Sat), no flights by 'regional' ERJ's.
- Holidays4U flight to DLM with OHY runs all throughout the summer.
- MYT to Ibiza, run by JKK, moves from Friday night to morning.
- Goldtrail continue to run 2 flights on a Thursday night to BJV/DLM with OHY.
- XL Airways take over Libra's Wednesday morning flight to LCA.

A few bad points:
- FCA/TCX Monday evening flight to Dalaman (op PGT) now doesn't run
- Varna is cancelled again with TOMfly

' bmi run 3x daily A319/A320 (1 A319 on Sat), no flights by 'regional' ERJ's.'

All flights will operate with Regional ER4's this summer !
4 x daily ex Sat (Sat ops x 1)

1 x weekly REU charter on a Monday afternoon with LBA based A320.

Not what Amadeus shows for May, it's still shows 3x daily 319/320

Scott

Whats more of a concern to me is that i flew from LHR to MME this Thursday gone on the 20:05 BD340 on an A320 an there was just 48 passengers and i only paid the grand sum of £0 plus taxes (although i did check in on line to save a little bit more for them), i overheard the steward saying that they had taken just £14 - i presume this was through the onboard sales and there were just four people in departures when i got off - i presume again for the return journey. i know its been talked about till the death but they cant sustain this and need to re-examine what was once a very popular route and put it right (times etc) - yes i understand their reason for all of this is a slot protector at LHR but why kill off one of their longest serving Domestic routes for it. Also someone i know on here flew on the maiden flight from MME to Gerona last week - only 13 pax on the inbound, to be expected, but a healthy 140+ on the outbound, has the rest of the week gone/looking well and what are forward load figures if anyone knows?

The passenger figures have been awful on the LHR route for a while now, if they had a re-think, looked at the times and maybe re-introduced business class (which they are rumoured to be doing) then it may have a future. I do think however that domestic routes as a whole do not have a very good future, especially the shorter ones such as LBA, NCL, MAN and MME as they cannot compete against the train any more. The only thing that they are useful for is connections to long haul routes.

Good to hear the Gerona got off to a good start, lets hope it keeps that way.
There was a rumour going around of Wizz looking to start Corfu and Borugas from MME but the same rumour stated that they would start next month, which doesn't fit in with Wizz's route launches which are usually about 8 months in advance! Maybe March 2008!

As for Flyglobespan this summer, well I believe there is still a single gap in the schedule on a Tuesday afternoon, highly rumoured to be a gap for the Tenerife but this has turned out to be not so. The Saturday flight to Mahon doesn't fit into the schedule as it stands at the moment, but a simple change of the times would allow it to slot in on the Saturday morning instead.
Does anyone know what the 2 aircraft types to be based are? Has been rumours of an -800 and a -600.

mmeteesside -I do think however that domestic routes as a whole do not have a very good future, especially the shorter ones such as LBA, NCL, MAN and MME as they cannot compete against the train any more. The only thing that they are useful for is connections to long haul routes.
In the case of MME I have to agree. These days given LHR's current problems, no one of their own choice would elect to go anywhere via LHR. In the case of NCL those that do & significantly support the BA NCL-LHR route consist of considerable no.'s of pax connecting to onward 'one world alliance' flights at beneficial fares / flight timings. Other connecting pax with more choice would probably choose to connect via other European hubs, and more frequent timings of such flights which again make NCL that more attractive. I would suggest that it is not a case of frequency alone that affects MME - LHR loads more that it is simply not a BA operation. Historically this has always been the problem with this route dating back as far as Autair in the 60's, I don't see that the train service has any greater or lesser effect as it did back then.

"In the case of MME I have to agree. These days given LHR's current problems, no one of their own choice would elect to go anywhere via LHR."
-----------------

That's why we make every long haul from MME via Schipol to anywhere in the world.

I've seen this arguement about domestic flights used a number of times - but does anybody have any evidence to support it e.g what proportion of pax to LHR transit? I don't use it as much as I used to but the NCL-LHR-NCL flghts I used to go where always packed, and just from watching where the rest of the pax went when they got off and converstions in the Exec lounge (which is where BA presumbly make their money) I wouldn't have said that anything like a majority were transiting.

For me, the train is only competitive if you're going city centre to city centre (and it's easier to park at NCL than the Central station).

Although i dont use LHR-MME-LHR that often, prob 4-5 times per year (sometimes more) i use it simply to visit family and friends up here. I live just outside of London and its much quicker and cheaper than the train (in terms of crossing Ldn to Kings Cross by tube and then the train to Darlington) and in terms of driving the journey is 4hrs + on a good run on a late weekday evening so for me i always choose to fly and i do the same if i go to visit friends in Leeds or Manchester - the train just doesnt match in terms of price, reliability, comfort, speed, availabilty of a seat - only minor positive point is that i can go from nearer my home to nearer my destination due to location of airports but the time saving is not too significant and the car costs just as much, is a big stressful strain doing all that driving, adds many miles to the mileage and the only plus point is i can take more luggage but for a weekend or even up to a week who needs it - except maybe at Christmas. If BMI ever axed LHR-MME i for one would be worse off on any journey i make - i reckon others would be in the same boat as me. In terms of transiting, whilst obvious plus points of a BA feeder onto the BA network BMI is part of the large star alliance network so transiting passengers have plenty of choice through LHR! plus i dont think Flybe, for example, would say the domestic market is dead in the water.

Mme-gro
 

Just returned from a few days in Barcelona going out on the inaugral flight on Tues coming back today (Saturday). As UkLad007 states, the first inbound from GRO was carrying only 13 pax which i thought was actually quite good given that this route will rely massively on outbound pax. Load factors on both legs were approx 90%. In fact Tues flight had 165 pax exactly as overheard servisair check in agent discuss this with the Dublin pax service agent who said there was 84 pax on the DUB which I was pleasantly surprised by given it was a tues and outside school holidays etc.

Back to GRO I'm very confident that this will be a success even after it starts from NCL as I think FR's aggressive prices will always attract pax from the NCL area if the NCL flight is more expensive and its finally a route that offers what MME pax want...a city break popular with stag do's etc and on the door step of bucket and spade destinations like tossa del mar and estartit.

As for LHR the words flooding and market spring to mind as anyone will know that there is not the demand for the number of LHR flights currently on offer but i'm sure that Bmi can make a good go of it with a refocus on what they are offering as when i flew this route a lot in the late 90s it was always popular even after the days of diamond service passed!!

On any 'point to point' route there will always be those that live or have interests near either the point of departure or the destination to lend support that in some cases domestic air travel provides advantages over the train. What I am suggesting is that given the earlier comments as to the noted low load factor on the LHR - MME then historically there has not been enough support from all sections of the community to lead to growth in this service. The issue of train availability to London is largely an irrelevance in this particular discussion as it has always been available as a viable alternative. To pick up on perhaps a more relevant angle on the point of those that use the service as a convenience due to locality, perhaps such pax. are more price sensitive and will only take up seats at the lower end of the routes fare structure.

I travel once or twice a week to London for work from Darlington. Because the first flight doesn't get to London until 09.35, I am forced to use the train. I will be using the 05.50 bmi departure when it is running, but it is just for 2 weeks. I have to add I think the train is expensive, over £100 single if you wish to arrive in London before 10, and has been unreliable recently, twice having to get buses to/from Peterborough due to overhead line damage. (this may persuade some people to try the plane again?) I still think that with the right timings MME-LHR would be popular. Maybe a 4/5 times a day EMB-145 maybe the answer, I don't know.

On a positive note, I see the road signs are being changed over to say Durham Tees Valley Airport, about time too!