They are all available from MME.....as long as you fly via ABZ first! :ok:

Did anyone know that Hugh Lang's predecessor, Bob Goldfield, had opportunity to get several LCCs into MME during the mid-late 90s, but refused to entertain them because, in his opinion, "they'd all be bust in 4-5 years"

To be fair he wasn't the only one, but at least the others we also concerned about upsetting their existing mainstream carriers - what did he have to lose?

Is it just me?
 

Thank you Jamier for that information on flights to Stornoway and Wick but it somehow dosen't have the same attraction as Paris , Rome and even Tenerife or the Spanish Costas.
I do know someone who went to Wick once. He spent a fortnight there one afternoon.

Do you think Paris or Rome etc would be attractive from Teesside? Didnt ryanair try Rome once?

baby did Paris (CDG)

RYR did do Rome once, and from what I saw it was very popular with high loads on a regular basis. However, the aircraft was pulled from the route in order to operate a Rome-Shannon-Rome instead - I guess money might have been the ultimate reason although I could be mistaken??

And yes, BMI did Paris - though I can't remember what the loads were like on it.

-HD-

And what a disaster that turned out to be. Shannon-Rome was gradually reduced down to 2 weekly before being axed last October. Ya I heard Ryanair were getting higher loads than Easy from Newcastle but perhaps yield wasn't great.

Big Plane Little Plane.
 

Another thought on the Stornoway Wick route. From what I have seen Eastern Airways operate a 3 seater plane and Ryan operates a real aeroplane with lots of seats and a toilet. I have also spoken to a friend today who spent 6 months at Stornoway in the summer as a Customs operative (obviously I will not name him or his windows will go through tonight ) apparently all that is on offer in the summer in Stornoway is copious amounts of whiskey and games of golf at midnight because you can.
Not exactly a bundle of laughs for travellers.

Both Ryanair to Rome Ciampino and bmibaby to Paris CDG did exceptionally well in terms of loads, but Ciampino failed due to lack of yield, and as we all know, bmibaby failed because of an overall lack of yield, whether or not Paris on it's own made enough yield, only bmibaby knows.

My partner and i paid £1 each both ways in 2005 from DTV to Rome. :ok:
Oh they were the days. Cheap fuel and no baggage charges.

Another thought on the Stornoway Wick route. From what I have seen Eastern Airways operate a 3 seater plane and Ryan operates a real aeroplane with lots of seats and a toilet.

Eastern do not fly from Wick to Stornoway only ABerdeen to Wick and Aberdeen to Stornoway on a J41 the same as that operate from Teesside to ABerdeen 4 times a day with a load factor a damn sight better than Ryanair can manage. It also has a toilet and 29 seats.

2nd Fred Olsen Fly Cruise
 

"FRED. OLSEN CRUISE LINES CELEBRATES DOUBLE"

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines has just launched its brochure of worldwide cruises for 2009/10, and announced that the company will be operating two fly/cruise departures from Durham Tees Valley airport to the Caribbean, following successful sales of the first fly/cruise from the airport later this year.

The first of these two fly/cruises, will depart Durham Tees Valley for Miami on 07 January 2010, on a 14 night ‘Caribbean Adventure’ on board Braemar. Ports of call include: Bahamas, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Honduras, Berlize, Mexico and Key West, Florida, returning to the UK on 22 January.

The second fly/cruise is a 14 night ‘Caribbean Cocktail’ on board Boudicca, departing 11 March 2010, to join the ship in St Lucia. Following an overnight stay there, Boudicca sets sail for Dominica, St Kitts, Antigua, Tortola, Turks & Caicos, Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago and Barbados, arriving back at Durham Tees Valley airport on 26 March.

These new departures from Durham Tees Valley airport confirm Fred. Olsen’s commitment to supporting flights from regional airports.

John Atkinson, Area Sales Executive for Fred. Olsen in the North East said “We have had such a great response from customers in Durham and Tees Valley, and are delighted to be offering more departures for 2009/10”.

Added Durham Tees Valley Airport’s Marketing and Communications Manager Emma Ormerod “There’s no doubt that being able to fly direct from their local airport is very popular with North East cruise passengers. For example this year’s flight to Barbabos, which is scheduled to leave to leave on December 4th, sold out very rapidly and we’re expecting a similar response to the two 2010 holidays just announced.

“We’re especially pleased to have established this link with such a high quality cruise operator. All three of the departures—this year to Barbados and in 2010 to Miami and St Lucia—will be the first direct flights to these destinations from Durham Tees Valley.”

paarmo - perhaps you and others should give Eastern more credit for operating a stable, long term and reliable service that passengers appreciate and that does contribute positively to the local economy.

Eastern vs Ryanair
 

No one could ever compare the two operations offered by eastern and ryanair. It doesn't take much to see one is very much business orientated while the other very much lo-co. Interestingly, both very successful with what they do.

Moving on to possible culling of the GRO flight-any news?this would be seriously damaging to MME as there has never been a better route to suit the needs of travellers from Teesside both in terms of route and cost.

As for Rome and Paris at the moment only GSM would be in the position to offer these services unless ryanair offered CIA again or Beavais (Paris) on a W pattern from another of their bases. Both options highly unlikely.

I really think, apart from the cruise flights announced today, there will be quite a lenghtly period of consolidation/stagnation with very few new routes being announed in the near future.

As a diamond club member, received an email from bmi the other day advertising the virtues of flying to London for a city break from your local airport-interestingly DTV was not listed as an option in the advert. Perhaps telling of bmi's thinking on this route at the mo unless theyre so happy with sales they don't need to advertise it????

It seems Ryanair have pulled GRO at least for the Winter, whether it returns for Summer or not is anyone's guess.

Good News on the Fred Olsen flights.......what i cant understand is if the Cruise sold out so rapidly and these things arent cheap, why its not been looked into to offer a niche service with Fred Olsen or one of their competitors ( of which there are many) of say once per month to operate a flight to connect with a cruise in some far off destination. The fact it sold out quickly (Emma's words and not mine) must mean that there is some sort of demand and if DTV got something off the ground (no pun intended) on this one it could carve out a nice little bit of business for the airport...ok so one flight per month isnt exactly going to be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for DTV but they could slowly build on it over time.
Its great Fred Olsen have doubled the charter but to do one in Jan and one in March 2010 could have been expanded perhaps, especially given that in effect it leaves 2009 with no cruise.....anyway just a thought!

Reason why MME is getting such a small W08 schedule from Flyglobespan is that they plan to lose their 2 733's and 2 remaining 736's with 1 738 and 763's on lease.

A/C W08:
GLA: 4 738's, 1 752
EDI: 2 7NG's
ABZ and MME will be W Pattern flights or position down from GLA/EDI

Pretty small fleet W08.

Flyglobespan are expected to replace these a/c with ither 737 700's or 800's for S09. Ither getting 4 or 6 depending if they want to replace all 4 of the 736's that they would have sold off by the end of the year and 2 733's.

Watched two flights load up in Palma yesterday adjacent to each other (AEA & GSM) both were flying to 'Teesside' - don't think it'll ever be known as DTV in Palma. Good loads thou, both seemed full.

GSM leasing
 

obviously hard times for GSM if theyve decided to lease off aircarft rather than offer theirown services at exisitng bases. I predict this will kill off GSM's presence for MME. I would have said perfect for FR to come in more concentrated but they clearly hold little belief for MME. Shaky times ahead...