INVERNESS
 

Quite a lot happening at the Highlands capital airport at the moment. Ryanair to start a daily East Midlands service from the 26th in addition to the Liverpool service they already operate. Aer Arann shortly to start a Dublin service and Flybe have recently started a BHD service.

Discuss....

Any rumoured links to continental europe?

INV used to have AMS & ARN that I remember.

wasn't EMA-INV supposed to be thrice weekly?

They'd better carry plenty holding fuel :E .

Aer Arann operating INV-DUB for sometime now. Was a rumour of INV-Germany, but it's gone quiet

ARN - INV was a very short-lived route. I think SAS/Snowflake only operated a couple of flights before the route was axed for good.

Any news about the INV - LGW route from BACX ?

The deal between Flybe and BA Connect is not yet concluded, but should be soon. Read somewhere that Flybe want to start operating the route on 25 March. Don't know who's handling them though

The INV-LGW flights exist in the BA reservations system until the end of the summer programme, but not into the winter.

Is there any certainty that BE will take on the route?

It looks the as though all BACON flights stop at the end of the summer schedule on the BA booking system.
They will have to hurry through the takeover then.:E

BA want to either keep hold on LGW-INV or if lost to BE then look into operating their own LGW-INV services, IOM is not of interest to BA once the whole BACON/BE move occurs.

It doesn't make sense for BA to have stopped selling LGW-INV from the end of the sumer if they want to maintain the route, does it?

Maxxed Out Inverness
 

I used the new Ryanair service EMA - INV - EMA ast week and found that Inverness was barely able to cope the numbers of Pax within the terminal.

My wife flew INV - EMA last Friday, 30 minutes waiting at check-in, followed by an horrendous queue at security - during which they had to call forward the Ryanair Pax to the head of the queue. Otherwise the flight would have got off even later than it did, 25 minutes late as it was. The arriving Ryanair flight was on time.

The logistics of INV just do not seem to be able to cope with the increased numbers of departing PAX that 2 x Easy Jets and a Ryanair flight generate.

Maxxed out
 

I think the problem is that the LTN goes out at 1450 and the EMA at 1505, quickly followed by the LGW at 1545.

Check in at times can be slow especially with FR, I always feel that this is due to people not having booked bags online etc and then having to pay for them etc.

I have always found security at INV to be swift, admitedly I haven't been through the airport at that time since the EMA service started. The majority of hold ups are caused once again by the pax who are asked 'does your bag contain any liquids or sharp objects?', the pax replies 'no' and the scanner starts beeping like hell!

I have never yet seen both security scanners open at INV even when there have been very long waiting times (>30mins). When asked about this it is because they don't have enough staff.

Trouble is that even then the departure lounge can't cope with the number of pax for more than two BA/RYR/EZY flights and a couple of EASTERNs. Maybe they are slowing passengers at Security to reduce congestion in the dep lounge?:)

Inverness
 

With the takeover of Bacon by Flybe now complete and the summer schedules now released, can anyone explain why Flybe have reduced the INV-LGW flights to just two on Saturdays. With the 'Highland 2007' year getting into it's stride, already accommodation providers in Inverness and the Highlands are saying that there is going to be a dire shortage of beds come the summer and some weeks are already fully booked. With the expected influx of visitors due this summer it seems madness to reduce capacity on the busiest day of the week. In contrast EasyJet have increased their flights from LTN-INV to two a day on Saturdays.
Maybe nobody told the Flybe management about 'Highland 2007'

EB

I don't know the definitive answer, but it's probably got a lot to do with Flybe being a low - cost airline.

All their aircraft working at maximum capacity and the fact that it makes commercial sense to operate their aircraft full to overflowing twice a day, rather than half or two thirds full 3 times a day.
That said, if they thought there was the commercial justifcation to operate a third sector, they would do it.

Easy have taken quite a bit of the leisure market on London to Inverness. The BA route retains much of the business traffic, mainly due to its better timings morning and evening. It is normal on a UK business route for Saturday to be the quietest day and to have a reduced service. I would guess the BA loads are thin on that day nowadays.

The days when the full service could be maintained at weekends was before Easyjet and BMI came onto the route. There has actually been a huge increase in London to Inverness capacity over the last couple of years.

From 12th May, Flybe have introduced a Saturday pm LGW-EGC (Bergerac) route. Looking at the timings, which seem to fit, perhaps this is what the A/C is doing before it returns to INV?

What Aircraft are Flybe using on INV - LGW route is it Bacons 146 what are they going to replace it with Dash or 195 ?