I'm out of date.

Who currently handles FlyBe at NCL?

Swissport have the FlyBe contract at present!

Swissport handle Flybe.

NCL has always been cursed with more than a reasonable percentage of chumps in security, even when compared to the large proportion that seem to inhabit the industry generally.

Swissport pax handling has always had a reputation for being exceptionally poor over the years. Last time I had to endure their 'handling' services on a regular basis, it was disappointing to see that the ramp operation had headed the same way.

Raf Jet Down
 

BEEB REPORTING RAF FLIGHT CRASHED.

RUNWAY CLOSED, FLIGHT DIVERTING TO BHX & MAN

BBC NEWS | England | Tyne | RAF Tornado jet overshoots runway

Diversions seem to be to MAN, EDI and MME

No one going into LBA.........

Any rumours of new routes for summer 09?

Interesting runour on both the LBA and FR threads about the next UK FR base being down the road at LBA. Is this not an airline that NCL should be trying to get in, a Ryanair base would be good for NCL expecially given the fact we are crying out for German and Polish routes which FR do in abundance.

Does anybody esle think a FR base down the road at Leeds would be very damaging to NCL.

FR and NCL
 

i heard the above are talking about a base at the min

Re NCL & FR:

Surely NCL would need to have a much larger catchment area to sustain a FR base as well as an EZY,LS,BE base.

LBA has the population. NCL does not.

I'm sure FR are talking to a lot of people all the time - however, apart from DUB they can hardly be encouraged by the reaction when they have stuck their toes previously in the NCL water - Torp, Bergamo, Gerona?

FR routes
 

Hi,

It's certainly true that Torp and Bergamo were not exactly roaring successes.
Gerona, however, seems to be going pretty well (usual caveat about loads and yields applies):

NCL - GRO 2007: 50K pax, average flown LF 82%
MME - GRO 2007: 39K pax, average flown LF 79%

NCL - GRO first half of 2008: 31K pax, average flown LF 78%
MME - GRO first half of 2008: 22K pax, average flown LF 80%

FR Routes
 

I may be wrong but didn't Bergarmo do well until FR switched the times to one which made an arrival back in Bergarmo after midnight then folks had the hour plus transfer to Milan which put folks off.

FR Routes
 

@ ncleflights: That's quite possible - I'm not sure when the times changed though. Both Torp and Bergamo started off as daily flights.

For completeness, here are the TRF and BGY stats:
NCL - BGY 2005: 76K pax, average flown LF 66% (started Feb 05)
NCL - BGY 2006: 50K pax, average flown LF 72% (reduced to 3/7 from Feb 06)
NCL - BGY 2007: 39K pax, average flown LF 66%
NCL - BGY 2008: 9K pax, average flown LF 57% (dropped in April 08)

NCL - TRF 2005: 16K pax, average flown LF 48% (started Sept 05)
NCL - TRF 2006: 56K pax, average flown LF 51% (reduced to 4/7 from Nov 06 and during the summer)
NCL - TRF 2007: 10K pax, average flown LF 58% (dropped in Mar 07)

And while we're at it:
MME - CIA Jan 05 - Feb 06: 78K pax, average flown LF 65% (Made it over the 70% mark only in Jul, Aug and Sept 05, 85% in Aug 05)

As you can see, loads on NCL-GRO (and MME-GRO) have been much healthier. If FR are to expand from the North East (which I'm sure they will, given that they have pretty much every other region of the UK well covered), they will have to choose their routes carefully given the mixed results that they've had so far.

Like I said - none of them have set the world alight. Torp and Bergamo were tried, tinkered with and dropped for something that would make more money.

Similarly, Gerona looks a 'test' route which has been tinkered with but not expanded. While no doubt FR and NCL are talking, can't see that previous experience points to a base.

However, FR aren't your normal company so while everybody else is talking about cutting back and consolidating, FR might be thinking that their pockets are so deep that they can 'take out' some of the competition while times are hard, so might go after Jet2 at NCL (and LBA).

I dont know if Ryanair would be that stupid at moment to take out competition such as Jet2, If things where that good why are they parking up about 16 of their STN based 738's? as well as axing a lot of routes from DUB? I think they have bigger fish to fry than Jet2, who dosnt really pose much of a treat to a big player like Ryanair.

I dont know if Ryanair would be that stupid at moment to take out competition such as Jet2 ????

Ryanair's biggest market is the UK any reduction in competion would be beneficial! Easy would cost to much money, so as Ryanair see it small fry like J2 and GSM are easy targets. J2 have only really made money at Leeds so set up a base, 3-4 a/c, would make a sizeable dent in J2's profits! Its interesting that Leeds and our ex boss are so interested in Ryanair as they vertually want to be paid to operate routes by airports not the other way round!
I think an airport like NCL with a limited catchment area and a well balanced mix of low cost, full fare and charters have to be very careful not to tip the scales too much one way. A few extra pax's from Ryanair and bang goes other low cost and charter operators from the airport!

ncleflights is right that the bergamo route was ruined by appaling times - arriving into bergamo at 2355 (if you were lucky) and becoming tues / thurs / sat made it poor for a weekend away. when the route started it was once a week, so it obviously was doing well on that basis to encourage ryanair to make it daily, before then downgrading it.

as for torp, that route was a disaster from start to finish because there simply wasnt the market for it. Torp itself is a good 2 hours away from Oslo city and even if there was the demand for a service to Oslo there certainly wasnt to Torp.

Girona shows that if ryanair choose their routes carefully they could make a success of a one or two plane base serving dublin, girona, a couple of polish routes, alicante, palma, madrid, frankfurt, bournmouth etc etc:D

FR at NCL?
 

Mark23 your right a careful selection of routes/frequencies and FR should do well.

A few that should do well and spring straight to mind are Berlin, Frankfurt, Bremen, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Reus, Madrid, Palma, Marseille, Pisa.

The above do have some overlap with other operators ie Palma but capacity exists on this one, Cork (have LS dropped this one as its not available to book next Summer) Pisa (did well for LS but slashed frequency).

The main airline that I believe would loose out at NCL would be LS but I am not sure if they have long term plan for the NCL base as every year we get reduction after reduction from them

One thing the airport management should ensure though is that if FR are looking for a Northern base then its NCL. I believe that if Mr P were still here we would already have FR base at NCL and possibly that much needed US scheduled link after all since his departure the airport has achieved very little in terms of new airlines or routes. While DL is a very nice guy I am concerned he may be out of his depth in his current position, hope im wrong, but the real test may be if he can get a jump on LBA and NCl becomes the North England base for FR.

Full Jet 2 Summer Schedule not yet on sale. No idea what will happen with NCL-ORK but it's too early to say the route has been axed