easyjet
 

I have very good indications that easy are to ride back into town

I have also heard that if Baby was to close, it would give easyJet a good reason to go back into EMA, i'd be first on the transfer list.
fr-

ematom1

The Jet2 operation at EMA is little more than a quasi ITX operation, in fact apart for a few routes from LBA and MAN the entire operation is essentially a bucket and spade one.

If Jet2 were to try and muscle in, the you'd be kissing goodbye to the business schedules connecting EMA to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Paris etc - services that to be a "real airport" EMA needs.

To be honest I can't see EZY coming back with a full blown base, I could instead see FR, at least in the short term stiffling competiton by taking over many of the more profitable routes - and EMA becoming essentially a one-airline airport, and when FR is the one airline isn't an appealing prospect!

Fingers tightly crossed, not only for the airport, but for all the staff who's livelihood depends upon them, Baby will survive, and prosper.

easyjet
 

Now, I was based at EMA for some years with easyjet and some of the guys who have now sinced transferred bases when the base closure occurred, have advised me there are strong rumours that EZY bigwigs have been spotted at EMA in recent weeks.

It actually would not surprise me if easy snap up baby, get rid of all the old leased airframes and pop back in with 6 or 7 A319's in the next 12 months or so.

Indeed, there's a value in baby for an existing airline with spare airframes. But I'm not sure if EZY have many spare... Snap up Baby, ditch the old 737's, move the forward bookings on to their Buses and establish the base there. It makes sense. But I'm not sure EZY have the spare frames as I said.

I mean, easy competed on most of the routes from EMA in the past, AGP, ALC,PMI,BCN,VCE,EDI,GLA!!!
I also understand that easyjet was never making a loss at EMA, just that it fell stagnant with only 3 based aircraft. If they went for baby, they would automatically move back onto their old routes, in which they knew and know how to fill. They also made huge ancillary revenue from EMA and buying baby would give them the scope to expand this time as apposed to staying stagnant.

Don't forget, this transaction would also give them the oppurtunity to explore BHX as well??!!?

Why should Easy spend money buying Baby, and TUPE-ing Baby staff when, if the pesemists are correct, baby is doomed.

Much better they wait until Baby dies, then move in on the Baby bases, at least those they want.

Personally I still believe reports of Baby's demise are somewhat premature!

ATnotts
 

The problem with waiting is that you can miss the boat and FR would be in like a shot with extra airframes which unlike Easy they have plenty, but not enough drivers if reports of crew shortage are correct, like you I can't see it, baby does not look or feel like an airline that's about to go down the pan and I have seen plenty of them!

My best guess would be that a sale will be agreed before the 20th and the winter program will follow in days if not hours afterwards, fingers crossed

Baby currently fly from EMA to:

Alghero
Alicante
Almeria
Amsterdam
Barcelona
Belfast
Catania
Chambery
Cologne
Corfu
Dubrovnik
Edinburgh
Faro
Geneva
Gibraltar
Glasgow
Ibiza
Jersey
Mahon
Malaga
Malta
Murcia
Naples
Newquay
Nice
Palma de Mallorca
Paris
Prague
Toulouse
Venice
Verona

Which is these routes are doing well and could Easyjet pick up the slack at relatively short notice?

Whilst it isn't the favored outcome by all you would have to expect that if Baby do close the most likely thing to happen is that FR will be in like a shot and saturate the market by opening many of these routes they don't already operate. Would make EMA the largest base in the UK apart from STN??

I have been watching these forums for a while now, and i feel the time is right to put some of my input here.
In my personal opinion i do not believe that Baby will close as they are too much of an established airline brand to go to complete waste. If they are taken over though, the new owner must have deep pockets, and i mean deep ! The amount of debt in that place is surreal, and fleet modernisation has got to be the first thing on the agenda !
I also believe that Baby's decision to close their MAN and CWL bases was the right decision for them as BHD is currently paying off, and its through the winter months which Baby struggled with at CWL and MAN. So, if they judge success purely on that, then its mission accomplished. Now for the summer months, and lets see how they perform !

Sunday

I think that ezy STN is smaller than LGW (50 a/c), LTN, BRS, MAN and LPL in the UK

He was referring to FR and not Easy.

Yeah, sorry perhaps my wording was unclear. I had meant that were FR to take up the slack from a potential Baby closure it would likely make EMA their largest UK base outside STN.

There are routes which Baby currently operate from EMA and FR do not, but the destination airport is already within the existing FR network, such as..

EDI
MAH
NCE
AHO
VRN
MLA
CGN

They could also start up EMA to these among others in order to closely resemble the defunct Baby route...

GNB
PIK
LDY
TPS

And increase frequency on the ones which themselves and Baby both run, such as ALC, PMI, AGP, BCN etc. With all that you'd have a pretty large operation at EMA. Not sure how many extra aircraft they'd need to bring in for all that though?

Likewise Easy could return and copy the baby network on a similar scale? But like someone said both parties would have to react quickly or risk missing the boat.

Sunday8pm:

I suppose I could buy a couple of those routes in your first list - but certainly not EDI, or CGN. The yields and loads on all of these simply wouldn't make them viable.

On the second list LDY is served from BHX, and again, the loads and yields on Glasgow I don't think are that great, and PIK, being where it is, would make it a singularly unattractive destination for them.

If FR have any sense - and commercially they are pretty astute, they would be more likely to reduce capacity on routes where they currently compete with Baby, and thus increase yields than just throw on some extra capacity.

summer charters 2012
 

hi all does anyone know what charters there will be this year, over the last few years theyve all seemed to die away (viking, koralblue, saga, onurair)? thanks for the help :)

Balkan on a Thu, Sat and Sun, and a few BA charters throughout the Summer holidays, thats it... hardly positive!

its nothing to shout about, but in the curent economic times its better than nothing.

Dreamliner for EMA
 

So TOM Have announced the 787 will be operating the EMA-SFB and EMA-CUN from may 2013! Fantastic news for the airport

Whats the likely frequency on the 787 flights??

jet2 new route
 

gran canaria announced may 2013 wonder if anymore routes on the way? :) great news about the 787