ematom1

The East Midlands (as a region) doesn't need more leisure air services, it needs proper scheduled services that link the region into the networks of the major international carriers and global alliances.

Ryanair may carry twice the number of passengers as BA does (according to Michael O'leary on BBC Breakfast this morning) but he does nothing, zip, zilch, nada to assist East Midlands exporters get to their worldwide markets from their local airport. Thankfully FlyBe does, and hopefully bmi Regional will, if they can forge deals with Star Alliance.

I can only cite the instance of Mrs ATNotts who needs to go to Hamburg at the end of this month. Inconvenient connections from EMA cost £ 400.00 plus return, more useful connections from BHX (not even the direct BHX/HAM service), just over half that. I rest my case.

ATNotts,

The reason why it is common practice for airports to list all code share flights on their Arrivals/Departures boards is to provide instant information to all those individuals that require it, whether it be passengers transiting the airport with any given airline or meeters and greeters awaiting their arrival (both of which, as we all know, can be can be less than clear thinking at times). The airport managed it with the BRU flights when they were code shared, but have obviously slipped-up in this case!

As far as the booking process is concerned that is an entirely different matter from the point I was making.

Balair

Last departure of a BMI schemed Airbus


http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/f...h_IMG_0086.jpg

Ryanair expansion for S13 announced on todays East Midlands Today.

1 more airframe,
2 new routes,
Increase in frequency of some existing routes.

So there either has to be enough pax in the East Midlands willing to pay enough for an airline to make a profit or somebody (me or you) has to subsidize the service for the greater good of the region.

If Ryanair can make more money flying people to the Costa's, as a business that is what they should be doing.

Nottingham in particular has some big employers based there; capital one, experian, eon, boots, revenue & customs etc plus reasonable financial and law sectors. If the airport were linked directly to the city centre the demand for business flights both domestic and to Benelux & Germany would increase a little. You'd also need to add to this links to Derby, Leicester and a mainline train station. What I'm driving at is the fact EMA is simply not easy to get to from all of the regions major employment areas.

I think the lack of onward connectivity is a problem, one of my regular trips is to the north of Sweden. Going back years I could use the KLM flights, more recently the Sterling flights to Stockholm, but since their demise I've been using BHX/AMS/ARL with KLM or SAS from LHR.

We must be one of the many local companies that have been forced to use other airports, however the AF tie up is a step in the right direction although the prices I have looked at (for Singapore) do seem quite high.

sunday8pm, I agree!

At least after many decades of prevarication they are making the A453 dual carriageway but completion is a way off.

East Midlands Parkway station would not be so bad if they built a monorail to EMA (compare BHX which has same from International to the terminal) but, in my opinion, what they should have done is divert the railway through the airport and put a station at the airport. As you probably know the tram system is being extended to Clifton (finish circa 2014?) and they have asked for tenders to extend the tram line to EMA but I think we are going to have to wait at least ten years for that to happen if it does!

I think what we are saying is that airports need to have good connections to other parts of the transport system. I recall a journey I made to Basle years ago - flew Easy to Geneva - from touchdown at GVA to sitting in the train was 20 minutes with excellent rail service to Basle (and a lot cheaper than the scheduled airfare from BHX via Lufty!)

With the UK planning system, and the NIMBYs that will oppose and prevaracate at every turn, not to mention the tramline would have to cross into Leicestershire I think 10 years is extremely optimistic!

So all these local businessmen are travelling to BHX and LHR because there isn't a dual carriageway from Nottingham to EMA? EMA does have the M1, A42 and A50 all on it's doorstep so not exactly stuck in the back of beyond!

ATNotts, agreed!

SWBKCB, have you ever driven down the A453 in peak hours (or attempted to?) - also the M1 roundabout near the airport is notorious for bottlenecks with long queues to/from EMA (Friday after about 2 pm is a nightmare!).

Mind you, us locals know the way round but we're not telling anyone!

Anyway, as it is we're slowly clawing our way back to the heights of a few years ago. With the FR expansion, monarch, jet2, tcx, tom and further flybe EMA will be approaching the 5m pax mark again by the end of next year.

You can say same about the M6/M42 at BHX and M4/M25 at LHR. I was making the point that is it really local access that is the reason why EMA doesn't have more 'business' routes? I think it's more likely that there isn't sufficient demand for airlines to make money.

Indeed. We're arguing that improved public transport links will increase demand.

As a business traveller I fly to where I need to go. If the airport is part of an integrated transport system so much the better. However I don't consider it when I book, if it's somewhere I need to visit then I just have to go.

Slightly different if going on holiday though, if I can catch a train or tram virtually to my hotel/apartment then it's a plus point.

So I do agree that a dedicated train/tram station would be good and would encourage people to use public transport to and from EMA. My guess is that the areas such a service connects to would probably benefit from extra visitors who have passed through EMA.

But would it make a major difference to passeger numbers at the airport? Maybe a little but nothing spectacular is my guess.

Air France code share now on ema arrivals and departure boards

That'll be the power of PPRune then!

If I had known what was involved then I wouldn't have started !
Some credit to my assistant also.

Despite Ryanair saying their summer 2013 schedule consists of 38 routes, 2 new ones with 17 increased in frequency etc. there is yet to be a full summer 2013 schedule on the Ryanair website and none of the routes that are up for summer 2013 are showing an increase in frequency. Does anybody know when a full summer 2013 timetable will be released for EMA and more importantly, which 17 routes is it which are getting the extra flights?

My guess would be the Greek routes increasing to twice weekly and maybe the 5 times weekly Faro flight increasing to at least once daily but I can't think what else would increase. EMA already has some of the highest frequency of Ryanair flights the key Spanish, Balearics and Canary Island destinations, will they really get even more???

Do you know I was thinking the same thing. Maybe it is the case that they plan to add more FAO, PMI, AGP, ALC, TFS, ACE flights at a later date after some demand assessment and it still wouldn't surprise me if they squeeze in a daily return to ORK or SNN as well.