I was in the control tower just coming off my break when I saw it on short final ! Nice to see something different !

Good news for East Midlands, Loganair have announced 2 new routes to Edinburgh and Glasgow, Flights commence from October 27th 2019.

GLA 0655 - 0800 EMA = Sa
GLA 1030 - 1135 EMA = M-F
GLA 1905 - 2010 EMA = Su
GLA 1945 - 2050 EMA = M-F

EMA 0830 - 0940 GLA = Sa
EMA 1210 - 1320 GLA = M-F
EMA 2040 - 2150 GLA = Su
EMA 2120 - 2230 GLA = M-F

EMA 0830 - 0940 EDI = M-Sa
EMA 1415 - 1525 EDI = F
EMA 1440 - 1550 EDI = M-Th
EMA 1740 - 1850 EDI = F&Su
EMA 1800 - 1910 EDI = M-Th
EMA 1955 - 2105 EDI = M-F&Su
EMA 2110 - 2220 EDI = F

EDI 0650 - 0800 EMA = M-Sa
EDI 1200 - 1310 EMA = Su
EDI 1430 - 1540 EMA = M-F&Su
EDI 1600 - 1710 EMA = M-F
EDI 1930 - 2040 EMA = M-F&Su

Loganair
 

Just replacing Flybe who are dropping these routes

Bad news for East Midlands as it represents another capacity reduction on scheduled services, and Flybe is also dropping EMA-JER which means the airport will be without a link to the island that has been operated almost since day one. The changes leave Flybe with just Amsterdam and Belfast after the end of October as far as I can tell. It is sad to see GLA drop to a twice daily ERJ-145 when in the good old days BD did it three times a day with a 105-seat DC-9-30 / 100-seat Fokker 100.

??

It's a capacity increase on EDI - 2 x 78 presently = 156 and 4 x 49 = 196.

GLA goes up to three a day from early next year so just about steady on capacity but on both routes, there is a big improvement to flight timings.

It was predicable really with Flybe likely preparing to link into Virgin's plans.

Luckily for EMA Loganair have stepped up to cover BMI and these routes, talking about the previous links to Edinburgh and Glasgow at one point didn't you have Easyjet/Go with 319's/733's and Baby with 737's? Sure I flew both at one point up there.

Assume Belfast and Amsterdam will cease with flybe too in the coming months, will be intriguing to see if Loganair further expand at EMA or maybe Aurigny or Jet2 can pick up Jersey? Loganair to BFS and would be nice to see if KLM come be enticed to AMS with better flight time options and at least 2 x daily.

Its a capacity reduction when also taking account of no more Jerseys (whether the increase on GLA takes place remains to be seen - no third flight on the Loganair website for early 2020 yet). And the GLA timings are hopeless for anyone needing to fly northbound on a weekday morning (albeit a 10 minute improvement over the current BEE schedule).

Quote from the Loganair press release:

'Early in the new year, Loganair will upgrade the Glasgow-East Midlands service to three flights in each direction per weekday and introduce a much-improved, customer-friendly timetable on the route, enabling business travellers to enjoy a working day in either destination. The upgrade will take place as soon as operational resources permit.'

As a potential user of the Glasgow and Edinburgh services I see this is a service improvement with frequency increases and a jet aircraft. More importantly, the service might be more reliable - I use the train these days because of the regular Flybe delays and cancellations. It looks as though prices start at £49.99 which is more than Flybe's lower price but the Loganair fare normally includes free hold baggage so will work out cheaper for some. If Flybe drop Amsterdam hopefully that might lead to a better service too and I would imagine the Jersey loss will get picked up by someone, if only for summer.

The jungle drums seem really quiet

Roll on summer looking a little better foreign airlines include Alba star(2),Air europa,Balkan(2) and Freebird (2) ,Cargo sees the introduction of Kalitta on the CVG route from March

I was chatting to a couple of mates in a pub and was shot down by them when I recalled EMA having Cat III approaches at both ends before the runway lengthening in 2000.

Am I imagining it? I’m sure I remember a Cat III approach to 09 in a F100 in 1999.

Never had anything but Cat I on 09, ILS is capable but not lighting

I don't know if anyone knows if there are any plans for Cat III on 09. I wonder if the airport sees little benefit from it. I suppose the number of occasions when an operator is unable to land on RW27 in the event of Cat III weather conditions are very few, The main issue would be tailwind with aircraft probably restricted to a maximum tailwind component of 10kts or less, but generally winds are light in foggy conditions so this isn't an issue.

Also the RW09 ILS (ILS Classification II/D/2 I believe) allows Lower than Standard Category I operations. I don't know whether this has been utilised, but I believe it gives an RVR minima of 400m, although I stand to be corrected on that.

I did wonder at the time of the major runway surfacing project whether that would be an opportunity to upgrade the lighting on RW09 - notably the need for TDZ lights, but it obviously didn't happen then. In the context of this discussion, Birmingham airport has been without even Cat I ILS on RW33 for over 6 months now and will remain so 'until further notice' apparently, but I'm not aware of there being any major disruptions over this winter so far?

Can think of a handful of occasions in 30 years where Cat 111 on 09 would have allowed traffic otherwise lost to land, most will take up to 10kts tailwind and not often more than that in low vis.. Its all down to cost benefit, interestingly few operators were bothered with the reduced minima for 09 - not sure if it involved extra costs for them in training etc. Only downside is making ATC work harder if departures need the other end!

Rats! I’ve just lost a bet!
I was quite certain I’d done a cat 3 to 09 before the runway extension 20 years ago!

Better go and sit in a darkened room. 😂

Summer 2020
 

Does anyone have any idea what will be based at EMA this summer? And is there any interesting W patterns or charter carriers?