Why drive when you can go from your local airport?

By the time you've driven to MAN, LHR etc, parked, checked in & done all the other things, you've probably not saved any time/money than if you went via one of the European hubs.

You'll probably find alot of the people who travel on the Air France, Lufthansa & KLM flights from BHX are connecting with long haul flights at these hub's.

Fried Chicken

This is true, a friend of mine who works for aviance at BHX told me that on the Air France and KLM flights that as much as 80% of the pax are transfer, therefore although we have service to AMS and CDG to serve city-to-city pax, EMA currently offers no real transfer opportunities. bmi regional does interline with other carriers at BRU, but this is not a major hub in the same league as AMS, CDG or FRA. The only obvious issues I can see with any hub carrier or their subsidiaries launching flights to EMA, are slot availability and the risk of cannibalising their flights from BHX.

Appears runway is current closed for snow clearance. Many of the BHX diverts headed for EMA?

Snow's early this year ay?!

A quote from "The Hindu" RE UKIA

A Boeing-767 will operate on the Nottingham-Islamabad route, and the frequency of flights will be increased from two a week to six in January.

The airline will later launch flights from Britain to Lahore and Karachi, he said. PIA is providing ground handling facility to UK International at Islamabad international airport.

That can only be done when G-CEMK arrives. Does anyone know when its due into EMA, I thought that it was expected here this month. It is nice to see some early positive planning from UKIA, although I don't really know when to expect the B787 order they are planning.

SAM-EMA

sam i heard it's been delayed off its C check so bit like the first plane, a waiting game!. I know of 2 Pilots who have joined recently so all going well on that front!:\

With 738 orders from 51 airlines, it might be some time before we see a 787 in that tasteful shade of purple!

R5

Early next year now, apparently. EMA-SHJ-ISB was meant to go to 3x week starting December 9th (Sunday departure to add to the existing Tuesday and Friday, leaving Thursday as the "down" day) - not sure whether that's still happening or not?

Was told 160 pax on one of the inbounds last week, and some very good advance booking figures for December.

UKIA's call sign mysteriously changed to "Magenta" (instead of Uniform-Kilo-India) a couple of weeks ago although it seems to have subsequently changed back again - even the pilots didn't seem aware of the new callsign. If "magenta" is indeed UKIA's new callsign, I suspect this is indicative of the colour the airline believes its painted its aeroplane.

A

Saw a ex thomas cook A320 leave EMA this morning, about 10:45 ish, had no thomas cook logo on the tail and no thomas cook text on the fuselage, some black text above the windows but couldnt make it out...

Im guessing its going on lease?

Any ideas?

That aircraft you saw would most probably have been an ex Mytravel aircraft. I think they are now on to their second aircraft to paint into the TCX livery.

Yes it is ex MYT - Registstration: G-DHJZ. For those who are interested, it was the plane that diverted to MAN on the night of our snow.

SAM-EMA

Any truth in the rumour that easyJet are pulling totally off of the CIA route to launch another Spanish destination? I know it has been heavily cut back since Ryanair changed their timings and baby launched BHX-FCO, but there must be a reason it has been kept at just 3x a week, which surely can't be competitive.

Has anybody else heard that Tfly are increasing their presence on the EMA-TFS route to compete with Ryanair? Apparently FR are doing really well on this route, and Tfly want a slice of the action.

Yes the Ryanair flights to TFS are doing very very well, not only with loads but the money spent on board aswell ;) bring on more sunshine routes, malta and malaga please

Lee

Sterling

Flew EMA-CPA-EMA on 23rd and 25th this weekend.

Would say load was about 60 in both directions. the majority were Danes by the sounds of conversations at the gate.

I hope Sterlings flights do well.

Their ex-Maersk aircraft are a bit tired on the inside, with the hybrid scheme more than a bit dull. But the flights arrived early in both directions.

CPH is something to behold - by fare the most efficient airport I have travelled through. From aircraft to rail platform, including collecting baggage, in one non-stop strole. Then CPH to the Central Station is just 2 stops - about ten mins on the train, for DKK28,75 - about £3.00.

All this makes Copenhagen a great City Break. The City is good - compact enough to walk round. but man - is it expensive!!

Typically a 0.5L of beer would cost you 50DKK (£5.00+) . They bhest place we found price wise was an Irish Pub just off Vesterbro where Guiness is 28DKK.


One thing that is SO annoying at EMA is the arrivals area just before Passport control.

When our flight arrived (approx 60 pax) ours was the only flight in the building. 3 Circusair staff stood watching, hands in pockets, as we all had to walk up and down, up and down, up and down the pens.

Why not open the gates?? It really is not that difficult. Queue management is needed WHEN THERE IS A QUEUE. (Try managing a 2 hour queue outfront of LHR T3 - there's a challenge)

Just a gripe - but with the increasing number of inbound pax in to EMA this is just one of the simple things that EMA could do to make the EMA experience better.

A rumour at CGN is making rounds that bmi regional will launch a daily noon-time EMA-CGN flight on 11FEB08 with an ERJ135.

This coinciding with the withdrawal of EZY from EMA-CGN on 06JAN08 and the withdrawal of TUIFly from BHX-CGN on 29MAR08.

Any intelligence on that? Does bmi regional have spare capacity at noon at EMA?

Their Summer schedule shows it would just about be possible to fit in a CGN rotation between the morning and early afternoon BRU flights; this would give an arrival time in CGN of approximately 12.30 local.

Let's hope this happens as it would be a shame to loose this route from EMA.

You are spot on - details for Cologne are:

STA 1235 STD 1305 - flight numbers BD211/212

EZY have reduced CIA to introduce BCN

When they pull CGN are they replacin git with a daily PMI?

egnxema

IIRC the CGN is replaced by PMI at 3/wk and an increase in the GVA frequency from daily to 11/wk (double daily Fr Sa Su Mo). This is for the winter timetable and I would guess will change for summer - again I seem to remember EZY said PMI would increase to daily some time in the future.

egnx
Totally agree with the immigration queue comment, mickey mouse springs to mind, Disney run their queueing system the same way so folk keep on moving.
By all means if there are 300 pax arriving at the same time, but 1 flight of 60 won't take long to clear unless of course there is only 1 person at immigration control. :\