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

Ryanair-Warsaw Modlin
 

Ryanair to start Warsaw Modlin from October 26th times and frequencies to be announced

Dreamliner
 

The 787 should be operating on a weekly basis. Brochures are released on 26th with the 2013 programme

Rolling total passengers for year end March 2012

4,221,537 (+4.7% on same time last year)

Improving situation likely to in the short and medium term with a busy summer schedule and routes selling well. Potential Baby closure a cloud on the horizon though.

Jet2 2013
 

gran canaria announced may 2013 wonder if anymore routes on the way?



Another new route Larnaca from may 2013

great news for ema and good news for jet 2 anymore routes on the horison?

Flybe announces East Midlands winter expansion

2 aircraft, 5 routes (all served by Bmibaby)

Jet2 have also announced IBZ, to be operated twice weekly from May 2013.

will jet2 require another a/c based for the new 3 routes? also will flybe be basing a a/c at ema with what frequencys if known yet? thanks :)

Flybe - Really "great news" for EMA!
 

I'm afraid another quasi scheduled bucket and spade IT route by Jet2 hardly qualifies as great news, but a "proper" scheduled, based operations by an airline that bridges the gap between lo-co and full service on meaningful business routes most certainly does.

I'm afraid it does tend to sound the death-knell for at least the business routes currently offered by BMI Baby. Hopefully it doesn't sound the death-knell for Baby full stop.

Looks like EMA will see two based aircraft when Flybe open their base. Could they possibly be EMB-175's?

It must be presumed that with only 2 based aircraft, they will operate early morning and evening flights to CDG and AMS, and EDI, GLA, BHD will be operated on their own aircraft... i'd imagine the frequencies to be 2 or 3x daily, but I'd have thought they'd be on the Dash 8's to begin with, but who knows...

At the moment, Jet2 look to be maintaining 3 aircraft, but long way to go before S13.

Flybe have published their timetable for the new routes online...

(Departs EMA, Arrives at EMA) (Days)

AMS
07:00 - 10:15 (1,2,3,4,5,6)
17:25 - 20:45 (1,2,3,4,5,7)

BHD
08:40 - 08:15 (1,2,3,4,5,6)
17:30 - 17:05 (1,2,3,4,5)
16:15 - 15:50 (7)

EDI
08:55 - 08:30 (1,2,3,4,5,6)
16:25 - 16:00 (1,2,3,4,5,7)
19:55 - 19:30 (1,2,3,4,5,7)

GLA
08:45 - 08:20 (1,2,3,4,5,6)
16:15 - 15:50 (1,2,3,4,5,7)
19:45 - 19:20 (1,2,3,4,5,7)

JER
11:00 - 13:45 (1,5)

CDG
06:45 - 10:35 (1,2,3,4,5,6)
17:05 - 20:35 (1,2,3,4,5,7)

Plenty of room for extra flights throughout the day, the based aircraft only op CDG, AMS and JER... Lets wait and see what happens to WW.

Flybe
 

An e-mail to me this morning from Flybe confirms that the 2 based aircraft at EMA will indeed be EMB-175s.

At a quick glance at the schedules, it seems as though the GLA and EDI routes (and presumably BHD) will be operated by aircraft from those bases so, in the light of the news this afternoon with Baby, I would imagine that a number of new routes will be announced to fill the gaps in the schedules of the 2 based.

Scott

Monarch will start flights to Palma, Malaga, Alicante, Barcelona, and Faro from 'Mid Summer' it has been announced this evening.

Monarch have just announced a new base at East Midlands Airport. Looks like they taking up some of the soon to be ex bmi baby routes.

Baby to close down 9th september 2012 BA/AIG obvs doesnt consider the regional airports/ passengers and staff, only uses the BMI brand for the slots. Too much power for BA to be able to do so. :mad::mad::mad:

ematom1

Sorry mate, but BA (or London Airways) as they should be called, have had bu@@er all interest in airports outside London, unless they run domestic operations to feed the London hubs. The only interest that IAG ever had was in the LHR slots, and Baby's best chance of continuing was to be bought, but losing as much as they do, and not having slots themselves at LHR/LGW made them unattractive even to a daring venture capitalist.

As I suggested a while ago, there were no grounds for optimism for another carrier buying the airline, as there would be extra costs in TUPE-ing staff which, if the potential suitors waited long enough, they would not need to bother with, as they could cherry-pick worthwhile routes. Monarch seem to have done just that, at both EMA and BHX. Monarch's early swoop should stifle any hopes of major expanion by Jet2, and to be honest, I think EMA are better off with a quality carrier such as Monarch.

My best wishes to all those who's jobs are effected by this unfortunate turn of events.

Future
 

From an EMA and not a Baby point of view all the major routes operated by Baby have already been covered, two airlines with bases have been gained. Hopefully some opportunities will arise for flight and ground crews.

Perhaps other operators are also looking to expand at EMA.


Centre cities

Jet2 Expansion
 

Two Years on Eight New Routes - Success at East Midlands Encourages Jet2.com Flight Expansion | Jet2.com

04th May 2012

- The North’s favourite leisure airline launches eight new city, sun and ski destinations
- Further investment in the region with the creation of 100 new jobs
- Additional aircraft for 2013, increasing capacity to over 500,000
- Full 2013 programme now on sale, giving passengers even greater choice
- 23 destinations from East Midlands from £31.99 including taxes

Jet2.com has today given a boost to East Midlands passengers affected by the bmibaby news launching EIGHT new destinations for Winter 2012/13 and Summer 2013 to Dubrovnik, Menorca, Nice, Ibiza, Larnaca and Gran Canaria and ski routes to Chambery and Geneva. This is great news for East Midlands travellers who can be assured of award winning customer service at low fares from their local airport.


East Midlands Airport MD Brad Miller with Jet2.com MD Ian Doubtfire at the announcement of Jet2.com's New York flights.

The addition of these new routes brings the airline’s total city, sun and ski destinations to 23 – substantial expansion for Jet2.com at East Midlands Airport which falls in the month of its second anniversary of operations from the airport.

To serve these exciting 23 destinations now available, three times the number the airline launched with in 2010, an additional 737 aircraft will arrive at the airport for summer 2013, increasing capacity to more than half a million seats – a 36 per cent increase on this year. This will give a significant boost to the local economy with 100 new jobs being created, bringing the total number of people employed by Jet2.com at the airport to 200.



Ian Doubtfire, Managing Director of Jet2.com, said: “Many local travellers have been affected by the decision to cancel bmibaby operations from East Midlands Airport. This is why we have decided today to launch our great value flights to eight new popular destinations, including the ski gateways of Chambery and Geneva. It is important to us that we give people continuity and ensure they can still enjoy travelling to their favourite destinations from their local airport.”

In addition to launching the new routes, Jet2.com has also put on sale 2013 flights to Mainland Spain, Canaries, Eastern Med destinations and Portugal. This means the full summer 2013 programme is now on sale for eager sunseekers. An increase in weekly flights from 31 to 49 will also give holidaymakers greater flexibility in tailoring their holiday plans to suit their needs.



Ian added: “It is undoubtedly a very exciting time for us at East Midlands Airport as we celebrate our second anniversary. We’ve been thrilled with the success of the past year but are very much looking forward to the next year, which will bring to the region more fantastic destinations, a new aircraft, even more capacity plus a further jobs boost. We are committed to East Midlands Airport and to giving our local passengers an unrivalled choice of city, sun and ski destinations.”

The EIGHT new destinations now available from East Midlands Airport are: Dubrovnik, Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Larnaca, Menorca, Nice plus the ski routes of Chambery and Geneva. Flights from East Midlands start from £31.99, including taxes.



East Midlands customers can also enjoy great value city and sun package holidays with Jet2holidays – which offers flexible durations for stays in accommodation from 2-5 star hotels and apartments from self-catering to all inclusive.

Well done to EMA, I hope that the excellent BmiBaby staff will be able to find new opportunities with the new crowd etc. Looks like EMA is picking up now. Interestin times ahead.