Well that's unexpected given the high popularity of all of Monarch's EMA routes. All of them have a fairly high load factor every day of the year so I'm surprised to hear that they are pulling out completely as it wasn't that long ago that we were hearing rumours about MON expanding it's EMA schedule.

It is a shame and I don't think it's their wisest move given how popular they seemed. Hopefully another airline will see it like that and utilise it to their benefit.

But the question is *what* other airline?

FR, LS, BE, BM, TOM, TCX all have their own individual places in the market. Only really LS, TOM or TCX overlap into the MON marketshare but all already have their own plans. When WW closed any of them could have chosen to taken up the slack in routes but, apart from LS picking up a couple of routes, they didn't - they focussed on sticking to their existing plans and MON came in to do the Holiday Traffic, with BE picking up the business side, and MON did it well.

If MAG/EMA wants to recover the loss of routes and seat capacity when MON leave then it's almost certain to need to attract a new airline into the void. But who is going to want to do it? Might this be a good opportunity to bring in some of the 'big hitters' of the ilk of Virgin Red (Who already trade well with MAG), KLM Cityhopper (Who already codeshare on EMA flights) or Maybe even Air Asia (seeing as they sponsor Leicester City FC and would have better access to the massive asian community in the East Midlands)? Especially with the recently reported mid-term plans to move EMA into some of the longhaul Asian and US markets who have demand, but no supply, in the EMA catchment area.

I say, bring back easyjet.

You may say it, but there is no chance whatsoever of that happening, as is the case with those airlines listed by Burnie5204.
EMA's management have screwed-up badly over the years by not providing the facilities to cater for the business sector, leaving them over reliant on the volatile leisure market.

It's a shame because a few years ago I'd agree but I don't miss them one bit nowadays. In my view they have increasing demonstrated their lack of vision when it comes to routes and scheduling decisions, as was the case the entire time they were at EMA. That company makes quite clear they have more commitment to certain airports than others, letting smaller bases suffer at the expense of larger ones. Like they did in the past, they won't give EMA the commitment it deserves.

I know there will be some who won't agree as they are already the dominant airline, but I think FR would be the best. I think EMA's biggest problem isn't the amount of airlines but the range of routes it serves. As Balair says it's become far too dominated by the leisure market. If it were LS it would probably be more ALC, PMI, TFS... same old boring stuff.

FR I think would have more prospect of flying a better mix of routes (as they currently do) with cities as well as the bucket and spade market. Possible gaps I see for FR are places like Bologna, Lisbon, Oslo, Vilnius or bringing back Bratislava or Marrakech for example.

Is it time for Norwegian to begin the march northwards.

Either that or MAG offer EZY a carrot to base a couple back @ EMA

Strange decision from Monarch but as we dont know the full facts its just speculation.

The driver behind Monarch leaving EMA will be a simple one - it doesn't make money.

The reason that they aren't making money is that there's been for a while over capacity on the same old. same old routes that the world and his dog are serving and the market is saturated.

FR, LS and the principal tour operators will be more than happy to see reduced seat availability, and thus higher yields on these bucket and spade roues, which in the end will be better for them, and better for the airport.

Monarch entered the EMA market almost as a kneejerk reaction to Baby closing down, and probably didn't bagain for Jet 2 to up their presence quite as promptly as they did, and it is Monarch that have "blinked first" and departed the fray.

But assuming ZB had good load factors as was often said, then surely there isn't over capacity. Could be a case of high LF's but low yields, but doesn't mean another airline couldn't make it work out for them.

I am guessing that it's high LF and low yields which are the problem.

Given the "catchment areas" (and on another thread this whole question has been discussed) it is surprising that EMA has more available seats, and carries more PAX to some of the major Med. destinations than BHX. The problem is that if you lay all these seats on, then it's better they are sold than not, as any revenue is always better than none. If "the price is right", many passengers will "come on down" to the airport where the best prices are available.

Now that Monarch has blinked (or woken up and smelt the coffee) I therefore believe the seat availability will go down, and the revenue up, which will be of considerable benefit of both FR and LS in particular.

Another consideration is that they may have simply cannibalised their existing customer base in the midlands. With Monarch an established presence in BHX and LTN you do wonder how much of the passenger base attracted to EMA we're existing Monarch customers. It may not be that EMA has performed poorly per se, it just may have diluted the performance elsewhere. If so, retrenchment back to the bigger bases is a sensible strategy.

LBA may be different in the sense that Monarch were more of an unknown quantity in Yorkshire.

Blimey didn't take FR long to make an announcement > Malta flights added 16:42: East Midlands Today ..... Ryanair is launching a new route from East Midlands Airport to Malta.
It will fly twice weekly from April 2015.


Apologies if posted before but this was on East Midlands news this afternoon.

Malta
 

Will it end up as a friendly swap with Ryanair transferring BHX -Malta to East Midlands and Monarch starting BHX?

I suppose we will find out soon enough when Ryanair release their 2015 summer schedule.

It would not be the first time routes have switched although Ryanair do operate certain routes from both bases.

Pete

Is it right that also LS are dumping CDG? Seems odd that no-one can make that work...

jdcg
Maybe the market just isn't there!!


V.

Ryanair Summer 2015
 

Ryanair is to step forward and fill the gap left by Monarch with the new Malta routes and extra flights to:


Alicante
Faro
Lanzarote
Malaga
Palma de Mallorca
Tenerife


All of which are said to go on sale next week.


Interestingly it is reported they will have 36 routes in Summer 2015 (compared to 38 this summer), which I make including the new Malta route means three routes are being axed. I expect Cork to be one of them.


Source: Ryanair steps in to fill Monarch routes at East Midlands Airport | Derby Telegraph

So dependent upon which routes may be closed, and the number of weekly flights that they are increasing by on those routes they should be able to achieve this without increasing capacity.

I'm always very sceptical about Ryanair claims of "new" services and "extra flights" as there is occasionally some PR license used - e.g. the extra flight to Alicante might be just in July and August.

The devil is very much in the detail - and what is published today, may not be the reality in 12 months time.

I tend to agree but at least they have shown some sort of commitment to East Midlands. In fairness it has always seemed one of their better UK bases in terms of new routes and expansions. It's good to see signs that is still the case as I worried their new focus on primary airports and business pax could lure them away from East Midlands.

East Mids
 

It's difficult to see any focus on business pax from the list of destinations posted above!

I know that but what I mean is that despite Ryanair's more general focus towards business and primary airports, they still seem to be expanding at East Midlands (a smaller, regional mainly leisure based airport).


For instance we have seen evidence of them moving flights from LPL to MAN and now from PIK to GLA. I was a bit concerned the new strategy might lure some traffic away from EMA to BHX for example but the extra flights is a kind of reassurance.

Rolling Year Stats to end July 14

4,420,463

An increase of 7.8% compared to previous year.

I wonder if Jet2 are increasing EMA ops on the back of Monarch's news, as their f acebook page state they have 'big plans' to celebrate their birthday, starting wednesday'.

Might just be a celebration, but, you never know.....

Jet2 Tunisia for Summer 2015
 

Looking on Social Media Tunisia seems to be a new route going to be put on sale from EMA. Was shown in pictures from the celebrations for 5 years at EMA. :ok:

Jet2.com
 

Seems to be some shuffling around going on for Summer 2015.


As far as I am aware the current changes are:


Jersey and Pula (Croatia) have been removed. (Along with Murcia and Paris that's now 4 routes they are axing for next summer).


Prague has reduced to 2x weekly throughout the summer and is now flying on Monday's and Friday's.


Slight increase to my knowledge on Malaga and Palma routes.

Jet2.com
 

And Tunisia now on sale on Wendesdays from May 2015! :ok:

Wither East Midlands Airport?
 

Noting that Monarch have indicated they are closing their operation where I wonder does this end. East Midlands is beginning to look like an airline graveyard.

PS I'm to ruddy idle to fly from aywhere else as its on the doorstep!

Whither. The parcels operation?..

Whither East Midlands Airport?
 

What do I do wrap up in brown paper and parcel tape and address myself to Malaga?

Do Jet2, Ryanair, Thomas Cook or Thomson not fly to Malaga?

Doubt whether the loss of a two aircraft operation will have that big an impact on the overall operation of the airport - difficult as it is for those involved.

The airport has punched way above it's weight on the traditional sunshine routes for a few years now, and yields for all carriers have probably suffered.

The departure of Monarch will in all probability result in some consolidation, passenger numbers wise, but better times, financially, for the remaining operators on these routes.

To be honest, I'd lose a deal more sleep if business routes were being hacked, but sadly there are precious few to hack at.

Exactly, there's more to an airport (especially to EMA) than passengers, and EMA has been extremely successful in the cargo department, and with the planned expansion of DHL things will only get better.

Monarch of all I survey
 

Yep but I prefers Monarch

Ryanair
 

Any substance to the rumour that FR are to commence East Midlands - Frankfurt Hahn?

Balair

Depends where you heard the rumour from. HHN has mysteriously appeared in the drop down menu for ages but only when you edit a flight search (ie. not on the main homepage), so if you're looking at that then there's most likely nothing of it.

No I haven't seen that, just heard it from two individuals who work at the airport. No idea of their source.

Balair

Jet2-Murcia
 

Jet 2 Murcia back on sale for 2015,Alicante and Malaga back to daily

East Midlands closed?
 

Reports of a Jet2 aircraft in an incident. Maybe minor, arrivals board showing 3 diverts and no arrivals after the Jet2 Ibiza arrival at 20:54.

Looks like it was relatively minor. RYR from Murcia is just waiting confirmation of a R/W inspection. First to land now 10m final.

Twitter report of smoke in the cabin on landing?

jet2 EMA Emergency
 

All slides deployed. R1 didn't deploy correctly, all twisted.

Any media links yet?