finally a little bit of good news for ema hopefully the new MD will come in and do something with the airport it needs.

They will never level it :E.......... good news though, some of the potholes seem to be getting filled, now all they need is to sort out the p*ss poor designed road past DHL that is slowly sinking into the hole it was built on. Often amazed me in this day and age that they can still build a site where the road crumbles quicker than a Cadburys flake, that the security gates are positioned so the rear of the tankers all but hang out into the road and then put them on a corner and hill for good measure, never install initially the drainage to cope with any rain on the said hill, that they build a the site entrances to DHL and camoflague them with foilage to turn them into blind access and exit points. do not initially build a parking zone for the trucks arriving meaning they use the access road, and then put in traffic calming bollards without proper lighting and just past a bus stop so they become more a hazard than a help when a bus is stationary.

Balair,

I can see the 533,099 August provisional stats you quote on the CAA website in the summary spreadsheet but when I total the EMA domestic and international pax I get 512,894, a difference of 40,205. Not such good news.

I don't have much experience with UKCAA data so am i missing something that explains the difference ?

Cheers

Jon

Jon,

I was merely reporting the figures as shown; these are after all only provisional and have often been known to be incorrect. We will have to wait for the final ones to know what the exact position is, but any positive movement would be welcome.

WW cancels Wed CGN rotation, CGN selling poorly
 

Just to report that I got a message from TinyTown that my 22nd Dec flight EMA-CGN has been canceled, they re-booked me on 21st Dec. I'm given no choice but to accept this (no refund option). The Wed flights are now completely gone from the schedule, actually. Being from B'ham, I'm obviously grinning about the re-occurrence of the eternal CGN-curse, valid for all of the Midlands (there was even a CVT-CGN once) :}. Will keep my eye open for other travel options, but just giving WW 50GBP as a gift to 'honour' their effort seems stupid. Checking the '31 day view' for prices shows this route sells really poorly, even before Christmas. If they cancel it soon, at least I'll get the 50GBP back.

WW
 

I still think it was a poor route from the start, FRA would of been better, but lets not forgeth most of the pax would of been business pax and would require two flights a day. Even better why not take on a route ryanair are stopped for the winter or all together. Mardid, Milan or Rome?

Wednesday flights to such destinations in the LCC sector are notoriously known for being poor with passenger numbers.

As for saying the route is selling poorly because of the prices, well that to me is not a good enough source. I know where you are coming from but the prices I have checked on the route for travel in November / December seem pretty reasonable and what I would expect to see the prices at in at this stage in advance. Compare the prices to those with Germanwings from say Manchester and this must mean that the 4U routes are doing very poor???

I hope to see these routes stay and I hope baby commit to them and give them chance to grow. Something I think baby let themselves down on sometimes is not giving their new routes the chance to show off the potential...

CWL loses MUC Wednesday rotation too...
 

Baby's problem is lack of advertising. I have yet to see any advertisements in the local press for their CWL-MUC route. How would anybody know it is running? Similarly, they need to advertise on the other side of the route. Get the Germans travelling on these services. They dont even have the Baby website translated into other languages putting them at a huge disadvantage.

Agreed! On their old website they had at least four language choice selections. Since they revamped it I can not see any options for these. They are really popular/well known over here in the markets they serve in the UK, especially the Midlands EMA area. There is no reason why they can not be as well know in their overseas destinations for inbound tourists to these base airports.

OK, agreed, but low prices (12-23 GBP + tax) are an initial indicator. I'd surely like WW to keep EMA-CGN, but I'm not optimistic. Another disadvantage is the late arrival on Sundays, which makes it impossible to travel further e.g. to Birmingham by public transport. BE's BHX/MAN-DUS is the benchmark. Add fuel and parking fees at EMA vs. train to BHX, and I'm cheaper off with BE for B'ham - West Germany.
Germans are very critical towards new airlines names, they generally much prefer to use known big names. I think even BE have that problem to some extend, they are just not as well known as BA. Sorry, folks, the CGN-curse is here to stay.

Possibly true, although bmibaby could get much more out of these routes by perhaps having more of a connection on the German routes with it's low cost sister from another mother 'Germanwings'.

If it was marketed properly over in Germany they could potentially advertise the flights as perhaps Germanwings 'operated by bmibaby' for the German passengers and then vice versa here in the UK where bmibaby is a better known brand for us. . .

Maybe this is better off in the bmibaby thread though....

Germans don't demand cheap and nasty - they demand quality and aren't afraid to pay a little more for it.

Hence the difference between Germanwings and Baby; and Air Berlin and most of the rest of the european budget carriers. End of!

bmibaby and Germanwings
 

In case you haven't checked, all bmibaby routes are listed in the dropdown menus on the Germanwings website and vv. If you select CGNEMA you are redirected to bmibaby.com.

This makes a lot more sense than spending the kind money needed to create brand recognition in an untested market for a single daily flight. Should bmibaby begin to offer CGN flights from other UK bases then I wouldn't be surprised if an advertising push was made as the economics of it would be juistified. Until then listing the routes on the Germnawings website makes sense.

Cologne
 

Just think what it would have been like if they had stuck with the original hair brained plan to operate it from EMA and BHX.

Centre cities

fr ema
 

Has anyone sat down and worked out Ryanair line of flyin for each a/c this winter

Flew in to EMA again this weekend through International Arrivals.It really is the tradesman's entrance to the UK isn't it!

The apron bus drops you off, in the rain, by a barrier, then you walk between the buildings to get to the door, the last few feet have covered walkway.

The apron layout and all the bussing required is terrible - as we have previously commented on, but surely they can stretch to putting a fully covered walkway the full distance from the apron bus drop off point to the arrivals doors, International and Domestic.

Shabby!

I have similar thoughts everytime I pass through the airport; it is one of the worst arrival experiences at any airport I have used, both visually and practically.
Even if you are lucky enough to arrive when it is not raining, and consequently do not get soaked, you still have the pleasure of being herded through the maze of rusting barriers with litter blowing around your feet until you eventually reach the delights of the cargo shed - sorry it has now been designated the arrivals hall hasn't it...!

Even if it is eventually built, I expect it will be some considerable time before the proposed elevated walkway is operational. In the meantime I agree with egnxema, something needs to be done to improve the current situation - Shabby is a very appropriate description!

Quite frankly I don't think the Departures area is any better. Funnelled into a low-ceilinged security area where I was appalled to find that I was forced to buy clear plastic bags after I'd been through X-ray etc! What a rip off. I didn't have change and they refused to give me back my toothpaste etc until I'd been to the currency exchange and changed a fiver! I know one is supposed to use a plastic bag but that's really just so you don't leave them all in a sponge bag. My one or two items were loose and clearly visible. What is the problem?!!
And from there you're herded straight into a vast duty free shop whether you like it or not. And what's with this absence of water fountains everywhere now with only hot water in the loos? Can't you wash your hands with cold water? So wasteful.
I was at Gate 1 and I was not the only one who struggled to find it. Signage is hopeless amongst the shiny lights of "duty-free land."
Altogether the worst airport experience I've had in years. What a hell-hole. Almost makes Luton seem pleasant.

Oh , careful now.

Ryanair winter 2010/11
 

FR-

I have noted down the schedule a couple of times since it was first released and not too many changes although after BHD was withdrawn it has been reshuffled.

Most days four are required but some just three although they are busy.

There are still away based aircraft as well GRO (3), ALC (3) & FAO (2) DUB (3) - a week that is not a day!!

I think Wednesday was one of busier days with 10 or 11 based flights.

It seems quieter than last year especially I think Mondays, which see just three based being used.

I have to say that is just a sample check in late November.

Pete