EZY LGW
 

Ncl to LGW has appeared on the easyjet booking site tonight. Looks like twice daily except Saturdays.

alex207....This is exactly what is happening at E. Midlands with BMI....morning and evening Brussels and lunchtime Frankfurt rotation.

EASYJET
 

The new Gatwick service starts 30th March. Mon - Fri & Sun twice daily, Sat no service.

The Sunday rotations are both Gatwick based a/c

Mon- Fri & Sun morning departure....0710 from Gatwick...0705 from NCL the evening departure is a Gatwick based a/c.

What happens to the 0840 Gatwick based a/c after its arrival at Ncl each morning. Could there be some new routes?

Finally, was worried it was never going to happen! Just need Jet2's instalment now.

That is very interesting and I hope that there are new routes, with 10.5 hours between the flights I certainly hope they can fit something in. I just have a very horrible feeling that it may "replace" a NCL based aircraft, operating effectively as a NCL based aircraft night stopping at LGW. We'll have to see what the next few weeks have in store. So are both flights NCL-LGW-NCL every day operated by LGW based aircraft?

Cheers,
Martin

It was already posted further back on the thread...

NCL-based aircraft: NCL-LGW-AGP-NCL
LGW-based aircraft: LGW-NCL-AGP-LGW

This allows for an early flight in each direction.

It would seem the evening rotation is a LGW based aircraft too.

Hopefully this will do well especially with the amount of people who will probably want to get to LGW to use other EZY and competitor routes. Shame there is no rotation on a Saturday though.

For business people travelling from LGW, it's less good. The morning departure is fine but getting back to LGW at 10.20pm might put people off (it would me!).

On BMI, again good news but lots of spare capacity during the day so hopefully at least one other new route to be announced?

I am really surprised that BE haven't considered a double daily to CWL (morning and evening) to go after T3's customer base and the more cost conscious customers.

BA LHR Route
 

I never realised how popular the NCL-LHR route was!

Just looked on thebasource.com for Septembers available seats (I had some spare time) and in September there was 49196 seats available with passenger figures of 43782 for that month. This gives an impressive 88.9% load factor and that was with around 20 of the 160-odd flights being a 188-seat A321 and 70 being a 162-seat A320

Travelling on the route in February and was expecting maybe 70% at best (with maybe a seat to myself!) but these figures seem pretty good for the route! Does it get quieter in winter months or is it always this busy?

I remember reading somewhere that BA's NCL-LHR was the hardest domestic flight to get a standby on due to the high pax numbers.

Yes during my OH's brief stint at BA we always booked a guaranteed seat NCL - LHR and vice versa through Hotline as opposed to standby. Not worth a risk if your connecting at LHR to a flight with a near empty first class with a premium standby! :)

Good few days for Newcastle with Brussels announcement yesterday,Gatwick today and the launch of Aer lingus to Dublin tomorrow!

Indeed, just need another tech problem for YL-LCL :ok:

Is this the third incarnation for NCL-DUB in green? I recall it was launched with the SF340 as EI308 / 309 from memory. Did they not serve NCL with the A320 at some point after the Commuter operation was axed?

S1E - Yes, also used Fk.50's. The 320 was some odd mid-afternoon affair - didn't last. Funny that!:rolleyes:

I think they've got it right this time.....will watch the monthly pax figures carefully to see how it goes...they are looking for about 60,000 pax a year according to something I read. Will Ryanair react?

The only noble thing Ryanair can do is pull out and let EI go 3+ daily. And then, if they insist on continuing to operate from NCL they should tap into some unserved markets, maybe start up BGY again and see how HHN goes. Then when it fails, let someone like LH/BM step in to do FRA and they we'll be Ryanair free :D unless they keep NCL-GRO x4 weekly instead of doing the, again, noble thing and leaving it for someone like TOM, or letting Vueling come in and do BCN or more easyjet to BCN or anything that involves FR leaving NCL. I'm sorry but I just don't like them. I may like them more if they suddenly based 5 aircraft here and started 30 new routes (without threatening TOM/TCX/LS/EZY) but the way they chop and change that aint never gonna happen and I wouldn't rely on them like some airports do.

Good grief... :rolleyes:

BA LHR
 

I believe it remains the hardest domestic from/to LHR to get a standby.

88% LF seems about right, however there are some periods when they cut frequency to 5 or even 4 rotations per day and these cuts dont seem to be the same periods each year and are not always in the quieter months. Dont understand.

Gatwick. As expected but agree the evening times are not great. However very good news that the route is to continue.

Suspect it's one of the easier routes to plan in a reduction if short of aircraft/crews, etc

LHR
 

They do usually however schedule the reduced frequencys about 10/11 months in advance. Dont see how its easier to plan reductions on this service than on other routes particularly with the load factors achieved.

When ever there is stress in the system, domestic routes are the first to go - presumably because this cause least inconvenience to pax?

Also, bmi Regional talking about expansion:

bmi airline chiefs in talks over more new routes from Newcastle International Airport - Journal Live