Some very good posts while I've been away. I agree with most of what has been said and hope the Jet 2 rumour is fulfilled.

There was a very interesting article in The Times about Regional Airports inter alia Ryanair cut backs at Manchester and the figure of 5 million pax per year is apparently the magic figure whereby revenues from retail etc become really meaningful to the airport, hence the special offers made to Lo-cost operators to try and achieve this goal.

Will NCL maintain it in 2009?

Jamesair

4.791 million shown in the CAA stats from June 08 to May 09.
Same period in previous year 5.417 million.

:eek:

that makes depressing reading indeed !!

Jet2
 

New for S10:

Dalaman, Crete, Gran Canaria, Cyprus and Sharm el Sheikh

In addition to the 5 new routes Jet2.com also goes on sale with flights for Corfu, Cork, Pisa, Rhodes and Split. In addition Tennerife will now operate 3 times per week and Lanzarote 2 times per week

:ok:

All as expected but at least shows some airport expansion and will hopefully silence those from a year or so ago who said Jet2 will pull out from NCL

Great news and confidence builder for NCL

Brilliant news for NCL. Looks like LS are going from strength to strength at NCL, although most of the flights will probably used by tour operators, but at the end of the day, it's bums on seats.

NCL & Jet2
 

Presumably a second 757 will take up residence in Newcastle?

Afirm, with the rumor that the next route that couldn't be announced today because of 'paperwork' is Tunisia.............

I'm still guessing MIR, KGS and VCE will be added at some point - MIR looks a set favourite for the '19th' route, and many are talking of YYZ??!!

Good news for the airport, the passengers - particularly on the job front!

Looking at the schedule, still quite a few gaps so could link into the report that additional routes to be announced in 2 weeks!

Very good news from Jet2 with more to come according to the press release. I wonder if there will be anything new from EZY for next summer?

On the July Statistics front, Dubai is up 10% from last year. Other destinations with scheduled pax rises are Nice 1%...Hanover 25%...Rome 8%...Alicante, Barcelona, Malaga, Palma, Ibiza and Arrecife (I haven't calculated the increase yet)...in most of these cases there is an overall fall with charter figures falling and the scheduled sector rising. Sad that Hanover is ending with such good figures for July.

On the domestic front Gatwick, Heathrow, Aberdeen, Belfast City and Newquay/Plymouth services all showed rises.

just checked the airport hotel website and it is showing a date of 1st October as the opening date.....

has been showing that date for the past 3 months .. it has slipped a few times now.

The hotel is far from complete i'm afraid with most of the internal fit out yet to even start. I think it's just not viable to open the hotel in the current climate. It has been the subject of budget cuts already when the original developer ran out of money. The design had to be compromised and most of the glass cladding on the frontage was omitted so it now looks blooming awful.

shame :rolleyes:

Easyjet
 

Just looked on the September timetable, looks like there will be 4 or 5 A319s based up here soon

4th A319 arriving for LGW this afternoon

Next easyjet A319@Newcastle
 

Or could it be from Edinburgh this evening .....

NCL and the High Speed Rail Link
 

Just wondering what ppl think about the high speed rail link favouring the west coast.

I think that for the moment this could be a blessing for NCL given that it is expected to take up to 90% of 'domestic' passengers away from regional airports on the London route as pax and businesses favour a fast direct link into the city centre. :hmm:

For the moment it won't make any difference because if it's built at all it won't be until after 2020. If the route via the West to Edinburgh does happen on balance it may be bad news for NCL. The negative effect on the region would outweigh the benefits to a couple of domestic routes. The proposal to run down or cut the East Coast rail line north of Newcastle was in the original Beaching Report.

I wouldn't mind but the west coast already has good motorway links all the way from London to Glasgow while we have a rickety A1 with JCBs and tractors trundling up the single carriageways.
I must admit, I hadn't thought about the negative effect on the airports, though.

Apparently new route with Eastern to Bergen.

Regards

Mike

So far the new train line is only proposed to the Midlands with a potential to extend to the North West and only then possible to Scotland.

As it stands its only an idea, has no governmental support, no funding, no planning permissions, don't hold your breathe for this it could easily be 30 or 40 years before completion if it ever occurs.