EK77WNCL for local mayor and NIA managing director!!

Don't mean that derogatory...its positive thinking and in the cloud ability is what the NE and country needs!!

Slagging of your customer base isn't a great start! :ok:

BRS loses very little to CWL, EXT or NQY. The opposite is true in fact with over one million passengers annually with origin/destination in Wales and one million with origin/destination in Devon/Cornwall.

BHX does see more passengers from the South West using it - approaching half a million in the latest CAA survey - but the biggest leakage is to the London airports, mainly LHR, with over five million passengers annually from the South West. This is not really such a big loss to BRS as it might appear because many of the routes, especially long haul, would not be viable there anyway.

I was once a regular through NCL (from/to BRS with easyJet) and I found NCL provided a very good passenger experience. I wish easyJet would reinstate to some extent its frequencies, and particularly timings, of a few years ago - can't really do a day trip any more, but this topic has been raised before in this thread of course.

TCX & TOM are highstreet names , both know exactly how to do holidays and do them really well. Thomas Cook have had 3 based Aircraft here for over 5 years and are generally cheaper than Thomson so cant see them downsizing.

Massive over complication of the issue by spotters re NCL!

You have 2.7 million people to use. That will only allow certain routes / frequencies to be viable [even with RYR].

Yes the propensity to fly in the North East is not quite as high as other more affluent regions but the overriding factor is the population catchment of a remote region. Once that 2.7 million are used on viable routes - that is it. No passengers are coming from anywhere else. Hence New York not quite working.

Not like Bristol in the slightest, which has more than double the population catchment of NCL.

The management of NCL are doing a great job and are maximising what is possible with 2.7 million people.

Whats going on with TCX? 3 A321's today

Looks like the MAN-based Avion went tech in Dalaman, ours was positioned out there last night to bring the MAN passengers home. A321 positioned up from Gatwick this morning to pick up the Avion schedule.

-HD-

Yep G-TCDH positioned up from LGW to do this mornings TFS & G-TCDN has left not long ago on this evenings TFS. Canary winter escape is well underway !

MerchantVenturer, I completely agree, i just can't fathom the easyjet BRS schedules at all... They just don't make any sense to me unfortunately, have to make do for now though I suppose

BRS
 

It doesn't help that Flybe's Exeter service goes (midweek) at the same time. EZY's schedule is geared entirely for Stag and Hen parties coming up to Newcastle for the weekend. Nothing wrong with that but for me it renders the service unusable.

It's not as terrible as it could be during the summer, as yet I've managed by using the early Saturday flights, but for the winter it's just going to be a pain

How big is the stag/hen market for people coming from the SW to NE?

I just can't get my head around what happened to the days of x2 daily Sun-Fri, x1 daily Sat, with extra frequencies thrown in as necessary dependent on demand

I mean, take this winter, there's going to be x3 daily on Friday and Sunday, all in the afternoon, and no Saturday flight

I notice DUB goes to 1 daily on a Saturday on both Aer Lingus and Ryanair. Will be using the morning SAT Aer Lingus flight too, but does demand really fall so short on a Saturday?

Also, interestingly enough, on my last trip to Newcastle, there was a Hen Party on my return flight to Dublin, having their hen IN Dublin!

Yeah I wonder that as well... I can't be the only person who, for the most part, travels on a weekend?

Maybe it's just lower yield passengers on Saturdays and they don't deem it worth operating the flight.

If Aer Lingus has less transatlantic flights on Saturdays I can understand why... Ryanair though, is mostly leisure, so I'd have thought there'd be demand

Without even looking yet, I'll put money that they both leave roughly, if not exactly the same time?

EI have never operated a second Saturday service but overall they are operating 16 weekly (+1 weekly on last winter) with x 3 Su (+1), Mo, Fr.

Both weekends flights now depart DUB at 08.15 and 08.30 (same lather LBA as well) and not the usual 06.00-07.00 service. Could be many reasons for this and not just lack of demand.

Pretty dangerous that.

Counter-intuitively, it's actually clever to do so. There's an economic theory that states it's beneficial to do this, but I've forgot the name of it.

Basically, the theory goes that by separating the times of flights, say Easyjet operating in the morning and Ryanair in the afternoon, you are dividing the market. Instead of appealing to everyone, the Easyjet flights now only appeal to those who want to travel in the morning, and Ryanair only appeal to those wishing to travel in the afternoon.

But by grouping the flights together, time is no longer an issue. Everyone has to travel at that time regardless of whether they wanted to or not. Now you can target the whole market, and capture traffic based on brand or price.

I think Chesty's post was a joke....
(as in 2 planes taking off side by side on the runway. Or maybe a tow rope)

reading it again, I think you are right. I don't do jokes in the morning (or much else :)

Well let's have these again.

Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.
P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.
P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.
P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.
P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.
P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.
P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.
P: #2 Propeller seeping prop fluid
S: #2 Propeller seepage normal – #1 #3 and #4 propellers lack normal seepage
P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.
P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That’s what they’re for
P: IFF inoperative.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.
P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you’re right.
P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.
P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.
P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics
P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.
And the best one for last.
P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.

They're good! Old, but goodun's

Also, does anyone have any info on what Flybe's previous base and routes were from NCL? For example, how many aircraft did we have at peak? And routes?

Belfast City? How many times a day did we have at most? Was Exeter previously more than x6 weekly (could have sworn it was 2 daily). I remember they dabbled in Aberdeen, was there anything else? Limoges... Did they fly anywhere else in France?

And another thing, Easyjet's Stansted service, what kind of traffic did it cater for? Obviously some will have been London bound passengers, but was there an equal proportion of people bound for elsewhere in the South East/Norfolk/Midlands? It interests me where 250/300,000 passengers have gone...