Good point by Jamesair, though

EasyJet have closed Dortmund as well as East Midlands. However, with the airline trashing its reputation everywhere this summer it is not obvious to see where it will move the planes if the Newcastle base is closed. The airline needs to rethink what it is doing everywhere, including Newcastle.

I don't think we can read too much into the rumoured 4 year contract with Gate. We don't know the conditions that EZY were prepared to put into the contract and the clauses, but the fact that Gate found it more beneficial to pull out of it, when it accounted for such a large amount of their work speaks for itself.

It could be that the 4 year deal offered no guarantee of number of based aircraft, in which case in 4 years time, NCL could be a 2 aircraft base, and EZY are still getting cheaper turns than at they are now.

It seems to me that Easyjet took a gamble that Gate would fight to keep their main contract at any cost. Gate weren't prepared to do that, and now its hard to see where they will go next, or what kind of a rate that will get for handling at NCL. As I said before, Servisair have previously terminated a contract with them as it was supposedly unprofitable, so they will no doubt want more money from EZY, and then you wonder if Swissport will be interested at the cost of upsetting their main rival... the rapidly expanding Jet2.

I can't see gate's withdrawl benefitting Easyjet in any way unless another agent steps in. But is another company prepared to take the risk, in the hope of getting a foot in at Newcastle?

RTG!

ps. Does Gate Av operate from any other airports?

I don't suppose even Stelios could foresee 9/11, A few Middle Eastern wars, Ash Clouds and not to mention the world's worst recession in 80 years. Some of those may have slightly affected plans.

When was the last time you saw a 10 year forecast from any company that predicted global strife and major ups and downs?

Stelios foreseen 9/11 in 2003
 

..... probably not foreseen but probably remembered, that was 2 years earlier!

Just seen on the airport website, that the EK 77W on monday lifted off with 418 passengers on board, an impressive 97.66% load.
The most passengers ever lifted off from Newcastle on a scheduled flight. :ok:

Now, how many of them were paying though :O

EK 777
 

GrahamK, the word is that EK Flight on Monday was full of fare paying passengers at peak season fares ... there was no need for EK to discount the flight. The route is performing very well.

andrewmcharlton - yes all those points will affect EZY. However the ash cloud, recession etc are not factors only affecting NCL and to use your logic would have an affect on aircraft numbers at all EZY UK bases including Bristol, Glasgow, Gatwick ...etc and it is not.

EZY have shown little interest in developing the base at NCL and clearly the base is been run down on a similar pattern as to what happened at EMA. If the pattern continues then an announcement of the closure of the base can not be far off.

Clearly the airport need to work with the JET2, FLYBE and dare I say Ryanair to develop and drive forward the development of new routes from NCL.

On another note I notice that buried deep in all the PR stuff around the airports 75th birthday I noticed the statement "one of the airports main objectives is to secure a scheduled route the Eastern coast of the United States". Surely given the fact Bristol have just lost the route to NYC, NCL management cant possible think that a route from NCL is a possibility not at least for a few years.

Just because BRS lost it's EWR link doesn't mean to say the NCL can't have a link to New York. Remember, it was just as easy for the BRS catchment to go down the M4 to LHR as it was to get their own flight wih a lot more choice so that they could effecively pick and choose a convenient time for themselves. The only competing cities would be EDI, GLA and MAN but if EDI and GLA can sustain services with a relatively short distance between them, there's no reason why NCL couldn't other than getting the local premium flyers to avoid using LHR and AMS for their translatlantic hops.

If you look at easyJet, they are adding/expanding only a few UK airports: LGW, MAN & LPL principally. I'm sure their website mentions how relatively worse the UK is doing compared to their other countries.

Although it's pleasing that EK scrambled 418 on board the 77W, it would be very unusual for them to have substituted in place of an A330 as it may cause a few logistical problems in co-oridinating their own flying programme. Hence, its' not a demand-driven appearance but just tied into the anniversary with some freebies for the local dignataries and business leadera. I daresay they may be pleased with how the route is doing but I guess they won't be upgrading the route in the short to medium pending a further rise in passenger numbers.

Is NCL being overly coy about the Jet2 shopping flights to New York in November? Couldn't see anything about it on the Airport website, yet it's on Jet2's.

The route was actively sold as a 777 from mid-April. Believe it or not, an airline the size and scale of Emirates can forward plan and can do yield management. Hence, no logistical headaches and no need to give 150 seats away for free in peak season.
Anyway, looked to be a good day all round, so well done NCL.

I know of at least 5 "non-revvers" on the EK 777 on Monday.

I was at Newcastle Airport on Friday Morning, and there was a great party going on.
Evidently, it was a lady travelling to Lourdes on Jet 2, who was also celebrating her 100th birthday.
The duty free staff got wind of the matter some time ago, and arranged for a collection, in order to provide a birthday cake , balloons, and great fun.
Now that is good news
Well done all in involved.:):D

can the duty free staff not run the whole airport?

easyJet has just announced that they are going down to 3 aircraft for the summer as well as winter. Reduction of 8 Captains, no First Officers affected.

How long will they keep a base open for 3 aircraft? East Midlands was the last base with that number.

Good Luck everyone!!!!

Unfortunately I can't see them keeping it open much longer with just 3 aircraft, especially when you mention the EMA base and factor in how the other airlines will become the bigger players there, namely Jet2.

If this is the case I can see EZY expanding/opening a crew base up at DSA. The amount of passengers from the North East, Newcastle / Sunderland / Durham areas etc that travel on EZY (plus numerous others) flights from DSA could perhaps sway them in this direction to perhaps expand on the base.

It does make you wonder, with the reduction in aircraft at many bases and more aircraft on their way, where all these new aircraft are going to be deployed.

EasyJet is stopping flights from Doncaster from 31 December. If the planes are going to go elsewhere in the UK Manchester might be a better proposition. EasyJet had a decent opportunity at Newcastle, but hasn't moved onto the leisure routes with the greatest demand - e.g. Canaries in the winter and Turkey in the summer. Plus it has become so unreliable that I doubt it gets much business traffic unless there's no choice like to Bristol.

No great surprise with this announcement, shame really. Hopefully the new CEO of easyJet will sort out their strategy and resolve the arguments with Stelios over fleet size, they could then relaunch NCL for 2012 but I wouldn't personally hold my breath. As others have said I suspect Jet2 will launch a massive expansion to take up the lost routes therefore killing off the chance of an EZY return anyway. We'll see.

What routes are they keeping for winter and then again for next summer?

Routes kept for the 2010/11 winter are ALC..BCN...BFS..BRS...FAO..GVA..AGP...MLA...CDG. Routes lost are PMI..IBZ..STN...MAH...MJV...NCE...CIA. STN is the permanent loss, most of the others are seasonal routes as is GVA which has been re-introduced.

Summer 2011 has not been announced yet but I suppose "W" patterns from other bases could replace some of the based a/c routes (optimistic view)