Slightly off track but does anyone know what the latest plans are in respect of the new Airport Hotel.

I noticed earlier this week that it had been removed from the list of Hilton Hotels to open in 2010. Is the plan to open now in 2011 or has Hilton pulled out of the deal?

Does anyone know

And another one hits the dust.....Kiss Flights ceased trading today.

I have picked out 4 flight series from Newcastle solely involving Kiss....Corfu, Rhodes, Heraklion and Dalaman...first three operated by Viking and the fourth by SGX.

Passengers must be wondering who they can trust with their holidays.

Ash
On the airbus the flight data is transmitted automatically to the operator on engine shutdown. The later Boeing 737ngs stored it on a PCMIA card which was manually downloaded every few days. Data is then stored as required.

Greek God,
thanks for that. I was wondering after my last post as 20 hours isn't even 2 long haul flights.

I see there's been a few T3 flights to/from Norwich recently? Series of charters or are we about to see these flights launched on a scheduled basis?
Nothing bookable on their website yet

Its an operational change. On some days when the loads for NCL-ABZ are good, the NWI-ABZ flight drops in to take extra passengers. Its operated on the Saab with its extra seats.
I've flown this route a couple of times, and I don't think any seats are sold NWI-NCL or NCL-NWI.
Anyone thnk NCL-NWI could work? I'm not sure theres the regular traffic to justify it.

T3 will have an Embraer at NCL next week.

Ready to Go

The actual reason for dropping into Newcastle from Norwich is only a summer quieter season reason.

It goes back to normal from the second week of September when the kiddies and families are back at school.

My mistake. I use the ABZ route a lot and that was the reason I was given by the check in staff at NCL. Nice change to get a ride on the S2000. Not to mention the slightly later departure time means a little longer in bed!

NCL-NWI might be an interesting route for T3 to try, its not the best place to have to drive to, but I don't know that the demand would be there.

Possible new routes in the long term...
 

Just read on UK Airport News that Newcastle are in talks with various airlines to begin the New York route, but also read that they are looking for a Frankfurt route and it is their target destination. Any ideas on who would take up such a route?

The FRANKFURT route that is!

skyman has just fainted.

I would think that Lufthansa via BMI regional would be a good bet.

Agree LH/BMR are favourites with FlyBe the outsiders - although we seemed to have slipped down their priority list. Unless I missed it, don't think we got a local press briefing at the time of the EMB-170 launch (unlike everywhere else!).

Can't see any other likely candidates.

Jet2 have announced NCL-GVA 1 x weekly for the ski market, running from boxing day-start of january, then restarting February through to April. Timings are for a 737 operation

Interesting move by Jet2, another direct head to head with Easyjet. Although the lower frequency seems to suggest they are just testing the water. What is EZY's frequency on NCL-GVA? Daily?

Interesting they chose to target GVA, are there no other Ski markets that are not served from NCL. Salzburg perhaps? Or anything in Northern Italy?

RTG!

ash666Absolutely not! but you have woken me up, these are the same two "old chestnuts" that have a perpetual place in NCL folklore, I must have first heard talk about FRA some 15years ago & as for NYC, I can't recall a time when it was not talked about! & accept that it will never go away but as for the present, then please lets give it a rest !:ugh:
Suppose the next thing someone is going to suggest is that JET2 are going to take these on "NOT!", accepting that is shopping specials....
Now before all of this conjecture starts even more adrenalin rushes out there, then some reality ! Guys you had better get a handle on the likelihood that it may be that the EZY base at NCL will have closed long before any NYC or FRA come on line & as for an EZY 320 that was alluded to in an earlier posting…. yet another dream!:(
What I don't know but strongly suspect is that Jet2 have locked onto this fact, which is consistent with the strengthening of their presence at NCL. Being cynical then continued attempts to undermine EZY's profitability at NCL & thus EZY’s continued presence, would to an extent explain their proposed GVA offering:E

I go along with your arguments re Jet2 and EZY but I'm at odds with you about FRA. Why would Lufthansa not want to add another feeder route to its main hub, especially as the Star Alliance is not linked into NCL except to DUS and BRU by default with LH's takeover of Brussels Airlines (BMI).

NY has always been a target for the airport, it nearly happened with AA a few years back.

Is the new Jet2 route to Geneva really going to hit EZY that hard? 1x 737 weekly compared to a daily EZY operation doesn't seem like a real assault. Surely they'd have been better targetting somewhere like Salzburg or Innsbruck with a weekly frequency, rather than adding extra seats to an existing, and well served market? Is there really that much demand for NCL-GVA? What are loads like on the EZY flights?

As for FRA, I think that will happen eventually, but not for a while yet. I'm told that slots at Frankfurt are fairly high demand. Has Newcastle ever had a Frankfurt link in the past?
What amazes me is that NCL-DUS. and NCL-Hannover have been successful routes for some time, yet Munich or Berlin has never been made to work. Munich particularly would fill a hole in the route map, and ought to be workable with a good mix of business, connecting and leisure flights, at least I'd imagine so. Surely the DUS and Hannover flights arent totally supported by Military personell!

RTG!

Didn't BA op BHX-NCL-FRA a long time ago (late eighties?)

Yes quite right. Birmingham European operated their own flight from BHX to NCL and back using VB prefix. At NCL it became a BA flight to FRA and back. It used to be operated on a Gulfstream 1 turboprop or a BAC 1-11.

Around 1988/9 Birmingham Executive was bought out by BA and Maersk and became B'ham European. This enabled BEA to operate a lot more flights for BA because of the acquisition of jet a/c

In terms of passenger numbers at least Newcastle to Berlin did work. Unfortunately EasyJet then moved the flights till late in the day so they were unattractive to business users. Plus it started cancelling a lot of flights during a previous bout of crew shortages. Numbers dropped mainly because of what EasyJet was doing rather than an inherent lack of demand. Munich with HLX did not work particularly well, but only ran for a few months and didn't have much marketing.