One bit of good news: NCL moved up the airport rankings from No.13 to No. 11 as per pax figures for the first half of the year.

Emirates today
 

Anybody know why the Emirates was late today

Ironically because NCL had a lower decline in passenger numbers than EMA.

Chronicle reporting that Thomas Cook are to offer a one-off seven day series to Banjul next Easter - dipping their toe may be more if it sells well.

TCX will operate a one off 767 charter at Easter.

Would it not be better to use a 757, less seats to fill if this is indeed a trial to see if there is any demand for flights to The Gambia from NCL?

Would love to see the flights to Banjul be a big success as I have been going there for 20 years - but I can't see it. We specialise in The Gambia and would love to see it do well, but we rarely get people from the north east prepared to try it, reminds me of Airtours a few years back putting on a few flights to Agadir in April but sadly they were'nt very popular with us toonies!

August pax figures are out:
Brussels + 118%
Copenhagen + 39%
Paris CDG -1%
Dusseldorf + 47%
Dublin stayed about the same
Amsterdam + 2%
Palma still as popular as ever with more than 46,500 people flying there :ooh:
Barcelona had a good month, +5%
Despite the collapse of Goldtrail etc, Dalaman seen huge growth of 51%
Dubai +12% (84.22% load factor based on 31 days of HD A332 usage).

All in all, not too bad you would think. Dubai impressive given that the summer months tend to be the weaker months for travel to Asia and Australasia.

YTD Newcastle isn't looking too bad compared to other airports, 4.4m pax which is down by 6%.

DXB routes are never weak(er). They're always strong with business and obviously now that DXB, MLE and South East Asia are becoming more and more popular with tourists and holidaymakers flights are always busy. Not to mention the inbound OZ/NZ traffic.

84% full A332 every single day however is very very impressive whatever time of the year for NCL! I'm also pretty sure that the belly will be packed full of Newcastle Brown also so certain to be a money maker for EK.

Great to see NCL doing so well with the airline of the moment.

According to todays local press Thomas Cook have confirmed 4th based plane next summer. Doesn't look like any new destination though just increased frequency and their own Bourgas flight instead of sharing the BGH flight. Still excellent news.

TCX
 

I think if they sold their seat only option at a more competitive rate they could take business from EZY (given EZYs recent performance).

It's a shame that they are still not flying to, or selling seats to Florida though.

Good news re the 4th TCX based a/c. Another 757 or a smaller Airbus?

Having a quick scan, looks like increases to Tenerife (up to 4 x weekly), Izmir (2 x weekly), Dalaman (5 x weekly) as well as operating Bourgas on their own a/c.

Anything else I've missed? 50 jobs for one a/c seems a lot though?

More than 50 jobs according to the Chronicle, with new travel agencies as well. ChronicleLive - News - Chronicle News - Thomas Cook unveils sunshine flights boost

Anyone know why a Vulcan was over-flying the airport on Sunday?

He was trying to find Captain Kirk?

Returning southwards from Leuchars Airshow I'd presume. Although they often like to fly over the Vulcan at Carlisle?

Nice surprise when it unexpectedly flew over while I was in the garden, they might have chose to fly over the one in Sunderland this time.

The Journal is today quoting Emirates as saying they will upgrade to 777 'this time next year' and go double daily 'within 5 years' in a similar manner to Birmingham. Has to be more good news.

Well you were told;) Mind you I'd have to have some crystal ball to be making a statement such as :-
Unsure what this would mean in terms of pax no.'s but would be interesting to consider in comparison with NCL's projected growth over 5 years if this was available. It would also be very interesting to see if EK's growth assumptions in both pax No's to DXB & those transiting to the Far East & beyond were similar.
As things stand then I can't see any model that would project such growth, would not be at the expense of the three other legacy carriers BA,KL & AF.

The latest series of announcements certainly are getting to be a bit more positive. It seems that based aircraft will now remain virtually unchanged with 2 being withdrawn by Easyjet, 1 being added by Jet 2 and 1 being added by Thomas Cook.....

I note Cardiff seems to have been withdrawn by Flybe from the end of October, with Jersey added to the winter schedules.

Neither Flybe nor Easyjet have announced summer 2011 yet and it looks like Eastern may do the Newquay/Plymouth route with their rumoured take- over of Air Southwest. Who knows what Ryanair may add or take away.

There could, of course, be other surprise announcements.