Eurocopter UK
 

Is Oxford airport where Eurocopter UK is based and also is this where the £300 million RAF Puma upgrades are going to be carried out. I know Eurocopter UK are prime contractor for these mods but don't know at what facility. If it is here i'm wondering if there is a possibility they will be looking for puma experienced guys for the mods.

Yes, they are based at EGTK. They have quite a significant base there and it includes police helis as well. See the descriptor on their website Home Eurocopter UK Helicopter Distributor VIP, Police, Air Ambulance Completions in the UK below:

Not sure about the situation with regards to upgrades or whether they are looking for puma guys. However a contract of that size (assuming that they are upgrading for current military requirements) may be spread across a number of maintenance locations. Probably best bet would be to give them a ring and ask. Good luck. :ok:

Oxford - Palma?
 

London Oxford (Kidlington) Airport EGTK/OXF - New weekly flights from Oxford to Palma, Mallorca
Flights from Oxford to Palma | Oxford Airport Travel

This is not another Halstead special is it?

I suspect the economics of this route are marginal given the prices which are being quoted and the fact that the a/c won't be flying at 100% load. Maybe the plan is to prove the route this season then bring in a larger, faster a/c next year, such as an RJ?

Sector cost Oxford-Palma is somewhere near the the £6k mark using a Saab2000. What fares are on offer ?

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']www.oxfordairporttravel.co.uk [/FONT]

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif'][FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']'Flight only prices are from £395 return – include all taxes, baggage allowance of 15kg, in-flight meals, complimentary in-flight bar etc[/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif'][/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']Self-catering holidays start from £695 pp for 7 nights including flights[/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif'][/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']Hotel-based holiday prices start from £775 for 7 nights in a family hotel, from £1045 for 7 nights in a rural country escape hotel, or from £1215 for 7 nights in a luxury hotel – including flights[/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif'][/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']Private villa holidays start from £895 pp for 7 nights, including flights'[/FONT]
[/FONT]

wow...that much ..?...a real money spinner then......only need to fill half the seats to break even (ish).......

Dead pan....sorry....missed your point about not being ably to fly at 100% L/F.....Long Way for a Saab2000 i know......what will be the restriction do you think ?

c.£400-£600 over the season. £6K seems on the low side for a Saab 2k for a sector of this length - a mate of mine was quoted £70K+ for an adhoc charter from EGTK to PMI (i.e. 2 sectors) using an RJ85 last year.

JonEMA - check out Phileas' link to the Eastern Airways thread at post # 107 above. There's a discussion around the no. of PAX they plan to carry on the flight.

Thanks Dead_Pan.

Looks like their having a real ding dong over in the Eastern forum over the operational aspects of the service. I'm no expert but I think Eastern are a very professional outfit and wouldn't entertain a service like this if they wern't totally confident in maintaining service and quality.

I'm using a commercial route economic system that's available here in the office so i'm pretty confident on £6k sector cost give or take a grand. As i said earlier, 50% load factor to break even is my guess which, interestingly, is close to Eastern's average network load factor.

Smart airline me thinks

It will be costing GTE, the organisation which have chartered it, a lot more than the ACMI going rate for this type, which I suspect your software may be using. Also, I think your assumption of break-even at 50% load may be optimistic.

Eastern won't be taking any financial risk on this route as such - GTE will have to pay them regardless of how many seats they sell.

Still, its nice to see someone taking the proverbial plunge in these difficult times.

Couldnt agree more...its about time we started to see some re-investment back into the industry. And this route could work. Good luck to them. :ok:


PP

Hi Dead_Pan,

Yes, you are right, the software builds the cost from the perspective of Eastern operating the route directly.

I agree, great to see the momentum building at Oxford. I’m not from the area myself but had it on my radar as displaying great potential for a couple of years now. It has an excellent catchment and could easily out compete LHR for UK domestic and near Europe day returns using turbo props.

I have to agree with you on this, dead_pan.

JonEMA: I use what is probably the same route economics package as you, developed not a million miles from Loughborough :-) . I'm not sure how you reached your estimate of a 50% breakeven load factor, even if we exclude Eastern's profit margin. I haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere, but unless Eastern is operating some other charter flight to/from OXF or PMI (which seems unlikely), then the costs of positioning sectors need to be included as well - realistically that's at least £1500-£2000 per sector depending on where the aircraft is coming from/going back to.

So your £12000 round-trip to PMI now becomes maybe £16000, and then there's the profit margin to the carrier. Let's imagine that they settle for as little as £4000 profit (remember, just one tech aircraft in PMI during the season would eat into this cumulative profit pretty quickly!) and you're looking at £20000 per round-trip.

If everyone were paying £395 that'd be a breakeven load factor of - oh, 100% if we count all 50 seats :sad: - so I could imagine that the goal is to increase the average yield (I notice that the operator's website says "from £395").

Looked at another way: if the tour operator are only selling 40 seats per flight, then they need to fill all those 40 seats at an average round-trip yield of £500. Not impossible, but not exactly a dead cert either.

The prices on GTE's site do appear to be firm - they range from £395 in June to £500+ in August.

Oxford does appear to have a good catchment - there are lots of wealthy people living in the city, Cotwolds etc who would no doubt appreciate its convenience. That said, its lack of radar will probably prevent it offering a decent winter timetable, also the PAX facilities are apparently limited (according to my aforementioned mate the terminal can only handle a hundred or so people at a time). Oh, and there's no hangarage for anything bigger than a mid-sized corporate jet, so no prospects of any airline basing an a/c there yet.

PS I'm writing this in the vain hope that either the airport's operators or the Reubens brothers are reading this and take note!

My understanding was that Oxford now has a hangar capable of taking a BBJ, is this not the case?

Hi Cyrano,

Thanks for putting me straight.

At a pure route level the system spits out just above £6k a sector and of course you are right to point out the positioning costs etc. My 50%ish LF to break even (before profit) was therefore simply £12k divided by £500 being the mid point fare taken from one of Dead_Pan's previous post.

Optimistic enthusiasm perhaps, but its interesting that Eastern's load factor across its network is also around this figure and they still make money.

Guys,

Eastern's bed & butter work are scheduled services, this PMI is an IT charter, Eastern do not need to sell seats, they do not need to worry regarding enough bums on seats, because they've sold the entire flight(s) to the tour operator and it is the tour operator that needs to get bums on seats to break even, make a profit etc.

Eastern's load factors have nothing to do with it!