VLM
 

Hi

I couldn't find the VLM thread, and when i searched VLM nothing came up so....

I was just curious to know when the LCY-LPL route ended? Why did it end?

Thanks

Poor loads. The MAN base may well be closing shortly as well.

And LCY-BRU is down to once a day. In fact, VLM's booking engine now lists it as 'Brussels/Antwerp' and details all 4/5 flights a day from Belgium to London, with ANR having the higher frequency.

The acquisition by and subsequent consolidation with AF/KL/WX has also seen them withdraw from LCY-AMS. However, they have recently introduced/are about to introduce new routes from ANR-FRA and LCY-NTE and are now the sole operator on LCY-RTM. They also occasionally deputise on some of WX's lighter services ex-LCY.

Looks like some of VLM's 'traditional' routes may disappear as a result of rail competition and the general downturn. Hopefully, the new routes and their fairly busy charter business will keep their trusty F50's in work.

And so VLM's service LCY-MAN is finishing. Really hope this doesn't mean the end or curtailment of the Antwerp service from Manchester, as that late weekday flight is really useful since SN pulled theirs. However I've flown it four times on a Friday in the last year and it's not been more than half full...fingers crossed.

The Manchester base will close in June but the ANR-MAN and RTM-MAN flight will continue, flight between MAN and LCY will not be flown anymore. Hopefully some new routes will be created or taken over from cityjet/air france to keep them busy.

VLM into the history books.
 

Sadly, according to Flight, it seems that the VLM brand and good service will be consigned to the dustbin, as Air France has announced that the whole VLM/CityJet operation will be branded as CityJet only.

Cityjet are not know for being particularly customer focused, unlike the airlines that they have swallowed (VLM & in a way ScotAirways).

Think Air France have made a big mistake with that, should have been the VLM name that stayed!

VLM to Jersey
 

With the rebranding to take place soon between VLM and Cityjet could there be more routes for the chop??
The London City-Jersey-London City route which is operated five times a week, the aircraft daystopping in Jersey for the best part of seven hours is not very productive.
So could this be one of the routes they might stop??

Exactly the same thing happens in IOM, although the day stop is about 5 hours, and has been going on for about 4 years. I suspect it's simply cheaper to park here (and in JER) between the peaks than at their usual bases or LCY.

Whether it goes on once the integration is done remains to be seen.

Maybe cityjet will use the scot D328's to do two rotations each day to IOM/JER instead of a daystopping F50

With Blueislands leaseing one of the D328s of Scotair they could take on doing an early morning Jersey-London City-Jersey before there Swiss rotation and when that returns they could do another Jersey-London City-Jersey late afternoon??

The website is already out of date, it still shows LCYMAN on the map. Also it shows AMS as operated by VLM, the last few times I've flown its been operated by Cityjet, but VLM flight numbers??

Will the VLM F50's be painted up in Cityjet livery?

I can't imagine they will repaint the beautiful "Green Machine":p

The AMS route is still being flown using a VLM flightplan/callsign because they are using VLM slots.

It appears that they are taking a second look at JER and IOM in Antwerp so its not sure what will happen to these routes.

VLM planes will be repainted in cityjet livery by the end of the year but VLM will still exist on paper using their own AOC and management.

I suspect the F50 will start taking over some of the routes that are now operated by Scott, there's really no point in wet leasing when VLM has the capacity to spare.

What routes other than DND are Scot still operating? Hasn't SXB been taken over by VG and a lot of the EDI flights are now done by Cityjet Avros?

Regarding VLM in Manchester, now no based a/c, down from 2. No LCY route for most of the week. 4 Outbounds daily to RTM and ANR.

No Ticket desk, no crew base.... not sure what happened, creidt crunch? :rolleyes:

Virgin Trains and the Pendolino to Kings Cross is the short answer, so a Hell of a lot of the former LCY passengers go by train, reducing overall passenger figures and reducing the need for based aircraft and crew.

It has been reported on an EDI forum that almost all flights are back with Scot, likely recession related capacity cutbacks

Is EDI a high demand route? VLM operated this route once a week or 2 ago and from what I've heard the pax figures were not great.