The latest crazy idea in my neck of the woods comes from an MP who is campaigning for Cottesmore to become a civil airport, now that's what you call very marginal, he's not in the real world.

You say that Crusher 1, sometime in the early 1990s (before the likes of easyJet etc) when I was production manager for a well known aviation magazine we received a report from some doughnut who came out with the idea of all inclusive tour flights should operate from Lyneham (the RAF would vacate of course) which would leave all London airports to operate just scheduled services - I kid you not.

Crusher,

What, North Luffenham that's been lying dormant for donkeys years has never sprung to this MP's mind or might he merely be going for a publicity stunt!

With bmibaby quitting Cardiff, the number of UK airports with a loco based reduces further. So far Teesside (baby then Globespan), Coventry (Thomson), Doncaster (Thomson), Bournemouth (Buzz), Manston (EU Jet). These smaller airports, often coastal, may offer a better passenger experience, but can't sustain the economic model the locos need.

Watch out Southend, Blackpool, even Newcastle!

LGS - I agree that some of the UK's smaller airports will struggle to support a meaningful level of LCC operations.
Cardiff and Newcastle are both substantial cities and their airports each serve a considerable population.

bmibaby as an airline is going through troubled times anyway, and needs to retrench to its profitable core - expansion is not the order of the day.

Neither Cardiff, nor the people live there (I'm including everything west as far as Swansea) will go away anytime soon. Unless the economy is deep in recession, we tend to find that when one airline chops a substantial number of routes from a single airport, that another airline will consider stepping in instead.

Yes, Bristol has a substantially bigger airport, but I imagine there is still good money to be made by flying to/from Cardiff. Newcastle is a more extreme case, with the nearest effective competitor being either Leeds or Edinburgh.

Perhaps Flybe now see an opportunity to open a couple more carefully chosen routes at Cardiff ? Alternatively would Thomson or Thomas Cook consider expanding operations ?

Recession?
 

The economy IS in deep recession. This is reflected in consumer purchasing power, which is dramatically decreasing. Holiday travel is way down, as reflected by Thomas Cook down-sizing.

CWL is nearly in the critical ward. TCX down to 1 little Bus (will that still be there next year?), WW gone, if TOM start to feel the pinch, there not a lot left.
Much hope will be placed on FLYBE, but, they are a well run, shrewd outfit. If the loads are poor, they'll cut and run before you can say runway closed!
If Flybe go, the Airport as is, will no longer sustain itself. (unless the Welsh Assembly dig deep to pay the Spanish to keep it going.:mad:

I think you are stretching it a little to suggest Newcastle is now marginal, it's fair to say EZY have scaled back but LS have added capacity to take up some of the slack. Charter flights are still strong with TCX adding a 4th 757, when added to the TOM and LS aircraft that gives 8x757 and 4x737 (if my maths are correct) for this summer so hardly marginal. EZY have now put winter 2011/12 on sale and looks like it stays as 3 based A319s so no further loses. Extra loco flights to non bucket and spade destinations would be very welcome though.

+1 for NCL, makes loads of money for the IT airlines. Last time I was there a lot, was top earning base for InFlight sales several years running.

Thanks for the pic Phileas I chartered that aircraft to take a bunch of us from Shoreham to Manston for a business meeting! Great memories.

DTV - use to have passengers nearing 920,000 pax in 2006 then the demise of Flyglobespan and BMI canceling of the London route has nearly killed the airport. Im an avid surporter of this airport and beleive if the airlines and routes came our airport can become back to the 800,000 or 900,000 pax a year, even more. Ive spoke to many people and I asked if the routes were at DTVA would they be willing to pay an extra £20-£50 quid to fly from DTVA than Newcastle they all said yes. I beleive if the airlines give DTVA the right routes like Thomson with Alicante, Sharm El Sheikh, Tenerife-South. Onur air have Bodrum, Dalaman, these routes have been sucessful. And I do beleive Thomson will start to use our Airport more with more routes as the years go on.
DTVA is a great airport

Hate to sound cynical about it, but everyone says "yes" until it comes to opening their wallet. It's been proved time and time again. price pulls punters.

I do know what you say YS but you think if u live in Darlington, and you have a choice to go from DTVA or Newcastle were you have to pay for a taxi or train anyway, ive just booked a flight from Newcastle to Heathrow, im doing it the cheap way to get to the airport and this is still costing me £15 and im traveling from Middlesbrough and im getting a bus and metro. I wish DTVA had the London route. I would use it. No matter of the price

Sorry but it's time to get real. You are not going to get London flights back at DTV, and if you live in Darlington and want to get to London the easiest and cheapest way is to get the the train. Of course if you are travelling further afield and want to transfer via London then you must go via NCL or go via AMS instead from DTV.

Deltahotel9, When I was checking it was £58 to travel to london and to fly from Newcastle it was only £42.50 with British Airways. I know DTVA wont get the London Route back, But as the Tenerife and Sharm El Sheikh routes shows tourism routes work.

I disagree with the statement about people just going from where it is cheapest. There are of course some who do but also many who would happily pay extra to fly from their local airport. This cost is usually made up for as fuel and parking prices are far less, as Taxis and Public transport are normally quite cheap over short distances and many people get lifts from friends and relatives, which usually costs them nothing!! Plus the actual transition through the airport is far quicker and easier at a local airport like SOU or BOH than congested hubs like LHR and LGW.

There is actually hard evidence that a very surprising number of people don't look at total trip cost - instead, they will happily travel forty or fifty miles to an airport to save a fiver on the fare, rather than use the airport on their doorstep. No, I don't understand human nature sometimes either, but it is a fact.

Yellow Sun - not a cynical view, but one that is borne out by experience. "Do you think your local airport needs routes?" - Yes. "Would you use them?" - Yes, of course. "Would you pay a premium for the local experience?" - Yes.

Guess what? They generally then don't.

Yes, what people say and do are two different things. If there were substantial numbers of people willing to pay higher fares to fly from Teesside bmibaby, Globespan and Ryanair would not have withdrawn their flights.

Well, Globespan might have...

The LoCos have distorted the market to such an extent that a great proportion of the "tourist" markety has come to believe that price is the only criterion worth considering. Unfortunately, the legacy airlines rested on their laurels and perpetuated an air of exclusivity around air travel until the LoCos had already done the damage.

Even now, there are really only two big users of air transport - look at your typical survey: what does it ask? "Buisness" or "Leisure". Both of those are very price sensitive - which means the carriers and the airports they fly from are always, always at the mercy of the economic climate and marketing.

What's missing - and the key to the survival of these marginal airports - is an in-depth re-education of the public. Stop trying to play catch-up and create a parallel reality where air transport is just "normal" not something exotic or exclusive.

Scrapping the subidies for rail travel would help equalise the price equation, but more importantly, there needs to be an integrated approach involving the community, the airport and the airline(s) so that everyone feels their getting a fair deal.

It is possible to change the attitude of a whole new generation of travellers and prepare them to look for value rather than price, and the longer this economic downturn continues, the better the chances of "distorting" the market back again!

At least I hope so, otherwise I've wasted the last eighteen months. Anyone with significant connections to any marginal airport with ambition and imagination, feel free to PM me for more information.