As someone who used the ASW service weekly to and from glasgow, I have to say I'm surprised.The flights were always busy with large numbers of Navy personnel using the service every week.The tickets were not cheap. And for the time I used the service wasn't diverted once.Some of my fellow passengers found the low level and often bumpy transit from plymouth to newquay a bit of a trial! there were never sick bags in the seat pockets. :ooh:

There is also the Navy Dauphin helicopter which operates out of plymouth.

The cynic in me might suggest that the closure's got diddly-squat to do with bums on seats.

Let me tell you. The fat ladies will be singing past December.

Save plymouth City Airport
 

Hi everyone I am one of the admins for Save Plymouth City Airport face book group and I am asking all my fellow aviators to help us and join our growing group and make sure this wondeful airport stays open..
Just type in face book search Save Plymouth City Airport.

Thank you..

Plymouth doesn't have an airport, it has a skid pan/landing strip on top of a hill!

From what I've been reading a particular Plymouth councillor (who I worked with some 28 years ago) was announcing and calling, earlier this year, for the runway to be extended whilst suggesting, if not saying it in so many words, that the airport needed such a runway extension to serve the city appropriately ... at present very few commercial aircraft types can operate in/out of the airport.

Well the only feasible runway extension would need to be a stilted one, I don't know facts and figures but I'd imagine a stilted runway extension to be mega expensive.

Thus with such advice/suggestion the council had a choice:

1. Spend a bucket load of money stilting a runway extension in to what is currently an industrial estate, or:

2. Close the airport.

There is no point in extending the runway. The local population wouldn't be able to supply the demand for international routes and Flybe don't want competition for Exeter. Once the runway is long enough to let a Q400 in Flybe will simply do what they did at Newquay and undercut the competition to strangle the route.
Plymouth has a future for GA and rotor traffic, but don't see much hope for anything bigger than a Dash8-300. There's just not the demand.
Now PLH-LGW-PLH twice a day would have been interesting, but Eastern don't seem to have the stomach to annoy Flybe...

oapilot,

This thread is about the airport and not about Air SouthWest, read all these other airport threads, they're all crying out for LoCo operations so why not let FlyBE in to a PLH airport?

I agree no point in extending the current airport runway, mega expensive and still wouldn't be long enough for many an aircraft type, just a shame there isn't another operational airfield close to Plymouth that could provide, at reasonable cost, a decent length of runway.

Seems almost irrrelevent, but the runway would have to be dug up and resurfaced as it's so weak today - PCN14, just about O.K. for the smallest of turboprops.

Phileas -

"Why not let Flybe into Plymouth"
They could'unt if they wanted to as DHC8 400's cannot operate from Plymouths runway.

"only Feasible runway extension would need to be a stilted one"
There is no way the CAA would approve a stilted runway in such a location.

But hey as you said "you don't know facts and figures" :ugh:

TNS,

"Why not let Flybe into Plymouth"
They could'unt if they wanted to as DHC8 400's cannot operate from Plymouths runway.

But a councillor has/had been calling for a runway extension!

"only Feasible runway extension would need to be a stilted one"
There is no way the CAA would approve a stilted runway in such a location.

Well take this up with the councillor that asked for it and not me, just Google for 'councillor plymouth airport' and you'll identify him, what he's said, and his address/email address etc.

And TNS,

Please refrain from misquoting me, what I actually said was: "so why not let FlyBE in to a PLH airport?" ... No reference was made, nor intended, to the current skid pan/landing strip.

Exeter? :confused:

Phileas,
Agree this is about PLH.
My point is Flybe don't want an airport at PLH as it dilutes traffic to Exeter, and I don't see any other LoCo falling over themselves to put 100+ seat aircraft specifically through PLH either.
Maybe if the council and the airport owners had invested more time and effort into letting people know Plymouth had an airport to fly to and from, then demand would exist.
Yes loads of regional airports want LoCos; I want a Ferrari. We can all dream.

Johnny,

Let us say we compare Plymouth to Coventry, after they both had the sh!t bombed out of them during WWII, CVT has BHX 10 minutes up the road or railway line and/or be delivered to the door of LTN airport by National Express in circa 1.33 hours in t'other direction.

So, precisely how long, and by what mode(s) of transport, does it take to travel from Plymouth to EXT airport, how much does it cost and where the bl00dy hell can one fly to at the passengers desired time from EXT?

oapilot,

But Plymouth has never had an airport worthy of letting people know about!

Please take this with the humour it is iintended ... would you stand up on a rostrum and announce that you are a man then make excuses why your dick is so small? :)

Good point - although I don't need to, my wife does it for me!

Good question. It was further than I thought. 1hr 5 mins by car, 2-2.5 hrs by public transport.

However, Plymouth's routes were very limited anyway, so almost any route from Exeter would be better than the non-existent routes from Plymouth. As with most domestic routes, the trend seems to be a movement to trains: frequency seems to be more attractive than shorter journey times.

EGHQ,

There is no need for rudeness thus I'm reporting your post

johnnychips,

Whilst ignoring the juvenile(s) at least, were I to live around Plymouth, I could fly out on a breakfast time flight and, via a connection, be at a European destination by lunchtime and I'd be able to catch an evening flight back to Devon.

Exeter or Newquay, breakfast time flights out of the question, no public transport unless hotel the night before, evening flights back then difficult if any public transport and not in bed until midnight or later.

What does that mean?

But evidently enough people didn't think like you, and as I stated, two flights a day from Plymouth to London for the domestic market cannot compete with the train frequency, even if the flights are quicker (depending on which bit of London you want to go to).

I'm certainly not knocking Plymouth and will be sad to see it closed - hell, you can see from my address there's enough worries about my local airport; but sometimes the sheer tide of market economy floods over our ideal scenarios.

Johnny,

Don't concern yourself regarding the juvenile remark, it isn't directed towards you.

But in the old days Brymon successfully operated 5 flights in each direction, per day, PLH/LON/PLH.

But ... because Brymon stretched the purse strings buying 3 x DHC7's they needed to sell the NQY HP7 (Dinosaur) thus PLH & NQY LHR services became combined and this happened because PLH had such a pathetically short landing strip the only airliners that could operate there were the 50 seater DHC7 or the 20 seater, fixed undercarriage, damn noisy, 150kt cruising speed, DHC6, one couldn't have an optimum sized aircraft on a route, perhaps 25, 30, 35 seat airliner, because no such STOL airliner existed!

I read a remark here recently that pax still complain (vomit) about the low level (bumpy) flights between PLH/NQY/PLH and memories returned, I did that journey one morning in a DHC7, a 15 (ish) minute flight that I can best describe as like being inside a tumble dryer, by the time I arrived in NQY my tie was at half mast and I was sweating profusely, it had been an extremely unpleasant experience that I didn't repeat.

Besides London, back then, Channel Islands and Ireland services were also successful along with summer operations to/from ISC.

But long ago a PLH runway became realigned and lengthened, limited other aircraft types, Do228, Do328 etc. could operate there but still the base airline insisted upon a 50 seater aircraft on a combined (NQY) and unpleasant/inconvenient schedule basis, I recall there was uproar from the Cornwall locals once they lost their direct services and became subjected to routing via PLH. at least then were transitting in the right direction of LHR, do you imagine the Plymouth locals were any happier being subjected to routing via NQY which was in the wrong direction from where they wanted to be?

I know hindsight can be a wonderful thing, some airline's ago, and due to particular circumstance(s), PLH & NQY services became combined, how many years ago was it that the PLH runway became realigned and extended, that's how many years the based airline(s) have had to uncombine these services however they have failed to do so, PLH airport has failed because the base airline(s) continued to operate an inappropriate size of aircraft!