In fairness, at Alderney where they have a person to rifle through one's bag it take significantly less time to process 16 people than it does at Guernsey where they've got all mod-cons. I must say that the manual method seems rather faster - as well as cheaper - for smaller numbers of people.

I remember a flight from BEB where the local security folks seemed to like their state of the art equipment so much that it took ages to deal with the handful of passengers. So don't give them toys to play with unnecessarily :p

Quote: "Since when has Pontoise been in Paris and I can just imagine a full load of 19 punters arriving at the check-in desk at STD -15 and all being processed in time for an on time departure!"

Since when has Oxford been in London? POX is not that far from Paris, a similar distance as CDG, so further out than ORY but very much nearer than BVA.

Public transport and road links are another matter, but it is closer to Paris than all the "London" airports except LCY and BID, so where's the problem?

The mother and I will be flying on the service next summer, so we'll see how it goes.

Brighton City Airways
 

Good luck to them , let's hope it's successful.

If it is, how long before ESH becomes "London Shoreham Airport"?

Went on website out of interest. Can't seem to book anything.

FDF,

I'd been reading this ridiculous press statement:

Franco-British ties will be stronger than ever with the launch of direct flights from Brighton to Paris.

Firstly, if Shoreham Airport were in Brighton then it wouldn't be called "Shoreham" ... Then one reads that it's actually to Pontoise, which is not a designated Paris airport, and it's to be operated by a 19 seater 'Puddle Jumper'.

This is an operation from one regional airfield, pretty much, in the middle of nowhere with minimal navigation aids, poor public transport links etc. to another regional airfield, pretty much, in the middle of nowhere, a regional airfield on one end of the route might be OK as long as there is a designated city airport on the other end of the route, this has regionals at both ends of the route!

And ... Such an operation will cause Franco-British ties to be stronger than ever? :)

P.S. And/or the punters can pop down the East Sussex/Kent coast to Ashford and catch a train directly in to the centre of Paris!

Soemewhere on said website it says bookings from 1 Dec.....

An international airline with a (cheap) .co.uk domain address?

"Fares from £69.00 including taxes and charges"

That'll go down well in France ... they're on the Euro there :)

Web site
 

Phileas, in fairness to Shoreham it has the first GPS approach to a GA airfield in the United Kingdom as well as a perfectly good NDB approach - not too short on navaids. Bearing in mind that a 2 minute shuttle minibus will run from the airport to Shoreham-by-Sea station, which is 13 minutes from Brighton by train, you've got a Brighton-Shoreham Airport travel time of 15 minutes which is considerably less than the alternatives, weighed up in time terms:

By air

Brighton - Shoreham Airport: 15m
Check-in/security: 30m (generous)
Flight: 1h
Immigration/customs/baggage collection: 15m
Pontoise Airport - RER (A) Cergy – Préfecture: 15m
RER (A) Cergy – Préfecture - Charles de Gaulle-Etoile (Arc de Triomphe): 45m
Total time: 3h maximum
Total cost: £150 return inc. transfers

By train

Brighton - Ashford International: 1h46 minimum
Transfer time: 20m minimum (cutting it a little fine)
Ashford International - Paris Gare du Nord: 1h53 minimum
Total time: 4h minimum, often 5h
Total cost: £99 return minimum, often £138 return

So there are some clear advantages.

Would you try to go Brighton to Ashford though? Surely you'd just take a fast train up to Victoria/London Bridge and pick up the Eurostar at Kings Cross? How long would that take?

How often to trains go from Brighton to Shoreham?

Aero Mad,

Hang on ... 2 minutes by shuttle bus and 13 minutes by train = a 15 minute journey time? You mean there's a train every minute just in case the aerodrome shuttle bus should be arriving or departing?

And by your calculations all the passengers and going to be coming from/going to Brighton ... That's kind of like suggesting all of Gatwick's passengers come from/go to Crawley!

So what if the passengers are coming from/going to Eastbourne, Redhill, Croydon, Sevenoaks, Winchester and so on???

Your transit times don't look so favorable now do they???

I think Thameslink trains go direct from Brighton to St Pancras

Yes Fanda ... but Shoreham airport ain't in Brighton :)

That's pretty good.

I was going to ask how it compares to a short hop on the train to Gatwick and then a direct flight to Paris (any airport) but a quick search suggests that doesn't exist!

"Nor is London Gatwick airport in London"

So what would be the point of providing train information to London when one actually needs to get to Gatwick Airport?

TT,

Tunbridge Wells then Ashford then train ... just perhaps!

Time to spare ... Then go by air :)

Better still, Ebbsfleet :ok:

I was more trying to make the direct comparison made by Aero Mad of centre of Brighton to centre of Paris.

Had no idea there were no direct Gatwick-Paris flights until I searched. So they may be onto something...

TT,

Only in a "Boyzone" world would a Puddle Jumper operation of 19 seats, with no 'crapper' and no cabin crew, come anywhere close to subsidizing for a B737/A320 sized operation, with 'crappers' and cabin crew, in/out of LGW.