NEWQUAY
 

The local press today report that a director at Newquay Airport has had his pay increased from £69K to £125 p.a. The airport was described by one County Councillor thus - "the Council is picking up the same level of salary as a corporate director when they are running a facility that carries as many passengers as the bus service in Truro every day."

The salary increase equates to roughly 50p per passenger using the airport.

Cornwall is the least affluent County in the country, the Council seem to forget this from time to time.........

Also reported today is that military personnel above the rank of Sergeant in London will lose their London allowances - it's a funny old world isn't it.

To be fair, the council is right. Expecting to pay an MD £69k/year for something like NQY is stupid. Minimum salary for MD of any airport should be hovering the £95k mark. £125k for one of NQY's size seems about right. It's not an equal world, but to be fair to the gent who serves as MD, he's been underpaid for quite some time.

Old thread is here http://www.pprune.org/airlines-airpo...ewquay-34.html

Why be fair to the MD , from what i have heard they have not been fair to the ATCO's on the pay front. A couple left last year and management were surprised that potential replacements turned them down when offered salaries £10,000+ below the market rate. It is not all fun in the sun.

Because ultimately, it's the MD that has the duties of making sure that business is running smoothly/efficiently. I have no doubt if the MD is seeing a pay increase, they will be scope for ATCO pay increases in the near future.

NQY is expanding, slowly admittedly, but it's expanding. This means more workload, this means demands for higher pay. The scale should trend in the ATCO's favour in the near future. Also remembering that pay levels in the Cornwall area are naturally lower.

S12
 

Saturdays are looking busy this summer, not bad considering WOW has gone.

3 x LGW Q400
1 x MAN Q400
1 x NWI Q400
1 x GLA D38
1 x NCL Q400
1 x BHD Q400
1 x EDI Q400

Plus the IOS of course

Plus bmibaby and the German flights.

Well the business will not run smoothly/efficiently if they do not have enough ATCO's to cover the airfield opening hours. The reason some ATCO's left was because they were told that there would not be any salary improvements in the next couple of years. Regional pay levels do not come into play when it comes to ATCO' salaries from what i hear.

The LH flights are to be operated by a 735 on saturdays and a CRJ900 on wednesdays

I personally think that NQY will see more scheduled flights and possibly some cargo.

We also need to keep in mind that NQY doesnt just rely on scheduled flights, we now have training flights via AW, MX by BIH and also NQY still sees some MOD movements

Yes, but there are only X number of people living in NQY's catchment area and there are only X number of hotels, guest houses and/or static caravan parks within NQY's catchment area also.

So ..... whilst airport traffic may slowly increase, and unless Cornwall becomes, literally, wall to wall hotels, guest houses and/or caravan parks, the airport traffic shall NEVER attain a level to justify the size of the airfield real estate and/or the paying of market salaries.

The airport is always likely to remain subsidised by taxpayers thus the higher the salaries then the more monies taken from the local economy!

Phileas,

I think NQY is a long way from saturation - has it not been more like 500k pax pa? Didn't plans call for 1m+?

With PLH having slowly withered away, NQY's catchment will have spread east - especially for people coming down from Scotland.

My understanding is that most UK hotels struggle to reach 60% occupancy.

Rather than fussing about one man's salary, I'd be asking how much pax are put off by the extra airport fee, not to mention two doses of APD for domestic pax.

If the man in charge had a performance bonus - say £10k pa for each additional 50k pax, that would be better still.

jabird,

There is something of an animosity between the Cornish and the Devonians ... and vice versa.

When Brymon, they did it first, combined the PLH & NQY services on to Y50 aircraft there was uproar, in this scenario, to the effect "why the hell are we going backwards via Cornwall when we want to travel from Devon to London or wherever?".

I think you'll find that the PLH punters will be using EXT, BRS, BHX, LHR, the train and/or the A38/M5 etc. rather than flocking to NQY!

NQY might just attract those, that previously used PLH, from east Cornwall but I think that'll be as far as it goes.

P.S. My local airport has an APD (terminal fee) equivalent to 15p :)

I note today from the local press that BIH are going to permanently relocate the S-61 service from Penzance to Newquay from October. They will continue to operate out of their Pz base until then and had been looking around for a new site in West Cornwall.

Routes to St. Mary's and Tresco will presumably cost rather more than the present £190 return in view of the additional mileage but my assumption would be that they will save on the significant infrastructure costs associated with a new base in West Cornwall where some might say the nimbies have been out in force just recently.

I imagine Scillonians will not be best pleased with this development.

A disaster for Penzance town and much more inconvenient for Scillonians and visitors.

BIH had previously said fares wouldn't change when operating from NQY; however that was when they were hopeful for a move back to West Cornwall. The additional mileage must in time lead to higher fares, which won't help tourism to Scilly.

BIH won't survive very long at Newquay.

Interesting but worrying comment plymouth pixie - the Scillies seem to me to rely heavily on the S-61 and Tresco in particular with direct flights. Not too many seem ready to brave the Scillonian passage these days. Not sure how much utilisation the Twin Otters get.

Mark my words, they'll sell the heliport, cut their losses & run. The Dauphins will be sold off privately (To the Navy no doubt) and the S-61's sent to Carson Helicopters in Canada.

The heliport was sold some time ago..

From the schedule it doesnt appear that bmi will fly in on a Sat

You need to remember that for BIH to operate ex Penzance they need high overheads, large site, staff, fire cover etc. This results in the fairly high prices of S61 flights.

The fuel cost for operating flights ex NQY will be higher, however the other costs would be much lower as BIH will dump the staff and outsource the entire operation to NQY as the handling agent

I still think that BIH could benefit from some sort of interline agreement with BE to allow connections onto the IOS

cs

Not also Forgetting Fly Newquay Flying School, plus the Private Movements Generated by Weston Aviation including any Military Flights that book in.
We also have an Expanding GA Aircraft Fleet based at the Airport.
Going to go out on a Limb and say things are starting to pick up slightly.

I think a DUB flight is still very much needed @ NQY

cs

Loganair commenced it's GLA service today. Forward bookings look positive for the summer by all accounts.:ok:

...indeed. An increase has already been suggested ;)

Very positive

An increase to what ?


cs

I have heard a rumour from an RAF engineer that Virgin Atlantic are to set up a large maintenance facility at Newquay/ RAF St Mawgan, he had no proof and it was just a ‘crew room rumour’.

However I note that in the next week or so Virgin will be hosting civil aircraft engineering career presentations at RNAS Culdrose and RRC Plymouth, is this co-incidence or is there some substance in the rumour?

Many thanks for your thoughts.

BA has a significant maintenance facility at CWL but CWL airport itself is in mega sh1tstreet financially!

Correct BA has mx facilities at CWL, PIK, LHR, LGW, GLA and I believe EDI

Obviously BA doesn't fly to all of those, so it's not beyond the realms that virgin are looking at NQY, especially if they are in fact looking at entering the shorthaul uk market


cs

Certainly there are maintanence facilities for BA at GLA & PIK (Airbus fleet) but wasn't aware of any at EDI.

Well flybe schedules for winter 2012 are available

MAN is back to mon, wed & fri
GLA is dropped ? Seasonal
EDI is dropped ? Seasonal


Quite a shame really


cs

EDI has always been seasonal! So I suspect GLA would be the same

Newquay is a tough location - it isn't really close to anywhere and the train service from the Far West is highly competitive. If you live in Truro say you have a 30-45 minute drive, a 30-45 min checkin..... by that time you can be halfway to London

They've also improved the road significantly and London - Truro/Newquay is a fairly straight forward 4-5 hours

Really can't see it surviving

Well I'm not too sure about that. A 1hr 30 drive from Newquay puts you around the Exeter region, and that's a fair way off being in Heathrow or Gatwick. Then from Exeter it is at least a 2½hr drive minimum to Gatwick, and at least that should you take the M5/M4 route. 1½hrs from Newquay is about a third of the way, but nowhere near ½ way. Then you have the buggeration factor of driving on A roads most of the way which makes the flying a little more viable.

NQY needs a LHR flight to allow connections into longhaul.

Ever tried driving for 4-5 hours after a night time longhaul flight ?

Anyone who doubt the need should try getting on a FGW train at Paddington and seeing where people with tagged luggage get off.


cs

Why would LHR want a NQY connection when another DXB with Emirates would excite them more? Better use of a scare slot. Those days are gone forever.

Just like BA at BFS and DUB were "gone forever" ?

OK fair point, but can you seriously see Willie Walsh launching LHR-NQY? What sort of load would you get thrice daily in Feb? It's much too seasonal I think.

Correct, I can't see BA launching the service.

But that's not to say that I don't think its needed and saying that i think it would be used, people who live here fly from
LHR, people who vist here, fly into LHR.

I could see a daily A319 being filled, year round and especially during the summer


cs

Waste of a slot given you can already book through ba.com from NQY to anywhere across the BA network through their codeshare with BE. Anyone who is really desperate in that regard can route through LGW.

Baby closure
 

Looks like the Summer EMA-NQY route is going to operate for a couple of weeks and that's it....

BMI Baby - News Update | Newquay Cornwall Airport