Small Planet Airlines at Birmingham
 

Good news for Summer 2013
Looking at the Olympic Holidays site the Birmingham schedule would appear to be

Monday CFU 1355 1915 2005 2155 LLP611/2 eff.3/6/2013
Tuesday HER 0830 1455 1555 1830 LLP621/2 eft.4/6/2013
Wednesday RHO 1000 1635 1735 2015 LLP631/3 eff.5/6/2013
Thursday ZTH 0930 1515 1615 1920 LLP641/2 eff.6/6/2013
Friday JSI 0930 1515 1615 1920 LLP651/2 eff.14/6/2013
Saturday LCA 0700 1355 1455 1810 LLP661/2 eff.8/6/2013
Sunday PFO 0900 1550 1650 2000 LLP671/2 eff.30/6/2013

What aircraft do Small Planet operate?
Daza

Daza

Looking at their website a fleet of (probably knackered) 733s.

Do Olympic Holidays learn nothing from their previous forays with the bottom end of the charter airline industry?

Olympic Holidays/Small Planet
 

Small Planet also have A320s.
A320 is nore likely to be the case as a B733 would struggle on BHX-LCA with a full payload in the hight of summer.
Dont take that as gospel though.

Here we go again. The annual event.

No doubt, Small Planet will be cheap but not so cheerful.

If anyone wants to look into the crystal ball I would suggest
a "looksee" at Trip Advisor and, then, make your plans to
use a proper airline.

For the record, they have a mixed bag of elderly 737's, one
former Britannia 757 and one wet leased 320 at the moment.
No doubt there will be more trotting along.

Olympic @ BHX
 

I have just done a quick trawl of schedules from other UK airports to some of the same Greek airports served by Olympic from BHX and it would appear that they make extensive use of Jet2 (from LBA, EMA, MAN, GLA etc), EZY (LPL, BRS, NCL etc) as well as TCX and TOM. Cannot see so far Small Planet being offered from any other UK airport to Greece by Olympic.

BHX does not have a particularly strong 'scheduled no frills' offering to Greek island destinations, ZB only serves HER? Perhaps this is why they have to sub contract flights to a random East European airline as there simply isn't the capacity needed available. Better that than Olympic not bother to offer flights from BHX at all! Looking at the schedule there are no night flights planned which means that any delays during the day could be soaked up whilst the a/c is on the ground overnight (barring of course major tech faults ;))

EK
 

Just read an article from Air Transport World where EK President Tim Clark has stated that GLA is on the radar (with BCN) as next new A380 destinations (main focus of article is lack of access to expand flights to India)

http://atwonline.com/airports-routes...YM_MID=1378224

flybe/EK
 

Flybe

Flybe | Corporate | Media | News archive

Cutting through the spin, Glasgow seems to gain with frequencies and seats despite taking less passengers than EDI and EDI gains frequency but it is just a recovery of seats compared to September 2012, as it was 7 x 195 compared to 3 x 175, 4 x 195 & 1 x Q400.

I tried to see where this extra EDI based Q400 has come from but I couldn't see any network cuts or re-organisation but I suspect a BHX unit. The Q400 schedule this summer as I have mentioned before has a spare morning slot so potentially plenty of remedies at flybe's disposal - cut night-stop DUS and operate first Jersey out (five minute re-time required), push the morning IOM back to 08.20, move Waterford, HAJ or STR flights to 08.20.

At present this "new" Q400 sits at BHX from 07.55 to 14.05.

The first Jersey out fits those times perfectly.

GF

I assume future bookings and yield are good as there is nothing in the pax figures alone to show why an A380 would be needed. It is improving with load factors at 72% in January which is more like a May/June stat but it is early days.

As for BHX only two three-class flights out 112 movements in February so I assume things have improved although of course one less day in 2013 so it might be negative again.

Pete

November & December Domestic pax
 

The CAA punctuality stats are out enabling me to give an accurate passenger per flight although load factor is still estimated due to flybe's maximum use of it's fleet - in other words change of types from the published schedule. 2011 figures in brackets.

November

Aberdeen---8085 (7118)---49 per flight---59% load factor
Belfast City---23381 (25871)---67 pax---62%
Belfast Int---10756 (Nil)---103 pax---66%
Londonderry---4352 (4417)---128 pax---68%
Dundee---1499 (1518)---20 pax---60%
Edinburgh---27139 (26762)---82 pax---73%
Glasgow---19691 (18866)---59 pax---56%
Guernsey---2311 (2331)---48 pax---60% (includes Jersey)
Jersey-------2732 (2372)
Inverness---2720 (2123)---52 pax---67%
Isle of Man---3372 (3816)---36 pax---46%
Newcastle---944 (1266)---9 pax---30%

December

Aberdeen---6696 (6101)---50 per flight---60% load factor
Belfast City---19174 (22618)---64 pax---61%
Belfast Int---10920 (Nil)---109 pax---70%
Londonderry---4044 (4113)---119 pax---63%
Dundee---38 ()---19 pax---58%
Edinburgh---19253 (18338)---72 pax---65%
Glasgow---13025 (13516)---50 pax---50%
Guernsey---2091 (2196)---45 pax---58% (includes Jersey)
Jersey-------2313 (2328)
Inverness---2720 (2123)---51 pax---65%
Isle of Man---3059 ()---35 pax---44%
Newcastle---564 (703)---10 pax---33%

So flybe didn't do too bad on BHD with easyjet's first two full months on BFS.

Edinburgh was excellent and just adds more questions why Glasgow gets similar capacity from next month and the same frequencies.

I also checked the accuracy of the International routes from the punctuality stats and most were there or there abouts.Ryanair had a few where the load factor was higher due to diverts away on some Polish routes and they came back empty.

Pete

Small Planet Poland (LLP) at present only operate a fleet of 3 A320's, including an ex TCX A320.

The oldest aircraft is 15 years old, the newest is 12 years old, hopefully the aircraft will be more reliable than the Skywings A320 of a few years ago! Guess only time will tell!

Matt

I think that you are referring to the Polish Small Planet that currently operates three 320's.

The other Small Planet is Lithuanian that operates in the region of 13 heritage aircraft.

Are you saying that the new contract will be with the Polish or Lithuanian outfits?

Small Planet
 

Small Planet have 3 divisions.
Small Planet Lithuania (Parent Company) Operating 4x B733
Small Planet Poland operating 2x A320/180Y Based WAW
Small Planet Italy operating 2 x B733/148Y Based FCO and BGY.

LLC is the designator for Small Planet Lithuania.
LLP is the designator for Small Planet Poland.
LLI is the designator for Small Planet Italy.

In the Winter they base an A320 + B733 in Riga to operate charters for Novaturas, the largest Baltic states Tour Operating group.
The A320 doesnt operate out of RIX in the Summer as Novaturas contract SmartLynx A320 + Small Planet B733.

My guess would be then that the A320 is coming to the UK for Summer (as it did the last couple of years for Meridian (Broker)) and thats the one that Olympic Holidays will use, having said that it could be a B733...though the B733 would struggle on BHX-LCA and BHX-PFO.

The RIX based aircraft move around quite alot picking up work where they can find it, apart from the one unit thats dedicated to Novaturas.

The B757 LY-FLG (ex G-BYAR) is I believe leased to SCAT Airlines (Kazakhstan) and operated for them.

Noticed this on that other site ending in .net, on the subject of MAN, but mentions BHX:

:hmm:

How can QR be dropping BHX for MAN when the reason why they haven't started BHX was due to the problems with the 787?? Yes we all know BHX isn't top of QR list and maybe MAN will recieve the a visit from a 787 before BHX but increasing MAN is not the reason why BHX hasn't started yet.

:

Which immediately devalues it as any form of reliable source, unless the senior team at SQ and QR are now holding their strategic planning discussions at the Manchester AVP.

Justplane crazy Re BHXC-MAN-Qatar

It could well be right, Qatar said in 2011 they were already planning to increase services out of Manchester when the time was right.:}

Would be BHX usual bad luck, that the delays in 787s for Qatar, would lead to them focusing instead on increasing MAN with another 330.

Far less risky to add another flt on an existing route when you have the infrastructure already in place that start from scratchout of BHX.

BHX chances haven't been helped by stagnation and some reversal in loads with EK dropping from mid to high 80% down to mid 75% in recent months..certainly won't encourage Qatar that theres enough of the cake left for them to the region.

No doubt if they do announce another MAN flt, it will be curtains for Qatar at BHX :{

Nigel

Has this actually ever been attributed, in print, with a hard quote from anyone official at QR?

I believe it has all been chatter on the likes of PPRUNE that have presumed that to be the reason....

Hasn't QR come out and said that problems with the 787 has caused delays with starting new routes which the 787 will be used on?

No, apart from Chengdu and Chicago:

They have not issued even a provisional launch date yet either for BHX, only this:

We mustn't also lose track of the fact, without aircraft leaving the fleet, the B787 comprises only 4% of Qatar's fleet.

QR
 

Was it ever anything more than curtains? ;)

Why can't QR start BHX with a 330? I think the 787 delay is just smokescreen for the fact that they are now not that interested in launching BHX. Based on figures that have been made available, since the increase in EK/EY flights at MAN and the increase in TK frequency from BHX, it would seem for now at least that the market at BHX now seems to be sown up.

Gayfriendly;

re BHX and Qatar A330..

Well the fact they have none free means they couldn't start BHX with one unless they chop another route.

Nigel

Does BHX need Qatar Airways?
 

I only ask as BHX already has a second carrier (after Emirates) offering excellent hub facilities in Istanbul, and serving much the same market as Qatar would.

The TK effect has been to dilute Emirates PAX already, the arrival of a third carrier may well spell curtains for one or more of them at BHX, leaving the airport and the region much worse off than it is now.

I guess the reggies and colour scheme - and kudos for the airport - would be one reason to see a Qatar service though?

ATNotts

I suspect the bigger impact would be on Qatars MAN service, takes pax from the West Mids away and into a hypothetical BHX service and it could well leave Qatar with 2 daily non viable flights. I'm not sure the existing carriers at BHX will have much to worry about purely as they built up and established a client base.

With QR off the agenda now perhaps this time next year we could have TK going double daily everyday, especially if they manage to open up all their planned new India routes.

QR
 

Nigel, re non availability of QR A330 for BHX

That's a very bold statement of fact, what or who is your source for this? In a previous statement you have alluded to the fact that QR might re-expand their MAN ops using 'another 330' (which would also mean chopping another route?).......so as of now, can you confirm if they have or haven't they got sufficient A330's that could be used for a possible BHX flight?

TK
 

Chinapattern, I would not be surprised in the slightest if TK double up next year as they continue to expand across Europe with increased frequencies and destinations

BHX-Middle East
 

I have it from a very reliable source that the next Middle East Carrier to start up at BHX may not be QR........:}

The massive pull that London's Middle East services have much more of an effect on Birmingham Airport's Middle East traffic than TK or MAN.
QR have just added a 5th Daily DOH flight. EK have 7 A380s a day (inc. QF) to DXB and there's Etihad, Gulf, Kuwait and Saudia too. Of course there are also multiple direct flights to India from LHR. All under 2 hours down the M40.
Daza

Daza

Ok let me hazard a guess. BHX are courting Syrianair and Iran Air!! :rolleyes:

Whilst I cannot speak for Nigel's source, common sense tells you that as they have had 5 787s delivered which entered service but are now currently grounded, they are currently having to shuffle their fleet to maintain their existing services. New routes and additional frequencies will have to take a back seat until the situation resolves itself.

As for MAN going up to double daily, they must be losing pax to EK and EY who have 3 or 2 every day. It's a positive pain in the a*se when you have to know on which days they operate only once out of MAN when making plans. This reduces your flexibility for travel. Much easier to go to EY or EK who you know operate the same time and frequency every day.

Why do you need to chop a route to re-instate double daily MAN? As the fleet is still expanding, then you wait for a spare aircraft to become available which is probably what is happening. Maybe there are other routes and frequency enhancements which have priority. But at MAN they are losing market share without their double daily, so it could be quite a high priority, especially with rumours of a 4th EK service later in the year.

Suzeman

talking of bold statements you are incorrect about them loosing passengers to EK,EY.

12 month latest figures show Qatar EK and EY Manchester ALL seeing healthy increases in passengers .. I can give exact numbers if you really really want them.So certainly not loosing any to them!

In relation to the A330s theres a big difference adding a few more rotations for MAN to go back to double daily on an existing service where you already have a base in place..than having to start from scratch . .

Nigel

In a *VERY* competitive market place, now do they want to fragment that even more by opening up BHX? QR blinked first as they were already double daily at MAN having dropped LGW. it seems they're going to take the fight back to EK and EY.

Market shares:

Jan-Jun 2012: EK 55.76%, EY 22.60%, QR 21.64%
Jul-Dec 2012: EK 56.97%, EY 24.49%, QR 18.54%

The last 6 months saw QR passenger numbers drop 17% with EK up 8% and EY up 18%. Believe July coincided with the 1st full month with reduced QR frequency

My moneys on Yemenia! :)

2012 International Routes
 

DUBLIN523,689down-2.21
DUBAI473,757down-5.24
AMSTERDAM444,045down-6.38
PARIS (CHARLES DE GAULLE)361,234up11.82
TENERIFE (SURREINA SOFIA)313,898down-0.78ALICANTE312,356up7.70
MALAGA306,690up3.95
PALMA DE MALLORCA285,272up17.74
FRANKFURT MAIN268,169down-2.66
FARO212,251up1.83
ARRECIFE187,365up4.02
DUSSELDORF175,584up5.22
MUNICH175,268up17.39
DALAMAN162,427down-3.98
ZURICH137,294down-8.27
IBIZA124,695up9.91
LARNACA111,405down-0.17
LAS PALMAS105,701down-0.07
BRUSSELS104,951down-10.64
SHARM EL SHEIKH (OPHIRA)98,488up18.45
ISLAMABAD97,043down-5.01
FUERTEVENTURA93,988down-7.41
PAPHOS93,794up4.24
NEW YORK (NEWARK)92,794down-4.16
ISTANBUL83,990up58.85
ROME (FIUMICINO)81,804up2097.26
CORK79,808up6.31
HANOVER78,541down-1.15
MAHON76,755up6.66
COPENHAGEN75,324down-5.48
GENEVA64,848down-1.49
HERAKLION62,911down-6.77
MURCIA SAN JAVIER62,313down-3.37
ANTALYA61,212down-3.91
CORFU61,059down-14.86
MILAN (MALPENSA)59,668up42.68
ASHKHABAD59,202down-3.38
ZAKINTHOS58,881down-14.31
REUS56,508up3.66
BODRUM (MILAS)53,988down-2.86
GIRONA52,701up1.54
BYDGOSZCZ51,477down-0.69
NICE48,933up29.83
BRATISLAVA48,510down-6.74
BARCELONA48,227n/a
RHODES46,262down-4.81
KATOWICE42,809up29.34
HAMBURG40,910up62.19
MALTA40,250down-18.13
BERLIN (TEGEL)40,049up28303.55
IRELAND WEST(KNOCK)39,234down-12.27
VENICE36,777up16616.82
RZESZOW36,223up4.09
STUTTGART34,455down-7.96
ENFIDHA33,291up270.19
SHANNON32,442down-6.26
PRAGUE29,733up120.00
GDANSK28,821down-13.92
ALMERIA28,625up24.91
KAUNAS28,299up13.70
KOS27,576up17.15
DUBROVNIK26,137up137.54
FUNCHAL25,806up39.66
BUDAPEST25,384n/a
CANCUN24,632down-12.48
BURGAS24,524up6.50
ILHA DO SAL C.VERDE22,732down-0.3
2BOA VISTA (RABIL)21,094up572.43
IZMIR (ADNAM MENDERES)20,963down-2.68
NAPLES20,258up60.83
MONASTIR19,589up13.73
BRIDGETOWN18,572up5.81
MONTPELLIER17,170down-27.33
KEFALLINIA16,869down-5.54
MONTEGO BAY16,203down-13.07
TRIESTE (RONCHI DEI LEGIONARI)16,071down-4.48
CHAMBERY15,934down-11.76
INNSBRUCK15,922up34.36
TORONTO15,205down-12.72
SANFORD14,888down-2.05
VERONA VILLAFRANCA14,271down-9.15
TURIN13,639up18.99
GRENOBLE13,223up23.71
SALZBURG12,803down-25.42
PADERBORN12,710up2.26
WATERFORD12,256up2.33
LISBON10,974up2488.21
HURGHADA10,803down-53.47
BANJUL10,375down-5.42
KAVALA9,419down-0.69
THIRA (SANTORINI)9,268up12.64
SKIATHOS9,135down-30.43
PULA8,609down-1.79
LYON8,177down-74.35
TOULOUSE (BLAGNAC)6,921down-33.75
STOCKHOLM (ARLANDA)6,394up1716.48
KRAKOW6,265down-49.06
CHANIA5,817n/a
BERGAMO5,019n/a
GOTEBORG4,667down-65.91
PUNTA CANA4,297down-58.30
SOFIA3,939down-4.53
BERGERAC3,775down-57.46
AVIGNON3,534up39.68
PERPIGNAN3,011up3245.56
BREST2,874down-34.61
LA ROCHELLE2,862down-36.60
ROVANIEMI2,798up7.33
KITTILA1,554up419.73
TARBES-LOURDES INTERNATIONAL1,260up27.14
ENONTEKIO1,218up97.09
MARRAKESH621n/a
YEREVAN607n/a
SPLIT496n/a
VALENCIA476up13.33
KIEV (BORISPOL)471n/a
ROTTERDAM443up221.01
FRIEDRICHSHAFEN408n/a
DONETSK376n/a
LEIPZIG259n/a
NAIROBI248n/a
BILLUND221n/a
BOLOGNA221down-1.34
SEVILLE199down-30.18LINZ159n/a
VIENNA154down-96.64EINDHOVEN139n/aST PETERSBURG139n/aROSKILDE116n/aMAASTRICHT109n/aMUNSTER-OSNABRUCK94down-10.48TREVISO93n/aBAKU (HEYDER ALIYEV INT'L)85n/aVARNA68n/aBREMEN36n/a

Perhaps Kuwait Airways are going to reroute their KWI-LHR-JFK service via BHX as a kind gesture to keep the tumbleweed from blowing around the runway extension?

What about Royal Jordanian with an A320? They sniffed around BHX many years ago and Jordan is a popular tourist destination now with some decent, (although limited compared to TK) onward connections from their AMM hub.

Yes please I would use them all the time.

Who would want to travel with Kuwait, they're dry! Same as Egyptair. Those I feel are specialised markets anyway. With all the ongoing problems in Cairo I don't think there would be a market for it from Brum.

In a flight of fancy some time ago I posted a suggestion that Oman Air could (subject to 5th freedom rights) use one of their planes during a long ground stop at FRA / MUC / CDG to add on a leg to BHX. Admittedly, WY have a limited network but I have used them in the past for BKK and their business class is better than most airlines' first class.

The incremental cost of flying a short Euro hop to pick up pax in BHX cannot be a great deal more than the parking fees incurred. If it works for SQ (MUC/MAN) then it might just work for WY.

This is pure wish list on my part and not based on any "reliable source" or "they have been sniffing around" type speculation.

Let me put it another way. If I want to go somewhere via a Gulf hub and QTR don't operate all their frequencies daily and their competitors do, they are likely to lose my business. And I suspect that others will also do the same if their travel dates / times not flexible. Need to get there on Weds sir? Sorry there is no flight that morning. Ah I can get there Weds evening by using EK or EY's morning service ex MAN - problem solved.

In addition a non-flexible itinerary is likely to produce the higher yielding fares, so they are missing out on these passengers. Hence their intention to go back to double daily at MAN sooner rather than later.

This need for a daily also applies to a start-up route such as at BHX, so anything less than daily (and preferably at the same time every day) would be madness, especially as EK already do 2 daily at the same times every day with most of their extensive hub connections having regular flights too.

Ringwayman, Suzeman..

2012, 12 month figures;

Qatar. Doha- MAN 245,882 up 7.89% on previous year.Via CAA stats.

Emirates. Dubai-MAN 692.126 up 8.51% " "

Ehihad. Abu Dhabi- MAN 289.492 up 26.24% " "


Nigel

Blimey, the Emirates flights averaged almost 1,900 passengers per day, every day throughout the year (950 each way). Pretty impressive.

Indeed, they have increased their numbers overall in the year. But that is not the point.

As Ringwayman has pointed out, they are losing market share in an expanding market. In other words the PROPORTION of passengers going on QTR is falling as can be seen below; they lost approx 3 percentage points from first to second half of 2012..

And the point I was making was that the reduced frequency and different operating patterns during the week (when their competitors have a consistent daily programme) is a deterrent to people for whom flight timings and connections are more critical than cost - generally business people who are higher yielding pax.