CHC
 

https://www.offshoreenergytoday.com/...en-facilities/

Some slightly better news on the helicopter front.

Sad to see LH going but I am not not really surprised. I have used them a lot since they started and there seems to have been a gradual decline in demand over time. I have to commend LH on their perseverance after they carried their winter schedule forward into summer last year coupled with the continuation of the E190 in lieu of the 319 but seeing both of these changes was never a good sign. Also having the lunchtime inbound sit on the ground in Aberdeen for a few hours, also prevented that aircraft from being potentially used for an extra sector or two as well, which was never conducive to making it an efficient route. I hope they may return to ABZ one day, as I personally think FRA beats the other hubs hands down and the LH product is very consistent and more than adequate for short haul at least.

AF are also going from three flights a day to two for Summer 2018.

My crude maths makes that around 270 less seats in total.

Air France were twice daily last summer so the same on a like for like basis. They only returned to three daily for this Winter.

And, to add to a truly disastrous week for ABZ, BMI are binning the NWI route effective 11/02/18.

What next?

Next? The complete withdraw from a low cost airline using bright pink and purple aircraft flying to Poland.

Hmm... would Loganair look at NWI? Wonder how long before bmi bin ABZ altogether?

Yes, I could see that Callum.

As they are in the same group, you'd have thought there would have been a transfer of operator if it was to continue.

Newcastle... fog on the Tyne
 

ABERDEEN 643 688 -6.54

From the NCL thread & the Dec 2017 stats posted there.

Hardly seems worth it now.

I could actually see domestics being pared right back to London, MAN, BHX, maybe Belfast plus of course the N Isles. The rest could disappear.

The CAA stats ex-ABZ are hideously unreliable when it comes to flights with stops, in this case the ABZ-NCL continues onto CWL once a day so the figure of 643 is probably ABZ-CWL. NCL reports 1202 (a slight gain)

Same story with MME, ABZ reports 1012 (!), MME reports a more reasonable 2383.

Two figures that aren’t wrong are ALC & AGP, 72% & 70% respectively - very poor - miles below the almost ridiculous 95% RYR December network wide average. At least the first 10 months performance appear to have been good by all accounts. I don’t think January will be great either, I saw a ALC-ABZ sector being punted for €5 a couple of weeks ago!

Loganair Win
 

The last remaining Island bunfight is over, BE/T3 to cease KOI eff 4/3.

Price war to end on Scottish island routes - BBC News

However, ABZ-SYY to increase to twice daily M-F.

What sort of aircraft is used on the ABZ - SYY - ABZ route, are the pax figures high enough to sustain it at twice a day.

Jetstream 41

Norwegian Air Shuttle
 

Hi all,

Anybody hear of potential Norwegian coming to the ABZ?

Seen the name come up around the airfield.

We periodically hear rumours with Jet2 and ABZ, obviously nothing has ever come of it. What side of the fence is the rumour on?

The rumour is airside currently.

How many based SAAB 2000's does eastern airways have at Aberdeen and what routes do they operate them on.

Jan 2018 v Jan 2017
 

(from Evening Express website):

Aberdeen Airport saw a 6.4% rise in passengers last month, compared with January 2017 – recording a total of 220,427 travellers.
The rise came as a result of an 8.8% increase in domestic traffic and a 10.8% increase in international traffic thanks in part to the popularity of winter sun routes.
Helicopter traffic decreased by 11.1% compared with January 2017.
Aberdeen’s managing director Carol Benzie said: “Starting 2018 with these encouraging figures, we are now looking forward to the launch of two new leisure routes in the coming months, Malta and Reus, which, we hope, will be as well received and popular as our existing route offerings.”

fjencl: Not sure how many based S2000s there are at ABZ. Going by previous oil industry requirements there were usually 3 aircraft + one spare but not sure what it's like these days... I'm going back to the days of British Airferries when it used to be 3 Viscounts!! Plus a 2nd ATR72-600 is due this month (if it hasn't already arrived to join the other one) so that will take over some of the S2000 flying duties. Elsewhere, they can pop up on the network at any time but usually on NWI, but that may be about to change now bmi have pulled out of the route & are supposed to be wet-leasing an E135/145 (can't remember which) to T3 to operate the route.

Noticeable the international growth is being put down to the sun routes, changed days indeed.

Out of interest, how has the number of based helicopters and number of helicopter passengers changed over the decades at Aberdeen? Perhaps a chart of these statistics would give a good correlation with the state of health, and illustrate the long-term volatility, of the offshore industry? A comparison with similar statistics from Norway would be interesting.

Have similar trends happened with helicopter traffic from Shetland or have recent oil and gas developments nearer to Shetland resulted in the proportion of traffic from Aberdeen and Shetland shifting North? Or have longer range helicopters negated any such affect?

I'm hoping someone can point me to industry statistics that will objectively quantify some of these issues.

Quite a significant increase in exploration has been forecast by industry experts so perhaps the offshore related traffic from Aberdeen will start to recover, or at least bottom out, this year.

Sunday service Aberdeen - Wick - Aberdeen
 

Porrohman

I recall that press releases from the airport have highlighted the fact that the northward shift in exploration underlay the fall in helicopter movements. There should have been a corresponding increase in such flights from the various helicopter bases on Shetland.