I know that GRQ were keen to see connections offered to DUB, as were CFR who have succeeded in getting a DUB connection via SEN from April 2018, but no luck so far for GRQ it seems. ANR-SEN also offers connections to MAN and DUB from April 2018. Maybe an idea to ask Flybe why GRQ is not offering that option.

Transatlantic connections available to 12 North American and Canadian destinations via Dublin with Flybe/Aer Lingus.

That was a very successful operation at SEN some years ago until Flybe effectively snuffed it out. Let's hope commonsense prevails this time.

STK/BEE/EIN....who will be "carrying the can" in the event of missed connections?..

I'm very pleased to see the US destinations added as I believe they could contribute significantly to the success of the route this time around.

I'm sure that has all been formulated, after all that same question could be asked about numerous route combinations world wide.

SEN-GRQ 18x/week in S18?
 

Some people on a Dutch forum pointed out that for Summer next year, starting Sunday 25 March 2018, much more flights between Southend and Groningen are loaded into the Flybe booking system.

On weekdays, there are three return flights, on Saturdays 2x GRQ-SEN and 1x SEN-GRQ and on Sundays 1x GRQ-SEN and 2x SEN-GRQ. So that means 18 (!) return flights per week, up from 8 last summer and 6 this winter. Based on the timings (first departure from GRQ at 7:10 and last arrival at 21:10), it seems they plan to base an ATR in Groningen.

For the first week (i.e. the last week of March 2018) all these flights are bookable, but for the rest of the Summer season they are loaded but "Full or not enough seats".

Does anybody know more about this? The passenger numbers on the route are increasing (slowly but surely), but the planes are far from full (I think on average about 50-60%) so tripling the number of flights seems excessive.

The Ex. ATC Lasham hangar has been repainted & the doors are currently being repaired & refurbished to coincide with the new FBO/Exec lounge/terminal opening.

Planespeaking..It was a reasonable question & as you say of course it has been "formulated" so perhaps you might allow the question again?.
Who would be responsible for missed connections due to say w/x at a CAT 1 airport or for m/x,being two such examples.

Do we have a date for the opening of the new facility? I note that whilst Mr. Grimes travelled to Vegas for NBAA that Stobart did not have a stand unlike the competitors (Biggin Hill/London City/Harrods/etc...).

I also note that whereas the FBO advertises itself as open 24/7 the airport regulations concerning night flying restrict the operational hours somewhat. No helicopter flights at night removes the helicopter transfer option and the noise QC limit of 1 means that the BBJ's they are after won't be coming in at night either.

Where exactly are they basing the new FBO? In one of the old ATC Lasham sheds?

It will be in the old terminal building

You are quite correct regarding the helicopter night ban, in hindsight something that Stobart really should not have offered as part of the Section 106 agreement linked to the runway extension, but I thought the BBJ based upon the B737 (700 series) had a QC1 certification. Perhaps I'm mistaken on that point.

That timetable is now bookable right through the summer on the Flybe website and, indeed, an aircraft will be night-stopping in GRQ to operate first and last flights of the day. I really find it quite remarkable that such a great number of seats will be offered on that route. Congratulations to GRQ for securing this and it certainly accounts for the spare slots which were evident when the S2018 schedules were released last week.

That is a huge increase for GRQ. Guess it's worth a try.

I imagine that they foresee a big demand for through connections to DUB, MAN and GLA and that these will be bookable quite soon.

The helicopter night ban at SEN is less restrictive than the operating hours at the advertised destinations of London Heliport and Vanguard, though the Battersea hours can be extended to the same cut off time as SEN. The 737 BBJ is less than QC1 I am sure though I can't find the reference to quote.

The QC scheme is at AIP Supplement S010/2017 here: NATS | AIS - Home.
Pages 9 and 19 show that all B737s are QC1 or less & OK for arrival; except for the now largely obsolete -200s (which are more than QC1), all are OK for departure too. Government and military exempt from QC scheme, although they still count towards the monthly 120 per calendar month limit during the night-period. The QC scheme is not a restriction on B737 operation therefore.
Perhaps asdf1234 using a different QC scheme to the rest of industry?

Agree that the helicopter restriction is somewhat inflexible, this could actually lead to more noise from a helicopter arriving early AM that has to be held until the curfew finishes before landing; this would cause extra noise that the helicopter curfew is meant to eliminate. It would be better to have a limit on helicopter movements, that come into the overall monthly quota.
Police, Coastguard, Helimed and miltary helicopters can operate at night, it shows that exceptions can be made. Allowing a very limited number of civil helicopter movements perhaps should be facilitated by the local Councils.

I take my figures from the EASA list of aircraft approved noise levels, specifically the approach and lateral readings.

So is this GRQ based aircraft in addition to the two ATRs based at SEN, or is it one of the two? With the GRQ increase, how are the RNS and CFR routes being operated and is CGN continuing for summer 18?

I was surprised to see in a previous post RNS was still down as only daily, being to date the most successful ATR route.

The CGN flights will continue through S2018 on the EMB195 as they do now.

The additional GRQ flights fill the spare slots in the 2 x ATR72 utilisation needed for the Flybe S2018 timetable released last week.

RNS is interesting because Veuling are dropping their RNS-LGW route for next year and you would think that offered the opportunity to increase frequencies on the SEN route. I doubt Stobart would make a third ATR available just to do that though.