https://onemileatatime.com/united-airlines-a321xlr/

Wonder if a return to Newcastle could be on the cards following expansion of Trans Atlantic services, with the acquisition of 50 new A321XLR aircraft. As stated in the article this number of 50 new A321XLRs exceed requirements only to replace their 757 Transatlantic fleet..

From the attached link article:

"What Will United Use A321XLRs For?

Many of us expected that United would order the A321XLR, because it’s a one-of-a-kind airplane. United’s 757 fleet is aging (their 757s are an average of 22 years old), and they need to replace them.

United notes that they plan to use the A321XLR largely for transatlantic flights out of Washington and Newark, with the possibility of serving additional destinations in Europe.

…. If that plan sticks, then it does in fact seem like United plans to significantly expand transatlantic operations with narrow body aircraft. That’s because they don’t need 50 A321XLRs to replace their current transatlantic 757 operations."

Emirates EK35 has just aborted landing at NCL and is currently making 2nd attempt. Strong wind gust maybe?

aborted landing.
 

Did the Ek 35 land on second attempt.

Yes, it did.

Easyjet
 

Probably no chance of that, NCL expansion not on their radar.

Clearly more money to be made elsewhere!

But accurate - look at how many bases the two airlines have and their repective rate of expansion. EZY tend not to miss open goals - even Jet2 are growing NCL slowly than many of their other bases.

The simple truth is that NCL serves a relatively small, relatively poor market.

Given the circumstances, I think the team at NCL are doing pretty decently. The new KH Munich service opens up a lot of Germany, and hopefully it and DUS can co-exist. Loganair seem to be doing well, with Brussels now starting to move upwards despite not having an inter line agreement with SN. AF mainline increasing to 2 x daily next summer- more capacity there. EK seem to have settled down again following the start of EDI flights. Plenty of growth could be seen from them again without going double daily. BA, I'm not sure what's going on with them though them seem to be using more A321s nowadays. Then KLM are always consistent. Yes, the capacity to the Canaries will be down, but yields for the airlines will likely increase

I believe the way Easyjet works is the local base chiefs present proposals for new routes that they think will work, then upper management allocate aircraft to a base depending on the financial forecast they were presented with. So I don't think its really a case of the London office not understanding the Northern market, but more those on the ground being unable to present a plan that compares to those from other bases. Lets not forget Easyjet have bases all across Europe to think about - that's a lot of competition for the aircraft.

Also lets not forget that they both target slightly different market segments - Easyjet is more about city breaks and business travel, while Jet2 are more focused on package holidays and bucket and spade destinations. With the launch of Easyjet holidays recently, we may see a shift in focus in future, which Newcastle may well benefit from.

easyJet have stayed reasonably stationary over the last few years at NCL.
Ryanair have decreased their presence at NCL over the last few years.
Jet2 have not expanded like some believe and have in-fact stayed stationary similar to easyJet.

The peak-summer weekly departures by Jet2 over the last few years are as follows:
Aug-17 - 96x weekly departures, 7x based aircraft
Aug-18 - 99x weekly departures, 7x based aircraft
Aug-19 - 100x weekly departures, 7x based aircraft
Aug-20 - 100x weekly departures, 7x based aircraft

EMA, BFS, GLA and EDI have also seen very little expansion from Jet2 over the last few summers in comparison to LBA, BHX, STN and MAN which have had large and continued expansion.
Jet2 are now focused on other markets and seem to be happy to keep their smaller bases the same.

TUI however have steadily increased their NCL presence over the last couple of years, and next year will see a significant increase in flights and another based aircraft.