Mind you I'd be happier booking AZ than FR just now if I'm honest.

Alitalia moving their operations from Heathrow to Stansted is a big deal if true but if that is the case how come it hasn't already been posted on the Stansted thread other than what daz211 has posted.

If any move by Alitalia is true I would have thought that Gatwick might have been their first choice although I should imagine that slots would have been hard to come by.

Stansted only makes sense if Ryanair's takeover attempt is successful. Then Alitalia would benefit from a huge European network to connect onto their long haul services.

I do fear however that Alitalia will go the same way as Cyprus Airways. They were in trouble, moved from Heathrow to Stansted, lost a whole lot of passengers and went out of business not long after.

The problem AZ would have, and I guess this was the same for CY and SK, is that LHR has its own local market or access to particular parts of London and people will pay the LHR premium for that convenience.

Once you move round the M25 to LGW, LTN or STN, a number of your customers will switch to BA and the rest will say "if I have to go over to STN, I might as well save a few quid and fly someone else".

In my opinion AZ should just concentrate on LCY.

AZA...more than a little substance?,have viewed service schedule on another forum...STN/FCO 3 daily!...

If true it will just go the way of Cyprus airways who did the same thing.

If it happens at all it is likely not to last long

Having read the airliners.net thread I've slightly softened my opinion on Alitalia. If they survive that is.

It's being suggested the rate of transfer pax (China Southern in particular was mentioned) is very high, if that is the case perhaps there is space for AZ and FR to coexist. The one thing STN doesn't have is full service global connectivity. Or indeed any connectivity beyond a few points in the Middle East. This isn't something I'd really considered.

This puts them at an advantage to CY as they were pretty much point to point.

KL/UK tried AMS from STN and LH tried FRA/MUC from STN and those services no longer exist - so I don't get your point about AZ connectivity.

Still LHR not STN when you book for June 18 !

STN keeps 7 based EZY aircraft for the spring schedule. There are gaps in the schedule. Most interestingly MUC is reduced to 5x weekly (possibly because of Eurowings going 12x weekly), with the Monday and Friday flights removed. Which I would of thought were the highest yielding days on that route?

No real surprises really though my thoughts exactly with regards to MUC. Noticeably OVD and BIO both seem to be at reduced frequency also but definitely sticking with the 7 based aircraft. A few time/slot changes, especially on the domestic routes, and probably a new route or two I imagine somewhere down the line. But overall just another year of flat growth from EZY.

I wonder how long it will be until we find out the 3rd transatlantic destination from primera air the new posters say Newyork Boston and more and Stansted did say as follows - From April 2018, the airline will offer daily services to New York’s Newark Airport and four a week to Boston Logan Airport from May.

Primera Air will announce another trans-Atlantic route from Stansted by the end of summer 2017.

Toronto or Philadelphia is my guess, not sure if a 21neo could reach Washington? I wouldn't want to be on one that long anyways.

Toronto would be nice I'm not suggesting primera should do this but I'm surprised TCX or TUI haven't tapped into the niagra falls market this would make a brilliant charter destination I know Toronto serves niagra falls and to an extent buffalo on the US side but niagra has a nice new modern terminal.... sorry I digress

The reason they don't is that two days is the absolute maximum time you would want to spend there.

I spent a week at Niagra and a week in Vegas Niagra has turned into a nice family tourist destination not just the falls anymore lots for the whole family but granted it's not you two week beach getaway but a week is not to much.

Interesting snippet (more new ROUTES).

Looking at our advanced bookings, we are really happy to see a level of demand that has already exceeded our expectations. This is not all from Primera Air as in the coming weeks we will be announcing another new route from Stansted Airport, and beyond that we will also announce our future development plans at the airport, including more new routes.

Looks like a mixed fleet along with the A321neo's they have ordered upto 20 B739max.

Interesting Primera chose Cambridge for a launch which in it`s own right will be a big driver of STN`s future growth.Future development plans for STN by Primera (along with the other two announced long haul bases) could possibly also involve a short/medium haul network mentioned in a previous statement by them..:ok: