Bristol-5
 

I may be months behind the ball here, but I just noticed that the last BRS-KEF flight on WOW is on 27OCT, and there's nothing else planned in right through 2017/2018.

So, is this the final goodbye?

Looking at some of their fares, they weren't that amazing unless you were genuinely planning to travel with just the clothes you were stood up in and a purse, and didn't want to eat for hours. (And on West Coast flights, wanted a 16 hour overnight in KEF).

EI seems to be offering the best value TATL fares ex-BRS this Winter, with the advantage of pre-clearance in DUB. Skyteam (KL/DL) are next most expensive, but surprisingly *A (BM/LH/SN/UA) aren't prohibitively expensive - they're just the most expensive. (Generalised across a range of US destinations and dates).

Sadly it is a goodbye from wow. I dont think they were ever really committed were they ?

If commitment means not putting BRS to the bottom of the pile when having tech issues with aircraft, judging by their delay record, no - no they were not committed to BRS at all.

Just on the subject of TATL fares, SN have been offering GBP263 to NYC via BRU - the BRU-NYC can be on either SN or UA.

Given those fares, WOW would have been pretty unattractive as an option.

seems rather quiet on news etc from BRS these days.

Nothing spectacularly eye-catching at the moment yeo valley, but the solid progress of recent years continues.

- August CAA passenger figures will probably show 900,000 passengers in a calendar month for the first time in the airport’s history (addendum: CAA stats for August just published showing that BRS handled 905,050 passengers in the month with the rolling 12-month total 8,095,866, up 10.9% on this time last year)

- Rolling 12-month total should be around 8.1 million when August figures released, with year-end expected to be between 8.2 and 8.3 million, a gain of two million in three years

- easyJet early summer 2018 schedule seems to continue the trend of recent years of an extra based aircraft with the timetable showing a requirement for 15 in early June

- Thomas Cook apparently adding a third based Airbus in summer 2018 with TUI continuing with the three based Boeings of recent summers (2 x 757 and 1 x 738) plus a B787 for four days each week

- Latest infrastructure to be completed is the £2.5 million Silver Zone reception building on the south side with the Silver Zone car park extended massively earlier this year

- The airport’s first multi-storey car park which will be on the north side will see construction commence shortly

- One new aircraft parking stand to be built over the winter to add to the three new ones opened earlier this year

- Many rumours persisting that the old terminal building will be demolished next year to make way for more aircraft parking stands

- A £600,000 review of surface connectivity was launched recently funded in the main by the airport and in part by the local authority

- On the minus side WOW is leaving the airport very shortly and doesn’t appear intent on coming back

- Still waiting to know who will replace Robert Sinclair as CEO with the latter off to London City very soon

- The airport is to commence a major review of its master plan shortly that will involve the public, local business as well as airlines and other partners. At the present rate of increase the airport’s planning cap of 10 mppa will be reached within the next few years so ways of accommodating that might feature. As the airport is a major employer in North Somerset it’s likely the local authority will look sympathetically on raising the limit, albeit the usual suspects will object so litigation might again be in the wind (as it was with the airport’s major expansion application a few years ago).

However, despite the tens of millions spent in recent years expanding the terminal in so many directions and ways there are still periods when the passenger experience through the airport is extremely poor because of the numbers involved. That is something else that the airport ought to consider seriously in its review of the way ahead.

Qatar Airways
 

Qatar Airways chief's faith in Cardiff Airport service - BBC News

Earlier this week Qatar Airways’ CEO Akbar Al Baker provided an interesting insight into his airline’s decision to opt for CWL rather than BRS.

He said he resisted “very strong arguments” from his planning team that there would not be enough passengers for a CWL daily service. He believes he will be proved right in opting for CWL instead of BRS. He says that Wales is a “huge developing state” and he stressed the importance of connecting the people of Wales and the South West with the rest of the world.

Mr Al Baker said he had been under “immense pressure” from ministers, diplomats and Cardiff Airport to operate from Wales. He didn’t make it clear whether they were Welsh Government ministers or Westminster ministers, although given the Welsh government’s understandable involvement in the process it was probably their ministers in the main, albeit the Westminster government’s Welsh Secretary might well have played a part too.

The CEO concluded, "We had competition between Wales and Bristol and Wales won.” That suggests to me that he saw things as between a city region and an entire country.

The CWL CEO Deb Barber said that there is a market of 1.4 million people in Wales and the ‘West Region’ who fly to the Middle East from other airports.

From his comments Mr Al Baker included the South West market as part of his calculations, perhaps a vital part. Ms Barber uses the term ‘West Region’ which is synonymous with West of England and usually taken to mean Greater Bristol and its hinterland - an area roughly analogous with the former county of Avon together with nearby bits of west Wiltshire and nearby bits of the now emasculated counties of Somerset and Gloucestershire.

I imagine that the West of England is the area of England that Qatar and CWL will target intensively.

An interesting post.

I would think that the majority of traffic will be connecting.

If Bristol was to secure something similar to Turkish airlines for connecting traffic, attracting traffic over the Severn Bridge may become more difficult.

The forthcoming abolition of the bridge toll will remove one of the disincentives for SW England residents of using CWL. However, I am unconvinced that CWL will be a major player when BHX is only 45 miles further distant, with a much wider range of choices of connecting airlines and daily rotations. If the connections via the QR flight from CWL fit, perhaps, but generally, no. Turkish at BRS would be lovely but it is unlikely to happen because of BHX.

Qatar frequently boast/ highlight how many "capital" cities they serve, worldwide.

One wonders if Cardiff's capital status played a part in Qatar's decision. Tick another capital city box.

From a quick look at flight schedules, it looks like BRS-BRU is transferring to be operated by BM from 29OCT, and codeshared to SN. Flight numbers are changing to BM200x and SN443x.

That's a bit of a blow, because then it officially removes the last Star Alliance member from BRS, and with it the ability to earn/spend FF miles.

It's possible I've misread it though.

bmi regional set to assume two Brussels Airlines' routes
 

Not all hope lost BT...

(Taken from ch-aviation)
bmi regional set to assume two Brussels Airlines' routes

With the onset of the Winter 2017/18 season, bmi regional (BM) will begin servicing two Belgium-UK/Germany routes that are currently operated for Brussels Airlines (SN) on a wet-lease basis.

ch-aviation analysis of schedule data shows that effective October 29, the UK regional carrier will start operating 6x weekly flights from Brussels National to each of Bristol Int'l and Nuremberg under its own flight codes and numbers and using its own ERJ-145s. Brussels Airlines will continue to codeshare on the services. Overall, bmi regional will operate up to four daily services between Brussels and Bristol in cooperation with its Belgian partner given three remaining ERJ-145 operated services will continue to operate under Brussels Airlines flight numbers as a wet-lease.

I don't understand that ch-aviation report?

All flights on the BRS-BRU route are transferring to be operated by BM. As BM is not part of Star Alliance, it won't be possible to earn or spend miles. There's no other Star Alliance airlines at BRS.

So no more *A redemption flights from BRS, I'll have to go to LHR or BHX :sad:

Can't spend on star but surely if it's operated by BM with star codeshares you just book the codeshare and continue to earn ?

No, because the "operating airline" (BM) is outside Star Alliance, you can't earn or burn, or have benefits, even if you're booking on a codeshare ("marketing airline"). It's different from Oneworld, where the "marketing airline" is relevant for earn/burn.

So BRS is officially disconnected from the Star network from 29OCT. BM and LH have a very limited bilateral agreement to allow LH*G status to use the lounges at FRA and MUC when travelling to BRS on a LH (220) plated ticket using the codeshare flight numbers.

Where too?

Thanks for the info BT. Didn’t realize that about star.

Where do you mainly fly ? Perhaps it’s time to start looking for other options away from star.

EI for example offer decent onward connections ex BRS onward from Dublin and BA now offer through tickets via FGW from either parkway or TempleM. There’s also the decent KLM connections via AMS

Boa Vista on Fridays beginning November 18 and will operate alongside the existing year-round Sal route that will move to Wednesdays next year with the B787 taking over from the B757.

Keflavik on Wednesdays and Sundays beginning November 18. Currently easyJet operates a 2/3 x weekly winter KEF route although WOW will cease its service from tomorrow.

Marrakech on Tuesdays beginning November 18. easyJet appears to have axed its own RAK route at the end of summer 17.

Hurghada will also be new for winter 18/19 operating on Mondays - it will actually begin on 5 March and operate through next summer as well. Thomas Cook is also starting a Hurghada route next May on Tuesdays - currently it is showing summer only.

@cornishsimon

I'm mainly disappointed about benefits withdrawal and not being to redeem awards from BRS, but otherwise interlined ticketing between BM and LH (Group) will mean I can keep flying from BRS.

(Admittedly, would be fairly happy if someone could persuade TG, SQ and SK to also do codeshare / interline with BM, but I have a hunch the deal with LH precludes that).

BM and SK already have an interline deal but no codeshare as yet....I don't think there's anything precluding deals with anyone although LH might be a bit touchy if BM included MUC/FRA flying as part of the deal