The NEO was parked up beside us as I boarded a flight at MAN on Thursday night. It looks as thought the NEO had been operating out of MAN most of the week before, why then almost immediately after this announcement has it disappeared back to Luton?

Kinda plays into the narrative above that the public don’t really care much.

On a totally unrelated question, are there any plans to put the Recaro seats in the A319’s? The comfort levels between the A319 and A320 with Recaro’s is night and day.

The irony of a "NEO Roadshow" being that they only have four of them at present, but another 18 or so Old-Engines-O still to arrive which won't have eight months of wear on the carpets...

Great for fleet planning etc but amuses me that the old-and-inferior will actually be considered new-and-superior by most passengers. Unlike FlyBE's Dashes which I've often heard being described as "old aeroplanes" even just after delivery.

You are aware that some of the recent dash 8 additions to Flybe are in fact 'old aeroplanes' as they are former Repubic Airways aircraft in an exchange for that airline acquiring the former and 'newer' dash 8's from Flybe.

That's why you have often heard them being described as 'old aeroplanes' even just after delivery!

The majority of the general public think anything with propellers is old.

Post #316. I suspect there is some backtracking going on at Orange HQ.

easyflyer83:- Most of the MAN extra slots have been handed back. Only 2 extra frames (instead of 5-6) and only from late July- even that is yet to be confirmed.

My comment was regarding people assuming that Friday was an expansion announcement when it was simply the NEO roadshow that is visiting a number of bases around the network.

I have no official knowledge of expansion over and above the 13th based aircraft announced some months ago and the speculation of recent weeks.

I would have thought that by now all airlines have a good idea of how much, and to where demand lies for this summer. Given that the UK economy is growing more slowly than the economies of mainland Europe, it hardly surprising that that is where we will see growth in routes and frequency.

Usually around now both EZY and FR post additional services for at least the peak months. Maybe not this year.

From what I've seen on the MAN Thread there was slots for 18 based at MAN for this summer but this has now been reduced to 14, hopefully some route news will still come.

I think it got up to 20 at one point which always seemed rather over ambitious even taking into account the demise of MON. One-two extra based units is much more realistic.

The easyJet piece needs to be viewed in the context of two major projects they have ongoing right now, one being Berlin and the second being the introduction of the first A321s this summer. Radical gung-ho expansion elsewhere is likely to detract resource and management focus from getting both of those right and has (sensibly) been fended off.

EZY reports 5,159,860 passengers in January, +8.7% vs. Ryanair "just" +6%
Passenger Statistics for January 2018

Easyjet to seek a new UK AOC pre Brexit and also embark on heavy promotion of investing in Easyjet to non-UK shareholders in the EU.
Counting Stelios as a Cypriot, over 50 % of Easyjet shares will be held by EU citizens post Brexit. Easyjet could then move its registered office outside the UK and become a (eg Austrian) company solving the problem of Brexit

I imagine that some head office staff might need to relocate on a permanent basis to Vienna. This might perhaps explain why Easyjet don't seem particularly focussed on finding new office space in Luton at the moment

This might perhaps explain why Easyjet don't seem particularly focussed on finding new office space in Luton at the moment

What happened to Chateau Monarch?

Didn't they state at the time that they were staying put in Luton? How does moving the registered head office to Austria solve the "problem of Brexit"? They still need the Austrian AOC, the Swiss one is also staying and the majority of their flying will still be UK centric? Admin and head office functions as well as hangar space don't need to follow the paper
Is there a link? Be good to understand why they need a "new UK AOC"?

Skipness if they become Euro centric i.e. Austrian AOC, they need a UK AOC to operate UK domestic flights, possibly not to Belfast if NI stays in the Customs Union re no border between NI and Eire. What a farce!

They already have a UK AOC, they’re registered head office is in Luton. Am looking to understand why they’d need a second or new UK AOC.

Unless I'm missing something, why would EasyJet require a second AOC? Their existing UK AOC will continue to allow EasyJet to operate domestic fights within the UK, right?

The question of UK AOC was raised by Easyjet asking permission of shareholders earlier this month to amend the company Articles of Association. Shareholders formally voted it through this week - along with the CAA agreeing in all but name to grant an AOC to Easyjet UK. The chairman of Easyjet has gone on record saying Easyjet plc is now Brexit-proof. I imagine if the legal address of the company moves from the UK to Austria the details of Brexit might invalidate it for UK domestics. Getting a UK AOC for a wholly owned subsidiary rather than the parent company would remove some legal ambiguity - worth the cost of the insurance premium

Pick up a copy of yesterday's or today's FT if you don't believe me

So could this maybe mean that more of EasyJet's fleet will be registered to the Europe subsidary rather than the 110 planned?

All UK based aircraft will be UK registered and all EU based aircraft will be Austrian registered.

At the moment there is about 270 aircraft in the fleet. 140 are based in the UK and 22 are in Switzerland. That leaves about 110 for the EU fleet so those numbers are probably accurate.