It is well known that BRS has a short runway but as has been mentioned, the 738 has operated BRS-SID-BRS all summer without any tech stops, along with the likes of BRS-HRG-BRS. Last year the 788 was used all summer on BRS-SID-BRS but TUI switched that over to DLM this year. I highly doubt TUI will use a 763 out of regional airports to Cape Verde during winter months, I do think they are planning to fly MAN-SID on the 763 this winter though. I think with BVC, they are pretty much stuck with the 757 if they want to go non-stop both ways; the 738 can’t do the inbound to the UK and I don’t think the airport can accommodate wide-bodies – correct me if I’m wrong.

BVC can take the 763 (and did once a week last winter from ARN) but not the 787 (yet).

I believe the 763 will be going into BVC 5x per week this Winter, including 3x from Scandinavia.

Just seen a report that TUI will put the above on sale next month on the 7th nov

Should be interesting to what they have planned

Interesting. And assuming the 2x 763 will be back at MAN, both bases will have 6x wide-bodies. Do you know the split of 8s and 9s? I’m guessing either 3 at each (with one of MAN’s probably being the spare) or 4 at LGW and 2 at MAN.

Im a bit surprised that the GLA/NCL 787 is also due to be operating from BHX once a week – seems a tad inefficient to ferry it all the way down there just to go back up again. Did TCX fly long-haul from BHX? If not, I’d wager that possibly the day at BHX may be switched to GLA to cover lost TCX l/h capacity there. Just my thoughts, probably won’t happen.

Nope, pretty sure they did the same last year. Essentially they ‘provisionally’ released S20 in Nov 2018 but I believe they made some changes until spring 2019 when they previously would’ve released the following summer’s flights.

its usually a carbon copy of existing summer schedules. New schedules appear the following April

After a quick look at the online timetable it certainly doesn’t look like a full time 787 all summer. The days of CUN flights vary significantly week-by-week, with some weeks having 2 flights and others 3 or 4. SFB is only 2 weekly for a few weeks in June/July and MBJ only runs for a similar amount of time.

So far I make the changes to be:

Short-haul a/c

BRS +2
GLA +1 (plus potential full time 787?)
NCL +1
DSA +1
BHX +1 (?)
BOH +0.4 approx
EXT +0.4 approx
LGW/MAN ??
Other bases ??

With regards to the BOH/EXT increases, I have not personally checked the website, but have read from others that each bases will see an additional a/c 3 days per week. Originally the plan seemed to be that BOH would take a LTN a/c from Fri-Sun. Provided this is still the case, perhaps EXT will take one of the extra BRS a/c from Mon-Wed? Another possibility is that one a/c is used exclusively for the BOH/EXT increases, moving between the two bases.

Please correct me or fill in the gaps in my knowledge by addressing the question marked areas above or any other points people have picked up.

On a side note, G-OOBG looks to have been wfu for the second time this morning. It flew from GLA-DGX and has been replaced at GLA by G-TAWA, alongside G-TAWO.

Looking at Summer 2020 the Luton (HQ) operation looks tiny in comparison to recent years. I know this year was scaled back, but next year looks to be a handful of destinations at best, with what looks like just a single based airplane?

Changing times.

It has been a single 757 for this entire summer (with a couple of inward w-patterns), with an additional 738 coming in for only a few weeks in the peak summer.

I reckon there’s a good chance this will be reduced to a single 737 next summer.

It looks like GLA and NCL will lose all of their w-patterns from ABZ next summer as these will no longer be needed with the addition of a based a/c at both. These included PMI on Tue and Sat, DLM on Thu and CFU on Fri.

After a quick look at the website, these flights are still showing as outward w-patterns from ABZ. I can’t see where they are ‘w-ing’ to at the moment but it’s possible this hasn’t been decided/updated yet. Perhaps some growth at other bases will come from the likes of this as opposed to additional based a/c.