Too early to say anything concrete about Ryanair. We were just notified that our Sunday flight to Gran Canaria has been moved to Friday - so anything is possible.

For W24/25 it looks like FUE, LPA are down as 1x weekly which is a decrease over this winter

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news...r-29170241.amp

Quite interesting to read. I remember during the takeover of NUFC it was promised that investment would encompass the whole region, not just the football club.

If this is true and if it is successful and approved, and IF we ever actually see any of it (I wonder how much gets diverted and filtered through Westminster…) 3 billion quid is huge! It would be a game changer for the region.

Do we reckon any could be invested into NCL? If anyone from the PIF, Local Authorities, or NCL are reading this, a few million would more than cover a new extension to the north end of the terminal, with a second pier and more remote stands. Plus perhaps a few hundred thousand to Saudia or Riyadh air for an A321/787 to Riyadh and/or Jeddah a few times a week.
If NCL wants to expand, and avoid turning into a hellhole like EDI/BHX/LTN/STN at peak times, and retain our favourable position as a decent airport to fly from - they need to invest in infrastructure and expand the terminal, now.

Ryanair wise, I’d be surprised if FUE/LPA/PFO stay at 1 weekly. FR don’t really do single frequencies like that, and I’d struggle to believe that they aren’t raking it in on the majority of their routes - as long as they’re looking at ancillary charges and onboard spend as part of their revenue out of NCL. Geordies spend!

There’s plenty more for FR to do out of NCL, a solid 20+ routes they could sustain with relative ease. Let’s hope team NCL are pushing hard for an aircraft or two from the closure of the Bordeaux base. FR have openly said that the base closure will be to the benefit of other airports that are willing to cut them a deal. NCL would be daft not to.

They do on the Canaries and other leisure routes quite a bit. Certainly more than they used to. They also fly very little generally, if at all from some bases, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays over winter.

£3 billion is indeed huge, which makes me wonder why it will only 'help' to 'sustain' (not even 'create') 2.000 jobs. It's hard to see how the economic activity involved in the said 'sustenance' of 2,000 jobs would be transformational or a 'game-changer'. It's all very nebulous.
Personally, I think all of the new-found Saudi enthusiasts on Tyneside who have rolled out the red carpet for a bunch of murderers in exchange for winning a few football matches should be ashamed of themselves, but that's probably one for JetBlast.

Most of the Middle Eastern investment is being ploughed into Teesside.

Alfanar £1.3bn SAF plant at Seal Sands

Saudi Aramco £850m SABIC Olefins 6 facility at Wilton

Plus one or two other projects.

Rumours starting to circulate in the form of a certain orange airline about to announce something big. That’s what I heard when passing through last week from a friend in the commercial department.

Your friend was spot on.They did indeed do that first thing this morning.

I suppose EZY will eventually look at the feasability of re-opening their NCL base.....with flights to BFS, BRS, PMI. ALC, GVA plus AMS starting in September The operation must be reaching a level where a base needs to be considered.

March 24 CAA pax figures higher than March 19 - first time post-covid?

ncl-stn 4 times daily again please !

Does anyone know the load factors for Aegeans Athens flights?

Assuming they’re not bad given the route continued this year but a few are saying the flights are only 50% full.

As good as it would be to have easyJet back, I would like to see Ryanair more established first. I’d like to see TUI make a success of 5 based aircraft plus the 787 too. Not too much of an ask, and TUI could always sell holidays on the easyJet sectors.

I’d like to see them come back and contribute more by way of different routes as well, like they’ve done at Southend. Bring Berlin, Paris, Split, Pisa and Nice back. More choice to Jersey, Malta, Barcelona. New routes like Venice and Marrakech. There’s plenty for them to do

Loads for last year were as follows:

Month | pax | rotations | load factor
Jun-23 | 1388 | 10 | 138.8
Jul-23 | 2625 | 18 | 145.8
Aug-23 | 2564 | 18 | 142.4
Sep-23 | 2265 | 16 | 141.6
Oct-23 | 1884 | 16 | 117.8

Assuming all services were on an Aegean A320, then that's a load factor of about 79% in the summer. Not bad considering the terrible flight times but of course we do not know the yield.

Aegean
 

BHX had a similar load factor with Aegean but the route got pulled for this summer. Of course there are many other variables in play, the fact that Jet2 also fly BHX-ATH and we don't know if a commercial deal between BHX and Aegean had come to an end?

Clearly the yields at BHX were not good enough even at 80% plus loads factor, fingers crossed for NCL they are