Jetblue want the premium traffic from Heathrow so Stansted wouldnt work.

Yes, can just see an American who booked a Mint Seat transfer onto a RYR flight!

According to the most recent slot allocation Loganair have been allocated 98 weekly.

Based on the schedule for mid July LM require 28 slots for IOM and 26 slots for MME.

When it comes to the other 44 slots, they are most likely to be used for a new NQY service. However some could also be used to transfer one of there LDY to STN or DND to LCY routes if they could get permission as they are PSO routes.

It is worth noting that Eastern Airways have in the LGW slot allocation report been allocated 54 weekly slots to fly to NQY. There are rumours that this is to operate a up to 4 x Daily service as part of a new PSO contract.

What people still fail to realise is Stansted has an extremely large amount of Premium passengers in its catchment area, people that still only see STN as a low cost Airport are the same people that said EK would NEVER come to STN and if it did it would never work.
Are you saying all premium business and first class passengers only live in LHR catchment are, I think many would be living closer to STN than LHR and only fly from LHR because they don’t have the choice.

I'm not sure who "you" is referring to, or indeed what point you are trying to make, but to suggest that the STN "catchment area" (however you define it) is comparable to LHR's is to ignore both geography and demographics.

why do you think airlines including B6 prefer to operate from LHR then? Do you think international passengers only end up in London? Do you think they rely on good onward connections? To benefit from codeshares and airline alliances? Not impossible that B6 would operate from STN but only if they could not from LHR.

DaveReidUK

I think you should read my post again, I never once suggested such a thing, that would be ludicrous, what I was saying STN has a big enough catchment of first business and premium passengers to sustain such flights, as they did before with MAXjet and eos in fact they were so popular that American was sent in to destroy them.
you can get a bigger brand than EK to prove that STN is very popular with premium passengers, who would have thought a twice daily EK was possible at STN and guess what before they offered STN flights them same passengers would have had to track round the M25 to LHR even though STN was much closer.
Which backs up what I was saying, a large amount of passengers traveling from LHR do so as it’s their only option and may well live closer to STN than LHR.

Certainly STN has the required catchment to support First Business & Premium which has been well proven.

The major problem for STN is the enduring legacy (at present) of "Fortress Heathrow" & Alliance "market cartels" furthering their own ends with lack of customer thinking/service & imagination.

Another clue in the JBU song & dance routine with award of possible temporary usage waiver slots is that both Bamboo & Westjet have also been awarded slots at LHR this Summer.

EK at STN was an addition to their other London services. Having a single London destination as Stansted is a completely different proposition, especially for an American company with little profile in the UK, so expecting most of it's traffic to be originating in the US.

Blimey, there are some delusional people here about the power of Stansted.

It absolutely hasn’t proven itself. Both Maxjet and Eos went bust. So did Silverjet at Luton even without any help from AA. And then so did Primera. No-one has gone near either market with a premium product for the better part of a decade.

If jetBlue can get access to LHR as they seem to have, it’s absolutely the right place for them to be.

SWBKCB

Agreed - If EK could get more LHR slots they would be out of STN and maybe LGW very quickly

I'm not sure. The Sheikhs keep their horses at Newmarket.

BHX5DME

I disagree, the fact STN was the fastest EK service to go double daily in its history just shows how successful that operation is.

Not everyone, nor is all the wealth of London and the South East near LHR.

But would it have been the fastest had equal capacity gain been available at LHR?

Albert Hall

you have to be blind to not see that AA was sent to STN to push MAXjet and eos off their purchase, once this was accomplished AA pulled out.

As for Primera’s down fall, this was due to a delay in new aircraft delivery from Airbus and having National as a substitute to fly the routes.

Dont get me wrong I’m a realist and understand why other airlines will not allow Stansted to work but hopefully in the future MAG will learn from history and predict and manage dirty play by competitors.

I seen a post recently on FB which pointed out just how vulnerable and worried LHR LGW and Transatlantic flag carriers were a few years back when Ryanair started talking about Transatlantic flights with full first class service from Stansted, it would be very interesting to see what would have happened if this idea had developed.

This is demonstrably false. Any airline which has operated from STN and any other London airport has had commercial data to support staying or dropping. When American flew STN-ORD and STN-JFK they genuinely brought something new to the market and tried to make it work. The route would not have been dropped if it had held it's own in the market, it would have been a succesful niche addition supporting LHR in the London market, just like Emirates. Except the numbers of the STN-JFK compared to LHR-JFK didn't stack up and it makes commercial sense to funnel traffic over LHR. It was a strategic spoiler against Maxjet and EOS but make no mistake, if those numbers had been good, they'd have stayed. They were not.

There's too many on here that defend airports like football clubs, loyal to the death, hand on heart, that have never had their backsides handed to them on a plate because a business case they championed failed. (Still sore) It's business, not personal.

There it was I scheduled an hour but the inevitable mention of Maxjet & Eos arrived in half that time...such tired postings.

Also the first admission that the most recent AA operation was indeed a strategic spoiler & not a failure.

SOF...Really do not understand your last paragraph...at all.

You must forgive posters who also maybe slightly aware of STN ops who post with some realism & not shield behind personally interpreted analytics/theory to suit purpose.

Skipness One Foxtrot

But isn't this exactly what you've done for years with your beloved Heathrow?

Pot paint kettle black springs to mind.

daz211


Ryanair are incredibly shrewd and savvy. If there was a genuine viable money making opportunity for them doing Transatlantic at Stansted wouldn't they have done it already?