Target weekend work at least where LCY cannot offer leisure market runway capacity in making those BACF aircraft work harder would be a start!

Unfortunately that opportunity was lost around 5 years ago reportedly due to SEN's inflexibility in not allowing BACF ground staff at the airport. That planned operation could have been quite extensive.

Sounds like a fanciful rumour to me. What ground staff do BACF employ ?

Yes, it does sound "a fanciful rumour' doesn't it?

Unfortunately I believe it to be true and I think from memory the operation was planned for the 2018 summer season and it would have involved BACF using their own check-in staff. I know for a fact that at a late stage in the negotiations they canvassed some of their LCY ground staff asking if they would like to transfer to SEN.

Just to employ Stobbart staff on a Saturday & Sunday, might find people unwilling to work say 20 hours / week at weekends only. I think they need to rethink on bringing in BACF staff where required. Could be the kick-start of say Luxair, Lufty & ITA adding but those are more business rather than leisure so maybe not.
From little acorns.......

Would BACF staff, who must live over a wide area, really want to travel out to Southend for weekend work? I would think they quite like having guaranteed time off.

Perhaps a little academic if LCY's application for longer opening hours on Saturday afternoon gets even partial approval by Newham council ?

I don't think the details of the arrangements matters, but it does seem to be another example of how Stobart/Esken do seem to do business in their very own way.

A 'blue chip' customer just up the road who have a constraint that means they can't operate for part of the week and you aren't doing everything you can to get their business?

They don’t get guaranteed time off. At the moment BACF operate from elsewhere instead including SOU and EDI. They have tried other airports too. So those BACF crew night stop in hotels at the relevant airport.

As an example they will operate on a Sat LCY-IBZ-SOU-MAH-SOU (night stop)-PMI-LCY.

Also worth noting that when BACF were at STN they used handling from Gatwick Ground services and so that was probably also the intention for SEN, which might have proved a showstopper.

the ground staff do which is what’s being discussed, at least for roughly 24hours during the curfew

BACF have never employed their own staff to carry out check in/boarding/dispatch functions at LCY it is all contracted to GHAs, Menzies since 2014

At STN it was also Menzies when they started the operations, then from March to August 2018 it was GGS ramp staff, but Menzies check in and boarding agents until Menzies left due to the loss of 2 major contacts making staying at STN no longer financially viable

It wasn't going to be just "weekend work". The planned programme was seen as being more extensive than that.

There used to be a passenger figure many years ago when airports could not monopolise handling and were obliged to allow 3rd party handling.

I believe it was some EU directive so would assume it still applies. I think the figure I heard before was 2mppa.

Yes that figure rings a bell.

https://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/232...ume-next-week/

So the question is what do the people working on these 3 flights a week do for the rest of their shifts and in fact for the rest of the week?

I can only see it adding to the airport’s losses but I could be wrong?

Possibly Royal Mail flights. STN is closed on three nights when the mail would normally operate there - they have to go somewhere.

Seems Southend is the go to place for filming.

This time it was for British Airways



https://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/232...thend-airport/

Just as well it wasn’t Virgin. Be like a scene from the Rocky Horror Show. Or am I not allowed to say that…..

I see the ASL 734F from Leipzig is booked in, I wonder where the STN ASL Paris & Liege?