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Quote:

Originally Posted by Rutan16 (Post 11294634)

No, the UAE and UK have a liberal near openskies bilateral arrangement and 6th and 7th freedoms that allow a host of fare combinations beyond DUBAI to be sold.

However the function of the FlyDubai brand is primarily about regional high frequency “low rent” operations whilst a very few mid range flights are also operated to the south eastern corner of Europe these are targeted at tradesmen moving into and out of the gulf on the cheap.

For the most part they are complementary to their sister carrier rather than a competitor.

There are just a few regional routes where both can be found, however each has a differing profile;
Emirates will operate maybe two flights directly targeting global onward connections via their banked hub strategy, whilst FlyDubai will maintain higher frequencies and lower fare bundles for more local traffic flows.

Both carriers have a range of cross ticket options in place for some destinations where one or others profiles are more appropriate.

Other than an occasional 737max delivery flight don’t expect the FlyDubai brand to deployed into the UK anytime soon if ever .

If you are talking about Dubai - Amritsar corridor in particular there are Seat limitations ( as opposed to frequency) within the UAE- India bilateral arrangements and Emirates / FlyDubai chooses to use them elsewhere .

There are a few “low rent” Indian flexible fares carriers plying the route for migrant/ labour workers.
SpiceJet and Air India express ( their LCC division)

Whilst traffic and demand exists particularly from the UK and Canada, as others stated yield are generally terrible.

Yes, I was referring to a DXB-ATQ flight but my original post wasn’t particularly clear. Thanks for the info. I’m sure if Emirates or FlyDubai started flying to ATQ there would a lot of passengers connecting from BHX.

EK are trying to get more flights & passengers to/from India but I think they already operate as much as they have permits for

Aegean Airlines showing as returning from the 28th March 2023, twice weekly to Athens on an A320

Tue/Fri. Dept A3 643 BHX - ATH 10:35-16:10
Tue/Fri. Arr. A3 642 ATH - BHX 07:55-09:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by ATNotts (Post 11294692)

There probably is, but I just hark back to the BHX/YYZ route which saw Air Canada muscle in for one season, in a blatant and successful attempt to drive Wardair off. The result was no direct scheduled service between the two points as with Wardair disposed of Air Canada abandoned the route. There is the distinct potential for similar to happen when AI increase capacity at the same time as Hans Airways starts service, resulting in too many seats chasing too few punters in what is likely to be a difficult economic period for the UK and neither carrier succeeding on the route.

Bit harsh on Air Canada. Wardair were in a very bad way having done a Laker and ordered a fleet of Airbuses, they doubled in size almost overnight and were soon teetering on the verge of collapse before being bought by Canadian. One of the first acts of the new management team was to downsize UK ops after 1989, leaving only LGW and MAN. Everything else got binned end of summer 89, even Prestwick after Wardair said they'd only serve Scotland from Glasgow as they re-focussed on "business travellers" ! Funny what you remember from 33 years ago.....

Air India 787[size=13px]The Indian carrier currently operates just a single weekly Birmingham-Amritsar service. However, starting next month, it plans to add two additional weekly Amritsar services, and three Delhi services.[/size]

The new frequencies will be phased in from October through to December this year. Pre-Covid, Air India operated seven flights a week between Birmingham and India.

“Adding frequency and improving connectivity from major Indian cities to more international destinations is a significant focus," said Campbell Wilson, Air India chief executive. "It is a clear signal of our intent, and an early step towards a much bigger aspiration.”

Tom Screen, Birmingham’s aviation director, added: “We’re doing backward somersaults of joy at the prospect of increasing our India flight frequency to six a week. So many of our customers want this. We’re thrilled it’s happening."

August 2022 compared to August 2019

BHX doing ok, BRS & STN the winners and GLA & EMA the loosers

BRS – 973,302 down 3.60%

STN – 2,605,863 down 9.07%

LBA – 435,307 down 13.55%

BHX – 1,172,123 down 16.70%

LGW – 4,089,241 down 17.29%

MAN – 2,731,641 down 18.07%

BFS – 520,708 down 18.55%

EDI – 1,199,075 down 18.97%

LHR – 6,040,270 down 21.36%

GLA – 698,374 down 23.24%

EMA – 428,554 down 28.99%

Jet 2 have cancelled Jersey for next summer leaving Blue Islands to operate the route

Have to say, love how Blue Island have somehow managed to see off the might of Jet2 and EasyJet off this route...wonder if Flybe MK2 will.be the next to hsve a pop??

I think it’s probably more a case of Jet2 and easyJet finding better places to put their equipment. Didn’t both only start the routes during COVID?

Yes for sure regarding EasyJet, they operated BHX-JER one season only (2021) no doubt to cash in on the staycation boom. I used the service twice and loads were healthy although not stellar! Seem to remember it was a W pattern with MAN based crew

Not so sure about Jet2 and when they started BHX-JER, it has only just been chopped for 2023 and they're still flying to JER from EMA, STN, LBA and NCL next summer. So perhaps they do have a better use for the aircraft as clearly BHX-JER didn't work for them. Hopefully Blue Islands alone will satisfy demand.

Ryanair Announces Biggest Ever Birmingham Schedule

1 ADDITIONAL AIRCRAFT, $100M INVESTMENT, 7 NEW SUMMER ROUTES (42 TOTAL)

Ryanair, UK’s no. 1 airline for low fares and reliability, today (2 Nov) announced its biggest ever Birmingham Summer schedule for 2023, operating 42 routes, including 7 new Summer routes such as Girona and Pisa, as well as even more flights on 10 routes. The addition of a new based Gamechanger aircraft, brings the total fleet at Birmingham to 6 – a $600M investment.

Ryanair’s Birmingham Summer ‘23 schedule will deliver:

● 1 new based Boeing 737-8200 “Gamechanger” aircraft – representing $100m investment

● $600m investment in Birmingham

● 42 routes, including 7 new Summer routes such as Billund, Girona, Pisa and Stockholm

● Over 350 flights per week

● Increased frequencies on 10 routes, including Bergamo, Dublin, Madrid, Palma, Porto and Verona

● Supporting over 1,700 jobs, including180 direct jobs

Summer ‘23 marks Ryanair’s biggest ever schedule at Birmingham with over 350 weekly flights giving citizens and visitors of Birmingham record-breaking choice to plan their much-deserved Summer holidays with confidence at the lowest fares.

While other airlines are cancelling flights across the UK, Ryanair is growing and reinforcing its commitment to Birmingham by adding a 6th aircraft to its based fleet for Summer’23, bringing its investment to $600M. The fleet includes a new Boeing “Gamechanger” aircraft, which cuts fuel and CO2 emissions by 16%, and lowers noise by 40%, meaning Ryanair will sustainably deliver more tourism to/from the region, while supporting over 1,700 local jobs.

Although Ryanair welcomes the UK Govt’s 50% APD cut for domestic travel from April’23, this reduction ignores the need to restore international connectivity which is fundamental for the growth of the UK’s economy and tourism. Ryanair calls on Prime Minister Sunak to fully abolish APD immediately for all travel, which would not only promote tourism, but support much needed connectivity to the UK, an island-based economy.

To celebrate this record-breaking Birmingham Summer schedule, Ryanair is launching a special seat sale with fares available from just £24.99 for travel between 1st of Apr’23 and end of Oct’23, which must be booked by midnight 4th of Nov on www.ryanair.com.

From Birmingham, Ryanair DAC CEO, Eddie Wilson said:

“Ryanair, the UK’s most reliable airline, is delighted to launch our biggest ever schedule in Birmingham for Summer’23, with over 350 weekly flights across 42 routes, including 7 new Summer routes to the likes of Girona and Pisa, and even more flights on 10 other routes including Milan Bergamo, Dublin, Madrid, Palma, Porto and Verona.

Summer’23 will see the addition of 1 new based aircraft at Birmingham (following the arrival of a 5th based aircraft this week) bringing Ryanair’s total fleet at Birmingham Airport to 6, including 2 brand new environmentally efficient Boeing 737 8-200 “Gamechanger”, which cuts fuel and CO2 emissions by 16%.

This additional aircraft will enable Ryanair to operate this exciting 42-route schedule, becoming the leading airline at Birmingham airport. The rapid post-Covid growth Ryanair has delivered to Birmingham (c. 50% more routes than pre-Covid) has been secured by the Airport’s management team, who recognised a long-term deal with Europe’s biggest and most reliable airline was the only way to drive recovery and growth.

However, if we are to continue to grow and to drive recovery and connectivity to the UK, Prime Minister Sunak must immediately scrap APD in full for all travel (not just domestic travel) and provide incentives for airlines like Ryanair to stimulate growth and recovery for the UK and its regions, such as Birmingham.”

Nick Barton, Chief Executive of Birmingham Airport said:

“We are so thrilled Ryanair is significantly expanding its Birmingham offering. Basing a sixth aircraft here will increase options for customers, create jobs and boost the West Midlands economy.”

Excellent news! At last, after years of stagnation, FR and BHX seem to have agreed on a deal for growth. Very pleased to see additional frequencies on key routes and the continuation of this winters new routes. Here's hoping for more new routes and based aircraft over the coming years, there are still a good number of unserved European cities from BHX plus others that need frequency increases.

However, not all good news, Zadar not yet bookable and no flights to Lisbon after March, let's hope EZY continue this route. I also wonder if EW will restart ARN given that FR are now in the route

Whatever you think of FR, they bring routes and increased pax figures and I for one am delighted about this news - as long as both parties remain agreed on the deal agreed....

Quote:

Originally Posted by GayFriendly (Post 11324494)

GF

All destinations now loaded into the booking engine with six routes still showing sold out but the days and times are viewable on the APP including Lisbon and the Zadar.

June schedule shows 178 flights per week of which 114 are by the six based aircraft and 64 away based a mix of Buzz, Malta Air and Ryanair. A certain popular search engine for flights shows which routes are by the MAX as well.

There are a couple of gaps in the schedule for short flights but overall very good with the number of flights per day between 21 and 28.

TUI

Some changes with Almeria disappearing completely for summer 23, the extra Boa Vista has gone and Melbourne is back to 3 per week like this last summer. They are showing Corendon on both Antalya and Dalaman in the holiday section, the latter is interesting as that didn't operate consistently over the summer due poor loads.

Swiss

Air Baltic showing on the Thursday flight next summer

Air France

Still showing 4 per day Monday - Friday from the New Year until the end of the season, two Air France and two HOP before reverting back to 3 daily for summer but all Air France.

Pete

Quote:

Originally Posted by OltonPete (Post 11325099)

do u know anything about any new routes or airlines Pete?Feel free to inbox me if wanna keep private

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mcvicker03 (Post 11325749)

do u know anything about any new routes or airlines Pete?Feel free to inbox me if wanna keep private

Not privy to any confirmed new routes in the pipeline and the Ryanair expansion was kept under wraps as it should be. However there were clues, none more so than the current BHX CEO has experience in dealing with FR at a previous airport and he said this week that 2023 has the potential to be better than pre COVID pax levels.

In the mean time talking of COVID something I haven't bothered with for a while now - some stats. The passenger figures of course are from the CAA and the pax per flight should be correct as I have used the CAA punctuality stats which show the number of sectors. What is estimated are the load factors as configs vary on some airlines where the business section is variable. Also I might not have the correct aircraft operating such as with Jet2 and the interchange between the A321 and 738 and I have 8 days missing from my records which FR24 helps with. Also I have not decided what is scheduled and what is charter that is done by the CAA and I have to say I am a bit confused at times, as the Egyptian flights, Punta Cana, Cancun etc are showing scheduled which are all TUI but Palma, Reus, Rhodes are IT:confused:. The combined load factor also on some routes gives an idea where IT has brought the figure up or vice versa.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7b6f6b81fa.png
Pete

I believe TUI (as Thomas Cook also did previously) file certain non-EU routings as 'scheduled' services for a traffic permits point of view. The reason is that for those countries, the authorities will not allow TUI to sell seat only on a "charter" flight into their territory - hence why these are filed as "schedules". The reality is, as we all know, it makes no actual difference - just a paperwork exercise.

Eurowings are poised to start Berlin-Birmingham flights, as they base an additional three aircraft in Berlin. Official confirmation and announcement still to be seen.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AvGeek1 (Post 11334767)

Eurowings are poised to start Berlin-Birmingham flights, as they base an additional three aircraft in Berlin. Official confirmation and announcement still to be seen.

Slots are in 4 per week so hopefully they will deliver.

If Arlanda returns (2 per week) Berlin will be the 4th route with Dusseldorf increasing to 3 daily Tuesday - Thursday and Prague staying 2 per week.

Pete

It’s been reported elsewhere that EasyJet will start Milan and Naples next year. Naples was actually planned for 2020 with a cruise contract. Hopefully all these routes will be officially announced soon.

Qatar have also applied for double daily A350 flights next year too.