Ho Chi Minh didn’t last long.. #Bamboo

This hasn't really come across as a surprise to me personally. As much as I wouldn't want the airline to leave LGW altogether, I wouldn't hedge my bets on Bamboo Airways even flying to Europe in the future.

​​​Hanoi being the capital city of Vietnam was always going to be more popular than Ho Chi Minh City. With Bamboo airways in a precarious way financially and the fact that the airline has a very small fleet of B789s perhaps the aircraft used to fly to LGW would be better placed elsewhere on their network.

That isn’t what’s happening though… Bamboo are dropping Ho Chi Minh City, but increasing Hanoi to twice weekly. So their frequency and capacity at Gatwick is unchanged. Probably more viable to serve Hanoi twice weekly than both destinations with a single frequency.

Really? Isn’t that like saying Madrid is always going to be more popular than Barcelona?!

Probably the reason is more likely that because HCMC is much better served the yields are lower, a weekly flight is always going to be a struggle against EK, QR, TK etc.

Bamboo Airways
 

Given that they've only got 3 789s in the fleet currently (albeit with another 10 on order), it probably makes more commercial sense to raise LGW-HAN frequency to twice weekly from the current 1 weekly flight whilst unfortunately having to drop the SGN route (although hopefully it may return as more 787s are delivered). What I think is more likely is that Bamboo Airways will struggle against Vietnam Airlines who will be increasing LHR-HAN to daily from October versus just a twice weekly LGW-HAN flight.

Bamboo are in a financially precarious place, one of their B787s was impounded for a time for non payment of fees. If you want to go direct, Vietnam Airlines has a much higher frequency having worked some magic to hang onto their position at LHR. The idea that they're going to end up with 10 B787s as things stand looks unlikely sadly. I think they're under-capitalised at the mo.

Global Airlines
 

Being reported on Airliners.net and elsewhere that a new start up, called Global Airlines has just purchased their first aircraft, an A380, for use on London-US routes commencing in spring next year. According to their website (https://www.globalairlines.com/about), they plan on acquiring 3 more A380s, if not more. Presumably if (and a big if) and when this ever takes off, LGW would be their choice of London airport?

I can't help but think that this venture does remind me a little of what European Aviation Air Charter (EAAC) tried doing by buying ex-BA 742s in 2002 and going long haul to the US and Canada (besides additional charter work), but that didn't last long and they ended up losing £££££. I never flew with them, but I think they did long haul from LGW as well as from BOH (their main base) and MAN?

Air China's PEK-LGW service seems to have returned to LHR now that BA have relaunched service on LHR-PKX.
Replaced by Air China opening PVG-LGW as PVG-LHR ends? Seems odd with both BA and VS operating out of LHR for Air China to move PVG to Gatwick?

Do you think a Chinese state owned airline are that bothered about the competition? They already have the competitive edge over BA and VS as their flights are two hours shorter in each direction.

They had to return to Gatwick due to the complexity of the bilateral as BA were off the route. And yes, they do have a preference to serve LHR, I am just trying to understand the current situation.They didn't originally leave LGW and build up 5 daily LHR slots by accident now did they?

I don’t know. Shanghai was served from LGW until March 2020, so this is more or less back to how they operated before Covid, minus Chengdu from LHR.

What I do know though is that, bilateral agreements aside, Air China couldn’t give a hoot about the competition.

According to the slot report, the below airlines have applied for slots for W23:

Azerbaijan Airlines (from Baku)
Ethiopian Airlines (from Addis Ababa)
ITA Airways (from Rome or Milan?)
PLAY (from Reykjavik)
TAAG Angola Airlines (from Luanda)
Volotea (has several bases in France, Spain & Italy)

Credits to @SeanM1997 for this info.

Azerbaijan Airlines and Ethiopian Airlines would be welcome additions, but obviously it would be a resumption of service to LGW for both carriers.

​​​​​​I was only thinking the other day whether TAAG Angola Airlines could be a possible candidate at LGW for a service from Angola. When British Airways stopped flying from LHR to Luanda a few years ago I half expected TAAG to announce service to Luanda. Hopefully this service comes to fruition as it will add London to the airline's route network in Europe along with their existing routes to Lisbon, Madrid and Porto. TAAG Angola Airlines are in expansion mode and are considering ordering new long haul aircraft to accommodate this. I can also forsee TAAG Angola Airlines being a possible future candidate for joining the Oneworld alliance.

Regarding Volotea, will be interesting to what routes they have in mind without having to compete with existing operators at LGW.

Hopefully the Play application is not intended to replace their current STN operation.

ITA Airways expanding their London operations, or are they still having issues with their current leased slots at LHR?

Danair's new routes to/from Brasov and Bucharest is not off to a good start. Flights between different destinations are being combined and departure times being changed by 10+ hours at very little notice. It sounds like ticket sales are low, and Brasov airport/ATC isn't ready for what Danair were planning.

That's a shame, I note Gatwick departures/arrivals labels it as "Bucharest VIA Brasov-Ghimbav"

Dan Air have published a revised schedule, including their routes between Gatwick and Brasov / Bucharest
https://danair.ro/press-release
Flights will operate Bucharest - Brasov - Gatwick - Brasov - Bucharest 1x per week on Fridays. There will be no other flights to/from the UK.

Ryanair fly Bucharest - Stansted nonstop 24x weekly
Wizzair fly Bucharest - Luton nonstop 26x weekly and Bucharest - Gatwick nonstop 7x weekly
British Airways fly Bucharest - Heathrow nonstop 14x weekly
Tarom fly Bucharest - Heathrow nonstop 7x weekly
Wizzair will fly Brasov - Luton nonstop 3x weekly from August.

I'm left wondering how Dan Air will compete against Ryanair and Wizzair

TAAG are subject to EU operational restrictions banning use of D2 registered aircraft and their twice daily Lisbon regular Madrid and seasonal Oporto flights are flown by HiFly .They have been seeking to add Paris for some time however so far been declined.

To-date the CAA has continued to mirror the EU aviation exclusion and restricted operating lists, so i think TAAG will have a difficult time securing government approval anytime soon.

VOLOTEA may want add my part time home town of Nantes possibly Lyon, and Toulouse - Their biggest competitor tends to Vueling.

Play apply for slots all over the place only to hand them back - They aren’t in great financial shape to be honest.

Opinion only ITA may need to speak nicely with LH Group about some slots at Heathrow or abandon the market and rely on City (As per Luxair)

Nothing on Gatwick's website about northern runway ambitions since summer last year. When can we expect the next bit of news?

There was a feature, with interview, on BBC South news yesterday.

BBC iPlayer - South Today - Evening News: 20/06/2023

Never rely on company websites for updates especially regular updates. In my opinion they are the worst places to visit for such things.

The London Gatwick Airport official website has a tendency to always be behind other sources of information. In some cases especially regarding airport development it's not listing anything at all.

I've been asking on LinkedIn for ages when the Pier 6 extension will eventually start construction with still no direct answer. In my opinion Social media sites such as LinkedIn are your best bet to keep upto date with the planned developments rather than the official website.

A simple Google search will be of great help as you tend to come across so much information that you would otherwise be non aware of.