All quiet at Dundee
is it ever anything else ? ;)

This was reported in the Courier today, passenger numbers are increasing at DND.

The Courier - Dundee Airport passenger numbers picking up

You guys getting plenty of Open traffic? Aberdeen can send down some of our helis if you're bored................;):p

LCY-DND - To drop to 2 x Daily
 

LCY-DND - To drop to 2 x Daily this is the news from
Air France Announce Plans for 2010/11
Given that Dundee was loosing £2m plus PA with 75,000 pax (a loss of £30 per head), what does this mean for the airport?
Was the BHX route started with a 2 year subsidy 2 years ago?
HIAL has had its budget cut by £1 mil, what happens if the group make a significant loss?
bb

Oh dear. LCY service is already dropping to three a day from 1/11, but the last flight into Dundee will be an hour later so the airport has to stay open an hour longer. So there will be more costs for less flights. Not a happy state of affairs.
NS

Are ScotAirways continuing their ACMI deal or is the decrease in frequency to LCY down to the fact that Cityjet will be bringing an F50 or Avro on to the route?

The Scotairways D328's are going and there will be a mix of BAe146 and F50's doing the route I've heard. Not good for Scotairways anyway.

how is the winter timetable to LCY working out? is the 0830 dept as popular as the original timetable? Is the 2200 arrival busy?
bb

Strange! This means a trebling of capacity on some flights and >50% increase on the others. OK they're reducing frequency, but how often are the current Do328 flights fully booked? Sounds like a recipe for a spiral of increased costs and declining revenue.
NS

Wrong information. No 146s, only F50s.

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/News/Dun...le-changes.htm

Another update via todays Courier. Where will introducing the F50s leave Scotairways at Dundee, will there be any threat to the maintenance base for example?

The Courier - CityJet responds to complaints with larger plane and timetable changes

Interesting how CityJet are making out that they are responding to customer concerns. OK they are changing the times but there will be fewer fights, and they be operating an older, much slower aircraft on the route.

Not sure how this response to the passengers concerns?

Classic Route Wind-down
 

Introduce inferior timings to annoy your core business travellers.
Change the previous modern and fast aircraft to something old and slow.
Build scheduling around the aircraft and crews and NOT the market.
When passenger numbers fall blame a contracting market and walk away claiming you've tried your best! How many times have we seen this?

To be honest I doubt CityJet exepct it to work wtihout the Dornier228's speed and convenience so they'll try it over the winter and probably see the Fokker 50s re-deployed onto other routes come March I suspect.

A spot on observaton Skipness!

I guess you mean Dornier 328 not Dornier 228. Having said that the Fokker's speed is possibly closer to the 228s than the 328s, which makes for a VERY long haul down to city at peak times.

On re-reading the Courier I noticed that the only times they are revising are for flights on Monday, Friday and Sunday, so again it really isn't responding to customer demand.

Want to make that early meeting in London on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday...tough!!!

It is a business route timed not to suit business travellers.

The f50 has been planned since the summer because the Scotairways contract wasn't being renewed so it is definately not a response to customer complaints. They are just turning it around to make them look like they give a damn about customer care.

It doesn't look good for scotairways, their employees still know nothing about what their situation will be in a couple of months time.

I notice from the NOTAM that, just like every winter, Dundee has no de-icing facilities again.

Isn't it time that Dundee just gave up and shut down? An airport where the de-icing facilities fail every winter, is about as much use as an airport without a runway.

no de-icing?
 

wow how can that be? surely the airlines must have their own equipment? the forecast for today is snow and for the next 6 days temperatures are not expected above freezing. Do flights just get cancelled if ice is found on the wings?
bb

ScotAirways have the luxary of a hangar. I think when it happened last year Loganair night stopped its aircraft at Glasgow, had it de-iced there and flew into Dundee to pick up passengers. All this leads to delays. It is all well and good until an aircraft arrives and the needs de-icing due to say, a snow fall. Then your stuck!

They need a back up plan when their one de-icer goes u/s, which it always does.

And now they have NOTAMed that they have no fuel!:ugh:

be fair, the De-iceing NOTAM expires @ 1700 and its Avgas that is not avaliable till Monday. Perhaps not such a problem after all.
bb