Well realistically it can't involve the bulk of English-dwelling N Sea oil workers who will be heading for a helicopter at Aberdeen, because it would involve taxi Dundee Airport to Dundee rail station, train to Aberdeen, taxi to Aberdeen Airport as well as all the faff of connection times at Amsterdam.

Dundee and Aberdeen don't need separate airports.

If you've never had a speculative look at where to go for the weekend from London using Skyscanner, you might be surprised to learn that Birmingham and Bristol are frequently options, sometimes for virtually nothing self-connecting with FR via DUB and other times for about £400 using KLM via AMS.

There was a story in our local press a while back about a student travelling back to Uni in Essex from Sheffield area via Berlin as including the buses it was cheaper than the train. So people will do it, if they save a bit.

I looked a return flight to Amsterdam in Nov midweek and the prices were £36.83 and £34.14 Its not surprising there is demand at those subsidised flights. Is it right to damage routes from other Scottish cities by this subsidised one? Also the linked article says the route is popular with students .... I had hoped the subsidy would be bringing Business to the area ? bb

The same sort of fares are available for a return flight from Newcastle to Southampton mid-week in November, so might not just be the subsidy?

Looks like the Q400 has gone tech. Still sitting at DND and the flight to Amsterdam has been cancelled.

DND-STN is PSO, DND-AMS has Regional Airport Connectivity Fund support.

Can anyone with experience say if having the DND-LON route landing 30 miles short of London, at STN... Is as stupid as it sounds? I know LCY is expensive, but surely even LGW would have been a better option. I know Heathrow would be nigh on impossible

Why would Dundee-Gatwick be better than Dundee-Stansted ?
At the very least a Gatwick route would involve extra flying time, so the overall city centre to city centre journey time might be faster for Stansted assuming onward travel to London is by train. Airline also gets to save fuel costs

Neither STN nor LGW have any kind of BE route network for them to offer connections to as that all moved out of London or to LCY, so neither has any particular advantage over the other. Ground transport time is pretty much the same to central London if that is the final destination.

As a point to point then STN is a little far out, perhaps LTN would have been a bit better, but how cost effective that would have been I don't know. It's clear LCY wasn't making money for previous operators, but perhaps if they gave it another go and offered connections through there then it might work better? I know cityjet had a similar set up and that ultimately failed, but perhaps BE could make a better go at it? They are a bigger brand associated with lower costs.

The option to add a BA, EK and VS codeshare might exist on a DND-LGW route same as it does with the only other BE route into LGW




cs

And one of the reasons BE moved out of LGW is that the airport charges are set to discourage a/c with less than 100 seats - further to travel and higher charges to land just as far from the centre of London? :ugh:

I doubt LGW would want a D328 taking up valuable peak slots even if the fees were paid. The 20-odd pax on the Dornier would have to spend a lot in the terminal to match the income from an Airbus.

Aside from that, STN is actually better placed overall for the City and Canary Wharf. Technically Canary Wharf is quicker by rail from LGW but the time saving is offset by the longer flight. STN is also pretty useful for Cambridge, I believe there is some academic/research traffic between the two.

Dundee flights to Amsterdam suspended
 

Dundee flights to Amsterdam suspended - BBC News

Wonder why?

Dundee to Amsterdam flights 'rerouted': Dundee to Amsterdam flights rerouted - BBC News

So... what's a temporary re-routing about?

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news...ved-edinburgh/

Whatever it is could be fatal to the reputation of the route, which is a shame as I presume they don't want to cancel it because if they did they would have.

It was only recently upped to 7x per week, so unlikely to be related to loads.

This is a very odd thing for flybe to do, I suspect its a crewing issue, but who knows. I would not be happy if I had booked a flight and then ended up on a bus to Edinburgh/Dundee

The temporary move of the DND-AMS flights to EDI does sound like an operational issue. it could be airport or operator related. I suspect that it may have existed since day one and only now been discovered, which would explain why neither airport nor airline wishes to be more specific about the cause.

I wonder what happens about paying the subsidy if the route is not flying from Dundee? Will the flight be picking up passengers from Dundee via bus and passengers originating in Edinburgh?

bb