Just a quick note, I have noticed that there checked in hold baggage pricing has increased to £5 per bag per flight, this is same as ryanair and also similar in the way they increased thier baggage charges all of a sudden. All of these little extra's can really add up if all members of a group need there own baggage allowance and i'm sure could put many people off.

As for the Amsterdam routes i also heard that the loads on them were all quite good especially the Bournemouth flights, perhaps if they are able to make the frequencies on weekdays twice daily and at suitable times then they could attract more business passengers and able to offer flights for day break and city breaks tourists.

Aidoair :)

BRS base closed for sure, next years flights operated under FCA codes.

Yeah. Good thing BRS has an excellent relationship with F/C! If the take over was the other way around then it may have had a big effect on BRS but looks good for the future!! For a change it looks something other than Orange!

According to CAA Stats for June, CVT-AMS averaged about 86 pax per flight. CVT-ORY averaged about 107 per flight. A mix of 735s and 733s used, 131 and 148 seats resp.
So dropping routes presumably to do with yield and TOM going back to being a sunshine holiday airline.

If I may please add, CAA stats are obviously passengers FLOWN, not passengers BOOKED, i.e. not accounting for no-shows at check-in. Therefore there may well have been more passengers that were scheduled to fly on the relevant flights, suggesting a higher booked load factor.

On average about 10-15% are no-shows on Ryanair flights, one of the worst is Dublin, ive been on flights which should have 185 and only 156 been on it from EMA.

Lee

To be honest, I think Thomsonfly are confused :confused:. They are not sure whether they are a bucket & spade operator or a serious scheduled flight operator. They've dipped their toes into the likes of Amsterdam, Paris & Lisbon. Ive had naff customer service re the MAN-LIS & future trips to LIS will be with EZY from LPL. I don't think business pax even think of looking at a TOM schedule, whereas business pax dont think twice about using TUIs HLX flights. What is Thomson fly? Is it a seat only operator on charter flights or is it a scheduled airline?:confused:

LBA already closed. STN, LPL and MME closing, but STN FCA's base is remaining

The closure of the TOM bases at STN & BRS is linked with the FCA merger (FCA will at the same time close their bases at CWL and LTN)

TOM still operate "W" pattern flying through LBA and has a 757 based at LPL

BE

LPL base closes at the end of summer - from then on only w patterns into Liverpool

"W" pattern flying is a sensible way of serving more thin bases. Obviously, there are no major traditional basing costs involved and aircraft can easily be switched to more profitable routes.

BE

Scheduled Thomsonfly flights don't appear in OAG flight guides. When I asked OAG why, they said it was because TOM used a three-letter designator, which OAG's systems could not yet handle. Other airlines that only use a three-letter one and not a two-letter one - such as Air Southwest, WOW; and Manx2, BPS - also don't appear. (Although easyJet uses EZY, it also has U2, so is included.)

Both WOW and BPS have a very aware local business base and a more focused business product, which perhaps TOM doesn't at its more numerous bases.

In the First Choice W08/09 brochure there are new TOM flights shown at NWI and EDI that seem to indicate a based aircraft shared between the two like this:

Mon: NWI-LPA-NWI
Tue: NWI-TFS-NWI
Wed: NWI-PFO-NWI (only operates for part of winter)
Thu: NWI-ACE-NWI
Fri: EDI-TFS-EDI
Sat: Nothing listed but the aircraft could do the existing FCA ski flights
Sun Morning: Nothing listed but could do ski flights again
Sun Afternoon: EDI-ACE-EDI

However the Thomson Winter 2008/09 brochure does not show these flights. So does anyone know if these flights will happen?

There is talk that TUIfly will merge with Germanwings and the TUIfly brand will be dropped. This is presumably only the German part of TUI airlines though.

That is a bit oversimplifying.

Talk is mainly that there are different scenarios under evaluation and the most likely appears to be that TUI and Lufthansa will join forces in the long-haul sector, using the Germanwings brand name. Reason is that Lufthansa/Thomas Cook will loose Condor as their in-house carrier while TUI wants to revive long-haul ops that ceased a couple of years ago. Both have the problem that the do not want to become dependent on the Air Berlin group tat has acquired the two remaining long-haul carriers for IT flights, Condor and LTU.

From what I gather in the German press there is no talk of giving up separate short-haul ops under the respective brands in the short term.

And a faint hope that the UK part of TFly could become Britannia again, well it doesn't hurt to dream!

and bring back an updated britannia on the tail too:ok:. Out of all the charters of old brittania were best, as a recognised brand it could be the 'new' tfly/fca branding:D:D:D

Things seem to be moving forwards fast.

Apparently, a proposal for a full merger is on the table.

The new airline would be owned by TUI and Lufthansa with both holding 40%, while the remaining 20% would be owned by A. Knauf, the 51% owner of the current Eurowings/Germanwings.

So seeing that TUI and First Choice have merged what about FCA?

Somewhere back when the merger was announced I suggested Britannia First- look great at all those European Airports!