What I don't quite understand West Lakes is that the Airport has to pay Balfour £50,000 from the ADF, and they will consequently provide the necessary funding for a revamp. But I thought Balfour OWNED the airport?????

Who's paying what to who?

Sandgrown

Firstly the report is in the Gazette so the wording may not be exactly what was said!!

But looking at BB they are a large company and will be sub-divided into lots of smaller wholly owned companies or profit?? centers. Blackpool airport will be one of these (as are BB rail, BB utilities etc.). As such these smaller bits will have to be self financing for operating costs (revenue) but will have new projects (capital costs) funded by the overall group headquarters.
I don't BTW work for them but do work for a large organisation that operates in this way. (the cynical among us when we dig a bit deeper also suspect it is all a creative accountancy ploy to shift money round)
I'm fairly certain there will be all sorts of other "odd" seeming financial transactions go on as well.

I think the reason we have seen such a huge increase in the price for the flights to TFS is down to a number of factors:

• Downgrading the aircraft - 757 is the cheapest per seat of any jet flying anywhere with only one isle compared to the 733 which does like to drink
• Reducing the frequency - less flights per week means less seats which means more demand for these seats
• Jet2holidays takes quite a lot of the seats from BLK to TFS as I experienced last week when I was at the airport which means there are less seats for just flight customers
• The aircraft at BLK is now only flying from BLK on scheduled flights twice a week - once to TFS and once to GVA while it spends the rest of the time on the ground unless on rescue flights from other bases (LBA last week). They will want to make as much money as possible on the routes to TFS and GVA as they are the only ones operating until February when ALC and AGP return
• High demand. We can obviously see that there is a lot of demand for these flights and I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see more frequencies next year or even an upgrade to 757, maybe on a 'W' rotation again like it did two winters ago. Yesterday and next week had/have less than 8 seatd left for sale on each flight going out so obviously very busy
• The big one - people are still paying the price.....

As you can see there are many reasons why Jet2 are charging so much for the flights from BLK.

New routes from Jet2:

Lanzarote x1 weekly
Barcelona x3 weekly

Starting winter 2009/10. More will follow in S10.

Blackpool,s lost Revenue
 

He did something similar with Newquay. Personally, I don't blame him. If they want more revenue, they should charge higher landing fees. Let him then absorb these into his business the way he sees fit.

LANDING FEES!!!

Ryanair CHARGE Blackpool airport something like £1000 per landing, NOT the other way around.

As mentioned this is associated with removing airport parking charges for passengers, which MOL carefully avoids mentioning!

Ceasing to pay him exorbitant amounts for the privilege of his aircraft using the airport should actually save BPL a significant amount!

The development charge is to improve facilities for the travelling passengers. Increased landing fees would not affect them because the low costers dont pay them. You and I do, and the benefit from the improvement of passenger facilities to you and I...

Work it out!

So this is the real problem, if the Airport Management had charged the going rate for the Landing Fee (circa £1000) x3 as there was a Gerona, Dublin, & Stansted then the income alone from the landing fees would of been £21000 per week and £1092000.00 a year. instead if the above post is correct the Airport have actually spent £1092000.00 proping up Ryanair ?

To try and compensate, the Airport management in their wisdom have increased their landing Fees to small aircraft, a PA28 / C172 costs £30, they now wonder why GA is on the decline.

I hope the same bum deal has not been offered to Jet2 ? :ugh: :ugh: :ugh:

Can't help but wonder, BB are no fools with money. I wonder if there is a hidden story here that they tried to increase the landing fees to FR which is actually why they pulled out. As lets face it, new owners are free to re-negotiate any contract!
Of course it's then easier for FR to blame it on the new passenger charge!!

MUFC_fan, with regards to the comment about Lanzarote and Barcelona, is this a prediction on your part or based on inside knowledge? These aren't on the jet2.com website as yet hence my query. Thanks!

I hope this comes to pass. Would be good if another carrier had taken the Barcelona route - as Blackpool is now a mono carrier airport with the departure of the demented MOLs Ryanair.

Read lots of good points in this section of the thread, in particular why people would or would not prefer Blackpool to Manchester.
I live 21 miles from Manchester, and 30 miles by motorway from Blackpool.
What it boils down to IMO is not just cash - It's distance to the airport of choice, the ease of use on the airport of choice. And Blackpool scores well against most on the latter.

I myself with the free parking will gain in the region of £40 this year, in spite of the DC.

I will always choose Blackpool as first choice airport simply because it is so user friendly.
I worth a couple of pounds more not to have to walk miles to get to your gate.
Palma Airport for eg is one hell of a nightmare to use (those silly miles of tangled ropes) - and Manchester little better.

I doubt the DC will make that much difference for just that reason, also I have found in particular on the Malaga route - many passengers are not like myself (book flight & Hotel on line) - but have holiday homes. They are not going to bother about a £10 surcharge.
People won't bother about the DC - so long as the airport get just that, developed. The runway is in urgent need of attention, I hate fun fair rides at the best of time.
BTW: Never used Blackpool after October - What aeroplane flys to TFS. Is it a 737?.

Was a 757 two winters ago and has been a 737-300 ever since.

Summer Aer Arann schedule: daily.

Monday: ATR 42
Tuesday: ATR 72
Wednesday: ATR 72
Thursday: ATR 42
Friday: ATR 72
Saturday: ATR 42
Sunday: ATR 42

Thanks MUFC fan for your comments,re Jet2/TFS etc,2 winters ago as you say Jet2 were using the 757 to TFS twice a week and with v good loads,now they have a once a week 737 again with good loads,is this because as you say the a/c is now doing less rotations out of Blk & they dont want a 757 sat around ? I seem to recall when they used the 757 it did a W routing involving Manchester as well and was not based at BLK at any time?

I think they have a lot more 757 flights from MAN now than they did two years ago and also, they seem to be doing a lot of charter work this winter on all types of charter: ad-hoc, ACMI etc. which takes up more but the plane at BLK is still on the ground most of the week so there is certainly room for an extra frequency.

December passenger figures 2008
 

IOM 1759 60%
ALC 2150 81%
GVA 442 50%
TFS 992 84%
GRO 2201 49%
DUB 4829 47%

Manx2 and Jet2 had very good flight loads, but obviously GVA has just started and I am guessing 90%+ of traffic would have been outbound on the origional flight and as there were only 6 sectors in the month 50% isn't that bad, also taking into account the current economic climate. ALC and TFS making Jet2 a lot of money as per usual and showing Jet2 that they can increase the frequencies on these routes and they will definately work. These two routes also owe a lot to Jet2holidays which are making great differences to their load factors.

Ryanair is obviously so low due to the cancellations coming 5 days into the new year meaning LF would have been low. Have never seen GRO below 75%, never mind 50%!

Very good for now, just have to see how passengers respond to the new charges introduced at BLK.

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Carrying on from the new charge, is this something that the airport are working at to attract families? By bringing in this charge it will only cost a family of two adults and however many children under the age of 16 they can find only £20 to park their car and fly from BLK for two weeks which is much better than it would be for parking at MAN or LPL. Have BLK no resided to the fact that they aren't going to attract business passengers to their flights and by attracting more families (who spend more money), they can more effectively compete with similar routes from MAN and LPL?

True: But are jet2 not thinking that would drive the fair down?. extra frequency surely comes with excess demand, is that the case on the TFS route?.

With regard to the so called slump: I have booked Palma in May, and Alicante in July/August before Christmas, and the fairs were more expensive than last year and still are. This must mean that people are still booking with Jet2 from Blackpool despite the credit crunch (that does not include personal finance), and the development charge.

TFS on sale for W09/10 and unfortunately remains as 1x weekly. It does however, start at the end of September meaning it does do a month of the summer period this year but that's picking at nothing.

Also, it is BLK based meaning no upgrade of equipment with a 35 minute turnaround in TFS.

well its better than not having the route, all year would be preferable, but still planty of time for more to be added:ok:

Just an update, there are only 6 seats left on tomorrows DUB flight and on seat counter it looks like bookings are doing quite well....if I understand it correctly!:}

Have heard on the grapevine that the RE DUB service may become an EI codeshare, thus allowing onward connections to Aer Lingus US routes. Hope this comes off!

Any news on when/if ACE & BCN are to be confirmed by LS?

Regards

If it does come off - Will it not cause a problem with baggage with a much higher cost?.

Just learnt about this surcharge from Jet 2. Having booked and paid for the tickets they only then see fit to tell you that there is a further charge of £10 per pax.

Last time I will use the sneaky little buggers. Acording to Jet 2 it is not an airport tax and nothing to do with them. Thats fine, except of course you have to pay it.

They will win this one, but never again.

This is nothing to do with Jet2. Its the airport that are charging it. Don't blame the airline