More routes from Norwich?

[Buster the Bear]

Plan for new flights from Norwich

CHRIS STARKIE, EDP BUSINESS EDITOR

November 1, 2003 08:10

Eastern Airways has revealed it is considering launching flights from Norwich to Paris and Dublin.

The airline currently operates services from Norwich International Airport to Aberdeen and Manchester.

The Aberdeen service in particular has been a success, despite the arrival of competition on the route from BMI.

Earlier this week Eastern introduced a 50 seat Embraer jet on the route, increasing capacity by ten seats per flight.

Eastern revealed yesterday it been talking to Norwich International about starting international services from the airport from next spring.

Amsterdam is currently the only scheduled overseas destination from Norwich.

For the past five years the airport has been trying to add additional routes, including Paris and Dublin.

Eastern Airways chief executive Richard Lake said the Paris and Dublin were being looked at for a possible launch next spring.

Norwich International managing director Hugh Lawson said the airport was aiming to introduce more scheduled destinations.

"We have a whole range of target airports and we have been doing a lot of development studies," he said. "We have been talking to Eastern about Paris and Dublin, and talking to airlines about Belfast and Rotterdam as well.

"We have been working for at least five years at least on Dublin and Paris. We are more optimistic about increasing the number of scheduled services.

"Optimism is beginning to come back to the industry, travellers seem to be returning and there is more confidence."

Eastern Airways has also won recognition for its successful expansion over the past year.

The airline has grown its network by 65pc since March this year, taking over seven former BA CitiExpress routes and a new service to Aberdeen.

It is expected to carry 550,000 passengers this year on its 16 strong route network.

In recognition of its achievements it was awarded silver accolade at the European Regions Airlines Association awards.

The awards are judged by a panel of 10 aviation and travel journalists and Eastern is the first UK airline to win the award.

ENDS

[MEFLYBE]

What about Humberside??

Eastern seems to be concentrating MORE growth away from it's own home base at HUY.

The HUY-DUB and HUY-CDG routes have already been proven in the past, surely there is a bigger market at HUY for these routes than at NWI??

The HUY-AMS service carries way more than the NWI-AMS route and HUY handles nearly twice as many IT pax as NWI!

There was mention in another post about HUY being in talks with a new start-up looking to launch services next year. Has this put Eastern off HUY expansion?

Regards

Mike

[Chillwinston]

MEFLYBE

"The HUY-DUB and HUY-CDG routes have already been proven in the past, surely there is a bigger market at HUY for these routes than at NWI??"

Who proved these routes in the past?
Believe, Esbjerg / Amsterdam / Brussels were only previous international routes ever flown from the airport since the mid 80's

[MEFLYBE]

Afraid not!

The HUY-DUB sector was flown by Brymon European with J31's and later by Eurodirect with ATP's. Brymon dropped the service, not because of low yield or loads, but because the group split and the J31 was casnceled from the fleet. Eurodirect operated daily ATP's on the DUB route with good loads, again, the route did not survive because the airline operating it did not. The DUB route HAS been proven.

The HUY-CDG sector was flown by Eurodirect via Bournemouth using ATP's, i am not aware of how these flights performed. It was more recently operated by Air France/Gill Airways with ATR72 and ATR42 a/c. This route was pulled because of Gill's financial difficulties. The loads, and yield were EXCELLENT, but Gill wanted to concentrate on one base, NCL, so again HUY was put out to pasture.

Apart from these two routes, international services have been flown from HUY to Hamburg, Stavanger, Sonderborg, Bergen and Dusseldorf in the past.

Regards

Mike

[niknak]

MEFLYBE

The reason that Eastern are not interested in developing schedule services at HUY is because of the small percentage of the catchment area which will use them.
Admittedly HUY does very well with ITs, thats what they're good at, and will continue to do well at until Finningly opens, when it is very obvious that South Yorkshire International, will, in a short time, wipe the floor with HUY in all sectors of commercial aviation except offshore helicopters and the odd flying club.

Apart from that you're wrong:

1 - The HUY - AMS route now carries slightly less passengers than the NWI - AMS route.

2 - Eurodirect did operate the HUY - DUB route, but the loads were pitiful, a bit like the rest of the airline, which is why they were a dismal failure.

3 - The Gill route to Paris was popular, but never made any money because of the high costs of landing in Paris, the route was pulled by the liquidators of Gill, not the airline.

The reason T3 want to expand from NWI along with other airports, and not HUY may have something to do with the fact that NWI has an immediate catchment population in the city of Norwich, now that their are no interlining facilities to AMS from Stansted, passengers from Essex are using NWI to get to AMS and beyond.
A DUB service from NWI should do well. However, the Paris option may not be taken any further, due to the imminent completion of the Eurostar Terminal at Stratford, (along with the new direct rail link from Norwich to Stratford Eurostar Terminal), providing a Eurostar service to Paris and Brussels in 3 hours.

T3 aren't in the least bit concerned about start up airlines at HUY, paper exercises offer no competition, and there aren't any routes which could be successfully operated from HUY as a scheduled service, which aren't already served by competing airports or train services.

[LGS6753]

Niknak (wonderful name!),

According to my Girl Guides Book Of Everything, Norwich has a population nearer 75,000 than 750,000. I think the problem with HUY is sparse population, and the fact that the nearest city (Hull) is on planet Yorkshire, together with LBA. Also, Lincolnshire is a lot less affluent than Norfolk (at least by appearance).
The nearest major airports to Norfolk are STN, LTN (and BHX from some parts), and they are a long way away. Local departures to near European cities should do fairly well, but it will be full-service, not low-cost operators that run them.

[MerchantVenturer]

Norwich's population at the 2001 Census was 121,550.

I don't where niknak got the figure of 750,000 from. This would put Norwich as number three city in England after London and Birmingham in population terms.

Hull is a far larger city - about two and a half times as big as Norwich.

[Meeb]

Essex peeps using NWI..??? The road to NWI is a nightmare. :mad:

[niknak]

LGS and MV

Yes you're right about the population figures:ouch: , it must have been the glue I was sniffing that distorted my fingers when typing! ;)

Meeb - yes, the road links to Essex are nothing to shout about, but with the exception of a 15 mile stretch of the A11, it's duel carriageway and motorway all the way now, we've even managed to get rid of the highwaymen :p .

[big.al]

niknak -

Now that the Highwaymen have gone, can we update the maps to remove the bit about "here be dragons" or are they still roaming the A11?;) - especially 'over the border' in Suffolk....

From memory there's still not a single mile of motorway in Norfolk - must be one the last few counties of England with that claim to fame. Or have they now built some in the twelve years since I left the Fair City?

Big.Al (still a Canary through and through...)

[Hap Hazard]

No matter what the population is, Eastern appear to be making NWI work, good for them, especially when bmi regional thought they could simply push them off the NWI-ABZ route.
I hope they continue to grow and are around for a long time to come...good luck to them.

[chiglet]

I may be stupid, but Eastern "took over" the EMA-ABZ route from BMA
At MAN, Eastern are handled by [and codeshare with] BMA:confused: Am i missing something here?:8
we aim to please, it keeps the cleaners happy