Eastern Adds Ex-Flybe Route Bristol - IOM

[Chillwinston]

Eastern Adds Ex-Flybe Route Bristol - IOM, text from Eastern Website :-

Bristol – Isle of Man becomes the 22nd domestic service on Eastern’s network and the 5th destination from the Isle of Man. Eastern is currently operating the Isle of Man – Birmingham service on behalf of British Airways CitiExpress, and will take over the route in its own right on 1st February, increasing frequency from twice to three times daily.

At the end of October, Eastern added flights to the Isle of Man from both East Midlands and Newcastle, along with Birmingham to Inverness, the latter being a new route for the airline.

Eastern Airways Director, Graeme Ross commented: “The withdrawal of service on the Bristol - Isle of Man route represented another great opportunity for Eastern to expand its presence on the Isle of Man. Bristol is a well positioned and popular airport serving the South West and the continuation of this service will enable passengers in the region to continue to enjoy direct links to the Island.”

[MerchantVenturer]

There was another thread in this forum a week or two ago anticipating that Flybe was going to pull out of the BRS-IOM route.

Strange in some ways in that Flybe is supposedly building up routes out of Bristol, but they are meant to be so-called low cost routes, and presumably BRS-IOM did not meet this criterion. It was particularly awkward in that the Flybe BRS-IOM route started/finished at BHD, and this route is low cost to compete with easyJet on BRS-BFS. The idea of a much more expensive intermediate stop at IOM would be difficult to justify I suppose.

Eastern says it will take over BRS-IOM on 29 March and the transfer from Flybe will be 'seamless' with the latter's bookings being honoured by the new carrier. Equipment is a J 41 compared to Flybe's DH 8.

If it does work out for Eastern they might be encouraged to try BRS-ABZ, as was rumoured in the late summer of last year.

[PPIMan]

Only problem is with the fares that Eastern charge they are unlikely to get a good take-up of ex FlyBe customers?

[MerchantVenturer]

This press release appears on Bristol Airport's official website.

Friday, January 23, 2004
EASTERN AIRWAYS ANNOUNCES A DAILY FLIGHT TO ISLE OF MAN FROM BRISTOL INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Bristol International’s Aviation Development Director Tony Hallwood said:

“We are delighted that Eastern Airways has chosen to fly from Bristol International, offering daily direct scheduled flights to the Isle of Man, commencing 29 March. This is excellent news for the New Year and builds further on the new routes and airlines that we secured last year here at Bristol International."

The Eastern Airways site shows the route as available to be booked.

Flybe are operating the route still at the present time before handing it over to Eastern in four weeks time.

[MerchantVenturer]

There is an item on the BRS official website to the effect that Eastern have now taken over the BRS-IOM route as previously announced, and ticket sales are strong with the airline looking to increase the once a day Jetstream 41 rotation in the summer months.

One-way fares start at £69.20 inclusive of taxes which does not appear to me to be that cheap, although perhaps I have become too used to loco fares, having just gone to Copenhagen and back for not much more than half of Eastern's cheapest one way fare from BRS to IOM, and I also have a booking made to Berlin which was even cheaper than Copenhagen.

To an outsider airline economics can be a fascinating yet mysterious art.