EZY increase BRS-AMS

[MEFLYBE]

easyjet are increasing Bristol flights to Amsterdam from once to twice daily.

New times are Dep BRS
0720 1234567
1900 1234567

Regards

Mike

[MerchantVenturer]

According to the easyJet timetable the additional rotation will begin at the end of March when the summer timetable kicks in.
The flights arrive back at BRS at 1030 and 2210.

I note that KLM Cityhopper had already announced a reduction of their BRS-AMS rotations from five a day to four a day commencing with the summer timetable.

With the extra easyJet flight there will now be more seats on this route because an easy 737 will 'replace' a KLM Fokker 50 or Fokker 70.

The easyJet timings will also permit a day trip to Amsterdam, something already possible with KLM.

[Buster the Bear]

I see LTN-AMS is back up to 6 return flights daily.

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

AMS does seem to be very popular - not seeing many spare seats on the flights I've done. Mind you - some of the pax are not the best behaved. The end of the stag do and all that. Wonder if KLM will stop nightstopping?

Cheers

WWW

[MerchantVenturer]

WWW

Not surprised to hear about some rowdy pax on the AMS flights - stag groups etc. I have travelled a lot on the KLM BRS-AMS route over the years and have had the unfortunate experience of seeing some of these in action.

Favourite memory of this was when KLM Cityhopper used the Saab 340 on the route. We left AMS one Sunday evening with a group of about a dozen young men who had spent the weekend in Amsterdam. They were an absolute nightmare, baiting the lone stewardess and acting boorishly.

They soon stopped when we began our approach. There was a very strong wind blowing and the little Saab was bouncing all over the place. It was a very quiet and white-faced group that got off the aircraft.

As to night stopping at BRS, of course many pax use KLM and partners for onward travel, especially inter-continental, and the first one out to AMS around 0630 is the one often used for this purpose.

Regarding the behaviour of west country passengers generally, Barbara Cassini describes in her book how the early Go crews used to love to operate out of BRS because the pax were so polite and well-behaved. She went on to say her senior managers semi-seriously suggested they should make BRS their main base because the quality of life in the west country was so much better. I don't know if this is your experience with local passengers.

We flew back with Britannia just before Christmas and a very senior cabin manager (her words) said much the same thing to us when we had a little chat just before getting off the aircraft - how pleasant it was now to be based at Bristol where the pax are so well-behaved and quiet after many years of working out of Gatwick.

On this theme the easyJet television series seemed to find very little to film at Bristol Airport compared to Luton and Liverpool. Again, this might suggest that west country passengers are quiet and low key.

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Well - based on wholly unscientific opinion - I would say that yes we do have a better average pax at BRS. I've never heard of the police being called to an aircraft in my 3 years there. The airport itself might help as it is pretty low stress. The car park is manageable, checkin through security through to the gate is all of 100yds and the building is fairly new and airy.

It never ceases to amaze me just how repellent the public actually are and how the cabin crew manage them I will never know. I'd be dismissed within a week if I had to work down the back.

Do you not think that the 07.20 EZY will compete with the 06.30 KLM then? They look close enough to me plus one is a jet and the other a prop.

Good to see building work has started in earnest at the airfield. Hopefully the future will bring double the terminal, double the pax and 14 orange tails to the West Country. Though quite how the road network is going to cope remains a mystery.

Cheers

WWW

[MEFLYBE]

KLM's BRS ops are all jets. F100 and F70.

Regards

Mikex

[MerchantVenturer]

WWW,

I think the now defunct BRS-based Paramount Airways had a few pax problems in the late 80s when they became the first UK non-smoking airline - they would not even sell cigarettes on their duty-free rounds.

As to the early morning AMS flights the 0630 Cityhopper has been a F 70 for a while now. The difference between KLM and easy is that with the former you can book a journey from BRS to virtually anywhere via AMS with KLM or one of their partners (often Northwest which in my experience is not so good, but that's another story). You check in your luggage at BRS and it goes through to the destination airport. I have done this many times on trans-Atlantic and the overall fare compares well with BA etc flights from LHR, but the hassle of the M4 and LHR itself is removed.

BRS has made remarkable progress. I have a couple of BRS publications from 1993 in which their stated aim was 2 million pax by 2003 (in 1993 throughput was around 1 million per year). In fact, 2003 saw just short of 4 million. Of course, in 1993 I suppose no-one thought of low cost airlines and the impact they would have on UK air travel.

The terminal was designed to be extended and at times would benefit from enlarging now. The main apron I believe is being virtually doubled in the number of stands, with the removal of general aviation to the southside.

I don't think 4 million pax has had much of an impact on the road system around the airport compared to when it was 1 or 2 million. I doubt whether 8 million would either. However, the talked-about link road from the A 370 to the A 38 would be a help around the south Bristol suburbs.

I lived near the airport in the 1950s and 1960s before the M 5 was built, and in those days the A 38 (the main artery then to the southwest) was far busier than it is today. There is plenty of space on it yet.

What might be a limiting factor is car parking space, especially now the local authority is cracking down on all the unofficial parks around the airport.

Be good to have 14 orange tails with WWW in the left-hand seat of one of them - you aren't yet, are you?

"KLM's BRS ops are all jets. F100 and F70."

According to the timetable and the airport's 'Mayfly' the KLM Cityhopper BRS-AMS is operated by a mixture of F 50s and F 70s.

0625 F 70
0935 F 70
1125 F 50
1535 F 70
1920 F 50

A year or two ago they seemed to have F 70s on all the flights but then the 50s started to re-appear on some.

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

All the ex-Paramount people were having a party in the old terminal this weekend - sounded like they were having fun. Hadn't noticed KLM had stopped the turboprops - I could have sworn I saw one recently there.

Cheers

WWW

[MerchantVenturer]

WWW

The way Paramount went into oblivion was very sad.

You probably did see a KLM Cityhopper turboprop recently at BRS because two of the five daily rotations are operated by F 50s - the 1125 and 1920 ex BRS.

I believe it is the 1125 service, and its corresponding inbound, that are being pulled when the summer schedules commence.

[MEFLYBE]

I was referring to the coming summer timetable, which will be an all jet service.

Regards

Mike

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Just out of interest what are the BA and Air France schedules between BRS and Paris?

With EZY establishing a Paris base it might be on the cards that a service between BRS and ORY/CDG be established. Some head shed type has muttered something about joining up all points of the network, I think.

The route is well served at the moment but you lot seem to have it all chapter and verse so enlighten me please.

Cheers

WWW

[MerchantVenturer]

Mike,

Thanks for info re summer. Be good to have an all-jet service.

WWW,

There are six rotations per day betweeen BRS and CDG, M-F ( 5 on Sats and 5 on Suns).

BACx operate three and Air France operate three. Both use ERJ 145s.

They are spaced out fairly evenly throughout the day with the first outbound departing BRS at 0630 (AF) and 0655 (BA) and the last inbound arriving BRS at 1900 (AF) and 2040 (BA).

This info was obtained from the Bristol Airport Winter Scheduled Timetable.

Incidentally, I don't know whether you can receive HTV West (now ITV West) Tv in Cheltenham, but they are showing a weekly half hour series filmed at Bristol Airport. Episode four was screened tonight.

IMO it is better than the easyJet series and the BBC's series on Heathrow, because it concentrates mainly on the operational side of the airport, airside. I find the other series deal too much with the likes of animal officers, ambulance drivers, people off on skiing holidays, staff getting married etc.

The Bristol series is one for the aviation aficionado and, surprisingly for HTV, is very good.