Jet2’s new base is MAN

[U/S President]

Press Release (http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/web.nsf/Content/PressReleaseJet2.com)

Nine Destinations, £21 Fares And 200 New Jobs As North's Low Cost Airline Spreads Its Wings

Manchester Airport Receives Single Biggest Airline Commitment… Ever

A decision which will initially bring Manchester airport SIX dedicated Boeing 737s, serving NINE exciting European destinations at fares starting FROM £21, was announced at a press conference in the city this morning by Philip Meeson, boss of the North’s low cost airline Jet2.com.

The company, which already offers low cost travel to 14 destinations from Leeds Bradford and three from Belfast, sent out a clear message of commitment to the region with the size of its initial launch.

The six Boeing 737 aircraft – each, like every plane in its fleet, owned by the company – will initially fly to nine destinations: Budapest, Faro, Geneva, Malaga, Murcia, Nice, Pisa, Valencia and Venice with one-way starting fares ranging from £21 to £31 including taxes.

The first flights will depart on December 1, 2004 from Manchester to the wonderful Hungarian city of Budapest and the following day to Murcia close to the world-famous La Manga resort in Spain.

Switzerland is the next launch with a Geneva service commencing on December 18 – the next service to Malaga commences on February 4 with four more destinations taking off on March 19, while the ninth destination starts on May 26 (see full schedule, below).

Seats go on sale at noon today following the announcement, which was made to journalists in Manchester at 10am this morning by Jet2.com boss Philip Meeson.
Philip Meeson said: “Our aim is to be the number one airline for leisure travellers in the North. We’re here to build on our overwhelming success in Yorkshire and in Northern Ireland and we will be offering the people of Greater Manchester and beyond genuine low cost services.

“We launched at Leeds Bradford with fewer aircraft, and now we dominate low cost out of that region. This month alone we started a new service to Paris, launched a new route to Ibiza and announced a 50% increase to our summer 2005 timetable from our Yorkshire hub.

“This decision to operate from Manchester will initially mean almost 200 new jobs for people in the region, from cabin crew and pilots through to check-in staff and admin support.

“The size of today’s announcement demonstrates our commitment to Manchester airport. It is a clear message that Jet2.com is not just here to stay, it’s here to get bigger and better – we want more routes, we want more frequency and we want cheaper air travel for all.”

John Spooner, Manchester Airport’s Managing Director, said: “Jet2. com has quickly established itself as a major airline in the North of England and we are delighted that they have chosen Manchester as a major base for their future plans.

“‘No Frills’ is Manchester Airport’s fastest-growing sector and we are pleased that Jet2.com is joining us.”

Seats go on sale from noon today for all routes and the first Jet2.com services starts on December 1, 2004 with daily flights to Budapest in Hungary and a four-times weekly service to Murcia on the Spanish Costas the following day – this route will become a double-daily service by March.

Ski enthusiasts will be delighted that one of Jet2.com’s first services will be a daily, low cost service to Geneva, the Swiss ski capital, on December 18.

[Jetting2]

surely now there will some sort of comepition between them and WW.

I just hope it doesnt cause a downfall in there success at Leeds/Bradford.

[phil_2405]

Havent bmibaby been cutting services at Manchester recently though?

[HOODED]

Have WW not been having problems with punctuality? Jet2 have a very good reputation ex LBA so going head to head with WW will be interesting to say the least.With EZY and Ryanair just down the road at LPL it's a bold step.I wish them every success, it appears they have no intention of becoming an also ran in the Loco sector.

[jabird]

ww have transferred some route (CDG & BCN + added BRU?) over to mainline. Interesting to see no BFS on this announcement, despite taking baby on elsewhere.

Also interesting to see VLC rapdily establishing itself as the hottest new loco destination - first TOM, then EZ, then FR, then more EZ, and now Jet 2.

[aeulad]

"ww have transferred some route(CDG and BCN) over to mainline.

No they havent!:rolleyes:

Regards

Mike

[aeulad]

Don't keep us in suspense!

I would guess at a considerable expansion of VS at Manchester. Maybe taking in Los Angeles, San Fransisco, Jo'burg, Hong Kong and Sydney???

Regards

Mike

[jabird]

Mike,

Sorry, I stand corrected. BCN is being withdrawn due to poor slots / yields - also withdrawn from EMA; CDG is summer only. Mainline MAN to BCN/CDG/BRU only available via LHR connections, not direct.

[Hood]

If they need pilots drop some application forms in at the "baby"
crew room they are bound to get some takers.

[Curious Pax]

Monarch will be happy then - if Baby are pulling off Barcelona, and the rumours about Iberia also pulling off (and it doesn't show on their winter timetable on their website) are also true, then that leaves Monarch as the sole operator.

Vuelo: Would Air China from February be the long haul news?

[PTH needs tarmac]

Certainly a bold move by Jet2.

A slight discrepancy in the timetables vs the press release is the indication of 2 daily flights to MJV from March 2005 but only one flight on the timetables currently.

Similar to the situation at LBA, the schedules as published so far require only 5 aircraft per day so it looks like the sixth based aircraft will be a standby spare.

The slots just out of peak times will hopefully allow Jet2 to keep up their reputation for punctuality.

PTH

[MAN777]

Parking space is a bit tight on the ground at MAN first thing in the morning, so it will be interesting to see where an extra 6 aircraft are parked, do Jet2 nightstop away from base ?

[Localiser Green]

Have WW not been having problems with punctuality?

You could say that... Check it here (http://www.flightontime.info/loco/airlines/ww.html)

Manchester Scheduled Airlines Jan-Jun 2004

Figures are: Avg Delay (mins), OTP (%), > 1hr late (%), >3 hrs late (%), Total Flights

1 VLM Airlines 4.66 92.35 1.33 0.09 2,262
2 bmi Regional 5.01 91.52 1.57 0.02 4,009
3 Eastern Airways 5.38 92.76 2.07 0.36 2,223
4 SN Brussels Airlines 5.88 92.14 2.07 0.31 967
5 Ryanair 7.47 87.59 2.22 0.36 1,394
6 Scandinavian 7.90 83.94 1.81 0.00 1,494
7 Luxair 8.00 88.89 3.06 0.56 720
8 Lufthansa 8.27 84.15 2.16 0.17 1,205
9 Aer Lingus 8.85 83.56 2.57 0.18 1,673
10 British Airways 9.31 82.12 2.56 0.20 6,142
11 BA CitiExpress 9.48 83.77 3.90 0.32 24,571
12 Monarch Scheduled 9.50 83.83 2.97 0.47 2,765
13 Air France 10.00 81.87 3.48 0.05 2,129
14 Lufthansa City Line 10.04 80.64 3.40 0.15 2,737
15 Swiss Airlines 10.53 77.09 2.54 0.07 1,340
16 bmi British Midland 13.19 74.33 4.52 0.18 3,319
17 KLM (Mainline, et al.) 13.21 76.26 5.29 0.43 2,325
18 Emirates 17.83 70.56 4.81 1.10 727
19 Aurigny 19.15 70.27 7.41 1.10 999
20 bmi baby 26.26 56.97 11.80 1.62 3,830
21 Pakistan International 40.40 51.48 15.68 4.64 1,014

Looks like only PIA is worse than the baby.... Jet2 should eat them for breakfast in this regard.

Source: flightontime.info (http://www.flightontime.info)

[MAN777]

Oh just read the nearby post about MYT at MAN, with the 757s and Dc10 gone that should free up a bit of space !!

[jimbols6]

MAN777

all jet2 a/c return to base at nite there are no nite stops yet unless the a/c are beening positioned to other bases, but like you said there will be a bit more room after myt get ride of their 757's and DC10's although i heard that the 757 mite be staying for another year!!!???

anyway i dnt suppose you know who will be doing the ground handling for jet2 at MAN?? :ok:

[Mike Rowburst]

Isn't it a shame that the Company 'line' employees only get to know about the expansion by reading the PPrune Forums! Or maybe that is the way of the world nowadays?

[brabazon]

Best take it up with your boss, perhaps at the next company barbecue party you can bring it up. Sorry I was thinking you were talking about easyJet!!

[Localiser Green]

Out of interest where will Channex get these 6 737s from, will there be some cutbacks at LBA or is it all expansion?

If so, who is going to fly these aircraft? They would need about 60 pilots at MAN if my crew to a/c ratio is about right...

[MACCA69]

vuelo spill the beans on what you know about the long haul. the suspense is killing me. go on be a devil!!!

[jet2impress]

G-CELA is still in BOH awaiting cabin reconfig etc

2 x 733 from Ansett still awaiting delivery

3 x 733 from Lufthansa also awaiting delivery.

Thats all I now about, unless there are any more in the pipeline. There are no cut backs happening at LBA. For next summer there is a 50% increase in services.

[Doog]

Hood,

"If they need pilots drop some application forms in at the "baby"
crew room they are bound to get some takers".

I can't see many 737 rated pilots employed with any of the other LCCs being willing to take a substantial pay cut to join Jet 2. If the figures supplied by BALPA are correct then Jet 2s(Channex) salary is simply not competitive.

[Localiser Green]

Good point, it would be a 6 - 9% drop in pay from baby to Jet2.

Channex / Jet2

Captain basic £58,953
Captain top £68,578
F/O basic £36,667
F/O top £46,922
Flight Pay Capt & Fo: £2.10/duty hr
Leave 36 days + 12 requested days

bmi baby

Captain basic £63,550
Captain top £74,960
F/O basic £38,950
F/O top £49,741
Flight Pay
Capt £20 per sector
F/O £12 per sector
Leave 5 weeks

Source: PPJN (http://www.ppjn.com)

So... with no cuts at Leeds, and inferior pay to baby, where are they getting these 60 pilots from?:confused:

[EGAC_Ramper]

Well 11 coming from Oxford if you checkout their website.
Lucky beggars!!

Regards:ok:

[Doog]

Source BALPA:

Channex/Jet 2 737

Captain basic £54,231
top (Year 10) £62,575

FO basic £31,287
top (year 10) £39,631

bmi baby

Captain £63550
FO £38950

More like a 20% pay cut.

[Crewing Gimp]

Localiser Green

If you look at route start dates you can see they are staggered.

This will give ample time to employ and train extra crew needed.

How many crew shortage delays have you seen on Jet 2 services ??? Asual Channel's planning will be second to none.

With the current excess of pilots on the market can not see it being an issue.

60 pilots? Not sure if it will be as many as that. 5 crews per airframe?

The Gimp

[Vuelo]

We heard today that Jet2 will turn to Barcelona once the Geneva service stops from Manchester in the Spring.

I had a lovely long talk today at work with one of the terminal duty managers at T1, and he was saying how it looked like next summer would be horrendous for T1 as there just isnt enough room for all the new services, especially Jet2! He said that the airport would be putting their buses to maximum use to ferry passengers from remote stands come June / July / August 2005!!


There is such a buzz going about Manchester Airport at the moent - and I am sure that will increase once the other announcements are made!

[phil_2405]

There is such a buzz going about Manchester Airport at the moment - and I am sure that will increase once the other announcements are made!

What other announcements are these?

[Doog]

pol1wx,

I did say "if the BALPA figures are correct" in my initial post. Would you care to enlighten us to the correct figures then?

As for joining for the lifestyle, I would have thought that it would be very similar to that of any other low cost carrier! So my point was why would type rated people move for less money to do the same job.

[alterego]

Baby don't get annual increments on salary. Not sure how much this would affect things.

I think that some Baby crew would be interested in moving to Jet2 for several reasons.

[POL1W]

Happened to notice two new route applicartions for Jet 2 last friday.
One being Manchester - Bournemouth twice daily with an early morning and evening round trip. The other is for a Leeds - Gatwick twice daily, again with an early morning and evening round trip. The latter is great news for LBA, as the capitol has been underserved for years, especially south of the river. Jet 2 have been applying for slots into Gatwick from Leeds for a while now, but have been unable to obtain suitable ones, until now. This flight, along with Manchester - Bournemouth is expected to commence in January 05.
Great news indeed, as I said, until I put 2 + 2 together. Both flights are mirrored timings ex LBA amd ex MAN, and got me thinking a bit. Is there really 550 + people a day wanting to travel between Manchester and Bourneouth?. Are these applications just a sneaky backdoor application for Manchseter - Gatwick, by dropping the Leeds and Bournemouth parts of the applications. I sincerely hope not, but my gut feelings tell me they are. How loyal to Leeds will this show Jet 2 up to be, if true?

[Shed-on-a-Pole]

British Airways serves MAN-LGW 7x daily Mon-Fri with reduced frequencies at weekends. Fares on this route tend to be very competitively priced for early bookers, as BA like to direct their Manchester-London budget traffic onto this route. Any competitor entering this market will face an incumbent with an attractive spread of timings throughout the day and with low-priced capacity offered. Plus, of course, competition from all the other Manchester-London travel options by air, rail and road.

In contrast, MAN-BOH is not served by air at all. By train this is a gruelling journey with day-return travel impractical. By car the route is tortuous, and also unsuited for day return travel. It is reasonable to suppose that a significant market exists between Greater Manchester and the Bournemouth/Poole conurbation with it's surrounding counties. When served in the past [admittedly with small commuter types but at high fares] the route acquitted itself well [think Dan-Air Link City, Metropolitan Airways and Eurodirect]. Add in the flexibility of a contemporary no-frills player able to attract VFR and tourist traffic as well as business travellers and we have a route with potential. I suspect there would have to be some rationalisation involving the nearby MAN-SOU route which is set for 9x weekdaily service this Winter [BACX 6; FlyBe 3]; however, I would contend that dominating the MAN-BOH route makes far more sense for a company such as Jet 2 than becoming a bit-player on MAN-LGW.

By the way, where did you see the Jet 2 application you refer to? Clearly, they have not yet announced sufficient work to keep the six MAN-based B733's occupied so it would be interesting to observe where else they have in mind.

Regards, SHED.

[coasting]

Shed-on-a-pole
I hope you are right in your thinking and Jet 2 do operate a MAN -BOH flight. Will be great for postioning up there without the tedious trek by taxi, or the uncertain trains.
I can not imagine that an airline would be allowed to do what POL1W is suggesting, in that they were making a move on a route using 2 other destinations as a smokescreen, as this would be deceit, surely, and would be frowned upon by the CAA and the airport authorities concerned. It would certainly be a kick in the teeth for BOH, and LBA especially who must have bent over backwards to get them up and running in such a big way, in such a short time, with terrific results.

[eurostar builder]

Eurodirects loads where good when i had flown until they messed up the schedules.

Bournemouth - Manchester early morning and late evening - Where can i book.

[Bagso]

BOH - MAN

...one overlooked fact is that there would be a lot of traffic which would interline through MAN.

MAN now has a massive domestic network, connections to the rest of the UK/Eire are superb and probably the best in the country


That's why SOU - MAN has taken off, there is a massive catchment area in the South and Manchester has tapped into that.

By the time you have sat on the motorway for 3 hours going up to LHR you could be at your eventual destination by interlining through MAN !

[gayrugbybloke]

Surely Jet2 will look at the MAN - CDG and BCN routes seeing as WW have given them up? Also Rome might be a nice earner with only BA on that route currently.

[antonovman]

aren't Jet2's a/c hauling freight at night ?
i thought they were all quick change 737's

[coasting]

I believe only the aircraft based in Belfast is a QC, and one other at LBA, which doesn't haul freight at the moment. This means that the other 7 or so are non-cargo door models at Leeds, that definitely don't do freight. I believe though that there are some more awaiting delivery and conversion to QC for the future. I am sure someone else will correct me on this from Channex?

[jet2impress]

The BFS based a/c (G-CELY) operates for the Royal Mail on services from BFS-EMA at night. LBA is getting a QC (G-CELZ) from 1/11/04 and will also operate night freight for the RM on the NCL-STN route using LBA based crews.

[Have you heard this!]

pol1wx

How come the flight pay is tax free?

[jet2impress]

We did pay tax on 33% of our flight pay, until last year. They stopped giving us crew meals and said because of that they could now pay our flight pay tax free.

[eurostar builder]

G-CELF 737 departed Lasham for Southend
G-CELI 737 currently inside ATC Lasham
G-CELG 737 outside at Lasham

[MAN_Dispatcher]

Bagso - ref your comment about pax usinmg the BOH-MAN flight to interline to long-haul destinations....

I think it would be a good idea, if you could do this, rather than driving to the hell-hole that is LHR, but as with most other LCC's (EZY/WW/FR etc...) you can not interline your baggage to/from other flights, or check-in from/to other flights, even with the same carrier. BE is an exception to this, as they are still in many ways a traditional carrier - codesharing with CO/AF etc.

[Vuelo]

Air Berlin interline with other carriers, in fact several passengers intend to fly TXL - MAn - IAD using AB and BD.

[dwlpl]

Vuelo, your back...............................

[eggc]

oooops...wrong user name

[GOLF-INDIA BRAVO]

Jet2`s first aircraft for Manchester has just arrived in Special Manchester titles right along fusalage

Good luck to you guys

Golf India Bravo

[Vicky Pollard]

Any pictures........................................???????????? ?????

[brabazon]

Is it Red or Sky Blue?