easyjet and Ireland

[metalboymike]

Now that easyjet have entered the Irish market since January they have done very well on loads etc.Its great to see a new airline serving Irish airports..I flew with them last week and i was impressed, i love those A319.

Does anyone think they will open more routes in Ireland?

Well Done easyjet!:ok:

[akerosid]

Me too; I flew LGW-SNN and back; really liked that 319. Even though it's in an all Y class 149 seat layout, it doesn't feel cramped. The Flybe 146 in comparison ... don't get me started!

As for more expansion, I really wouldn't be surprised to see them in DUB, particularly if FR continues its big sulk over the new terminal. Mind you, the Dublin Airport Authority probably knows that the best way to get FR to change its mind is to get EZY to set up a big base at DUB. They'd be in like a shot to take back "their" territory.

Mind you, EI would probably be worst affected by EZY as the Orange revolution flies to real airports like MAD, BCN, AMS etc.

[phil_2405]

I would like to see EZY expand into services from Dublin but I dont think they will do it, FR would respond v quickly I suspect. 'Go' got burnt by FR on the Scotland-Dublin routes didnt they?

We may well see further expansion at SNN, ORK and NOC though.

[Buster the Bear]

aeroskid, the three nineteen's have 156 seats, the seven three's have 149

http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

[Carpathia]

An EZY base in DUB, now that would be very nice. If it did happen, wonder how long it would take DUB's resident 146 operator to lose most of its pilots? I reckon 3 weeks at most :E

[metalboymike]

NOC is my local and when U2 entered it was like a breath of fresh air.Ryanair controlled the London route for too long.Ryanair ignored the airport for year,management were after more routes from FR but they wouldn't Then easyjet moved in and just like that FR opened LGW aswell a stupid move they are plenty of routes out there that show profit.

What Im hoping from U2 is FRA-NOC.

I can only live in hope :D

[FlyCorkInternational]

Rumour has it that EasyJet are planning their expansion in Cork with perhaps 4 continental route from ORK.

[metalboymike]

Any idea what those 4 could be?

[eastjimmy]

i used easy on their cork gatwick route and was impressed the a/c was exceptionally clean and the a/c is full and i agree with the other posters in that there seemed to be plenty of leg room even if they are a lcc. in my opinion cork is ripe for an easy jet lcc base they would have the financial power to go head to head against aerlingus with the holiday routes/european routes which i think ei are ripping off the cork people with. was looking a ei to nice a while back and it was far far cheaper to go easy via gatwick than aerlingus direct. ive booked it and there isnt much of a time wait either. iam a regular user of aer lingus aprox twice a week and i have to say they have come up in the world in my estimation in recent times, in respect to their attitude to cork, however i guess that attitude change was a forced on when jet magic entered the cork scene. i remember a time not so long ago and it was only token stuff from them and these new routes are great but when they are charging double even trebble the amount on the same routes as their routes out of dublin well its not hard to see why someone like me will look else where be it another carrier or just bite the bullet and head to the black hole of calcutta. just think about it perhaps some one down in west cork might say well lets just go to cork its just too far to go to dublin (only go to dublin for the all ireland every year to see cork pick up liam mccarthy cup) but the people who i beleve cork should be targeting is the areas of tipperary or kilkenney etc. these people are well aware of the hole that is dublin and cork would be Easy(pardon the pun) peasy compaired to dub. in a nut shell if your reading mr greek guy ceo easy jet come to cork bouy we will make you a lorry load of cash. in the mean time ill continue the web surfing to get best prices out of cork but its been more or less aer lingus all the way in recent times.
regs
ej

[840]

This is pure guesswork.

I can't see them basing aircraft in Cork for 4 routes, so you would probably be looking at routes to their existing hubs.

Berlin has inbound and outbound tourism potential and would be an obvious candidate.

They don't count as continental routes, but I would have thought Easyjet might look at Newcastle and Bristol. Newcastle is the most obvious UK route that is lacking from Cork's network. Bristol could definitely support greater capacity than Aer Arann currently provides.

[lowfaresbuster]

Milan would work too.

[Tom the Tenor]

Milan was a dud for Aer Lingus even with quite low fares.

The Jetmagic ERJ 145 was a far more suitable machine for the route. However, if that was to happen now the fares would need to be high. The new Aer Lingus service to Rome should do a lot better with pilgrims, wedding parties, weekenders etc.

bmi baby began MME at the weekend so am not sure if EZY would be all that keen to try NCL any time soon but as it happens a number of non aviation friends have mentioned to me how eager they are for a flight to Newcastle!

Bristol is indeed one of my own hobby horses. The marginal costs for EZY to introduce a BRS-ORK would I am sure be quite low. RE have made a bags of it! In times past Dan Air used to operate a Viscount on BRS-ORK on up to five times weekly and for some time at that so there is a good route there?

[BOH]

Do you think EZY are going to try to enter the Dublin market?Or is that too far into Ryanair territory?Ryanair may have a bit of monopoly over LCC at Dublin, however they do a good job!T2 is way overdue!

akerosid - EZY may fly to 'real' airports, but I always find Ryanair to be cheaper!So to get cheaper flights you have to give up a little, i.e. the distance from the city!Ryanair Forever!

Cheers

BOH

[TheOddOne]

Another factor to consider is sector length. Ideally a Loco a/c should fly 4 rotations or 8 sectors a day. This means that the maximum average sector length is just over 90 mins, allowing 30 mins turnaround and assuming a 16 hour flying day for the a/c. Look at the times to useful destinations from Cork and I don't think you could afford to do too many, even balancing one rotation through Cork with another really short one, doing a sort of 'double W'.

I'd like to see other's views on this side of route planning. does it make sense or is it B@ll@cks?

Cheers,
TOO

[MarkD]

TTT

how many pax are in the 320s EI are now getting? Perhaps the EJ 319s with 156 pax would be more economical than 320s with a slightly higher number on the Milan route.

However, they would have to get around this problem (from easyjet website):

"easyJet also announces that it will cease flying to Milan Linate from London Stansted from the end of October 2004. Despite the high-profile problems at Alitalia, services to Milan Linate continue to be highly constrained with no prospect of greater access to slots. Slots used by easyJet to fly to Stansted, London Gatwick and Paris Orly are all within an identical time period, which prevents easyJet from building a sufficiently competitive schedule. The lack of attractive slots at Milan leaves easyJet with no choice but to rationalise its twin services to Stansted and Gatwick. This means that the Gatwick and Paris Orly to Milan Linate services remain unchanged."

[Tom the Tenor]

Aer Lingus A320s seat 174 passengers.

Believe there is no hope again for a long time on a Cork to Milan. Maybe if EI had kept the 737-500s for a few months in the summer.

Also agree with the arguement about sector lenghts from Cork. At a push there might be a small few routes of about 2 hours or so that might work for true loco airlines?

Two hours and above, well, a low cost aerplane is not being used to her optimum? 2 hours+ might be fine out of STN, LTN, or LGW but a smaller and maybe lower yielding place like Cork it must be a lot tougher to operate a long sector successfully?

Still, we try and press on regardless!

[MerchantVenturer]

easyJet has seven Boeing 737/700s based at BRS and these fly 21 rotations each weekday, three rotations (six sectors) by each a/c. The other seven daily easyJet rotations in and out of BRS are operated by BFS, NCL and SXF-based machines, the last one being BRS's only daily A 319 visitor.

In another thread someone commented that BRS is one of easy's most profitable bases, something I have read elsewhere more than once, so three rotations per day per a/c seem to work.

Strong rumours abound that BRS is to get more easyJet a/c based there. If so, I hope the airline is looking seriously at ORK as a destination because, as Tom said, Aer Arann really don't seem to be treating the route seriously.

[Tom the Tenor]

I wonder do RE take Cork seriously full stop? Diversions again late last night and some cancellations this morning. Their lack of crew qualified CATII pilots is a show. What does it take to remedy the situation?

[neidin]

Tom,

Lot's of things at RE are on hold for the last 9 months pending the outcome of the PSO. There seem to be more lower cost bids for the PSO with the Irish Govt. than was expected.

The whole operation from ORK by RE was funded out of cashflows and cross subsidisation generated from the PSO contracts over the last three years. They never raised new capital to build their new ORK mini airline. PSO paid for it for sure.

So - there has been and will continue to be little change for you at ORK until the PSO decision goes the way of RE on all routes. Any slippage on PSO revenue and their plans will certainly change.

They have not enough planes, maintenance people and properly qualified crew to cover their current Winter maintenance program which has suffered slippage. Staff at RE are not happy bunnys.

Still if they manage to get all the PSO routes things will be fine. Money in the bank and a new owner I bet within 12 months. They are have waffled on about an IPO or a sale through BIAM but that is really waffle. I would bet a hedge fund will buy them and immediately slash any non-performing routes and cream the PSO revenues.

They have lost a lot of loyal passengers at ORK and KIR after a miserable winter of shoddy delays and service.

Now anyone know how much Euromanx are really trying to raise in funding through their Irish angel backers? Anyone what airlines have applied for the PSO's?

[840]

One thing that EasyJet could bring to any routes is a strong marketing presence outside Ireland. Aer Lingus' prime focus is on shipping Irish people out of the country. Perhaps a Milan route could be more successful with increased effort to get Italians to visit Ireland.

However, AFAIK Milan isn't an EasyJet base. As I said earlier in the thread, I'd imagine any EasyJet routes between Cork and mainland Europe would be to link EasyJet with their existing European bases.

Off the point of EasyJet now, but I frequently have to route AMS-ORK-DUB-AMS for work. Aer Arann's performance has been so poor that I've taken to using the train to get between Cork and Dublin despite the trek across Dublin. I'll be delighted to see the ORK-AMS evening flights make a comeback in the summer even if it is only 2 days a week.