NEWCASTLE

[Jamesair]

I hope this is in accordance with the new rules.

Rumour has it that the No.7 aircraft for Easyjet will be announced in November together with 2 new routes. Route no 3 has already been announced (FARO)

[NCLRULES]

Newcastle needs to be in capitals. ;)

[Jamesair]

sorry, it was in capitals on my posting but seemed to lose it when posted.....just edited it....worked this time round

[airhumberside]

sorry, it was in capitals on my posting but seemed to lose it when posted.....just edited it....worked this time round
Odd - that hapenned to me on the Humberside thread too

[fl dutchman]

Venice and Madrid could possibly be the 2 new routes in addition to already announced Faro for a/c No 7?.
Would not be surprised if Ryanair announce a NCL base soon with 1 x738 doing NCL- DUBLIN-NCL-OSLO-NCL-STOCKHOLM-NCL-DUBLIN-NCL keeping the Milan as it is now.

[Jamesair]

Venice and Madrid would make excellent route additions for Newcastle. I hope you are correct.

I am still hoping for more routes to France. (Flybe/Ryanair)

November is the Flybe Summer 06 timetable finalisation month

[bakerloo]

Would NCL - AMS not be a good route for A/C number 7!.

[10 DME ARC]

Nice to see the airport had its busiest month ever in July with 576022 pax's! How long before 6 million pax's a year then?
:)

[GrahamK]

I noticed Excel had a flight from Naples and a flight to Mykonos today? Cruise charters?

[NCLRULES]

CaptainBen

I have some bad news.

As some of you will know, young Ben has been ill for some time.

I have to tell that you all that yesterday evening (6th) I received an e-mail informing me that Ben passed away while undergoing surgery last Sunday.

Ben would have been 16 on the 15th of next month.

I am sure you will join me in sending our deepest condolences to Ben's family and friends.


Ben contributed to the NCL threads quite often. My condolences to Ben's family.

RIP Captain! :(

http://www.pprune.org/forums/member.php?s=&action=getinfo&userid=87972

[10 DME ARC]

So sorry to hear this news, my condolences to his family.

It seems that Newcastle has lost more than its fair share of aviation minded young men!
:(

[NCLRULES]

Hope the mods don't mind this. Ben posted on another forum a few months ago saying he was famous :p lol

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/912848/L/ - He's the pilot.

[GrahamK]

Very sad news indeed.

[nclairportfan]

My deepest condolences to Ben's family. He was a great guy who was clearly full of life and will be a loss to all the forums he contributed to - including my own. Goodbye Ben - we'll all see you in the great airport in the sky one day.

[transwede]

On the palmair/astraeus thread (sorry dont know how to post a link) it says European were planning to open a NCL base, aswell as EDI and BFS, only seasonally. Is this still the case, could this aircraft be XLA's usual subbed aircraft for the summer 06 season?

Regarding XLA I think it will be highly unlikely that a 757 is based here, as did XLA not remove 757 a/c from regional bases due to engineering issues? So will XLA's NCL Summer 06 base be just 3 x 737-800 a/c or god forbid will the TF 737-400's be back?

My sincere condolences to Captain Bens family, God Bless!

[HH6702]

Well i have heard this over the last few days

2 X B757
1 X B738

The above based all week.

Certain days they will need 4 aircraft but some flights may be changing to W..?

EAF to base at NCL?

That like was for summer 2004 but the flying programme for newcastle then turned into HH.

TF-ELJ

The above aircraft will leave the group at the end of next week.
THe aircraft is going to the US.

[transwede]

Well that seems like a change of strategy for XLA, 757's at regional bases. Lets hope XLA make a good shot at making NCL a permanent base.

S06 = Very interesting at NCL, Lots of based charters.

1 x MYT
2 x TCX
2 x TOM 757 charter
1 x TOM 737 sched (-300 or -800?)
3 x XLA
...not to mention 7 easy's, jet2 and all the usual nightstopping/based aircraft.

[NCLRULES]

Hope the mods don't mind this. Ben posted on another forum a few months ago saying he was famous lol

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/912848/L/ - He's the pilot.

Can I point out that the guy that died was Ben Wallace, not Ben Hewitt who took the photo. I have confused a few people and thought I better point this out before confusing more people, sorry.

[airhumberside]

ABTN is indicating that Eastern are set to start LCY

BREAKING NEWS this week revolves around the annual gathering of the regional airlines at Gothenburg starting on Wednesday, with turboprop aircraft operators hogging the headlines. New participants Air Atlantique will confirm delivery of its first ATR 72 whilst Eastern Airways, now with a 31 aircraft fleet, will be hard pushed to deny strong rumours that it is to make its entry into the London market next January using the very fast Saab 2000 from Newcastle to City airport. Flight time will be just 65 minutes, quicker than to Heathrow. Carpatair, based in Timisoara, Western Romania, another new member and with Swiss financial support, is expected to announce flights to London in 2006. Romania joins the EU in 2007

[Jamesair]

This confirms what I heard from somebody at LCY but where does this leave VLM, whose flights keep appearing on the NCL arr/dep board?

[postcard]

A busy 2006 coming up means an additional three(3) stands are to be built south side..around the Taxiway G area.Numbered in the 'sixties'.
This will release two mail/freight stands from the main apron..
Ready May 2006

[Jamesair]

with NCL giving Flybe its greatest pax percentage increase again in September, new routes can't be long in coming.

[fl dutchman]

It is now confirmed that Monarch will be operating the Thur and Sat flights to Orlando next summer.
Thurs MON 375/374
Sat MON 365/364
They are also doing the Fri Dominican Republic MON 325/324.
Not sure about the Travel City Direct advertised Fri flight to Orlando,was originally an EXCEL service but they claimed it would also change to Monarch?. It is however still on sale as Excel,who I thought were not doing anymore longhaul!.

[Jamesair]

Thats good news....Monarch should make a much more reliable job of the long haul flights

[nclairportfan]

On the Air Wales website, the low fare finder is showing a route from NCL - ABZ in January but the times don't seem to match with NCL - CWL rotation. Does anyone know if this is true or just a mistake?

[Sharky12t]

Has anyone noticed the increasing number of Emirates billboards popping up on Tyneside, makes me wonder.

[POL1W]

Don't hold your breath, they are all over Leeds as well!

[Richard Taylor]

Looks like they are dropping LPL-ABZ wef Jan 2006 & reouting CWL-ABZ via NCL.

You can't book flights for LPL from Jan 2006.

Does this mean NCL-ABZ competition with T3?

[son of a .....]

A spy tells me that Newcastle may have more long hauls announced in the near future?? Wouldn't say where but the likely suspects...

I would have said DXB but then again a few months ago I would have said EWR!! Sooooo somewhere in the middle east?

P.s. I wonder if Delta have been sniffing around there too?

P.p.s When is AA going to do JFK-MCO, tried to book one of the sale fares the other day and would have had to change airports to LGA for the MCO sectors!!!

[NCLRULES]

Talking of more long-haul flights, I came across this on the Flightmapping website.

a little bird tells me that officials from qatar airways visited newcastle today. Three times a week to Doha, what are your thoughts on that? - posted 10 May 2005

Emirates to Dubai was also mentioned.

[transwede]

When you consider how many pax actually transfer via the likes of LHR/LGW/CDG/AMS etc from NCL to destinations in the midlle/far east and austrailia then maybe a 3 x weekly service could work using say A330 a/c. Why not transfer via Doha than say some of the European airports? If NCL secured Qatar A/W or EK then this past few years must be the largest growth seen by any UK airport?

[MerchantVenturer]

Emirates to Dubai was also mentioned.
There has been quite a lot of talk in recent months down this neck of the woods that Emirates are looking at CWL for a DXB service.

There are those who question the demand from there, certainly if the flight went daily, and some speculation has arisen that the service might be a joint one with another UK airport, either daily or say 3 times a week.

NCL is one airport that has been suggested as a 'partner'.

I don't know whether EK already fly from DXB to two airports in this way (not necessarily in Europe).

[airhumberside]

I don't know whether EK already fly from DXB to two airports in this way (not necessarily in Europe).
Malta and Tripoli used to be linked but Tripoli now has its own service and Malta and Larnaca are linked

[HH6702]

I think there maybe some truth in middle east routes out of newcastle. Airport said new york was 1st of many!!

How about Zoom? to somewhere in canada also?

[HH6702]

Air Wales to base aircraft

Air Wales will base an aircraft at NCL from Jan 2006

2x daily to ABZ

Another route LCY???????

Perfect times

morning
afternoon
evening...

What do you think?

[GrahamK]

I thought that 6G were going to be doing
PLH-CWL-NCL-ABZ and v.v and dropping LPL?

[Jamesair]

Correct Graham but also dropping the Plymouth link from Cardiff.
This might open up an opportunity for Air Southwest from Plymouth or Newquay to Ncl.

[transwede]

Has Air Southwest not shown an interest in NCL before, i.e before AWW started operations? Maybe a daily Dash8 NCL-PLH/NQY may work for them under their low cost strategy.

I would have thought that FlyBe would have started NCL-ABZ services, they have always shown a keen interest in developing NCL, including those rumours of european services but nothing much has been heard since. Maybe after AWW starts, they will eventually expand.

Regarding the charter side for S06, does anyone or can anyone work out an aircraft rotation plan for XLA? Some days only justify 2 aircraft, where as days like sundays demand 5 aircraft. Maybe once flights are confirmed then times will change to fit into the plan of having 3 XLA aircraft and whatever will replace Scandic.

finally any more news on Jet2's new routes? Surely with the introduction of NCL based crews there are plans for more than 2 routes???

[Kev 1]

Transwede

Been checking the XLA website and it now appears that NCL will be getting only one based XLA aircraft in S06(738?), with other flights now down to be operated by EUK(any offers on the aircraft) and a FlyJet B757.

Also an extra Helios flight on Sunday mornings to Larnaca. (ETD11.10 ETA10.10 HCY547/6)

Cheers

Kev

[Jamesair]

TRANSWEDE

Air Southwest were rumoured to be looking at NCL about a year ago, I think it was Plymouth/Newquay - NCL - ABZ.
don't forget that the chief of Air Southwest used to be with Gill so NCL must always be in his mind.

Maybe they might revisit the idea but wouldn't be able to include ABZ now with 7 rotations a day from NCL from January. (Eastern/Air Wales).

Plymouth/Newquay - NCL - EDI or GLA might work

[nclairportfan]

ABZ

The timing from 6G are very odd and do indicate a NCL based aircraft but I'm not sure why?

This route though is still prime for plucking by a loco - Flybe could definitely make it work, if they had the right timings.

Now that 6G appear to be leaving the PLH rotation it would certainly be good to see WOW on the route. Perhaps they could do as they do at LBA. A route from PLH/NQY - BRS - NCL would definitely work say twice a day. EZY have the monopoly on a very popular route to BRS at the moment - I think it could sustain another carrier!

Jet2

I'd like to see at least 1 more Jet2 route for summer 2006 but am unsure where they'd fly to. Perhaps they're waiting for EZY's rumoured announcement.

[transwede]

Jet2

Maybe they might announce AMS, Valencia and Tenerife??? What else could it be, any ideas? For a based aircraft they will need atleast 3 destinations on a daily basis, eg NCL-XXX-NCL-xxx-NCL-XXX-NCL then back for mail flights.

XLA

Thats a big reduction from the planned programme of 3 aircraft to just 1. Maybe the EUK flights will turn into XLA flights and using FJE? Will that aircraft be based or just passing through? XLA are planning alot of flights out of NCL in Summer 06, so why not base more than just one a/c? Lets also not forget that for the past few years SCY have operated a number of XLA flights under SCY codes. Indeed SCY have been chartered by XLA for these flights, much like Hola Airlines was.

New Routes

How about?

easy to VCE, WAW in addition to Faro.
Jet 2 to AMS, VLC and TFS.
FlyBe to NWI, ABZ and SNN.
Someone to LCY, eastern, VLM?
And of course hughely rumoured service to the Middle East.

Incidentally new charter routes to Preveza, Kavala and Djerba - all operated by XLA, with the latter by Karthago Airlines on behalf of MyTravel.

[edspring]

Jet2

Has anybody else been offered a position at NCL with Jet2?
I've been lucky enough to get Senior, although the date of the course is still to be confirmed ?

We were told that a second aircraft is likely for NCL and that the MJV route is the first of two other Spanish destinations under consideration. Not confirmed but don't be surprised if VLC follows once the next 737 appears !

Good luck to anyone else applying !

[Jamesair]

I have just read on another aviation site that Eastern have acquired two more J41's and are wet- leasing another J31 and are planning to start several routes from LCY

I hope NCL is one of them.

[transwede]

Newcastle always seems to be similar to Bristol so why not lets have routes similar to them? They seem to have a greater choice of 'holiday' destinations.

Taba, Hurghada, Grenoble, Chambrey, Banjul etc...

Lets hope the charter companies continue to expand in addition to the great expansion on the scheduled/loco side.

[CentreFix25]

Newcastle usually has a Grenoble and Chambery flight during the Winter Season. Newcastle have destinations not available from Bristol, two very similar airports moving similar amounts of pax, and the common denominator - Mr Parkin.

[10 DME ARC]

I see Jet 2 Cork got underway today, another great destination available again from NCL.
:)

[Kev 1]

Does anyone know how many people were on yesterdays and todays Cork flights? Also does anyone know how well the Murcia route is doing, heard a rumour its relatively full most of the time.

Also any info on how well the Oslo Torp route is doing as this has been running for a while now?

Kev

[Jamesair]

Don't know the Cork pax figures but we should have the CAA stats for Sept published next week, that will give us the Torp figures.

[10 DME ARC]

Cork had not a bad start good outbound load, alright inbound, which is to be expected first flight.
Murcia is doing very well!!

:)

[transwede]

It seems to be a good start for Jet2 then. Just goes to show that at a smaller airport such as NCL there is room for more than one based loco airline. I feel easyjet better keep on top of Jet2 and forsee their next move!!!

XLA S06

A lot of confusion regarding their operation next summer ex NCL.
It seems looking at the current schedule of proposed flights, 2 XLA a/c will be based together with an EUK a/c (one in the same airline), with flights thu-sat subbed out to Flyjet, using 757. types of XLA/EUK a/c based are unconfirmed though reports have suggested 738 and 757 (the latter to operate 2 x weekly SSH flights). I would think that EUK flights will become XLA operated and the original plan of 3 aircraft will happen.

[GrahamK]

Air Atlanta Europe = Excel Airways next summer afaik

[HH6702]

Excel Group Summer 2006

I think that FLYJET will be based all week with the following being added

Monday Funchal, Bodrum
Tuesday ?
Wednesday FUE

sunday - Taking over the SSH from Excel


EUK will be Excel Boeing 757 and XLA flights with a B738

We should be able to work it out more when system gets fully updated

[a bristolian]

No B738's for NCL.........something else me thinks .

New B738 going to BRS ta very much!

[lifesabeach]

Edspring read your PM's

Cheers matey!

[10 DME ARC]

Bristolian

I have no idea what a/c xl will base next year, this year was only confirmed with a couple of weeks to go! Even then changes continued well into the season! What I do know is that xl have promised the two new a/c to a few airports, NCL not being one of them. Cardiff I believe put out a press release quoting the two new a/c were going to them.
This year we had 1x B752 and two B734’s and I believe next year will be something like 1x B738 and 2x B752 as it looks at the moment (xl web site), but this could change….. This would be an increase in seats available something I think NCL is in a good position to fill.
:)

[CentreFix25]

Well I bet £10 that the EUK flights are operated by a Finnair 757.

[richardhall99]

Air Wales arent doing the NCL-LCY route

[hostiegirl]

cwl and gla are not getting brand new 800's they are getting sunwing 800's all on canadian aoc it's operating with their pilots and our cabin crew who will all have to be sunwing trained. xla are getting 2 brand new 800's hopefully brs and ncl will get one each!! if not i'm sure both bases will be over the moon with whatever reg we end up with and we can all see the back of the goddam awful 400's!!!!!!!!:ok: oh and at brs fls or whatever they call themselves these day's are rumoured to be taking back the engineering contract!!!!!! yippee!!!! bye-bye aai enginners!! (although the head engineer is great same cannot be said for his collegues)

[Flightrider]

HH6702 is right - Flyjet 757 to be based to operate the ex-SCY programme at NCL for next year.

[transwede]

So does this mean a new UK base for Flyjet? The XLA group programme is very confusing. So far it seems as if the planned flights fit in perfectly with 2/3 XLA a/c (inc EUK 757) apart from a monday, together with the FJE 757 Thu-Sat.

Any updates on the plan for S06 for XLA would be appreciated.

[HH6702]

Flyjet Summer 2006

I have sent them an e-mail asking what there plans are for NCL. Which routes and times

Will let you know if i get a reply

Thanks

[CentreFix25]

Taken from xl.com...
MON 0530-2320 Corfu ('W' away all day)
TUE ???
WED ???
THU 0945-1925 Arrecife
THU ??? (Night flight prehaps)
FRI 0700-1700 Tenerife
FRI 1845-0100 Heraklion
SAT 0600-1315 Malaga
SAT 1430-2110 Palma
SAT 2240-0445 Kos
SUN ???

Just need to fill in the gaps.. Looks similar to what the Finnair 757 did this year.

[HH6702]

Got an e-mail back giving me a list of tour opartors who charter them in. No help really. Thanks centrefix didn't know about CFU.

FLYJET

Sunday it wont be doing LCA as ZU is now doing the flight.

[transwede]

On a wed it could be replacing SCY on the Pure Flights charter to Orlando Sanford, using FJE 757. Thu evening, SCY a/c sat on the ground, infact the a/c was quite lowly utilised, apart from fri/sat.

[Jamesair]

Is FLYJET going to be so good for NCL? I see that the latest charter delay ratings ranks EXCEL at No. 6 and FLYJET at No. 8.
The words fire and fryingpan spring to mind.

[CentreFix25]

Another hotel... http://www.newcastleairport.com/ReadNews.aspx?news=118

[Britannia]

T34031 from Aberdeen was diverted this morning, anybody know why and where to?

[NCLRULES]

Bosses are close to clinching a deal with Norwegian Airways which would see the start of budget flights to Bergen and Oslo, possibly as soon as May. - Mar 19 2004

From the Evening Chronicle.

Will these flights still happen?
http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/eveningchronicle/eveningchronicle/tm_objectid=14069754%26method=full%26siteid=50081-name_page.html

[transwede]

Quite an interesting article.

And discussions have started on the possibility of easyJet bringing another aircraft to Newcastle at the end of the summer which would open up a host of possible new destinations.

Where could the new easy destinations be? Venice, Naples, eastern Europe, e.g Warsaw, Krakow, Dubrovnik etc. The possibilities for easy are endless.

He said this summer will also see Newcastle offer its best-ever package of holidays.

Indeed, theres extra capacity on the usual package routes and new additions of Kavala and Preveza.

A Viking invasion is poised to sweep across the North East as Newcastle Airport prepares its next batch of low cost flights.

In the years since the low cost explosion has hit the industry Newcastle has done extremely well in developing its area of loco flights, together with regular mainline scheduled and charter flights. In 4 years we have,

easyJet - BRS/STN/BFS/ALC/AGP/BCN/PMI/IBZ/FAO/NCE/CDG/PRG/CIA/BUD/SXF/GVA

Ryanair - TRF/DUB/BGY

Jet2 - MJV/ORK

FlyBe - SOU/EXT/BHD/JER

Hapag Lloyd Express - CGN/MUC/HAJ

and not forgetting the new BritishJet Malta service, which starts within the next few days.

Would, if the airport is successful the new Norweigan Oslo service complement Ryanairs TRF service or would there be a cat fight between the two airlines?

How about some of the following loco airlines starting flights, Wizz Air, Skyeurope, Centralwings etc

[CentreFix25]

The article in question is 18 Months old, I think the extra EZY aircraft has arrived in that time (Budapest was one of the new routes, can't remember the rest). The Oslo route has started albit with Ryanair, Norwegian won't compete with them on that route. Wideroe would be my best bet to do Bergen, thou i would have thought it would have happened by now.

[Jamesair]

I agree with CentreFix. I think that article is now completely old news.

More important was the "Route conference" held in Copenhagen at the end of September at Copenhagen Airport. Newcastle would have had a delegation there (I hope).

Has anyone heard anything subsequently?

November is usually an important month for announcements for next summers new routes, frequency increases etc.

[tcx00]

Emailed Flyjet;

Dear Jay

As nothing as per formally agreed as yet, I am afraid I cannot confirm or deny at this stage! Please keep an eye on the website where this
will be officially posted as and when.

Kind regards

this was regarding the concept of an a/c being based.

[andrewmcharlton]

Am I missing something or has the Travel Inn been engulfed by the new hotel project ? The pictures are less than clear where its gone !

[CentreFix25]

It will be built on and around the the area where hire cars are currently parked. Hire car parking will move (i'm almost sure) to an area comprising or adjacent to the old fuel farm. You can see the Travel Inn in the background on the second picture.

[johnwalton]

For the planning documents see http://gispublic.newcastle.gov.uk/publicaccess/dc/DcApplication/application_detailview.aspx?caseno=IN42SIBSF0000&searchtype=SPEC

Interestingly, the airport has also applied for

"Outline Application: Erection of business park comprising 16250sqm of office space and 232sqm of retail floorspace, 465 car parking spaces with associated access from junction of Main Road and Callerton Lane Ends"

See http://gispublic.newcastle.gov.uk/publicaccess/dc/DcApplication/application_detailview.aspx?caseno=INY4ESBSI1000&searchtype=SPEC


The "Associated Documents" on both those pages are particularly useful.

[CentreFix25]

Something to do with this (http://www.uk-land-estates.co.uk/newsletters/Summer2005.pdf)

[10 DME ARC]

Looks like Flybe have given up the battle to Belfast! Looking at the web site flights go down to one a day from January!!! Twice a day Sunday.

On present pax levels two a day should have been possible and this when Easy are more and more cutting the mid day service!
:(

[HH6702]

Winter 2006/7 on sale NOW

Mytravel and Thomas Cook

Will look now and see if anything is new

[10 DME ARC]

More bad news, just been told by my travel agent that Mytravel have pulled the Agadir (AGA) this winter, have also against my wishes rebooked me from Manchester!!!

Of course they have left it too late to find anything out of NCL over the feb half term grrrr......

I wouldn't care but we tried booking some friends on the same flights a month ago and was told the flight was fully booked! Mytravel strikes again.
:mad:

[HH6702]

Sad news

Ive noticed that there is no route there for next winter so i wounder why they have pulled if loads were good?

[CentreFix25]

Well one flight was full that we know of. Need to find out what the based aircraft does instead to answer the question.

[GrahamK]

MyTravel are still selling NCL-Agadir on their website though...

[transwede]

Here is a rough XLA S06 programme which roughly translates to 2 XLA based a/c, 1 EUK and FJE 757.

FJE 757

Mon - NCL-CFU-BFS-CFU-NCL
Tue - Not confirmed
Wed - SFB on behalf of Pure Flights
Thu - ACE
Fri - TFS/HER
Sat - AGP/PMI/KGS
Sun - EFL

XLA a/c 1

Mon - FNC
Tue - JTR
Wed - PFO
Thu - KGS/ALC
Fri - JSI/CFU
Sat - Not confirmed
Sun - ZTH/KLX

XLA a/c 2

Mon - BJV
Tue - TFS
Wed - FUE
Thu - SKG
Fri - DLM/IBZ
Sat - Not confirmed
Sun - SSH

EUK

Mon - MAH/DLM
Tue - PMI/CHQ
Wed - RHO
Thu - FAO
Fri - Not confirmed
Sat - PMI/ALC/RHO
Sun - PVK/IBZ

Still gaps in the programme, so still time for extra flights to be added.

[staraviation]

As of May 06 EUK no longer exists - all flights fall under the XLA banner.

Pretty good guess but I know a maximum of 3 a/c is more likely with one possibly leased from finnair with 1 X -800. Two aircraft are most likely due to various reasons with tour operators and new bases opening which would probably be 1 -800 and 1 lease in from finniar/flyjet

[HH6702]

looks great. how you got all the info. is the websites fully updated now?

[3202b]

Oops never mind- found the answer!

[transwede]

staraviation where do you get your information from? Indeed things have not yet been finalised, however XLA have committed to those flights above and will somehow, if they decide to decrease the number of based aircraft, need to cover them somehow.

Plan is still 2 737 - both XLA -800 a/c, together with 1 757 TF reg and the subcontract of FJE, operating similar to what Scandic, Islandsflug and Hola Airlines have done for XLA over previous seasons.

It seems that we may not find out until a few weeks before the season starts, as happened this year.

[staraviation]

transwede, info is from the company itself as I work with them!

[HH6702]

XLA - Saturdays

I think that one of the aircraft will do the verona again and maybe the other do Salzburg. Im sure that i seen that in one of the holiday brochures for next summer.

[transwede]

HH6702 Thomsonfly will operate the VRN and SZG flights on a saturday next summer, they form part of 3 based aircraft, they may even be operated using the carriers loco 737 a/c which is to be based.

staraviation run it by me again regarding the XLA base for next summer, is there only one -800 to be based in addition to FJE 757? If so who will take over all the extra XLA flights that are being sold by XL.com and those chartered by Mytravel holidays, Libra etc?

Has anyone got any info regarding which airlines talked to NCL at the recent ROUTES conference in Copenhagen?

[Jamesair]

Who will be flying the Mark Warner Holidays flight to Kalamata next summer?

If the LCY route is supposed to start in January its time we had some sort of announcement.

[staraviation]

transwede, it is our understanding that it may be 1/2 -800 PLUS a 757 from Flyjet/Finnair. Nothing confirmed as yet but the 757 will take over the old scandic routes plus the FUE and FAO. There were talks of an XLA 757 coming to NCL but that has failed to materialise to date.

We could see up to 3 aircraft but as I said 2 would be more likely.

Jamesair - KLX will be operated by XLA

[johnwalton]

Is it just me, or have the JFK flights shot up in price? Just been checking a variety of dates in May/Jun/Jul 06, and they are all coming up as £1004!

[10 DME ARC]

AA

The lowest fare seems to have gone up to £495 on most flights I checked? As long as you stay over a Saturday, I think you're £1000+ flights did not do that?
Noticed on the seat planner the X's are getting better!

:)

[johnwalton]

Might be that, because i was looking to go Sunday-Wednesday. Quite hefty if you don't want to stay-over on a Saturday night!

[BahrainLad]

!10 DME ARC...a graduate you say? With a keen interest in aviation? Where on earth might one find one of those? ;)

How much are they offering?

[10 DME ARC]

BL - Starting salary £25000
:)
p.s. "Ideally a graduate"

[Jamesair]

Has anyone read the October Timetable on the airport website and noticed that Jet2 have a Sunday rotation between STN and NCL on Sundays for the period 8th Jan - 12th Feb?

Dep STN 1210 arr NCL 1325 LS535
Dep NCL 1355 arr STN 1510 LS536

[HH6702]

It is easyjet not jet2. its a mistake

[Jamesair]

Thanks for that ....It has been corrected in the November Timetable now on the airport site, although the new Air Wales ABZ link commencing 14th November is not shown.

[Jamesair]

According to the latest issue of "Airliner World", Eastern have not yet decided on operating NCL - LCY but if they proceed they could launch by mid January and use 50 seat Saab 2000 a/c.

[transwede]

BAD NEWS: Newcastle could get XLA 737-400 a/c back next year!!!

[nclpilot]

Transwede,

May I just ask what the problem is with XLA 737 400 aircraft?
I have been watching this thread for some time and it seems people have an issue with this aircraft, or mpre particularly, the airline.

I have flown with XL three times this summer each time on the 400 and it has been a very pleasant experience. I am based with another airline out of NCL and see no problem at all - apart from the ground handling issues which I am aware they have (but doesnt everyone).

NCLPILOT

[GrahamK]

nclpilot:
The issues deal with:
The 734 not being able to do NCL-Greece/Turkey with a full load, often a stop in Italy required.
The 734 not being up to normal XLA standards.
The 734 very often going tech.

Anything else?

[Maude Charlee]

Please don't forget;

Coming back with no baggage

Not taking enough fuel and pulling back on stand after reaching the end of the runway

Cocking up 5 manual loadsheets in succession and missing slots

The engineers

But none of the 400's problems are a patch on the alleged long haul operation with the 763. Watch a bloody shambles that was.

Bye bye, don't let the door catch you on the way out now. :E

[staraviation]

GrahamK

Tech stops are a necessary part of airline operations when flying from a base like NCL on this type of aircraft. As far as I am aware, this route in question ZTH was completed on a majority of the flights and it was the odd occasion when weather did not permit this.
Our airline have done tech stops on a few occasions from one particular destination as the aircraft could not make it direct - it happens with EVERY airline.

When exactly has the 400 gone tech? They have been flying more often than our aircraft! I am sure it has happened on a fewoccasions

Not up to the normal standards- the flights we had were of the same standard of any other charter airline! The crew were great, check in spot on (although servisair but thats another story).

Maude Charlee

Engineers have a safety responsibility and are not there to make frioends with anyone. The engineers at NCl are actually quite nice guys having met them on a few occasions. I assume you involved with the handling agent??

763 - well that was bad planning by the commercial dept. What else can you say.

Manual loadsheets - in this day we should never be required to do loadsheets ever. What is wrong with servisair. However, the flight deck shouold be able to complete these

Come on guys, give XL a break - the 400 can do the job

[redfield]

Staraviation: re. your quote:

"...we should never have to do manual loadsheets ever...what is wrong with Servisair..."

There must be a reason why your crews have to do manual loadsheets. Has your airline provided the a/c's trim and performance characteristics to Servisair's system support department? If they haven't, then the a/c clearly won't be set up in the DCS for a computerised loadsheet! This being the case, iit's the fault of your airline, NOT the handling agent.

[transwede]

staraviation,

The XL 737-400 a/c started the season off very badly, but it did get better during the course of the season. However pax have noticed the difference to the -800's that NCL had last summer. I.E no ife, instead portable DVD players. I agree with you that the 734's can do the job, but only those to the shorter destinations such as PMI, ALC etc, but the longer Turkish/Greek flights justify the -800 or even 757.

If the -400 does return, surely it will not be operating the XL SSH flight? And lets not forget that companies like MyTravel, Thomson etc charter some of these flights and it will reflect on them what happens with the aircraft etc

I fear that XL's name at NCL has been tarnished by the long haul operations during the course of the summer. Pax tend not to notice the difference between short and long haul.

XL is welcome at NCL, providing a decent service is offered, which more often than not they do!!!

On the Servisair front, improvement is needed but between the two agents in NCL, which is the lesser of two evils. If one agent got all the contracts then service levels will decrease, so maybe if XL re-negociate the contract with Servisair service will improve. Servisair's reputation in recent years has gone down as a number of contracts have been lost to Swissport, eg AEA, BGH, FCA, BE, SK, PGT plus a few more.

[staraviation]

Transwede,

Your points are valid and the product offered last year should be the same re the IFE. perhaps this may be installed but I would not hold your breath.

I would assume a 757/-800 will do the SSH flights - surely not the-400??!! A 757 is better suited on this route but an -800 can do at a push.

I am sure it will be most eye opening to see whom handles XL next year. It must be time for a change though.

NCL pilot - whom do you fly for?

[transwede]

staraviation,

Judging from posts on this forum, XL plan to base just 2 737 aircraft again, plus the FJE 757 which will cover the former SCY programme, plus a few other flights. Currently there seems to be a few too many flights for just 2 737 aircraft so expect some flights to be passed to another carrier. So presuming this is the plan, expect the -800 to op the SSH or even it being operated by FJE 757.

Does anyone know of XL possibly becoming an all year round base at NCL for Winter 06/07? there are a number of flights they could operate, eg the ski charters. I am aware that MYT have passed all their winter work at BRS onto XLA, hence BRS is now a year round operation. Lets hope NCL will get it too.

On another topic has anyone seen the Thomsonfly programme? Approx 47 flights per week, though there have been quite a few time changes so far which is to be expected. And they will operate the 2 SZG charter flights on wed/sat with the loco 737 a/c so it seems the sched and charter operations are now mixing.

[GrahamK]

I see excel will be using Helios for the sunday Larnaca which Scandic done this past summer, so what will the FJE 757 be doing on a Sunday?

[johnwalton]

what will the FJE 757 be doing on a Sunday?
Is it not still going to LCA, but carrying Airtours passengers rather than Libra's?

[GrahamK]

Well seen John, aye it is.

[bmiboyz]

Don't know whether this info helps but the Olympic Holidays flights to LCA and PFO will be flown by Eurocypria. I know in the past Air Scandic carried a fair few Olympic Holiday pax.

[HH6702]

First flight confirmed to SSH on thursday

Airtours pax

out 09:50 back at 22:50

[HH6702]

Friday flights.

Thomson now on sale for next winter

[staraviation]

HH6702,

Are you saying XLA are going to have flights from NCL next winter or is that supposed to be next summer re SSH?

[transwede]

bmiboyz,

you are quite right Olympic Holidays used to have passengers on SCY flights quite alot, but this was only a small allocation, with several other tour ops sharing the flight, so Olympic was not the min charterer of the aircraft. As with this summer Olympic will be using ECA on a wed to PFO and Sat night to LCA.

With XLA operating a winter service to SSH, do we think that maybe an aircraft will be based all year round? Great news for the airport if it is.

Thomson Winter06/07 is indeed now on sale, but not much new.

Incidentally, have just been flicking through an old copy of Airliner World, in particular the article on Newcastle airport. When interviewed John Parkin mentioned that new routes in South-east and Eastern europe had been indentified, but nothing that fits this description has been announced, could we be in for another spate of new announcements? Also mentioned was France, Italy, Switzerland and Ireland, with only Cork matching any of these markets.

Could we possibly see the likes of TLS, ZRH, VCE etc in future announcements, only time will tell!!!

Finally, does anyone have any timings, operator etc of the new flight to Preveza?

Just looked, Thomson add Taba!! Excellent news, as well as apparantly competeing with EZY on numerous AGP rotations.

Just looked, Thomson add Taba!! Excellent news, as well as apparantly competeing with EZY on numerous AGP rotations.

[GrahamK]

Preveza will be Excel Airways on a Sunday morning I think, out 0830, back 1710

[Maude Charlee]

staraviation

ref the XLA engineers. My comments are not a reflection of their personality, but as you point out quite rightly their responsibility for safety.

At least twice they have had their airside driving permits pulled for driving across live taxiways in hot pursuit of their a/c; allegedly one was escorted off station for turning up under the influence for their night shift duties; responsible for at least one pax accident and subsequent safety report for interfering with ground equipment; responsible for a/c pulling back on stand as they had forgotten to secure the avionics bay after maintenance; changing a/c wheels whilst boarding in progress (none of the other engineers on station appear to think this is good practice).

All operations have problems from time to time, but for one operation to stand out head and shoulders above the rest for its enormous number and variety of problems is symptomatic in my view of a shoddy and badly managed operation. XLA proper (as was last year) is a totally different kettle of fish and a delight to work alongside. Islandsflug and Air Atlanta have not, and there are many who have been involved with them over the last few years who will most certainly not mourn their passing should they be raplaced at NCL for 2006.

[mmeteesside]

Well hopefully with Air Atlanta Europe merging with Excel, they might be able to iron out at least some of the problems.......start putting things right

mmeteesside

[HH6702]

Thomson Winter 2006/7 update

looks like TFS is going 3x weekly. MON,TUE,FRI

Looks like Thomsonfly will have 2 aircraft for the winter season. will try and put something on here soon

[GrahamK]

I see BritishJet had a good start today ;)
FHE316 11:20 MALTA via BIRMINGHAM DEPARTED 1929

[starship]

Thomsonfly will have 2 aircraft for winter 2006/2007 a B757 and a B737 at this stage in the planning.

[CentreFix25]

Construction of the New Tower and South Side redevelopment to commence in the new year.

[nclairportfan]

Unusual arrival on newcastle live board:

EZY6444 MADRID BARAJAS 20.25

Possible hint of a new route?

However 6444 is the Faro flight number!?!?!

[NCLRULES]

Have Thomas Cook based two 757s at NCL this winter?

Dep. for tomorrow morning.
TCX690K 07:30 FARO
TCX637K 09:00 SHARM EL SHEIKH

[HH6702]

Certain days TCX will have two aircraft based

[transwede]

For S06 the airport has the possibility, should all plans come to fruition, of having the following aircraft nightstopping or on the ground at the same time,

2 x TOM 757, 1 x TOM 733
2 x TCX 757
1 x XLA 757, 2 x XLA 737
1 x MYT 320
1 x FJE 757
7 x EZY 737
2 x LS 733 (if rumoured second a/c comes)
3 x T3 J41 and possibly Saab 2000 for LCY
together with the usual nightstoppers of 2 BA, 1 AF, 1 SN, 1 KL

That is 28 aircraft. Nearly equal to the number of stands we have at NCL. Are the mail flights going to be moved across to the southside? And for early departures are there going to be enough check in desks, bearing in mind that there will be other flights from non-based carriers that need checking in at the same time.

Has anyone heard anything on the Jet2 front? 2 aircraft have been mentioned and with TOM now competing with easy on the usual spanish loco flights, what do Jet2 have up their sleeve? We are lacking in flights to eastern europe, as well as Italy, Croatia and possibly longer routes to TFS, ATH etc or even the long hoped for French regional destinations!

Good news for winter 06/07 already with TOM announcing a larger programme, together with a new destination. MyTravel will also introduce SSH in their programme.

[HH6702]

Winter 2006/7 update

Looks like XLA maybe doing Taba also as looking at the based programme for thomson both aircraft are doing other things

Aircraft 1

MON LAS PALMAS BY5223/4 09:50 20:00
TUE TENERIFE BY4953/4 09:35 19:55
WED FUE BY4321/2 09:40 19:50
THUR SSH BY2067/8 09:50 22:05
FRI TENERIFE BY4953/4 09:35 19:55
SAT PAPHOS BY3717/8 09:00 19:25
SUN MONISTIR BY4231/2 07:00 14:40
ALICANTE BY5871/2 16:10 23:00

Aircraft 2

MON TENERIFE BY4953/4 09:35 19:55
TUE ALICANTE BY5871/2 07:30 14:20
???
WED ACE BY5437/8 09:35 19:30
THUR MALAGA BY2053/4 08:20 15:40
ALICANTE BY5781/2 16:50 23:40
FRI MALAGA BY2053/4 08:20 15:40
PALMA BY2647/8 16:50 23:35
SAT ALICANTE BY5781/2 06:20 13:30
MALAGA BY2053/4 14:35 22:15
SUN ????
MALAGA BY2053/4 14:40 22:00


looking good with two gaps. maybe these will be ski flights

[transwede]

HH6702,

It is unlikely that Thomsonfly will operate ski flights on a tues, where one of the gaps appear. Generally the winter is relatively quiet for charters at NCL, so the aircraft could well be on the ground.

XLA based aircraft for Winter 06/07 is nowhere near confirmed yet, indeed they have not yet finalised the S06 based programme. However, should they have a based aircraft then quite possibly the Thomson hols TCP flight will be op by XLA, though it is being sold as a TOM op flight. Provisionally XLA have flights on a Thu to SSH during W06/07.

With most programmes for S06 not yet finalised, be patient for W06/07.

XLA could very well operate the ski flights instead of BE/BA/SN who usually operate the ski programme. This would make an ideal programme for a based XLA a/c:ok:

[HH6702]

Do you have the flight numbers for the taba flights?

It would be good to see excel base over the weekends.


Easyjet are going to be putting summer seats on sale over the next two weeks. I wounder if easyjet will have a go at cgn since hlx have dropped it. i think this route would work with easy.

BFS i think will drop back to 2x daily since flybe are now going to do a daily flight only (mornings)

Jet2 update.....
They have held the interviews for cabin crew and ive heard that they are starting in feb. looks like more routes will start in march.

[skyman771]

XLA could very well operate the ski flights instead of BE/BA/SN who usually operate the ski programme. This would make an ideal programme for a based XLA a/c

Well this seems like absolute nonsense to me ! Firstly if you had given this any thought at all you would have noted that most of the ski departure to INN,GVA,SZG are CONCURRENT that is why you need more than one airline ie 3 & 3 aircraft as you indeed note.

Imagine now if you will XLA operating these flights with one 737, not withstanding the "normal" delays that this airline has a deserved reputation for, the obvious excuse of a line delay due to say snow & ice at INN (actually not uncommon) and XLA would proabably succeed in delivering some of Saturdays punters to the slopes the following Monday.

Gettting back to reality then you can not move the timings of these flights at will as they feed into time slots dictated by departures at 10 or so other airports so that that all aircraft arrive within a small timeslot to match with arriving & departing transfer coaches.

[pieboyjr]

Whats happened to the Departures/Arrivals Board?

[transwede]

skyman771,

XLA could be in an ideal position to operate a number of ski flights, for example on a saturday operate the LYS which is an early departure, aircraft returns to NCL and operates one of the afternoon departures to either SZG, GVA or INN. On a sunday possible the BE TRN. Yes other carriers would need to operate some flights.

As has been already discussed on this forum, yes XLA have suffered some horrendous delays this summer, but the bad name that everyone is tarnishing them with stems generally from the long haul operation at NCL. The shorthaul has been comparable to many other UK charter operators. All airlines suffer bad days, indeed TCX have had a number of bad delays yet nobody is slating them.

HH6702

The TOM programme for the winter looks very nice, however I suspect that it will be 2 757 a/c based, as I cant see TOM using one of their loco 733 a/c to operate the TFS/ACE rotations, unless of coure it is going to be a 737-800!!

TCP flights for some reason do not have a flight number allocated, maybe it is XLA??

And I suspect that when the likes of easy/Jet2 release news of routes etc, expect MAD and an Italian destination to appear.

[fl dutchman]

Seats now on sale for summer 2006
At present it looks like 6 based aircraft only.
All existing routes on sale except Stansted which will be released later,Budapest is also not bookable nor is Ibiza,are they going to be droped??hope not.
Also notice that Geneva is 4x weekly and Faro 5x weekly.

Berlin also drops to non daily July / Aug and Faro increases frequency. They are obviously juggling shedules to suit leisure and business demands,but it gets very complex to follow. Not looking good for a/c no 7!

[HH6702]

It's looking to hard to follow was going to try and put it into some sort of order for us on here but i will not even try.

ive heard that aircraft 7 is defo but we could see up to 6 new routes each 3 or 4 x weekly.

hopefully we will find out more over the next few days/weeks

notice that berlin is now evenings flight instead of afternoons...

[Jamesair]

Any ideas where the new Easyjet routes might serve.?

Anyone heard any rumours about new routes in 2006 from Flybe or Jet 2?

Will we get anything else from Ryanair?

[GrahamK]

An article suggesting Emirates may be looking at NCL:
Emirates looking at NCL (http://www.flightinternational.com/Articles/2005/06/01/198147/Gulf+carriers+in+upbeat+mood.html)

[transwede]

I think we may possibly see an Italian route from easyjet, possibly VCE or NAP, maybe served 3/4 times weekly together with another eastern european routes, perhaps KRK, WAW or similar, again maybe not on a daily frequency. MAD too is a very string contender.

From Jet2 I am expecting a TFS rotation plus maybe AMS and possibly LGW?

I think Ryanair and Flybe will not announce any new routes for the immediate future, but then again who'd have thought that so many new flights would have started from NCL in the previous year or so.

Emirates to DXB would be a true gem for the airport. Maybe 3 times weekly would work, though would they only be able to use the A330 on the route, as can the A340/B777 land/take off with no restrictions at NCL?

Expect a few new charter destinations announced, maybe not for this summer but indeed for next winter and the following summer.

[GrahamK]

A330 would be used to start the route, I think probably on a Daily basis just like what they have done with BHX and GLA in recent years.

[GrahamK]

Plans for a new ATC tower have been unveiled. 46m high, how does that compare with the current tower?
http://www.newcastle-airport.co.uk/ReadNews.aspx?news=121

[10 DME ARC]

Well I see VLM are listing NCL on the booking engine, no flights listed yet but!

Graham, about 3 x higher and hopefully 400% better! The position will be near to the fire station, set back a little more.
:)

[GrahamK]

Well spooted 10 DME ARC

So 46m high put's it around 11m shorter than EDI, so ill be pretty tall :-O
Hope none of the ATC lot have vertigo :ugh:

[NCLRULES]

Looks very nice:

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/eveningchronicle/eveningchronicle/tm_objectid=16386141%26method=full%26siteid=50081-name_page.html

[10 DME ARC]

Edinburgh is higher 55m?

:)

[GrahamK]

Aye, t'is a bloody tall thing at EDI. One can see it from miles away. :cool:

[transwede]

Are there any plans for expansion in terminal space, i.e check in or having more than one security scanner operational? There are times when the amount of flights exceeds check in desks and with the greater number of flights next summer its going to be a tight squeeze.

How about another terminal and renaming them Terminals 1, 2 and 3?

And does anyone know when the airport puts a copy of the summer charter and scheduled programme on their website?

[skyman771]

An article suggesting Emirates may be looking at NCL:
Interesting that our profile is increasing, despite any condescending tone in the article.
Keeping NCL in high profile is half the battle, and i'm sure that indirectly AA have done us a major favour in drawing our attention to those "East of Suez".
I've direct experience of the boom in development in Dubai & their total commitment to promote tourism, backed up by the ongoing massive expansion of the EX fleet & new terminal at DXB, makes it an absolute necessity that they identify new markets to bring in the punters.
There is of course the possibly even more lucrative benefit that such a route would open up the whole Far East & Australia market to NE England via DXB hub.
When considering flight times & accessibility then TFS probably provides a good benchmark, probably anadditional hour ? on a DXB route, with slick marketing EX should have no problem with load factors from tourists alone, giving them a certain amount of flexibility in their fares & would probably generate a serious amount of business and through traffic.
My view is that it is a "no brainer" that NCL will have a direct route to the Gulf within two years. The subjectivity comes from which destination & airline, after all who would have gone for AA over CO when this was first discussed.
EX is the obvious choice if only for their current UK experience & expansion plans, but there are other arilines who could potentially "steal their thunder", though my view is that currently EX would have the best chance of building up such a route.

[10 DME ARC]

despite any condescending tone

I am glad I wasn't the only one to pick up that undertone, I don't know, I've subsribed to flight for nearly 20 years, I fear they are becoming less objective and more gutter press of late!!

[transwede]

A route to the Middle east would certainly raise the profile of long haul potential out of NCL.

AA - JFK
MON - SFB/POP
TS - YYZ

Apart from AA the rest are charters, would be nice to see some Carribean/Mexico charters, together with perhaps a scheduled YYZ service or more charters to Canada, the once weekly TS is always full!

[Jamesair]

the main contender for a scheduled route to YYZ would be Zoom, although the current Air Transat service is always shown in the Airports monthly timetable as a scheduled route.

Now that CPN figures seem to meet the SAS criterior to become double daily (60% capacity) I am hopeful for some news soon. A morning and evening service would be much better for business and transfer needs.

[simonwa]

On the VLM website, you can select Newcastle as a destination, flying to 'London City' - only works on the homepage.

[Jamesair]

That would be because the route has neither been officially announced nor put on sale. When (if) this happens I go for a January start.

[HH6702]

Ryanair starts to put seats on sale for summer 2006

Olso still daily in 10:05 out 10:30

hopefully some new routes to be added

[BombardierCR7]

Amsterdam, Pisa and Mahon, now announced by Jet 2

[GrahamK]

Fantastic news for Newcastle.
I see AMS is 2 x Daily which will allow for some cheap day trips to see the "sights" of Amsterdam :E

[simonwa]

EASTERN AIRWAYS TO LCY

It's official - Eastern Airways to offer NCL - LCY 4 x weekdays.

http://www.newcastleairport.com/ReadNews.aspx?news=123[/URL]

[GrahamK]

Quite a few announcements for NCL today then. Well done. Handy for those of us in the NCL catchment area of Tyneside/Teesside/Northumberland/Cumbria/Dumfries and Galloway ;)

[skyman771]

Quite a few announcements for NCL today then. Well done. Handy for those of us in the NCL catchment area of .....

Graham, now how could you forget Durham !?:E

[GrahamK]

Whoops, I had forgotten Durham was closer to NCL than to the airport with it's name in :E
But, let's try and keep on topic shall we? :ok:

[GrahamK]

EZY6472 14:00 ROME - CIAMPINO DELAYED PROVISIONAL 2300

Any idea what's caused this delay?

[Jamesair]

Now that Eastern have announced LCY presumably VLM will drop out of the picture, although they still haven't removed NCL from their booking engine.

JET2

Has anybody else noticed the Mahon flight on Saturdays (peak season) seems to require a 3rd aircraft..Pisa flight arr.NCL at 1725 and Cork flight dep. at 1700...MAH dep. 1620. Otherwise a two aircraft operating pattern.

[10 DME ARC]

James
Have been told the AMS is only once a day SAT/SUN, morning Sat /evening Sun, hence only two a/c needed.
:)

[transwede]

So are we to expect another announcement from Jet2 regarding another route, which would fill in the gaps in the aircraft programme?

Quite surprised EZY never operated an AMS service, I thought the airport may have been protecting the KLM service. Somehow I don't think it will be long before BA gets competition on their London services.

On the Emirates front, don't expect them to operate from NCL in the near future. The airline is consolidating its expansion in the UK for the forseeable future, this according to Air & Business Travel News, www.abtn.co.uk (http://www.abtn.co.uk)

[blahblahblah]

Graham

Not sure of your geography but since MME is located in historically what was County Durham and the City of Durham is slap bang in the middle of MME and NCL then not sure how you can justify your statement!

Congrats to NCL though

[10 DME ARC]

Blah
As the crow flies or the rolling ball on my radar tube, Durham is closer to NCL than MME, only slightly but to be correct.
:)

[Maude Charlee]

Its all due to the extra gravitational pull of NCL being a proper airport, and the added repellant factor of urban Teesside itself. Can't have a posh place like Durham getting all smelly and common now can we? :E

[CentreFix25]

Below the belt, but good all the same!

[transwede]

On another aviation related forum there is quite a few postings regarding destinations people would like to see from NCL. Does anyone think we have any chance of securing any of these and which airlines could possibly operate them? As I recall it was a similar time last year that quite a large number of route announcements were made.

Scheduled Routes (Full fare carriers or locos),


Madrid
Athens
Tallinn
Krakow
Inverness
Shannon


Or possible new charter destinations,


Cuba
Banjul
India
Almeria
Catania
Mykynos
Samos
Rimini


or what would be nice is a more regular scheduled service to Cyprus and Toronto, possibly with other Canadian destinations included. I know both Helios and Air Transat operate their once weekly services as scheduled flights, as do Air Malta but surely a greater frequency with better advertising would do well?

Does anyone know if Jet2's MAH and PSA flights are for the summer only and will be exchanged for a ski destination in the winter, such as CMF or SZG?

[GrahamK]

I'd expect MAH is definitely summer only, and I suppose PSA will be as well. Perhaps they could do Tenerife or another Canary Islandduring the winter?

[Jamesair]

10 DME ARC

I had already taken the AMS flight into account....a morning flight only.

It still leaves the Mahon flight needing a third a/c

Unless the timings on PISA are wrong or the MAH should depart at 1820 the problem remains

[nclairportfan]

Madrid has been hotly rumoured as a next EZY destination especially when it appeared on the arrivals board last week!

[10 DME ARC]

James
Without the AMS, it only leaves Mahon & Cork Saturday night?

[Jamesair]

10 DME

You are forgetting the PISA arrival at 1725

[HH6702]

There was a rumour of upto 3 aircraft for JET2 for this summer.
I guess they will wait and see what easyjet and ryanair are going to do before they add there next routes.

There is still no dublin flights on sale for summer. Rumour is still going around that ryanair will base a single 738 with 2 new routes

Hense the extra 3 stands being build

[fl dutchman]

Also heard the rumour about Ryanair basing an A/C but Oslo is now on sale as a W pattern. So to base one aircraft they would need one new route possibly Stockholm to add to Dublin and Milan to establish the base.

Have some doubts that we will get easyjet No7, hope I am wrong but if you look at both this winter and next summer the aircraft utilisation seems lower than normal for Easyjet. Also some routes have a reduced frequency ie not daily! so does this suggest that loads in some cases are lower than they should be putting into question the viability of yet more routes. Anyone have any info re load factors?

I think JET 2 have taken some routes that Easyjet may have been considering?.

Its almost impossible to follow Easyjet 2006 timetable but if Stanstead when released remains at current frequency and Budapest remains daily then A/C No7 may happen but if Budapest drops to non daily then it could be 6 A/C only

It is almost certain that KLM will drop to 3Xdaily at some stage after JET2 start the AMS service next year

[airhumberside]

From Powerjet1 in the LTN thread

Noticed in the FT re report on easy's profit yesterday, that expansion was slowing from 21% last year, to 15% in the current year.

Three aircraft to be based at the new Malpensa base, with an additional single based aircraft at LTN, LGW, DTM, BSL, SXF, & GVA during the current financial year, with growth being more concentrated in europe than the uk.
So maybe no 7th aircraft for NCL just yet?

[10 DME ARC]

James
Sorry to go on but,
1 x a/c arrives back from Mercia 1535 then departs 1700 to Cork
a/c no2 arrives back from Pisa 1725 then departs 1830 to Mahon

??? two a/c!!

If Ryanair expand I think it will be incoming a/c not based, a one a/c base is not profitable for the likes of Ryanair. Happy to be wrong thou.....

Think the J2 AMS is a different market from most of KLM's market, so hopefully shouldn't affect them that much??
:)

[airhumberside]

If Ryanair expand I think it will be incoming a/c not based, a one a/c base is not profitable for the likes of Ryanair. Happy to be wrong thou.....
Isn't the Cork base just one aircraft?

[CentreFix25]

I was under the impression that the Newcastle KLM base is to close and a reduction to 3 flights a day using AMS based 737's.

This came out before the Jet2 announcement.

[Jamesair]

10 DME

Jet 2

Logic tells me that you are correct and that the error is on the jet 2 website, timetable which shows LS373 dep. NCL 1620 arr MAH 2005.

We have just been using different information sources. Look at website timetable and I'm sure you will agree that it is wrong.

[HH6702]

Ryanair olso

Aircraft starts at frankfurt hann to olso then to newcastle and back. Not liverpool as it is doing this winter.

just check the website again still not on sale.(looking good i hope)

[transwede]

I totally agree with the conflab re Jet2, their timetable does not make much sense, maybe an ammendment to the timetable will appear in due course, though an extra route is very possible shortly.

Why are the loco airlines now changing their once, quite rigid policy and offering flights on less than a daily frequency? I do recall easy's policy was that if a flight could not be operated daily then they would never attempt it, bt now flights operate 2, 3 and4 times weekly only, atleast from NCL. The same goes for Jet2, though Ryanair seems to stick to a rigid daily schedule.

With only approx 4 months to go until the start of the summer schedule, there is still enough time for further announcements, however personally I do expect a lull in new airlines/routes.

I see SkyEurope Airlines are expanding in the UK, with new flights to BHX and EDI. Is NCL-KRK a possibility, maybe 3 times per week?

[HH6702]

Ive heard that easyjet are to drop budapest from march.

A new low cost carrier is to pick up the route along with another dest.
Wounder if it's skyeurope or wizz air?

KLM................. ENDS NIGHT STOPPING

Has anybody else noticed that from 26th march klm will no longer night stop.

[10 DME ARC]

HH6702
Suggest you look again! Still 5 x day with night stopper when I checked, you may have entered lowest economy fare and hence didn’t get offered the first departure in the morning?

[fl dutchman]

KLM Amserdam schedule currently remains up to 5Xdaily to the end of Oct 2006.
Before now there has not despite rumors been firm plans to drop frequency to 3x daily.With current loads around 80% it would make no sense. Although the same number of seats could be available with a reduced frequency using larger aircraft, the current frequency better suits connections at Amsterdam. But now JET 2 are starting the route soon things will change.I think the KLM loads are split about 60%traffic with onward connections and 40% terminating at AMS so the latter is at risk. With the lowest KLM fare about £89 vs JET 2 at about £20 current KLM Amsterdam only pax will change airline unless they prefer the KLM schedule or FD points.
The lower Jet 2 fares will probably attract a new market but KLM will surely loose passengers and will eventually cut frequency but will still have a night stopping aircraft for early connections at AMS.

[transwede]

Eastern A/W are to use the J41 a/c to kickstart the LCY schedule, before the S2000 starts operating it.

And apparantly Flyjet have been confirmed as a based airline for next summer, operating 757 aircraft.

[Britannia]

On MYT's website Karthago Airlines are down to do the MYT Monastir flight next year.

And this is what I've found for FJE:

Mon:
NCL - CFU FJE600 05:30-10:55
CFU - NCL FJE601 21:50-23:20

Tue:
NCL - TFS FJE604 10:00 - 14:55
TFS - NCL FJE605 15:55 - 20:20

Wed: ???????

Thu:
NCL - ACE FJE608 09:45 - 14:05
ACE - NCL FJE609 15:05 - 19:25


Fri: ?????????

Sat:
NCL - KGS FJE618 22:40 - 04:45
KGS - NCL FJE619 05:45 - 08:30

Sun:
NCL-LCA FJE620 12:00 - 18:20
LCA-NCL FJE621 19:20 - 22:30.

Chris

[PTH needs tarmac]

The experience at LBA was that the KLM passenger figures stayed almost constant (or even increased in some months) after Jet2 started their LBA-AMS route. The 10-11,000 pax per month using Jet2 were all "new" pax for the route. I have no information on the fares being charged by KLM before vs after Jet2, to judge the yield level, but they don't seem to be drastically lower than pre-Jet2.

I don't know what the effect of Jet2 on KLM and MAN has been but they should know by now if they can co-exist or not, and in the case of the LBA the answer seems to be Yes.

[DC10FAN]

I flew LBA-AMS on KLM a couple of times just prior to launch of Jet2 and from memory the KL fares haven't dropped significantly since they gained competition on AMS route. As others have said I think passenger numbers should hold up on KLM flights from NCL as a large proportion are connecting onto other flights at Schiphol.

[GrahamK]

Friday's FlyJet flights are to Tenerife then Heraklion.
Wednesday to Paphos

[CentreFix25]

Flyjet
Saturday Morning to Malaga, Palma in the Afternoon. Already been posted earlier in this thread.

[simonwa]

MYT6925 21:00 NEWCASTLE CHECK-IN 39 - 40 GO DEPARTURE LOUNGE

Unusual departure on tonight's departure screens. Also arrival:
MYT6925 00:20 NEWCASTLE

Any idea what the flight is about?

[HH6702]

Yeah ive just re-looked at kl website and it is giving me the early morning dept and late evening flights.

Will try to update my group later this week with all of next years summer charters on.

[LBIA]

MYT6925 21:00 NEWCASTLE CHECK-IN 39 - 40 GO DEPARTURE LOUNGE

Unusual departure on tonight's departure screens. Also arrival:
MYT6925 00:20 NEWCASTLE

Any idea what the flight is about?

Hi

Looks like it could be a Northern Lights Charter. They normally operate at this time of year and last about 3 Hours.

Jet2 are doing such a flight with a B737-300 on Tuesday night for Omega Holidays from Leeds/Bradford Airport.

Hope this helps.

[fl dutchman]

I am almost certain that Leeds used to have 4/5 daily KLM flights to Ams,and were reduced to 3 daily shortly after Jet2 started opperating. However I stand to be corrected if I am wrong!

[LBIA]

Hi

KLM's Asmterdam flights into LBA were operating upto 6 times a day with Fokker 50 aircraft before Jet2 came to LBA

Once Jet2 commenced operation out of LBA this then changed to 3 Fokker 100 of KLM UK and 1 Fokker 70 of KLM City Hopper.

Now we have just 3 Flights a day operated by KLM City Hopper to Amsterdam 1 Fokker 70 on the afternoon rotation while the morning and the Late evening night stopping aircraft are Fokker 100's. Jet2.com operate 2 times daily everyday out of LBA to AMS. This makes 5 daily return flights on the route.

Hope this helps

[PTH needs tarmac]

Sorry to keep diverting this away from NCL but I must clarify that KLM UK had already reduced to 3x daily returns on LBA-AMS-LBA with F100 aircraft by Summer 2002, at least, well before Jet2 was ever officially launched.

The KLM timetable has remained static, except some tweaking of the departure and arrival times, since Jet2 started their AMS route, and those tweaks have mostly been to the late flight in an attempt to claw back pax who preferred the option of a later Jet2 return from AMS. The F70 was used during the last summer on one rotation of course but I believe KLM have returned to an all F100 operation for the winter.

Jet2 commenced flight operations in Feb 2003. The days of flocks of F50s and 4x daily jets were all well before Jet2.

[transwede]

Britannia, GrahamK, CentreFix25;

As said earlier in the topic FJE have confirmed they will be operating flights from NCL next summer onbehalf of XLA, however using FJE flight numbers and callsigns. Their operation will be much like SCY and HOA over previous years, work which was mean't to be XLA but XLA then charter it out. FJE flights will operate for a variety of tour ops and flight companies, including My Travel, Libra, Olympic, Kosmar and XL.com.

On another note has anyone seen the provisional programme for a Thursday up unto approx 12 midday for S06? Where on earth are all these flights going to checkin, board and park?

Charters include 2 TCX, 3 TOM, 3 XLA, 1 FJE, 1 MYT plus 2 widebodies from TS and MON, in addition to EZY, LS, BA, KL, SN, SK, EZE etc...

Who has been awarded handling contract for AA?

HH6702,

Whats your group?

[transwede]

HH6702, thanks for that. Tried to look at your S06 programme on your group - just kept coming up with blank page! Any ideas?

The Airport Authority at NCL are addressing the number of check in facilities, realising that at some times of the day space is at a premium. They will be, for Summer 2006 introducing self service check in machines, which are common user, i.e similar to the BA ones but used by different airlines and handling agents. Four airlines at NCL have signed up to use these facilities, with the rest no doubt watching closely.

Already NCL is looking rather busy on Thursdays, with TS YYZ flight changing times to slightly later, meaning four long haul departures within succession of each other, SSH, SFB, JFK and YYZ.

XLA S06

With only two a/c from XLA again for next summer, not including FJE there are a couple of flights which do not seem to fit into the based programme, according to my guesses (which may well be wrong!:confused: ).

Thu SKG 0600/1625
Fri KVA 0900/1900 (Is this one shared with another destination, maybe JSI?)
and on sundays the PVK, EFL and IBZ flights.

Does anyone have any revised timings, a based programme that incorporates all these flights or will indeed they become W flights or operated by another carrier? All very confusing.....

On the KLM front, they don't seem to be having a good week? Weather in AMS???

[10 DME ARC]

I see the Flybe S06 is out, extra SOU & EXT a day and thats all!!

What with the reduction in the BHD to once a day and the JER to once a week from five!! Don't think BEE are interested in NCL!

Where is the Frence routes promised a few years ago?

:(

[NCLRULES]

To be honest I think flybe. are struggling for aircraft. I see BRS has also had reductions. They are also stopping routes from Liverpool.

I think the announcements promised will come when their new aircraft are delivered.

[nclairportfan]

It's obvious they like NCL though with SOU now 3 x daily and EXT 2 x daily (with bad times though!). I thought we would have got at least 1 french route out of them this time. When are their new aircraft expected to arrive?

[HH6702]

Sorry. to get the file you will need to go into documents. I should have it all updated by Thursday night including winter 2006/7
I haven't had the time to update over the last two months.

Great news about flybe pitty no new routes though.

[crewboi83]

Personal choice I would go with Swissport
AA is handled by BA at most other airport such as MAN, correct me if im wrong

[NCLRULES]

I think the first of flybe's aircraft are due to arrive in May or March 2006.

[GrahamK]

Don't expect any French routes from FlyBe.
Do you really think many people in this region have villas or timeshare in France? Spain is the big market for the NCL catchment area IMO. Hence why ALC and AGP are doing so well for EZY, and Murcia for Jet2

[transwede]

I think the next route announcements will be from possibly easy and ryanair, with maybe one of the eastern european locos replacing EZY on the Budapest, if they are indeed dropping it. And as Spanish routes do so well out of NCL, then maybe VLC, GRO (Barcelona for Ryanair) and MAD will appear.

May also see some new charter routes announced for S07, such as HRG and possibly CUN.

Does anyone think flights to ATH or TLV could work on a 1/2 weekly frequency, as there are large Greek and Jewish populations in the NE area?

XLA will no longer operate SSH during S06. FJE will operate it inplace of LCA which is now scheduled to be Helios.

[CentreFix25]

Does anyone think flights to ATH or TLV could work on a 1/2 weekly frequency, as there are large Greek and Jewish populations in the NE area?
Large Jewish population in Gateshead, 1x Weekly Tel Aviv would work IMO. El Al 737-800 or 757 would do the Job, bit more to it than that thou.

[GrahamK]

First question about an EL AL TLV flight, Does NCL have a security tank that usually escorts EL AL flights at other airports?

[CentreFix25]

Graham, define 'Security Tank' i'm unsure and interested. I've got a picture of a tank following an ElAl plane down the taxi way, it's been a long day!

[GrahamK]

Here's a few EL AL tank pics for you ;)
El Al Tank (http://www.airliners.net/open.file/946097/M/)
Another EL AL tank (http://www.airliners.net/open.file/270479/M/)
I see they are operated by the Police.

[CentreFix25]

Interesting! No tanks at NCL, tank factory down the road thou. Don't think we'll see ELAL at NCL, especially when you look at the route map and see some big European cities that are not served.

[HH6702]

Flyjet

Great to see them taking over the SSH sunday flights

Expect to see excel loose a few more routes before the summer starts.

[fl dutchman]

Easyjet dont seem to have Budapest on sale from any U.K. airport for summer 06, but there is still a lot of routes to be released yet. There are lots of holes in the summer schedule at the moment,and if Stansted remains as now and Budapest stays daily I think a 7th aircraft will be required and this will enable a few new routes. However I feel we may end up with 6 aircraft and keeping Budapest on a non daily basis or droping Budapest and launching one new route to replace it say on a 4 flights a week basis.
I didnt realise there was quite so many gaps in there winter schedule, on Tue and Thur only 5 of the 6 aircraft are used for an early departure and this is repeated on the last arrivals on some days. Not a good sign!!
Does any other U.K. airport have Easyjet flights on a non daily basis?

[MerchantVenturer]

Does any other U.K. airport have Easyjet flights on a non daily basis?
Yes, BRS does and on some days in the early part of this winter only six out of the eight based a/c there seem to have been needed for the first round of flights of the day.

However, now that December is with us and the start of a daily (except Sats) Hamburg, plus a double daily Geneva and four times a week Grenoble starting in a few days they should be more or less back to full utilisation.

As for summer 06 the last time I looked there was no Budapest or Madrid timetabled for BRS, both of which flew daily in summer 05. As has been said it may be that not all easyJet routes have yet been released.

[redfield]

At BRS there's sometimes an Easyjet on the ground all that until the MAD departure at 1735. We don't have any tanks at BRS either (although the new GPU tractors are just as slow!).:}

[NCLRULES]

Don't think this has been mentioned - not sure how old this new is. Kosmar are selling new flights to Preveza for S06 from NCL.

[GrahamK]

Pretty sure that was mentioned earlier in the thread :)
Preveza flights due to be operated by Excel Airways

[transwede]

HH6702,

You have a PM!!!

Many months ago, there was rumour of a third ground handling agent coming to NCL, any news on that front?

[HH6702]

No idea it was a company call kiss but thats going back over two years ago now.


RYanair

Heard that the rome out of mme will stop at the end of the winter season. So looks like mme is out of the running now for a north east base.

Heard many people within the airport talking about ryanair's plans and more routes are planned for this summer.

[HH6702]

Dont know if anybody has noticed yet but the cork on a saturday now leaves at 18:10 instead of 17:00.

This means that only 2 aircraft are now based.

Hopefully more routes to come and another aircraft for winter 2006/7.

[10 DME ARC]

HH7602 - You mean like I said two pagers ago 2 a/c!

Still some gaps however so you never know!

:)

[Jamesair]

Just been catching up on the Flybe summer 06. Pity about Belfast City but good about the increases to Southampton and Exeter. I'm sure I read that they would be operating 4 x wkly to Jersey in 06 but still just 1 shown in the timetable and I do wish they would stop referring to Jersey as a "new" route.

[fl dutchman]

Reducing frequency on this route to 3x weekly Tu/Th/Sa from I think 22Feb. That looks like a major blow to any thoughts of a base being set up here.
Looks like the aircraft based in Milan that ops this flight is going to/from Liverpool on Mo/We/Fr/Su This route is also reduced from daily, it was op by Liverpool based aircraft.

[GrahamK]

I see Jet2 have reopened LBA-BGY...time for Ryanair to say Bye Bye and let Jet2 have a go at NCL-BGY?

[CentreFix25]

http://www.newcastleairport.com/ReadNews.aspx?news=125

Any idea what aircraft they tend to use on these courses?

[HH6702]

Ryanair - milan

Bad news but ive been told that loads haven't been good over the last month.

Excellent if easyjet or jet2 go for the route instead.


Question - Do you think that ryanair have got too many seats they cant fill as they went for bigger aircraft instead of 700's or a319? or just the routes they have picked?

[fl dutchman]

Yes I think the aircraft are to large, although they supposedly had good loads during the summer, around the 80%+ mark. But how low were the fares to get that volume.
Surely it would have made more sense to reduce frequency in the winter and increase it during the summer.
Is the route going to continue beyond the end of March?? anyone know the answer.
Easyjet or Jet 2 will only take it on if its dropped completley by Ryanair.
It looks like Ryanair are reducing frequency on several flights from other airports and even dropping some routes altogether.
They certainly need some smaller aircraft.

[fl dutchman]

Now on sale for summer 2006, 3X weekly TU/TH/SA.

[HH6702]

RYanair

Lets hope this makes bgy a profit for ryanair so we keep the route and dont loose it by the end of the summer

[HH6702]

Hi

Just to let you know that ive updated my group. Ive put together an updated summer 2006 showing flyjet and winter 2006/7.

On the summer guide ive added easyjet. Mon-Fri for august. There are a few gaps on certain days.
This maybe where budapest and ibiza are added.

[HH6702]

OUTBOUND Kathargo KAJ6489
Departs Newcastle 08-Jul-2006 18:20
Arrives Tunisia - Djerba 09-Jul-2006 00:15

RETURN Kathargo KAJ6488
Departs Tunisia - Djerba 15-Jul-2006 15:30
Arrives Newcastle 15-Jul-2006 17:30

[transwede]

HH6702 is it possible to view your schedules using a programme other than MIcrosoft Excel. Only have XP on laptop. Could you possibly email them in notepad form for me?:O

[GrahamK]

Are Onur Air operating their sunday night DLM A300 flight next summer again?

[Travel Agent]

Onur Air are operating Dalaman on a sunday night and also Antalya and Bodrum from May. Not sure what they are using though.

[HH6702]

Travel agent

Could you give us more details

flight numbers and times if possible please


Timetables
I will look into this as many people cant open them at the min

[GrahamK]

The Sunday night Dalaman looks like it will be an A300 again, in at 2000 out again at 2130.
Bodrum and Antalya I presume are A321s?

[Travel Agent]

Dalaman (first flight 7th May)

OHY4442 on SUN Depart NCL 2130 Arrive DLM 0330

OHY4441 on SUN Depart DLM 1730 Arrive NCL 2000

Antalya (first flight 8th May)

OHY 396 on MON Depart NCL 2040 Arrive AYT 0310

OHY 395 on MON Depart AYT 1655 Arrive NCL 1940

Bodrum (first flight 28th May)

OHY 456 on SUN Depart NCL 0930 Arrive BJV 1530

OHY 455 on Depart BJV 0600 Arrive NCL 0830

BTW Onur Air are doing some flights from Durham Tees Valley in August + Sept as follows

10, 17, 24 + 31 August
7, 14 + 21 Sept

OHY 449 on THU Depart MME 0930 Arrive DLM 1600

OHY 450 on THU Depart DLM 0600 Arrive MME 0830

[CentreFix25]

Nice new livery to look out for then... Here (http://www.airliners.net/open.file/966333/L/)

[Travel Agent]

Yeah I like the new livery, it's really smart and easy on the eye:)

[NCLRULES]

Arr: BY855B 21:05 KITTILA
Arr: TCX387L 23:00 ROVANIEMI
Dep: MYT6743 08:05 KITTILA

Are these routes new? Appologies if this has been discussed before.

[Jamesair]

Helios Airways have announced a new route....PAPHOS - NCL to operate on Sats weekly 14th January to 25th March 2006

[Britannia]

The KITTILA and ROVANIEMI are the santa flights.

Chris.

[Jamesair]

NCLRULES

there is a list of all of the day trip and cruise charter flights on the NCL airport website....winter 2005/6 timetable

[transwede]

Jamesair, is the HCY service a scheduled flight or chartered by a tour operator?

Thomson Holidays have cancelled Taba flights for 2006/2007.

XLA will base a 757 G reg a/c next summer, together with 737-800. The 757 could possible swap to a leased AY a/c though. And there will be no winter base next year for XLA.

Does anyone know if Freebird will return next summer and what times?

HH6702, I\'m sure that I am not the only one would appreciates you looking into those timetables. Look forward to viewing them.

[HH6702]

ive updated my site. the timetables are now in notepad.
timetables are in messages

[Travel Agent]

Freebird will return next year

Friday to Dalaman (first flight is 31 March)

2200/0430 FHY584
1730/2130 FHY583

Thursday to Bodrum (first flight is 04 May)

2100/0315 FHY486
1730/2100 FHY485