ThomsonFly - Paris ORY

[QWERTY9]

Having recently used TOM to fly to Paris Orly I conducted my own small survey of pax numbers and was rather surprised by what I counted or rather the lack of what I counted.

16/01/06 - Bournemouth - ORY = 42 PAX B737-300srs
17/01/06 - Doncaster - ORY = 26 PAX B737-800srs
17/01/06 - Bournemouth - ORY = 22 PAX B737-300srs
17/01/06 - ORY - Bournemouth = 28 PAX B737-300
17/01/06 - ORY - Doncaster = Approx 35 pax (may have missed a couple)

Are these low pax numbers related to TOM switching to ORY or is it just a seasonal downturn in numbers ? Is it becuase its the start of the week ? Surely weekend numbers must be a lot higher given that ORY is reasonably close to Disneyland? How can these routes survive with such low figures?

Having said all that it could be worse. The Bangladesh flight to Dacca had approx 40-50 pax and that was a DC10 !!

[FLYboh]

Well that would explain why BOH-ORY hasn't appeared in the summer line up so far. :(

[phil_2405]

The BOH-ORY loads have been consistently terrible since the service swapped to ORY from CDG...not sure if thats a summer vs winter issue or the fact that flights now go to ORY :confused:

BOH-Lyon has had dreadful loads as well :confused:

[pamann]

Surely weekend numbers must be a lot higher given that ORY is reasonably close to Disneyland?
Infact CDG is the airport of choice for Disneyland Paris. It is located to the north of Paris just like CDG, unlike ORY which is located to the south. There is a bus between ORY and the Disneyland Resort but nothing like the connection between CDG and the Disneyland Resort. I should imagine the transfer is a lot longer than the hour from CDG too.
I think the change from CDG to ORY had more to do with Corsair or Corsfly, whatever it's called now??? It's their main base and being part of the "World of TUI" probably had something to do with it. Plus running these one a day frequencies to such destinations as CDG, AMS etc just isn't gonna atract the business traffic that these airlines could really make money from. Sure the Friday and Sunday departures may be pretty full, but what sort of loads would you expect on a Tuesday or Wednesday perhaps????

[phil_2405]

The BOH-CDG route was performing quite well, even mid-week but as you say I think it was moved to Orly due to it being Corsairfly's main base. I know I recieved an email once from Thomsonfly promoting Corsairfly long haul routes flying via ORY from the UK.

[mpr27]

I've travelled Doncaster to Orly and back this week and the flights were very nearly full both ways. Coming back, flights to Coventry and Bournemouth were loading at adjacent gates, and also seemed pretty busy albeit with smaller planes than Doncaster.
The improvement may have something to do with Valentines and half term, but there is clearly potential for the ORY routes to be successful. The links with Corsair and connections to the Caribbean in particular should be better publicised by Thomsonfly, whose marketing generally needs improving. Around Doncaster there is far more advertising for Jet2Com from LBA and BMi Baby from EMA than there is for the excellent range of value flights from the local DSA.

[EI-CFC]

The links with Corsair and connections to the Caribbean in particular should be better publicised by Thomsonfly, whose marketing generally needs improving.

One potential problem is that Thomsonfly has to be careful when advertising these "links" I guess - after all, I doubt TOM will check-through luggage or offer to assist flyers affected by delays etc. If they did advertise, and things do go wrong then they would be saddled with the expense of rectifiying things, which goes against the LCC model. So while the links may be there, they may feel it is better to let people work that out for themselves than actively promote it - then they can wash their hands clean should something go wrong.