Jet2 leasing 146 for Manchester-Gatwick

[Flightrider]

Title says it all really - 146-300 being leased from Flightline to operate the 3 x daily MAN-Gatwick services this summer and some weekend flights to Amsterdam and Nice. One wouldn't have thought that they really needed to wet-lease extra aircraft as the 737s are not that heavily utilised, but there you go. It is also mildly amusing that they are flying MAN-LGW and spending money on a wet-lease to operate in competition with BA when they have 737 capacity sitting at LBA and/or NCL which could operate the same Gatwick slots, presumably with lower costs (due not wet-leasing aircraft) and only a marginal revenue difference.

[MarkD]

Isn't Flightline operating 146 for QF MAN-LHR? Is this the same aircraft?

[Gordon_uk3]

QF have now stopped their 146 feeder flight MAN - LHR

[CentreFix25]

It is also mildly amusing that they are flying MAN-LGW and spending money on a wet-lease to operate in competition with BA when they have 737 capacity sitting at LBA and/or NCLCome the start of the Summer schedule the NCL based machine doesnt spend a great deal of time on the ground. Bergen, Pisa, Mahon, Amsterdam(Double daily) added to the existing Cork and Murcia routes.

[POL1W]

Why don't they just bin the MAN-LGW flights, where there must be 30 plus flights a day to London, with BA, BMI, VLM, Air Berlin etc. Must be losing a fortune on it from the loads that I've seen. Time to switch it to Leeds, with 4 London flights a day, where it would be better patronised.

[jet2impress]

They must be making some money on it. If they were losing money on it, the route would of been axed by now. They have axed failing routes in the past such as BFS-ORK.

I believe the ac being leased in on a 'damp' lease is due to a 737 being down for a C check or smething. Correct me if I am wrong as I am not 100% sure on that one.

[thegoaf]

They are surely doing it because of costs. Even with the lease costs it will be cheaper than operating one of their 737's. Fuel burn is lower, en-route costs will be lower. Handling charges will be lower. Overall costs will probably come down by over £300,000 this summer. And they will be able either to sell the 737 or use it elsewhere. They manifestly do not need the capacity of the 737 on MAN-LGW.

They have probably decided to reduce their cost exposure while they wait for someone to buy their LGW slots. That someone is probably easyJet.

Leeds to LGW has never worked for anyone.

[14 loop]

Not quite true.....quote 'Leeds to LGW has never worked for anyone'

Cityflyer did the route with SD360s and later ATR42s - I used the route quite a bit and was popular. The fact that the (LGW) slots were required for a Zurich run which was deemed possibly more profitable put pay to the route.

Likewise British Regional used the J41 3 times a day in more recent times...again a route I used. This time the reorganisation of their operation saw the routes & J41s from LBA given over to Eastern...but not the Gatwick slots!

Still reckon that LBA-LGW would work and it's got to be better than the load factors of c40% that J2 have habitually recorded on MAN-LGW since the route started. Simply there is less competition in the total London-Leeds market than there is London-Manchester. The renaissance of the WCML is knocking holes out of the airlines on MAN-LON.

[682ft AMSL]

I'm reliably told there were 62 on Jet2's MAN-LGW (LS901) this morning, I'm also told that's typical. I'd be surprised if LBA-LGW couldn't match that - and if as a result this meant an aircraft wouldn't have to be leased at all, the financial case is surely worth looking at. I think trying use the evidence of routes flown on a full service basis to guage the potential of the same route being done on a low fares basis, is potentially misleading. NCL-BRS, NCL-STN, NCL-BFS, BRS-BFS, LBA-BRS and LBA-DUB all spring to mind.

[VHF FLYER]

Leeds to London flights don't work as well as Manch to London flights for two reasons (apart from the obvious difference in size between Manchester and Leeds market)
1. The East Coast Main Line works and has worked for years
2. The M1 takes you from Leeds City Centre straight down to Brent Cross.

With Manchester, the West Coast Main Line, although better, is still not there and driving is unthinkable.
Jet2 do offer an early morning flight that is significantly cheaper than Virgin Trains on almost every count. I intend to use it more regularly from now on having just tried it for the first time.

[Jet2LBA]

Leeds to LGW has never worked for anyone.

Most would say 733's to the likes of BFS, AMS, CDG, PRG, BCN would never have worked from LBA until LS proved there is a healthy market.

LBA-LGW has never been done low-cost, in fact neither has BD's LBA-LHR in comparison to fares offered from MAN.

MAN has what, around 30 flights to 4 LON airports each day, to compared to LBA's 4 flights to 1 LON airport?

The Virgin rail services on MAN-LON have improved significantly recently, hence the drop in air passengers, but taking into account the catchment areas of MAN and LBA, flights and fares offered have always been disproportionately in favour of MAN.

[Crewing Gimp]

Flightrider

Start of the summer season and engineering inputs are running late, so leased aircraft in for a month. You have to remember Jet2 also have Royal mail skynet commitments at night hence not full utilisiation at all bases. Man-Lgw traffic still being built on, Ba have done this route for a long time so it is going to be slow.


The Gimp

[682ft AMSL]

(apart from the obvious difference in size between Manchester and Leeds market)

do you mean the air market or the total air + rail + road market. Can't believe given the relative size of the 2 cities and their hinterlands, that the total market is massively different. It's important as well to recongnise the difference between the market to central London - where rail has an obvious advantage - and the market to South London, the regions South of London and of course Gatwick itself - where it doesn't. As I said, BACX were getting 29 punters on the J41, paying a fortune. Growing that market to the 60 odd that Jet2 are getting out of MAN should be possible.

Crewing Gimp - there are no mail flights ex-Leeds, but Leeds appears to have the worst utilisation? There looks to be so much more that could be done.

[14 loop]

VHF FLYER

2. The M1 takes you from Leeds City Centre straight down to Brent Cross.

It does indeed! But driving Leeds to London is also unthinkable! I live in Berkshire with family in Yorkshire and in the North West. Categorically the drive on the M6 (the toll road has made a huge difference) and M40 is far better than the M1 which has deteriorated in the 10 years that I've been down south!

Like 682 I'm not sure there is a big difference in the TOTAL travel market Leeds-London vs Manchester-London. If you think there is, you may not have visited Leeds recently!