DURHAM AIRPORT - 2

[DTVAirport]

Here is a bit of insider info from DTV, the source is very reliable but wishes to remain anonymous.

Good news: 75% chance of third based bmibaby aircraft for Summer 07, perhaps even sooner if winter pax figures do well.

Bad news: Some staff at DTVA are beginning to fear that bmi could be about to completely chop the London Heathrow route, this is for two reasons: firstly, a third based bmibaby aircraft could see LGW going 2x daily and secondly, a mixture of bmi's new business model and continuous fiddling around with times and aircraft types has seen pax numbers drop.

One advantage of no more LHR would see DTVAs agreement with bmi that only they can fly jet equipment into London dropped, meaning LCY, LTN and STN all possibilities for the near future, but even so, I would still rather keep the LHR route.

[uklad007]

DTV - some partial good news there but a big blow if LHR goes and a replacement cant be found for it - am guessing only BA would be able to step in here but i cant see it likely they would. I did hear from someone at BMI (and this is going back to before this new LHR Bus Model and the launch of long-haul) that LHR-MME was very profitable for BMI and the thought of dropping it just didnt come into it
I do think this agreement with BMI should be scrapped and hopefully a LCY and or STN/LTN will be launched.

I wonder where next for 07 then with Baby - Prague, Barcelona/Madrid and somewhere in Germany or back to Italy would good - and maybe some new airlines too like Flybe?! - Heres hoping.

[mmeteesside]

I do believe that bmibaby will base a third aircraft here, but if it's to be as soon as next summer I'm not convinced

Unfortunately, I believe that the LHR - MME and LBA routes are both living on borrowed time really, we all know bmi are short of slots at LHR and want more for their long haul routes. They will presumably cut some domestic routes to make up for this :ugh:

However, one thing that I think might happen, is, if bmi do cut the LHR, then KL (or LH?:confused: ) will seize the opportunity to grab all the connecting traffic and that might well see the NCL-AMS route suffer too :p

In other news it would seem that the troop flights are back again, with Excel B747-300 TF-AMK going out to Qatar this morning, and I am reliably informed that there will be another next week

mmeteesside

[CentreFix25]

However, one thing that I think might happen, is, if bmi do cut the LHR, then KL (or LH? ) will seize the opportunity to grab all the connecting traffic and that might well see the NCL-AMS route suffer too I'd expect them to gain pax off the MME-LHR should it close, but not the NCL-AMS.

[DTVAirport]

I did hear from someone at BMI (and this is going back to before this new LHR Bus Model and the launch of long-haul) that LHR-MME was very profitable for BMI and the thought of dropping it just didnt come into it
This is very true, remember a recent winter where it was 4x daily with all A320s???

[uklad007]

DTV Airport - I do remember indeed, its odd because on the face of it BA which has adopted the opposite to BMI (low-cost model in the regions, full fares and service at LHR/LGW) appears to be working, so much so that GB Airways is now going to be re-branded BA Connect in the regions. I think BMI have missed the point of the "premium" status LHR has - i wonder if BMI had adopted a similar strategy to BA, the Pax on LHR-MME would not have dropped and the thought of this service going would not even be considered. I remember full pax flights to MME on BMI and people paying £200+ for Business Class tickets. Last time i flew i actually went from LGW on Baby, there were at most 60-70 of us on board and we landed at the same time as the LHR BMI and that had similar numbers, so it would seem both routes are a bit diluted.

[DTVAirport]

Some of you may or may not of noticed that the DTVA website has been down the last couple of days. Well it's back up and running now and the reason it was down was because they were giving it a brand new look! Check it out: www.durhamteesvalleyairport.com

[uklad007]

An improvement :ok: , looks a bit more business-like, but am sure more could be done on it as time progresses.

[onion]

Something interesting, a SAS flight from Oslo is due in tomorrow morning but can't see when it is going out. Any ideas what it could be doing?
Also sure i saw a 747 this morning, could be wrong though, was it the trooping flight?
Rumour on another thread is Globespan to start operations out of MME.
Still the airport needs a Belfast and a Southampton/Bournemouth. With Flybe announcing a DSA-Belfast route maybe Flybe will announce a MME-Belfast, it shows they are not scared to dilute there own markets with hem already doing a LBA-Belfast. Regarding the Southampton/Bournemouth maybe bmi would like to start a MME-SOU seeing as they plan on the SOU-AMS. They could get revenge on Flybe for starting SOU-AMS by taking some of there business from SOU to the north of England.

[mmeteesside]

Yes the Excel B747-300 was on another troop flight, here are the approx times
Thu: a0900 d1100 BZZ/Gulf
Fri: a0830 d1000 Gulf/BZZ

bmi to SOU would be good but I can't see it happening really. One possibility for a new route would be Wizz from somewhere in Eastern Europe, or SkyEurope, presuming neither of these decide to go to NCL any time soon. Wizz have a strong partnership with Peel though, as they serve I believe 6 routes from LPL and just started to DSA as well.

mmeteesside

[Northern Hero]

SAS Braathens are operating a series of flights from & to Oslo over the next couple of weeks. The next flight is Wednesday 28th.

Aviance have been informed that the bmi LHR service will be 20 flights per week for the winter with better timings, presumably back to last winters programme, and the recently released bmi baby programme is just version 1 with an expected 7 more weekly departures and possibly a new destination but no PRG, Germany or Italy.
They are also hopeful that the third baby aircraft will arrive at MME for next summer although baby are having problems sourcing the additional three aircraft.

It's also rumoured that Eastern are looking at the SOU route.

[DTVAirport]

What's the purpose of the Oslo flights?

[Northern Hero]

A Brass Band championship in Scarbrough, apparently. You did ask ! :eek:

[mmeteesside]

Yes the SAS flights from/to Oslo are only a one-off, it brought a kids orchestra for the music festival in Scarborough. They are due to go home on Wednesday and then that is the end of it, no more flights from SAS (for a while anyway)

mmeteesside

[aeulad]

Has anyone got a full run down to MME's Charter programme for next summer yet?

Regards

Mike

[mmeteesside]

I'm working on it but it's near enough the same as this summer other than a few additions to the MYT programme, heres what I have so far
Alphajet
Larnaca 1105 1005 --3---- AJY0505/0504 1745/0700 MYT/TCX
Iberworld
Arrecife 1510 1400 ---4--- IWD3450/3449 1930/0950 MYT/TCX
Palma 1710 1610 -----6- IWD3440/3439 2040/1425 FCA/TCX
Pegasus
Dalaman 2120 2025 1------ PGT0464/0463 0350/1730 FCA/TCX
Thomsonfly.com
Ibiza 0735 2135 1------ TOM1243/1244 1120/1955
Alicante 0710 1355 -2----- TOM6821/6822 1055/1155 also FCA
Tenerife South 1525 0125+1 -2----- TOM5067/5068 2005/2105
Paphos 0900 1925 --3---- TOM4153/4154 1535/1635 also FCA/MYT
Varna 2100 0500+1 --3---- TOM5213/5214 0225/0325 runs 30/05-26/09
Palma 0700 1330 ---4--- TOM5073/5074 1040/1140
Dalaman 1500 0025+1 ---4--- TOM4683/4684 2105/2205
Corfu 0850 1635 ----5-- TOM1931/1932 1405/1505
Bourgas 1805 0205+1 ----5-- TOM6253/6254 2330/0030
Mahon 0705 1320 -----6- TOM4733/4734 1040/1140 also MYT
Reus 1450 2035 -----6- TOM2147/2148 1810/1910
Palma 2205 0435+1 -----6- TOM5137/5138 0145/0245
Malaga 0745 1450 ------7 TOM2241/2242 1150/1250
Palma 1620 2250 ------7 TOM2901/2902 2000/2100
Others (TBC)
Corfu 0000 0000 1------ (????) MYT
Reus 0840 2110 1------ (FLT?) MYT
Ibiza 2255 2155 ----5-- (JKK?) MYT
Tenerife 0000 0000 ----5-- (????) MYT
Palma 2020 1155 -----6- (JKK?) MYT
Alicante 1250 1925 -----6- (JKK?) MYT
The 0000/0000 are just times that haven't been entered into the system yet
mmeteesside

[uklad007]

Looks good MME but nothing as yet, we hope, of anything excitingly new in place?
There seems to be a few rumours of new routes from new carriers flying about ( if u will excuse the pun) but is there anything semi concrete known?
Ive heard Flybe, Flyglobespan ( although it looks as though that was a typo error on a marketing mailshot), even heard Wizz possibly? and possibly Southampton with Eastern or BMI Regional mentioned - but i guess most if not all is just hearsay

[mmeteesside]

Of all the rumours going around the one thats nearest to being the truth is probably Flybe to BHD, my contact mentioned Wizz to the marketing department about 2 years ago but they don't seem to do anything after that! :ouch:

Hopefully there will be something else, maybe First Choice will finally add Arrecife, they planned it for this summer but it got pulled, it was to be run by Spanair. Other than that the only other thing I can say is look out for some more from Thomas Cook for next summer. Possibly MyTravel but I can't see them adding too much more without adding a based aircraft once again (they are only 2 destinations short of the number that Thomson have next summer! :) Nice to have them almost back to full strength here)

One good piece of news is there is another Oslo flight with SASBraathens on Sunday in addition to tomorrow's flight!

mmeteesside

[NCLRULES]

Wizz might be a possibility with them operating from both Liverpool and Doncaster and both airports under Peel. Maybe MME could be next?

[DTVAirport]

So are there any real MyTravel flights? I mean with MYT flight codes and MYT aircraft? Not just sub-contracting flights out to the likes of Spanair?

What ever happened to Air Europa? Sure they have a single flight in the winter but they used to have four or five in the summer?

[mmeteesside]

No real MYT flights no, all sub-contracted out, possibly the CFU or TFS might be a MYT but I very much doubt it :rolleyes:

Air Europa will be back this summer, starting in a few weeks for Goldtrail, I believe from/to Tenerife. It will arrive at 0150 and depart at 0250 on Friday mornings. The 3rd Onur flight will also start very soon, arriving at 0830 and departing at 0930 on Thursday mornings for Holidays4u (to Dalaman)

mmeteesside

[uklad007]

It looks like the rumours of Flyglobespan are true, on their website they are basing at TFS and are launching a winter 06 route to DTV (or Teeside as they have it!)

Departs TFS 09:30 Arr MME 14:15
Departs MME 15:00 Arr TFS 19:45

Weekly on Tuesdays from Nov through to March!

An unexpected (but welcome :D ) turn up for the books if it goes ahead

[mmeteesside]

Certainly good news as that adds another weekly flight over the winter :) Obviously they're wanting to get in there before Jet2 do. Thought this would come eventually as 'Durham Tees' (as they now have it) is one of their training bases that they visit with every aircraft!

mmeteesside

[DTVAirport]

As much as I like Flyglobespan, I'd prefer to see Jet2 at MME, simply because Jet2 are trying to establish themselves as no.1 northern airline, whereas Flyglobespan are focusing on becoming Scotlands flag carrier. In other words, MME fits Jet2's business model better than Flyglobespans.

[uklad007]

Do you think this will put Jet2 off, i would have thought Jet2 being at Leeds and NCL wouldnt come into DTV aswell but if they want to be the Norths No 1 its the last one left!. Anyone know what a/c might be used on Globespan route and could this be the start of more ......or even a based aircraft?

[mmeteesside]

From the rumours flying around at the moment it looks like the Globespan base in TFS will get a B738W and therefore this would be the aircraft used on the DTV route

[onion]

Good to see the 747 in again this morning.
With regards to Globespan the press release on the airport website hints at more routes to be served if the TFS works out.
DTVAirport i don't think Jet2 would come to MME. Due to their presence at LBA and NCL, but we can hope. Globespan on the other hand are here now and should be supported and hopefully they will start new routes.

[DTVAirport]

Onion, as much as I would love to see more routes, if is a big word at MME.

[Jet_stream]

MME - EWR with GSM for summer 2007 is an insider rumour !!

[Pembo330]

MME getting EWR; I'd be less surprised if I won the lottery on Saturday!

[mmeteesside]

Lets just say I'll believe it when I see it! :rolleyes:

Anyone know anything about an incident regarding a pushback tug earlier today (Thu 06/07) :confused:

Also, the 'Delta' taxiway was flooded for a little while after what was a small downpour :ouch: Not very good!

mmeteesside

[HH6702]

MME getting a New York route before NCL.

Cant see it but great if it happens.
Even better for the north east if both NCL & MME can get New York for next year.

[DTVAirport]

Not a chance of getting EWR, especially if Newcastle get a New York flight, whether that be before or after Teesside gets one, the route is already dead in the water.

On a separate note hows the load factors on the Dublin route? Hell of a jump from a 732 to a 738!

[mmeteesside]

DUB is dropping every month, floating around the 60% mark at the moment for April

mmeteesside

[Jet_stream]

well just wait and see ....but have from good inside authority!!!! MME - EWR is gonna happen!!!!!!!!

[RobT100]

Come on DTV - go for it :)

[DTVAirport]

Definitely go for it! But I can't see it happening. What were the load factors on the old MyTravel Florida route like? From that we may be able to work out what the load factors on a New York route would be?

Is there any particular reason the Dublin load factors are dropping every month?

[CentreFix25]

I wouldnt look at the MYT Florida figures as a guide, that was a while back and a split load, lot changed since then. Would be great to see the expressions on the management at NCL and LBA if MME got there first! wonder how red their faces would be?

[mmeteesside]

Anyone know how the new front is coming on? Should be complete around now :confused:

Also it was good to see Excel back yet again with the B747-300. It parked on Stand 1 again, seemingly the only widebody stand (don't need more than 1 usually ;) )

And how is the work over the southside going? Much happening over there at the moment?

mmeteesside

[DTVAirport]

I wouldnt look at the MYT Florida figures as a guide, that was a while back and a split load, lot changed since then. Would be great to see the expressions on the management at NCL and LBA if MME got there first! wonder how red their faces would be?
What does split load mean?

I would do a lot of things to be the one to tell them first about MME getting a New York route!

[uklad007]

DTV - is CentreFix25 not referring to the fact it went via GLA or PIK ( i cant remember which one but am sure it did at some point.)

Re FlyGlobespan, all i can say is if they throw a bit of marketing at it and have a min of two flights per week as a starting point i think MME has a good chance with this one - especially if we are first in te region :ok: , its about time we started going after some serious business routes wise. Although must admit when i heard GSM may start at MME i thought Euro Routes would be first on its list, the likes of Barcelona, Prague and the usual ones you see at many regional airports which MME doesnt have.

As for Dublin, am surprised the Pax has tailed off, is it since the intro of the 738 (whenever that was) or just a general slowdown to Dublin, to me its a no brainer type route in that it will always be popular with less effort needed to make it work?.

[skyman771]

MME - EWR with GSM for summer 2007 is an insider rumour !!
Jet stream , from your postings it would appear to be that you are the source of this totally unsubstantiated rumour.
Mischief making or what?, I note you are from the GLA area, do you actually work for Globespan ? If you do, then on what basis are you apparantly going off at a tangent from what was allegedly quoted by your boss Dalrymple, in the June edition of 'Airliner World' that GSM were looking at longhaul expansion at EDI, GLA, NCL & CWL amongst others ?
Conversely did you just happen to speak with or have a friend of a friend who is a taxi driver who just happened to have recently given a lift to the GSM route planners ?
Admitted 'others' now appears to have meant LPL, but then does messages eminating from the chairman that are converse to a recently stated policy some month or so earlier show indications that really he also hasn't got a clue what is going on !!.........:hmm:

[mmeteesside]

I find it fairly unlikely that NCL would be involved now, due to them starting the MME-TFS, but then I suppose they do run EDI + GLA together. And the boss is probably just spouting crap just to keep the competitors guessing at where they really will go next, who expected MAN-CPT after all??

mmeteesside

[holgate]

Hi there from sunny teesside!!.....actually a bit cloudy today!
So...MME-EWR,..honestly fellas,as much as i luv my local airport,i just cant see this happening,...we all know deep down that if a regional route started to new york it would be from the "toon".:{
As for dublin,...can only summise that the novelty has wore off,..people looking for diffrent cities to visit for a weekend away or stag/hen parties.
Although baby are doing great,i am looking for more euro expansion at MME,..
barcelona,rome,madrid,germany,scandanavia....variety is the spice of life!!!
Also fellas,is it just me or are 757s not so common any more at mme,..all i seem to notice is 737/320 flying over my house?
Up the boro
holgate:ok:

[mmeteesside]

Yes just 1 regular 752 flight a week now, on a Monday afternoon :ouch: Otherwise the only other way would be if TNT somehow provided us with a 752F, which I can never see happening :ugh:

[DTVAirport]

Hi there from sunny teesside!!.....actually a bit cloudy today!
I'm going to be working that one out for the rest of the day!

Look folks, we need to come back to reality here, New York is not going to happen, at least not in the next decade, so let's focus on what could happen.

[uklad007]

DTV - Trouble is when you get something as good as a MME-EWR suggestion you have to run with it a bit, i saw in the Flyglobespan thread a couple of weeks ago everyone completely dismissing anything from them at MME even though TFS was mentioned on more than one occasion and there it is in all its glory!:D

Still you are right, but i fear its more of Flyglobespan as they seem to be the only one biting the MME bait, would be good to see them offer a few more euro routes. I cant think of anyone else off hand that might come on board with the exception of BMIBaby completing its Winter Schedule as i think there is still something yet to be confirmed/announced, and the "rumours" doing or that were doing the rounds for MME-SOU (Eastern or BMI Regional) and MME-BRU (Whoever - SN wouldnt would they!?!)

[skyman771]

I find it fairly unlikely that NCL would be involved now, ......... And the boss is probably just spouting crap just to keep the competitors guessing at where they really will go next, mmeteesside
The most sense I've read all day !:D

[fl dutchman]

This is quite possible due to the "Peel" connection. Peel are not spending all that money at DTV for nothing. I would expect a few new route announcements from DTV very soon including some from BMI baby who have not fully utilized there a/c during the winter. Dont think they have formally announced Geneva yet. I suspect the airport is waiting for some further developments ( Globespan/Ryanair?) and will announce them all in one go in a blaze of publicity

[Jet_stream]

Skyman....not mischief making at all....came from middle management. I was just as surprised to hear it too. But we'll have to wait and see if it comes to fruition!! Then all apologies will be accepted.

[skyman771]

Skyman....not mischief making at all....came from middle management.
And that is why they are presumably not 'senior' management........:rolleyes:
Been thinking, maybe this is should be looked at in a different way.
Pehaps what was being considered, at least initially was to simply link into the LPL - EWR service. This could be done with or without a GSM based 73x. It would support the LPL service in contributing to pax no's, trip MME - LPL in right direction, low costs, particularly as both 'Peel Airports' . The fact that the loads on the MME - LPL were not high, would not necessarily be a problem as the major objective is to target 100% LF's on the LPL - EWR segment.
Given thought it actually does make some sense, particularly if you were to consider where GSM were to source the necessary additional 752's.
Lets face it this concept wouldn't be a problem to the marketing men, & may be why MME was ever considered by middle management.

[mmeman]

Skyman771, if anything about EWR is true, yes I think the link idea is probably more likely, or the 757 to do MME-LPL-EWR. I don't know and we will just have to wait and see.

Regarding Dublin, I think the flight times on a weekend are not the best, Saturday evening and Sunday morning, no good for a weekend in Dublin really, so this is why the pax numbers might be not as much as they should be.

On another note, bmibaby is to stop flying to Knock from August, due to low passenger numbers.

[Devonair]

MME has been losing passengers to NCL ever since FR starting flying from there. When I worked in Dublin I had meetings with Tees Valley Tourist board and they were very concerned about losing the flight altogether. And with EI starting a conveniently timed service this autumn from NCL it may add to the problem. At the moment if you want to travel to NCL you have to travel either very early or very late. Not for much longer.

[DTVAirport]

Just received an e-mail from the airport, Eastern Airways has announced Durham Tees Valley - Brussels! Don't know which aircraft types will be used or what the frequencies are because I was too desperate to get on here and let you all know.

It seems the rumour I accidently started months ago just became reality!

[DTVAirport]

A small section of the e-mail I received:

The full service UK regional airline, will offer day return journeys with two flights each weekday from 2 October 2006 to suit business travellers from Durham and the Tees Valley heading for the European Union capital.

Locally based pilots and cabin crew will operate a 29 seat Jetstream 41 aircraft on the Belgian route and this is the second aircraft that the airline will base at Durham Tees Valley Airport.

[uklad007]

Its a J41 29 seater based aircraft ( would have thought a Sunday service would be good also, maybe in time) :D

It seems the first of the rumours doing the rounds have come true, with hopefully more to come soon :ok:

Let the drumrolls begin...................

[DTVAirport]

This also proves that the disasterous Bristol route did not nock Eastern's confidence in MME, as was previously thought.

[DB5]

Things might be on the up at last. Extract from this morning's Northern Echo (edited version) :-

''Airline planning new routes''

LOW-COST airline Ryanair aims to increase passenger numbers by 20 per cent a year - and is considering new routes from its North-East airports, it emerged last night.
Karl Hogstadius, Ryanair deputy sales and marketing manager, visited Durham Tees Valley Airport yesterday to promote the Dublin route, handing out flights for 1p each.
The first flight from Durham Tees Valley to Dublin was launched in November 1997, and since then Ryanair has carried more than 700,000 passengers on the route.
This year it expects to carry between 80,000 and 100,000 passengers to and from the Irish city.
Mr Hogstadius said yesterday that regional airports, such as Tees Valley and Newcastle, and the shorter routes to places such as Dublin and Cork, were central to the future of Ryanair.
"We like the shorter flights, maybe 40 minutes or an hour, more than the three-hour flights because you can fit more of them in, and keep the prices lower," he said.
"We are currently in negotiations with more than 50 airports and destinations across Europe, and we will see where those negotiations take us, but we will certainly be looking at more routes from Tees Valley."

Any offers / suggestions as to where? Might BMibaby be under threat on the Cork route ?

[uklad007]

Well for me i think there are a number of options

They could try Knock, Bmibaby have dropped this but with cheaper fares it might up the pax for Ryanair.
They should also revisit the Rome route as i had heard it wasnt doing too badly, maybe they just need to look at flight times and frequency
Looking at their network you would have thought other contenders to be Girona, Cork, Shannon, Stansted (if they can get round this BMI only flying to london agreement), Berlin or Frankfurt
Those would be my starter for 10 and who knows, are they hinting at having a small sort of satellite base from MME in their article perhaps (maybe am pushing it a bit there :confused: )

[DTVAirport]

Does anyone know what this was doing at MME in 1998:
http://www.planepictures.net/netshow.php?id=84935

[mmeteesside]

Looking at Ryanair's website they seem to have dropped the MME-DUB route to only 5x a week for the winter, running Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri, Sun at various times. Hope it's only for the winter and not a pointer towards what might happen :(

[uklad007]

It does seem very odd to me to drop a Wednesday, i can understand a Saturday possibly being dropped (look at BMI and heathrow only having one rotation per sat compared to three the rest of the week and Eastern not flying to ABZ on a Sat) but i cant understand the Wednesday? Do North-easterners not go to the Emerald Isle on a Wed and vice versa?

I know there has been some discussion on threads about what Ryanair is going to do in the North-East and how them being at Ncl plus Aer Lingus also there affects MME's DUB route.

If you believe the Northern Echo article earlier this week (which i think some put down as spin and hype on those who support MME) you would think Ryanair are pointing towards an MME expansion - and it did come from the horses mouth so to speak (well someone in the know at Ryanair)

[Charlie Roy]

Eastern Airways have announced that they will be introducing MME - Brussels twice daily from October :O

[mmeteesside]

Yes, finally, took them a while to catch on! Seems the airport were in the lead this time, usually the other way around :ugh:

Nice to see Excel back yet again this week with a different B743, more £££ coming in :p

[DB5]

DTV Airport

To answer your question about the Alitalia MD11, it was an Italian military charter picking up troops who'd been on exercises in Northumberland. I believe that this is the one and only MD11 to have visited MME, unless someone can tell me differently. If I remember rightly there was also an Iberia A320 and a German Airforce A310 to pick up their troops from the same exercises.

[postcard]

I think...it was systems testing out of cambridge??
Mike

[mmeteesside]

The Alitalia MD11 was indeed a troop charter, the other leg was done by a 767. The other aircraft that came were Iberia A320, Belgian AF A310, German AF (Luftwaffe) B707 + A310 along with some C130's and C160's

This is from the photographer of that particular photo!

mmeteesside

[shamrock7seal]

any chance we can see pics of this?

by the way - if there is a large troop presence around Northumberland - does that mean a Paderborn service would be a good idea?

[onion]

Shamrock there isn't a particularly big troop presence around Northumberland but there is the Otterburn ranges. Where most of the live firing of the AS90's and MLRS's takes place. The large concentration of troops in the North East is at Catterick where the majority if not all the infantry training takes place now, not only that but there are active units based there as well. It was and I think still maybe the largest army base in Europe, definatley the largest in the UK.

[mmeteesside]

Looks like a spot of good and bad news for the winter, bmi are doing 3x daily A319's, but KLM are sticking with 3x daily too, with F70's still rather than the 4x they were originally looking to go with.

The Excel B743 must be busy this week with the evacuations from Cyprus (ex Beirut) so Omni covered the troop run from Brize Norton - DTV - Gulf with DC10 N720AX :D Should return tomorrow morning on the return ;)

mmeteesside

[holgate]

So thats what i heard this morning,about 10am,a DC10!....couldnt see it with the low cloud base:( .........
Also guys,is the LHR 3xdaily on a saturday?
Cheers
holgate:ok:

[mmeteesside]

In the winter yes it will be 3x daily all days to LHR (slot protectors no doubt!)

[holgate]

Thanks for that mmeteesside,.....
With the kids breaking up this week,will there be an increase in the charter programme?,.......is it me or are there a lot more flights to turkey this summer?...thanks in advance
holgate:ok:

[mmeteesside]

Yes there is 2 new charter flights starting this week, the first Holidays4u flight to Dalaman departed this morning, yet another Onur A321, 3 of them on a Thursday now!

Goldtrail's Palma flight starts tomorrow morning, departing at 0225 :eek: I certainly wouldn't want to be on that, especially when it arrives back at 0125, using Air Europa, I imagine a B738

mmeteesside

[mmeteesside]

Well, looking through the Netherlands Slot Coordination site tonight, I found these beauties for the winter!!

MME-AMS
WW4423 a1330 -----6- B733
WW4423 a1755 ------7 B733
WW4424 d1355 -----6- B733
WW4424 d1835 ------7 B733

Could it expand in the summer?

mmeteesside

[uklad007]

good news as its more business for DTV but bad news on two fronts.

1) the effect it will have on KLM
2) the fact that it would be much better if they had tried another market/routing rather than going after one already established at DTV!!

[DTVAirport]

I fear this has the potential to leave MME with NO weekend Amsterdam flights whatsoever:

KLM will loose non-business class pax to bmibaby, yet even with this bmibaby won't be able to fill a plane as there is not enough demand for 4x daily Amsterdam rotations from MME, if there was, KLM would have upgraded equipment on the route or launched the fourth daily flight themselves sooner than now. So, bmibaby cannot fill a plane and neither can KLM due to the loss of non-business class pax to bmibaby, therefore both bmibaby and KLM could cull their weekend Amsterdam rotations leaving MME with just weekday flights. If this did happen KLM would not be able to get the lost pax back either because the passengers they'd lost to bmibaby and the business passengers they lost themselves would be enjoying a too good experience up the road at NCL.

Perhaps I'm looking at the situation from the worst possible angle though?

[MME4eva]

I agree with UKlad007...why can't WW have the guts to try a new but safe option out of MME?

For example:

PRG-already tried and apparently popular

Faro-according to DTV airport website there are no flights going there this summer which i find hard to believe given its popularity amongst golfers, families and second home owners

basically any typical stag weekend/bucket and spade destination that they already serve from another of their bases!

why oh why are WW insistant on trying routes such as Knock-it seems a waste of a slot and aircraft to me!!

[mmeteesside]

Which is exactly what they have found out, it was a complete waste, and the last Knock flight is 5th August. They surely could have worked out that with already 2 destinations in Ireland, why oh why did we need a 3rd one?? Cork wasn't too popular, but enough to keep going a few times a week, but to go and add Knock too was just plain stupid IMO :ouch:

Why could they not have added somewhere sensible, like split the Knock rotations between extra JER + a new destination such as BGO (popular out of NCL) ;)

mmeteesside

[MME4eva]

what the bigwigs at WW need to realise fast is that only routes not served by either NCL or LBA but which have proved popular at other regional airports will prove popular!

im sorry but anyone could have realised that a daily to Knock would not attract 149 durham tees vallers every day!

on another note i must express my doubt with regards to the BRU route...if the BRS route proved unpopular on a 18 J32 why do eastern seem to think a 29 seater J41 will prove popular?surely theres not that many people in the Tees Valley area that wish to or need to travel to BRU (despite the chamber of commerce's optimistic soundbites!!!)

on a lighter note has anyone got any positive news with regards to any exisiting or possible new routes?

[aeulad]

DTVairport

I disagree with your post.

What you state as likely to happen has not happened at ANY other UK airport where the lo-cos have entered a KLM dominated market, e.g LBA, NCL, CWL or BRS, in fact it has been proven that there is room for both full service AND loco operations on such routes. I would think that a once daily WW MME-AMS flight would do just fine.

Regards

Mike

[DTVAirport]

what the bigwigs at WW need to realise fast is that only routes not served by either NCL or LBA but which have proved popular at other regional airports will prove popular!True, but that narrows down the list far too much, if bmibaby were to do this, MME would not be one of their hubs for too much longer! Sometimes you need to be a bit brave and experiment.

[mccdatabase]

An Aberdeen flight once a day (provided it was at the right time) would be a winner for bmi baby :ok:

[onion]

If this is true conerning baby it still leaves serveral rotations a week to be filled in the winter. Has anyone heard of what may replace the Knock if anything?

MME4eva a few things. First yes the Knock was a surprise and many didn't think it would work, but it wasn't daily.
Secondly BRS and BRU are two totally different kettles of fish. On the BRS Eastern were competing with easyjet and just couldn't compete on the route. On the BRU route they are competing with bmi and SN. Yes more competion but probably a better route to muscle in on. Also there are many in the area who have asked for the route. I have spoken to several people who would use it and I have nothing to do with the Chamber of Commerce. Just hope the route is properly advertised.
Also do you realise you have contradicted yourself as well. Prague is flown out of both NCL and LBA. I think if you say that baby should be targeting route not served out of LBA or NCL you'll be left with very few. Maybe Knock would be a good one, oh hang on tried that. :ugh:
Route that are served out of both LBA and NCL can and have proved popular with baby and other users out of MME, Prague and Rome to name two.

On a different note I have noticed that there has been a lack column inches in the Northern Echo regarding easyjet and their prblems at Newcastle. I remember bmibaby being slated in the Northern Echo for trying their hardest to get people back to Jersey a few months back. Can someone explain to me why there is such a bias in he North East towards Newcastle? Are Newcastle throwing bungs the way of the papers to gain such favourable reviews?

[DTVAirport]

Onion:- with regards to your "I have spoken to several people who would use it" comment about the Brussels route, Eastern said the exact same words about the Bristol route.

With regards to advertising, although the Bristol route was well advertised, the adverts were annoying - they were on the rear of nearly every Arriva bus and on hundreds of billboards around Darlo, including one at the Train Station. The annoying part was the "Maureen was thrilled when she heard about our new route to Bristol from Durham Tees Valley" and the image of a 1930s woman wiping a tear of joy from her eye! :yuk:

[onion]

DTVAirport I think the problem with the Bristol was yes people wanted to fly the route, remember a few years back that there were about two or three charters a day between Filton and MME, they just couldn't justify the cost of the flight compared to flying out of Newcastle. I think BRU stands a better chance of working than the BRS ever did. Regarding the advertising of the BRS I never noticed any, maybe because I walk around half asleep, maybe because the advertising just didn't work.

[DTVAirport]

Two or three CHARTERS per DAY?!! Wow! I thought Filton was a BAe Systems manufacturing facility which didn't accept commercial flights though? Who operated the flights and what equipment did they use?

[onion]

Can't remember the company that operated the aircraft callsign was Prestige. The equipment was Navajos. started three rotations a day but then went down to two. Sometimes the rotations were doubled up either with another Navajo or a Cessna 404. I think they were operating for Hutchinson Telecom. They operated for months if not years, not really sure.
Filton as far as I know, aren't allowed schedule services.

[DTVAirport]

From www.airlinecodes.co.uk

ICAO Call Sign: Prestige
IATA Code: None
ICAO Code: EGL
Known As: Capital Trading Aviation
Full Name: Capital Trading Aviation Ltd
Country: United Kingdom
Website: None

Ring any bells?

[onion]

Yeah that will be them.

[Charlie Roy]

... On the BRU route they are competing with bmi and SN. Yes more competion but probably a better route to muscle in on...

Well news of the Durham - Brussels connection immediately got a great reaction on luchtzak.be (a Belgian aviation forum), and I know one Scarborough guy working here in Brussels at the European Commission who was delighted to hear about this new Eastern Airways route.

I myself was very surprised to hear such a route announced, especially twice daily (even if it is only a small aircraft)! With the prices Eastern charge they will only be flying business passengers :sad: I wish them well, but hold my breath.

If ever I need to render myself in Durham it will probably be with BMI to Leeds or SN Brussels to Newcastle, because they will most likely be the cheapest option...

[MerchantVenturer]

Re DTVAirport's and onion's allusions to Filton and the BRU route from MME,
Filton is owned by Bae but is much more than a factory field.

It styles itself as Bristol Filton Airport (I'd better not give the web link because of PPRuNe's advertising policy) but a Google search will soon find it for anyone interested.

It receives all sorts of aircraft from 747s to private single-engined machines (and could accept the A 380), and refurbishes, repairs, stores, provides taxi and similar services as well as a timetabled scheduled programme on weekdays, but the latter is mainly in connection with aerospace activities. It will also operate Bristol's night mail flights this winter because the BRS runway is being closed for re-surfacing each night.

It is also used for some diversions when BRS is fog-bound but this is limited and usually restricted to the smaller turbo props.

As for the BRU market, it is not a big one.

CAA stats for June show that apart from LHR with nearly 70,000 pax, MAN with 15,000-plus and BHX with 14,000-plus, every other UK airport with a BRU route fared modestly, and June 's figures are not untypical.

LCY had 6,534 and LGW had 5282.

The smaller regional airports (sorry EDI!) that reported for June show BRS with 5720, EDI with 3766, LBA with 2858, SOU with 1738 and CWL with 509.

It would be interesting to see the sort of figures a MME-BRU route would pull in and whether they would make money for Eastern.

The pulled MME-BRS route achieved these monthly figures in the first months of this year, respectively 799, 895, 902 and 658. As a comparison the easyJet NCL-BRS carries between 20,000 and 22,000 most months.

Presumably Eastern would look for larger loads than their defunct MME-BRS on a MME-BRU route.

[onion]

Merchant regarding Filton, BRS and BRU.
I will actually take from your post here to support my argument and actually question Eastern.
If we take the four figures posted by you, (799, 895, 902 and 658), and forget about the last one which was probably due to the fact that the service had gone down from three to two rotations a day. These figure suggest to me that the route was actually growing. Ok not very fast and Eastern probably decided that the aircraft was better utilised on another route.
There were people there wanting to use the route as proved by you above, but I did say that the competion at NCL was probably just too much for Eastern.
Regarding Filton, there was a service between Filton and MME and I only said as far as I know Filton aren't allowed scheduled services. I'm not an expert.
Now with regard to the BRU service. Yes the market maybe small but isn't that why Eastern has announced a service with just two rotations a day with a 29 seater aircraft. Don't forget that there will be people using both the LBA and the NCL services to BRU that would prefer to fly from MME. On top these there will be currently people using the Heathrow service out of MME to get to BRU.

[MerchantVenturer]

onion

The MME-BRS figures I quoted were taken from the CAA published route stats and as of course the Eastern service was the only one on the route the totals must relate to them (all the pax shown were in the scheduled column- there were no charters).

I have no knowledge about a Filton-Teesside service and am interested to learn that there was one in the past.

In fact, around 1996 Bae wanted to turn Filton into a city airport, There were many objectors including, unsurprisingly BRS, and a public enquiry was held. Following this the relevant government minister (Selwyn Gummer) turned down the application.

It is a source of regret to many that the city council did not opt for Filton instead of Lulsgate when they moved from the old Whitchurch airport in the mid 1950s. They could have done so but would have been tenants of the aeroplance company. Filton has so many physical attributes that Lulsgate doesn't have.

My knowledge of the Northeast market is practically non-existent so again I am interested to read your take on the likely scenario of a MME-BRU service.

Sabena and now SNBrussels have operated BRS-BRU for many years (most of the year it is a 3 times a day 146/ARJ route with a token weekend service).

Average monthly loads are rarely much above 50%, sometimes less, and one does wonder how profitable it is. As the Belgian carrier keeps persisting with it one must assume they are satisfied.

I shall watch any developments on a MME-BRU service with great interest.

[onion]

Yes the Filton-Teesside ran I think for Hutchinson Telecom who are based in Darlington. I think it had alot to do with the setting up of their 3rd generation mobile phone arm 3G. Yes all the pax between MME and BRS were scheduled. Just interesting to see that there was a general trend upwards apart from the last month.

"In fact, around 1996 Bae wanted to turn Filton into a city airport, There were many objectors including, unsurprisingly BRS, and a public enquiry was held. Following this the relevant government minister (Selwyn Gummer) turned down the application." Maybe this is what I had heard and interpreted as not being allowed scheduled services, can't remember.

Regarding the BRU I don't think its just BRS running at what seems to be a low load factor on the route. LBA for example has 11 rotations a week (I think) run by an emb 145, it maybe a 135. I think with Brussels being one of the centres for the European Parliament fares must be quite high, either that or the routes are heavily subsidised.

[DTVAirport]

I understand the traffic for the Sunderland Air Show will be arriving tomorrow (28-07-06)? If so could someone tell me what, but more importantly when it will be arriving and where the best place to view them is?

I've got a day off work tomorrow so myself and my Grandparents are thinking about going down to watch.

[DTVAirport]

I kinda need to know the answer to the above question in the next hour so I can make arrangements, can anyone assist?

Regards.

[airhumberside]

Esperia Air now plan to serve MME. They are a new Manston based start up airline.

[aeulad]

Looks like some school kids project if you ask me. I would'nt think this is any more realistic than the reports of Singapore Airlines starting daily nonstop service from Singapore to the Isle of Man!;)

Regards

Mike

[MME4eva]

aeulad I also have my doubts regarding this latest rumour as I take anything related to Manston with a pinch of salt!

on a serious note, much like with the boro and their recent lack of real transfer activity, MME does need to attract a more steady stream of new operators and destinations. I know very little can be taken for granted in the industry but obviously the likes of bmibaby, easyjet, ryanair announcing new routes fills you with more optimism than some unknown operator starting out!

I am sure Hugh Lang and his team are working flat out in a fiercely competetive marker but on the back of losing Ciampino and BRS in the recent past, despite being softened by the announcement of the weekly TFS and BRU, MME deserves more of the bigger boys like FlyBE or Wizz Air taking a calculated risk as has happened at DSA.

[airhumberside]

Theres a lot more about Esperia on the Manston thread

[DTVAirport]

I managed to get to the layby at the end of the runway yesterday (30-07-06) and I must say I was not disappointed! I loved the way the Sunderland air show aircraft did very brief displays to say thank you to the airport for accommodating them. I also loved the way the Harrier hovered over the threshold of the runway and then bowed to the airport.

Was anyone else there? I was with the bright purple Rover Metro.

Regards.

[onion]

Just a few things.
Firstly does anyone know what the heap of what looks like hardcore is going to be used for? Think its near the fuel farm was too far away to tell. Apron extension maybe of foundations for something?

The other thing is the article in yesterdays (aug 3rd) paper about parking at the airport. Again the Northern Echo has attacked the airport. The article states that the parking fees charged are only exceeded by major airports such as Heathrow and Gatwick. It actually goes on to say that the airport charges more than Newcastle. Well for one Newcastle isn't in Heathrow's and Gatwick's league. The other annoying thing with the statement with regards to Newcastle airport is that it isn't more expensive, in fact on most stays Newcastle is more expensive. For example if you are going away for a week Monday to Monday say that 8 days at Newcastle it would cost £55 or £40 depending on if you booked on the internet. At MME it would cost you £53 or £43 depending if you bought on the internet. Ok it cheaper at Newcastle over the internet but the paper was quoting the prices paid on the day at the airport. For 14 days Newcastle would charge you £85 or £70 depending on how you book and MME would cost £83 or £67. Still MME is cheaper. Ok what about other aiports that are pushing similar pax numbers. Well Robin Hood will charge you £52 or £42.50 for 8 days depending on how you book. For 14 days £82 and £67 depending on how you book. Both MME and Robin Hood offer a 15 day (2 week) stay option (NCL doesn't) and that works out at £88 and £71 for MMe and £87 and £71.50 for Robin Hood.
The article has no research done into. The Northern Echo have just thought lets see what we can dredge up on MME today there is no relevence in the article at all apart from the fact that it can cost to park your car at an airport. The Northern Echo is out to get MME and this is the sort of article that can actually hurt an airport.
Why has there been so little in this newspaper about the problems that have occured at NCL this summer with easyjet? Ok it not NCL's fault but I haven't seen anything. The Northern Echo has a good reputation but this crass reporting is going to let them down and drag down or certainly stifle growth at MME.

[blahblahblah]

Onion

Well said, the 'story' isn't the car parking prices at Durham Tees Valley Airport but the standard of reporting at the Northern Echo!

The article makes refence to a 'Which Report' and if the paper had actually bothered to do there research they would have quickly realised that 12 of the airports mentioned in the report (DTVA wasn't actually in it) are more expensive, so how they can justify their claims is beyond me.... but then again "Local airport has competitive car park rates!" is hardly a headline grabbing.

[fl dutchman]

Cant comment about the Northern Echo, but I can assure you that the Newcastle Chronicle and Journal has featured articles re Easyjet cancellations, and takes the opportunity to do negative reporting about NCL whenever it can in my opinion justified or not. So dont get a complex it happens to Newcastle and other airports also.

[onion]

Fl dutchman my problem is with the Northern Echo, they are the North East newspaper of the year and so should be reporting on happenings at Newcastle as well. The only thing is that they seem to have a massive problem with MME and many of the articles are slating MME. Newcastle on the other hand always seem to avoid the flak from the Northern Echo. The Newcastle Chronicle and Journal are very localised papers and don't really compare with the Northern Echo in terms of coverage of the area.

[MME4eva]

on a different front, does anyone know what is happening to the based B737 that currently does the NOC rotation when said route comes to a limping end?

also, when does the BRU route go on sale?will be interesting to learn of sales figures when it does!

p.s was thinking the other day does anyone also know what the passenger figures for the once weekly NCE route were like?would have thought it would be a popular route given that holiday villa rentals often change over on a sat when the flight operated?

[hammerb32]

BMIBaby are now showing Birmingham - Durham on their website, an unexpected turnup ?

[fl dutchman]

What happened to this route. It was on website when winter shedule released. Now no trace at all!.

[onion]

Fl dutchman it still there just hidden, just click on timetable, click on a current route and then once that has come up go back to the box and you should be able to get geneva. I don't understand why this is so.
Regarding the Birmingham I can't find it. Have they already taken it off. Was it as a replacement for the Knock? Or was it to fill the vacant rotations during the winter.

[fl dutchman]

onion

Yes I found it but its not bookable. I dont think the route has had an official launch. Perhaps if it goes ahead they will launch it with some other routes to fill the gaps in the utilization of a/c no2 during the winter??

[DTVAirport]

Does anyone know when the Excel Airways Boeing 747-300 will replace the Omni Air McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 if at all? I believe the 743 had gone to help with the evacuations in Beirut? Also, I noticed that Thomsonfly Boeing 737-800 G-CDZI has returned and thus replaced it's replacement G-CDZH, G-CDZI needed a spare part didn't it?

Also, I'd like to let you all know that I've revamped my DTVA website, and to avoid breaking PPRuNe's no advertising rule I'll refrain from placing the www, dots and slashes in the address:- geocities com dtvairport

Regards.

[dgutte]

Nice site there DTVAirport

[GLAir]

DTVAirport: excel's 743 will not be replacing the omni air dc10 due to excel's demanding summer schedule they were finding that crewing the a/c was difficult.

[blahblahblah]

I notice on the front page of today's the Northern Echo an apology regarding the car park prices article last week

"The comparative figures used in the article were misleading and we apologise for creating a false impression"

They also are feature a piece on the easyjet problems at NCL and the canx flights due to lack of staff.

Is the tide turning or has guilt set in?:=

[onion]

Does anyone know what is happening with bmibaby? Are they going to do AMS and BHX? Plus the Geneva has been taken off the timetables.
Also the BRU hasn't gone on sale yet, hope they don't leave it too late, it should of gone on sale as soon as possible after the announcement of the route. People are now forgetting about it and are probably making alternative arrangements for travel to BRU from the area. Come on Eastern strike while the irons hot.

[Northern Hero]

Be patient Onion, all will be revealed very soon. ;)

There may be some nice surprises for you, all I will say, is that there is definately no baby BHX service.

[mmeteesside]

Just a quick note to say that the airport was shut for a little while last night after a bmi A320 decided to throw a wobbler ;)

I believe it was backtracking out off the 'B' taxiway down to the 23 end to turn round when one of it's engines went bang and set itself on fire :confused:. The aircraft was then evacuated on the runway and the airport fire brigade put out the fire pretty quick. This all happened about 1835, the aircraft was towed off and the runway cleaned of oil etc that had come out of the knackered engine. The runway was reopened by 2000, a good job done by the team all round I think :ok: :ok:

bmi diverted in the '7EH' Edinburgh - Heathrow flight to pick up the stranded (47! :() passengers and take them down to Heathrow

mmeteesside

[DTVAirport]

Wow! Well done to the airport fire department! All the interesting stuff happens while I'm away! Any images of the incident?

[mmeteesside]

There is, but I don't know where you could find them, I saw them on the local BBC news the evening after it happened.

Some news for you all, next summer DTV will have 25 charter flights per week (confirmed so far, there will be more when Goldtrail add theres) with Thomsonfly doing 15 of those. Holidays4u will be returning, however in 2007 they will operate a full season, using Onur Air still, however this time around the flights will be on Wednesday evenings rather than Thursday mornings as it is this year. Nothing much else seems to have happened as regards to next year though.
I believe we will be looking at roughly 30 charters per week for Summer 2007 ;), better than the 3 we have this winter (2006/07) which is very very bad :(

Any news on the expansion, seems work might start soon, about time too :ok:

[DTVAirport]

Couple of queries regarding your information on next summer, firstly, is it more than this summer? I'm to busy to work that out for myself. Secondly, I don't know what you mean by Holidays4u will be returning but they will operate a full season, does this mean their services will be all year round or something?

Three charters for the winter is still an improvement on last winter, I think we only had 2 then! Will Air Europa still operate the Friday Tenerife Sur Reina Sofia flight? How do you know the expansion work will start soon? Has there been some developments?

Regards.

[mmeteesside]

There are 28 charters per week this summer (2006) so it's about level with what we should have next summer, when you add in Goldtrail's flights. Those are expected to be Bodrum, Dalaman, Palma again (and possibly Antalya and Tenerife but not sure)

Holidays4u this year operated from mid July til October, whereas in 2007 the first flight is May 2nd, last one October 31st ;)

And actually I believe the winter to be 2 charters again, not 3, don't know where I picked 3 from :p Still better than last year with 11 extra weekly flights (10 to BRU (Eastern), 1 to TFS (Flyg) per week)

As far as the expansion work goes, well I'm presuming work will start soon as the plans were passed about a month ago (maybe more) as the front is pretty much finished now I believe.

mmeteesside

[DTVAirport]

Thanks for clearing that up. Wasn't the new Terminal front supposed to be finished ages ago? When is all the other building work due to finish?

Also, I need an up-to-date list of all aircrafts based at Durham Tees Valley for my website, can you or your brother assist me with that?

Regards.

[onion]

Mmeteesside when you came to 11 extra flights a week did you take into account the lose of the Bristol and Rome as both ran during the winter and the reduction this winter of 2 rotations a week to Dublin? Also did you remember that there are now 2 based bmibaby aircraft. I think it could actually be more than 11 extras a week.

[mmeteesside]

Well DTV is getting busier with bizjets, we had 16 bizjet/prop movements yesterday and of course the Omni DC10 in yesterday and this morning. Also, yesterday we had the Onur A300 in on the morning and evening Dalaman runs, must be time to get a towbar for one now :confused: Still parking nose out at the moment, I believe they have one for the DC10 though ;)

Should be good for our pax numbers once again, which btw are going up and up all the time :) July provisional numbers are

108479 total pax +10.4%
948003 rolling year +8.9% (getting close ;) )

(in brackets is last July)
Aberdeen - 3035 60.5% (up from 2027, +50% ;) )
Alicante - 5478 84.1% (up from 2410)
Amsterdam - 10705 85.8% (up from 10605, +1%)
Cork - 3401 50% (up from 2324, +46%)
Dublin - 7134 60.9% (up from 6115, +17%)
Gatwick - 4473 58.1%
Heathrow - 9223 53.1% (down from 11586, -20%)
Jersey - 3244 84.3% (up from 2432, +33%)
Knock - 1947 38.7%
Malaga - 5269 80.9% (up from 3528)
Newquay - 4006 75.2% (up from 2872, +39%)
Palma - 4185 78.5% (up from 2470)
Paris CDG - 5273 57.5% (up from 3689, +43%)

As you can see, the Spanish routes continue to do well, Dublin seems to be growing which can only be good news! Also the Cork and Newquay are doing better than I expected!

EDIT: Onion, you are correct!
Therefore, that gives us....
Rome -3, Bristol -10 (they dropped the middle one and Sunday one rather quick), Dublin -2
Tenerife +1, Brussels +10, plus there are 35 baby rotations this winter, so say +14 (presuming it was 3 a day last winter)

Total is -15, +25, so therefore a grand total of +10 extra weekly flights! :)

mmeteesside

[DTVAirport]

Wow, some good passenger figures there! Some have almost doubled! But I assume thats due to it being summer? Glad Dublin is up but it will be down again shortly since Ryanair have cut 2x weekly rotations :mad:

There must be a reason for all the business movements? Something going on in the area or something?

[onion]

So if baby only have 35 rotations a week that leaves 7 spare rotations if they operate the aircraft on 3 flights a day, which is what they should be doing. Tell me are those 7 rotations already taken up with w patterns say MME-ORK-MAN-ORK-MME for instance or are they completly spare and if so when will they fill them? They can't be think of leaving the aircraft on the ground. Them if you add those extra rotations in if they do use them out of MME thats 17 extras a week isn't it!;) We can but hope.

[mmeteesside]

Onion, heres what I have so far for Baby this winter

Monday
0700/1035 4883/4884 CDG
1110/1750 4113/4114 ALC
1900/2200 4621/4622 LGW
0710/1415 4003/4004 AGP
1820/2125 4571/4572 ORK

Tuesday
0700/1035 4883/4884 CDG
1100/1725 4309/4310 PMI
1900/2200 4621/4622 LGW
0710/1415 4003/4004 AGP
1820/2125 4571/4572 ORK

Wednesday
0700/1035 4883/4884 CDG
1105/1555 4683/4684 GVA from 21st Dec
1900/2200 4621/4622 LGW
0735/1410 4113/4114 ALC
1820/2125 4571/4572 ORK

Thursday
0700/1035 4883/4884 CDG
1100/1725 4309/4310 PMI
1900/2200 4621/4622 LGW
0710/1415 4003/4004 AGP
1820/2125 4571/4572 ORK

Friday
0700/1035 4883/4884 CDG
1110/1750 4113/4114 ALC
1900/2200 4621/4622 LGW
0710/1415 4003/4004 AGP
1820/2125 4571/4572 ORK

Saturday
0800/1135 4883/4884 CDG
1200/1505 4571/4572 ORK
1540/2230 4003/4004 AGP
1100/1400 4621/4622 LGW until 9th Dec
1105/1555 4683/4684 GVA from 16th Dec
1620/2235 4309/4310 PMI

Sunday
0705/1145 4683/4684 GVA from 17th Dec
1350/1725 4883/4884 CDG
2015/2315 4571/4572 ORK
0930/1610 4113/4114 ALC
1900/2200 4621/4622 LGW

[Stick Flying]

Thanks for the info
Good to see the GVA is on the list, when are they going to be available online to book.

[onion]

Are Eastern and bmibaby shooting themselves in the foot with routes?
The reason I ask this is that Eastern still haven't released the Brussels for booking yet and it is under a month before the route is due to start, surely people are wanting to book yet can't so go and book a flight out of Newcastle or Leeds. How do they expect the route to have any chance? It really isn't the way to promote a new route. As for bmibaby they're just as bad with the Geneva, release the timetable with it on then, take it off and never any sign that you could book it. Maybe this could be because this service is going to be an IT rather than a secheduled service (just a thought for why no signs of it on the bmibaby website now). Anyone know any diferent?

[DTVAirport]

Will the front be complete by this Saturday (16-09-06) as I'm going to be at the airport to see some relatives off on the baby 4012 to Jersey.

[mmeteesside]

I'm not sure whether it'll be complete, but it won't be far off!

A little snippit of good news is that Northern Aviation are doing well with their Beech 200 G-ONAL and are acquiring another shortly. This will be followed by a 3rd next year, with a view to buying a Citation in the future!

mmeteesside

[Northern Hero]

The front should be complete by this Wednesday. Just the arrivals exit doors to go in. The new landside seating area is a good few weeks away from completion.

Onion, no GVA this winter I'm afraid, even though it did appear very briefly in the flying programme. Just 33 weekly departures from baby for the winter. :*
However, there may be some good news announced shortly with a new carrier operating into MME ;)

On a bit of a 'spotterish' note (sorry spotters !) it was good to see an old 727-100 circuit bashing yesterday. A bizjet I presume ?

[DTVAirport]

A new operator? I sure hope so! Was the 727 a -100 variant? Damn! I saw it and was hoping it was a -200adv.

[onion]

A new operator or an old one returning!!!!!
Aren't Eastern leaving it a little late ofr the 2nd Oct? Still no sign of being able to book. Could this have something to do with the new operator your suggesting?

[DTVAirport]

So this new or returning carrier sounds like a dead cert! Any ideas as to who it might be? I can't think of any "old" carriers who might be returning except for MyTravel Airways, First Choice Airways or Thomas Cook Airlines.

[generallee]

The route is now on sale and is scheduled to start at the beginning of the Winter season - decent timings as well for the business travellers!

[onion]

DTVAirport you missed out flybe!

[DTVAirport]

As a new operator or as an old one returning? I can't remember Flybe being here in the past? But they are still a good bet!

[mmeteesside]

Could well be Flybe on BHD (reducing NCL to only 1x daily soon) or it could be that Esperia from Manston, they're launching bookings on October 10th I believe, that qualifies as being soon ;)

On the other hand it could be someone completely different (Clickair? :confused: )

Great news on the new front being ready on wednesday :ok: Only a few months late!

mmeteesside

[DTVAirport]

Got an e-mail from the airport yesterday, it said that the Brussels route was commencing on 30th October, the original press release stated the 2nd October, why has it been put back?

[Jamesair]

Eastern's website timetable definately shows a start date of 30th October..there could be all kinds of technical reasons for the change in start date.

[coasting]

Some very bad news that Durham Tees Valley will not be wanting re Baby.
All flights to end from here, between 29 Oct and 6 Nov. BMIbaby press release on their website.
What went wrong? I know they have had some poor destinations on offer, but the likes of Malaga, Alicante, Palma did great along with Prague that did very well and was pulled a year or so ago.
Hope another operator steps in asap.

[cym]

see thread in flight deck news/rumours

anyone know where displaced aircraft will go?

[holgate]

Talk about a bolt out of the blue!!!!....did anybody see this one coming?
Aircraft to go to Birmingham,....feel for the lads and lasses who work for baby at teesside,....will they be offered employment at another base?,or are they out of a job?,...or is there another airline coming intothe fold?.....ryanair,easyjet,globespan,jet2,thomsonfly,....answ ers on a postcard.

Keep the faith

Holgate.

[Flightrider]

Article on a travel industry website says that they are taking two more 737s into the fleet; and together with two aircraft redeployed from unprofitable areas (read TeesSide), they will base one more aircraft each at BHX, EMA, CWL and MAN. In short, they'll have 21 aircraft at four bases instead of 19 at five.

[toledoashley]

Think:

Paris
Amsterdam
Malaga
Alicante
Palma
Barcelona and
Faro

Are no-brainers...

[PPRuNe Pop]

I have removed one post that oversteps the mark and one that may upset the staff.

Please choose carefully what you write.

PPP

[DTVAirport]

I cannot believe this, I just cannot put into words what I'm feeling right now. I'm absolutely devastated!

We need someone else to step in, but if Baby have failed I can't see another operator of a similar business model doing any better?

Why did they base a second aircraft if all was not going well? It was literally just a couple of months ago that we were talking on here about a third aircraft for summer 06?

Flyglobespan come to MME's rescue!

[DTVAirport]

Further to my previous post; I think that the airport itself is just as confused as what we are, below is a press release from DTVA:

BMIBABY STATEMENT—AIRPORT RESPONSE

Please find attached a statement from Durham Tees Valley in response to the News Release issued by bmibaby announcing that it is terminating its services with effect from October 29th

Durham Tees Valley Airport views today's announcement by bmibaby as quite inexplicable bearing in mind the current volume of passengers being carried by the airline. In particular, the Mediterranean routes to Palma, Malaga and Alicante have proved extremely successful since their launch in 2004.

It was only in April 2006 that bmibaby doubled its capacity out of Durham Tees Valley Airport with the introduction of a second based aircraft to meet passenger demand. This makes the decision all the more confusing.

As late as May we were being advised by bmbibaby, that despite the sudden departure of its Managing Director, the Airport should 'have no concerns over its future' as a base operation.

Twelve weeks later—and following record passenger numbers in August—they have decided to withdraw the base operation.

The speed of this turnaround is a shock and must raise questions over the consistency of bmibaby's route network development strategy. Questionable route development decisions—and lack of consistency in flying programmes—have challenged the market, but it is quite clear that when bmibaby has offered the right product at Durham Tees Valley passengers have responded very positively and in large numbers

Durham Tees Valley Airport is now carefully considering its position in the light of this announcement, with various options under review. The withdrawal of bmibaby represents an opportunity for other airlines to take over these successful routes on a more consistent basis and work closely with Durham Tees Valley Airport to develop a mutually beneficial business.

[toledoashley]

I am going to stake a claim for Jet2 to take over.

[DTVAirport]

Here's another link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/5344986.stm

If I were Hugh Lang, I would tell them to get out now, if they don't want us then we don't want them. As for a reason? They blame lack of passengers, which is a load of crap. The real reason could probably be related to bmi's 'the world revolves around Heathrow' philosophy.

We were on our way to competing with the likes of London City, and now we're competing with the likes of Humberside (no offence HUY).

We're gonna need all the luck there is!

[onion]

On a slightly brighter note nice to see Humberside and MME picked up some diversions this morning, we're going to need all the help we can get now.

[Flightrider]

DTV's press release seems to be a reasonably fair reflection of the facts, particularly when it comes to bmibaby's questionable route decisions. Putting an aircraft twice-daily on BHX-ABZ (which is presumably where one of the two MME aircraft is going this winter) is absolute suicide.

[DTVAirport]

When bmibaby officially leave DTVA, they will create a type of gap in the market, once again, I call upon Flyglobespan to come in and save the day and make MME their sole base in the North-East of England!

I think that is the most likely scenario now, all we can do is hope.

[Richard Taylor]

:confused:

'Scuse me Flightrider, WHY is redeploying an airframe to do a BHX-ABZ route "suicide"??

How do you know?

[Flightrider]

bmibaby's existing domestic route performance from BHX is poor. It has struggled to reach 50% loadfactor on EDI, and that is a much larger market (and one which has much more price-sensitive discretionary travel potential) than ABZ. ABZ is also a market which needs reasonably high frequency of service to compete, rather than a big lump of seats at either end of the day. Finally, going on BHX-ABZ is a sure-fire way of escalating World War III with both Flybe and BA Connect. I stand by my views that it's suicide, regardless of whether or not that has offended Aberdonian sensitivities.

[egnxema]

DVTAirport

You sound devastated mate!:{ :(

I think you need a pint!:ok:

If you need a bug too, then we will see what we can do.:hmm:

[PPRuNe Pop]

I have never had to post again so soon before.

So..........calm down. Think rationally and laterally and DON'T try to decide what is good for whoever, it is not your decision and you will never know the real reason.

Think before you post! :=

PPP

[DQ4]

Come on JET2 get in there!!!

[DTVAirport]

DVTAirport
You sound devastated mate!:{ :(
I think you need a pint!:ok:
If you need a bug too, then we will see what we can do.:hmm:
I am devastated, although shocked and angry is probably a better way to put it. I think two double scotches in the same glass would perk me up a bit better than a pint. I'm not even going to ask what a bug is lol.

Half the reason I'm devastated is because whereas we'll hit the 1 mil mark this year, we'll struggle to get 800,000 next year, probably a lot less.

This could also seal the fate of the Heathrow route, the amount of times today I've seen the bmibaby pulling out of MME referred to as bmi pulling out of MME is unbelieveable, it will confuse people.

I was informed earlier that the staff at MME had not been informed of bmibaby's decision until it was announced today, judging from some of the dialog in the airport press release, I would say that the management were not informed of their decision until they heard it in the press!!! :eek: :mad:

[Andy_S]

Let's be a bit grown up and realistic about this.

BMI are a business quite separate from Teesside Airport, and they are entitled to make whatever business decisions they consider to be most appropriate for themselves. Only time will tell whether pulling Baby out of MME was a good or bad decision.

MME still has the Heathrow link, and Baby's ending of the LGW service may even support that.

If Baby's brief presence at MME has demonstrated that some or all of the routes they offered were popular and viable, then someone else is eventually likely to try and operate them.

Personally, while it was better to have Baby than nobody else, they always struck me as half hearted when it came to using MME, and some of their route strategy was bizarre. If losing them in the short term means getting a more committed operator in the long term, then it may not be a bad thing (just don't expect it to happen overnight).

[Richard Taylor]

No offence taken Flightrider, was just curious.

I think ABZ is quite happy at the growth it's achieving currently on most of its routes. :ok:

I am sure DTV will find another airline willing to step into the void...Jet2 proclaim themselves as the airline of the N. of England, so let's see!

[onion]

Andy I agree with you the only problem is that to lose bmibaby means the airport is losing 30-40% of it passenger throughput overnight. This is going to have knock on effects for all involved at the airport. We could be looking at job losses at not only bmibaby but also other areas at the airport. So the quicker a commited airline comes in to stabalize the place the better.
With regards to the LHR the prices are stupid, ok you can fly real cheap but there aren't that many tickets at the low prices. Many of the tickets and the ones the business man wants to use are £164 one way excluding taxes, bet its almost £400 return including tax, no wonder the LHR is suffering at the moment.

[DTVAirport]

We are going to have to rely on the rumour regarding a new or old operator returning to MME.

I think Flyglobespan are the most likely to come to MME, especially after the article in the September 2006 issue of Airliner World magazine.

[egnxema]

DTV's press release seems to be a reasonably fair reflection of the facts, particularly when it comes to bmibaby's questionable route decisions. Putting an aircraft twice-daily on BHX-ABZ (which is presumably where one of the two MME aircraft is going this winter) is absolute suicide.

Interesting that Crawford Rix, WW MD is from Aberdeen, as is Stewart Adams the new MD at Regional.

There are plenty of local airport biased people on these forums (me included) - could it be that such bias has shown itself at the top?

[Richard Taylor]

Could be ;)

[Flightrider]

You never quite know re the ABZ connection, but there certainly have been examples of that sort of thing in the past. Why do you think that british midland (as then was) started East Mids-Faro way back when? Rumours at the time suggested it was due to the location of certain directors' holiday homes, and I see it's still there - once weekly 737 on Saturdays with bmibaby. I bet that's no coincidence.

It will be interesting to see whether there is a knock-on effect to the local perception of bmi in TeesSide. Reports like "bmi pulls out of TeesSide" are bound not to do them any favours re continuity of the Heathrow service in the short to medium term, particularly if people get the wrong end of the stick and assume that it's one of the routes affected by the withdrawal of bmibaby. It is one of the occupational hazards of cross-selling between the bmi and bmibaby networks, in that many customers may not know the difference between a bmi and a bmibaby route.

[OltonPete]

Flightrider

quote: -

"which is presumably where one of the two MME aircraft is going this winter"

I can answer that one and it is no. The Aberdeen has been fitted in by
cancelling the 2nd Knock on Monday & Friday which was due to run
until the Geneva starts in the third week of December.

A couple of other flights have been moved and there was already a
spare slot 16.30 - 23.00 which has now been filled. Fairly tight
winter programme for the two aircraft with 8 sectors.

It has been rumoured (only rumoured) BHX have been making offers to Baby partly due to the disastrous summer BHX has had. Most airports have suffered but BHX has been appalling 6% down or thereabouts the last three months.

As for Durham, I just hope (even as a BHX local) that someone like
Flybe jump in or Jet2 or any half decent airline!

BHX lost My Travellite and slowly each route has been taken on by
Monarch and of course it could happen again if the BACON shrinks
(or should that be when?) and hopefully Durham will get their routes
replaced.



Pete

[spanishflea]

So, if my calculations are correct, the airport is left with only 6 scheduled destinations now?

Aberdeen
Amsterdam
Brussels
Dublin
Heathrow
Tenerife

[mmeteesside]

Well this is very bad news, but one that has been coming for a while I think :ugh: Baby must have another reason to pull out other than low pax numbers because that is not true, just look at the numbers on the Spanish routes that I posted 2 pages back! :cool:

I'm sure another airline will jump in and fill the gap, hopefully an airline that will behave properly and not just 'toy' with the routes (pun intended), I'm sure we deserve better than to just be dumped out in the open!

Not too sure the Heathrow route will be around for much longer, you only have to look at the NCL-LHR pax numbers (around 40k a month) and compare with MME-LHR (around 9k a month) to figure out that bmi obviously don't have a clue! :(

6 scheduled destinations wef 6th November is indeed correct, unfortunately. Though I'm sure there will be more coming soon :ok:

On the bright side this could be a great piece of news if another airline decides to come, just look at Jet2 at LBA, 26 routes now, maybe we could manage 10? ;)

mmeteesside

[MME4eva]

I'm gutted-where do we go from here?

To be honest...WW were neva interested and good riddance!!

[chris1001]

Very sad day for the North East as a whole what with routes being dropped from Newcastle recently. I used MME Teesside frequently as their timings to Malaga were better than the 04:00 checkin on EZY to AGP. Plus with Easyjet you lose a whole day travelling back at midday whereas the evening departures fwith BMI Baby meant you could have a full day in Malaga, return home by midnight for work in the morning. There must be loads of pax with second homes in Spain who will be lost without this service. Come on Jet 2 or Globespan!!

[pug]

Could yields have been a problem? The sun routes are undoubtably sucessful but maybe the others, CDG for instance, are the yields good for that route with a low cost airline or would it suit a high frequency FLYBe type operation with smaler a/c?

[CentreFix25]

It will be a carrier who, firstly carries on with the core routes to Alicante, Palma and Malaga (rules out Ryanair). Secondly gets the sideline routes sorted correctly (destinations, frequencies and times). From the point of view of EasyJet and Jet2 it will be overkill, can't see it being them. FlyBEs fleet in my opinion isnt suitable, not sure of the capabilities of the 195's but i think they have got plans for them anyway. Leaves FlyGlobespan, don't think it looks to good.

[OltonPete]

Surely flybe dash 8's would be just right for several routes: -

LGW (2 a day)
CDG (2 a day)
NQY (1 a day summer)
BHD (2 a day)
ORK (1 a day)

Also Knock, Southampton, Galway, plus the summer French routes etc.

I agree I do not think there is much chance of the 195 for the Spanish
routes yet, possibly as others have said GSM or JET2.

Lets hope somebody acts fast.

Pete

[Charlie Roy]

CentreFix25

If Ryanair were to base one aircraft at MME I'm sure they could make the following work:

Malaga, Stansted, Girona 1-3-5-7
Krakow, Stansted, Murcia -2-4-6-

Wishful thinking though :(

[Cuillin]

Wouldn't be surprised if Tim Jeans and Monarch were looking at the Spanish routes. Only if the deal from the airport was good enough though.

[onion]

Centrefix why wont ryanair do flights to spain? Ok they only fly to Malaga out of those lost but Alicante can be covered by Girona or Reus, so why not?
Secondly Flybe can cover the routes quite well I think with there fleet with a mixed base of Dash 8 and emb 195s. Although the 195s are probably earmarked for elsewhere. With regards to easy or jet2 I don't think they would be interested but again they are well suited for the routes as long as they actually operate them correctly.
Centrefix do I sense a little bias towards Newcastle and a little bit of fun poking? Just imagine if Newcastle lost 30-40% of their pax overnight. Just think of the joblosses, not so funny is it.
Hugh Lang did say that he hopes to have 50% of the services restored within 6 months and that it has put the airport behind a year.
Notice Ryanair are making 1 airframe available at short notice for a new base, a slight glimmer of light i hope at the end of the tunnel? Would be brilliant if it happened but would think it unlikely. Heres to hoping anyway.

[horsebox]

can anyone shed any light on routes from MME to Jersey currently run by bmibaby?

Will they be killed off when baby departs, or will the mainline bmi pick them back up again? just curious, no mention of that particualr route in the press release..

[fl dutchman]

I think that the Peel factor will lead to a Ryanair base at Teeside.
I reckon they will do the spanish routes( nearest equivilent) at least. Would not be surprised if talks are on the agenda re this already. So in the longer term this may be a good thing, ie a more commited airline coming to the airport.

The opportunity is there for someone and I would expect a new operator in place by the time Baby pulls out.

Dont think the routes to Cork, Gatwick or Paris will be taken over in the short to medium term.

[CentreFix25]

Onion, i'm not getting into a slagging match, nor am i poking fun. I apologise if any part of my post offended you, but i fail to see the part you describe as 'funny'. I can only imagine how the affected people are feeling right now and they have my best wishes.

Some facts as to why i dont think RYR will fill the void (at least with a based aircraft)
They dont fly to Palma.
MME to Alicante via REU or GRO:
Reus is approx 24M West of Barcelona, Gerona is 30M+ East of Barcelona.
"Barcelona to Alicante, you just follow the coastline. Make sure you have some money with you because the motorway is not free of charge. You should pay in between 40 to 50 Euros for the about 650 km. So it is a 6 to 7 hours trip by car." Nobody in their right mind will do that journey. Looking on the bright side they do fly to Murcia (30 miles South).
With regard to FlyBe i was thinking more of the core spanish routes, and weather they would have among the 12 ordered 195s a spare one to do MME?
My moneys on Globespan, heres hoping anyway!

[GrahamK]

GSM seems to be the best bet, although, even they would be unlikely. Think the charters at MME are having a big sigh of relief however.

Jet2/EZY/FR will continue their expansion from NCL.

[jongeman]

This is pretty shocking news re WW. PMI, ALC and AGP are the international bread-and-butter of any smaller regional airport. I'd say it was pretty likely that another operator would step in but with NCL, LBA and DSA so close by, how likely is this?

It seems pretty foolish to squander a growing local passenger base like this, and also now means that bmi is scarcely represented in NE England. Wouldn't W rotations have been better, say in conjunction with CWL?

[skyman771]

Jongeman
I totally agree with your views. It is now a very late stage indeed that MME are coming back to the table seeking a Loco service provider.
The main issue is that no matter how attractive individual routes appear, they are not able to provide consistent and high levels of service on 'w' rotations alone. Basing of aircraft for most Loco's is only likely to lead to them competing against themselves at airports that are not too distant. This is not a good business model for them for any number of reasons and I would be extremely surprised if Jet2 were tempted, who are more likely to look to seize the oportunity to develop routes out of it's current bases.
As for GSM well I wouldn't get too excited as to their potential contribution in the short term. Although they have put their 'toe in the water' with the winter TFS, they already have extensive expansion plans for growth elsewhere, and presumably there has to be a limit to the rate they can sensibly expand ie sourcing aircraft for a start.
For my money, Peel seems to have a good realtionship with Thomsonfly at DSA & maybe they may take a chance on providing a based aircraft to promote and consolidate their Spanish business.
Finally it's clearly going to get tougher out there as the oportunists look to poach those displaced passengers as can be seen from this extract off NCL's website :-
'Newcastle International has five low-cost airlines providing services to and from 30 different destinations across Europe, providing the region with an extensive choice of low-cost routes. These destinations include all of those currently operated by bmibaby from Durham Tees Valley, which are Cork, Paris, London Gatwick, Alicante, Malaga and Palma'.
Going for the jugular or what ?

[JDB1052]

I expect Arann are not displeased at baby's move seeing that their flight from Leeds to Cork and Galway start up soon. The loss of Teesside Knock during the summer and now Teesside Cork, while not direct replacements, will undoubtedly help the new routes.

[Centre cities]

Whilst I would agree that it is rather late for the winter I would be amazed if the sunshine routes are not picked up next spring. At least there is 6 months to entice a replacement.

Thomsonfly would be my favorite.

Centre cities

[DTVAirport]

24 hours after the announcement I am still full of shock and anger. I am at the airport tomorrow morning, presumably the airport will have removed most of the bmibaby advertisements? If they haven't, I will personally remove them myself.

Rule out Ryanair as a replacement, after Rome they won't be launching any additional routes from here. My money is on Flyglobespan, in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they announced additional routes before the end of the month!

[ryanair1]

Yes, Ryanair will certainly not be expanding at MME. We will only be keeping the Dublin service going. For the time being.

Flyglobespan will take over the most profitable / high volume routes from MME - namely Palma, Malaga, Alicante and Faro. Makes sense for them as they already have plans for TFS and maybe somewhere long-haul.

[DTVAirport]

Although Flyglobespan is the most likely to pick up the high volume routes (I would include Paris CDG in your list) they would most likely use the same 738 that they intend to use on the Tenerife route, and if bmibaby's reason for leaving MME is even slightly true, which I don't believe it is, how are GSM going to fill a 738???

It would be handy if they could acquire a couple of extra 736's from SAS.

[JKP505]

This whole WW thing is despicable, what the hell are they thinking? Anyway, although it is a setback, I'm sure MME will move on to even greater things from this. Lets face it, WW isn't the greatest lo-co in the market in terms of diversification is it?

I think by process of elimination, it will be either GSM or BE that will come onto the scene, of those, it'll probably be the former rather than the latter. TOM is unlikely, they don't tend to have two large bases next to each other - CWL, EMA/CVT, LTN are preferred over their traditional competitors BRS, BHX and STN. Although TOM are based at all 7, it is the first four where they have their 'mixed charter/scheduled' services. Given NCL doesn't seem to be able to sustain EZY, that one is a definate non-starter from MME. LS probably would be better suited in developing the bases they have already, BFS and NCL seem to be in line for significant expansion. Nevertheless, Jet2 might like to wrap up the northern market by taking on MME? FR, maybe, as they seem to have lost interest in NCL as well, but i'm not sure their current route structure would fit in with what MME needs, i.e. - no ALC, AGP, PMI and I can't imagine FR being keen on a domestic LGW service.

A good call could be ZB, a bit more upmarket than the lo-cos, but probably the North Yorkshire area is a bit more upmarket than the T&W area, I wouldn't be surprised to see ZB doing ALC, BCN, AGP and PMI.

BE at the moment don't have (enough) suitable a/c to operate the longer sectors, which returns us to GSM. If they get hold of a couple more B736s, I would think this would be a no-brainer.

I know in the short term it may not seem like it, but the real loser out of all of this will be WW. I'm sure when prospective airlines see the terminal plans or the finished product, they'll be delighted to service the airport. Here's hoping there will not be too many, if any employment casualties. Good luck all concerned.

[bmibaby.com]

I'm genuinely surprised that the bmi group didn't have more faith in MME, considering that it was British Midland who operated the airport's first flight under British Midland to London, there has always been a good relationship between the airport & the airline. However, bmibaby has been heavily underfunded, which has not allowed them to keep up with the rapid expansion at other northern airports by rival low-cost airlines. Simply, the chopping of routes & schedules to try to keep up with the competition meant there was little confidence by consumers in the airline. I think the bmi brand will be tarnished by this move, and feel very sad for the staff who will be laid off or relocated as a result of the announcement, as well as those at aviance who will be affected.

[skyman771]

..I think the bmi brand will be tarnished by this move, ..affected.
Only in the North East ! elsewhere & certainly BHX & all points south I doubt whether this closure will matter a jot to the average punter, where all that is at issue are prices & route timings.:(

[SWBKCB]

Are DTVA entirely blameless here (new frontage started January and meant to be finished for the summer season, road signs still directing you to Teesside Airport, new Belfast service floated in the press in April and still no announcement). What's happening with the planning approval for the major re-development?

Can't help thinking that Peel see the site more for it's real estate value than its aeronautical.

[mmeteesside]

Well today it has been revealed that bmibaby went against the advice that the airport gave them numerous times (apparently) which they obviously are allowed to do as it is their business. However, some of this advice allegedly included the airport telling them to do 2x daily to LGW, and also 2x daily BFS with smaller aircraft, not a 1x daily with a 733!

Apparently the airport are already in talks with other airlines to fill the gaps, so what becomes of that we will have to wait and see! I do think that the LGW + CDG routes are perhaps perfect for an operator like Flybe, and the spanish routes I believe are more suited to Jet2 or Flyglobespan.

mmeteesside

[MME4eva]

well soem wise words said already which i echo...24hrs later and im still seething with the arrogance of WW. Ok Ok its business and they have to make money so no sentimentality re:long standing association with DTV but they have well and truely left MME up :mad: creek without a paddle!never have i heard of an airline simply uping sticks completely from a base in such a way!

I have it on good authority that, alongside MME's agreement that they will not let any other jet operator on a MME-London route, WW were given next to peanuts landing charges and also the guarantee that no other LOCO would be allowed to base at the airport. Their thanks?treat DTV and the flying public of the Tees Valley with contempt!

Im booked on an AGP in October and part of me wants to boycott and not fly with them but obviously they would only win finacially if i was to not go.

Withr regards to future plans, AGP PMI and ALC will no doubt be picked up by someone. My guess? TOM surely must be looking seriously at DTV given that they are a known brand follwing the last two summer seasons flying programme as well as the fact that DSA doesnt really cross over with MME' catchment area which is why I feel LS would not be interested given they have NCL and LBA bases already.

I guess time will tell but as another poster says...overnight we've slipped down the league alongside HUY and NWI just when we were on the up-the phrase 'putting your eggs in one basket' springs to mind!

[3202b]

To be honest I'm not suprised at this move, it probably has something to do with the whole name change farce. The name changeover from a PR point of view has been implimented in the worst way possible. A substantial amount of travel agents and tour ops are still selling flights and holidays from 'Teesside' airport and the other lot 'DTV' airport. Airport signs are wrong and up until a few weeks ago some advertising material was still showing the airport as Teesside. It's just confusing the punters - I bet the average pax doesn't know what the airport is called anymore. It's been a mess, they should have just kept the name the same to avoid all this confusion and trouble.

[Centre cities]

I must admit that an airport named after the nearest major city, in my opinion, is better than an area.

Isnt that why they changed East Midlands to Nottingham East midlands.

Ask my misses where Munich is and its no problem. On the other hand call it Bavarian International and that is a different story.

Centre cities

[Manston Airport]

I think that the Peel factor will lead to a Ryanair base at Teeside.
I reckon they will do the spanish routes( nearest equivilent) at least. Would not be surprised if talks are on the agenda re this already. So in the longer term this may be a good thing, ie a more commited airline coming to the airport.

The opportunity is there for someone and I would expect a new operator in place by the time Baby pulls out.

Dont think the routes to Cork, Gatwick or Paris will be taken over in the short to medium term.

Ryanair currently operate to DUB from MME, but tried Rome Ciampino and subsequently scrapped the route, so I wouldn't be sure

James

[Richard Taylor]

Doubt it'll be MON, didn't Tim Jeans say that they were cutting back to their main core airports (from memory LGW, LTN, BHX, MAN). This was why they withdrew from BLK. Only "non-core" scheduled route will be AGP-ABZ, & even that may be in doubt if GSM muscle in.

Back to DTV. I still say Jet2 would be the main airline to fill the void left by Baby. GSM could also help, noting that they are to fly TFS-MME this winter.

[skyman771]

.. I still say Jet2 would be the main airline to fill the void left by Baby. .
Why should Jet2 compete against their own routes 40 miles up the road ?:hmm:

[MME4eva]

Possible new operator is apparently Wizz...flying 3 times weekly to as yet undisclosed destination in Poland.

Would certaintly raise the spirits a bit and-shock horror-represent a sensible and possibly popular route as would no doubt appeal to stag do's and culture vultures alike-added to the fact that Wizz already have a link to Peel at LPL and DSA:ok:

[buzzerfish]

Are DTVA entirely blameless here (new frontage started January and meant to be finished for the summer season, road signs still directing you to Teesside Airport, new Belfast service floated in the press in April and still no announcement). What's happening with the planning approval for the major re-development?
Can't help thinking that Peel see the site more for it's real estate value than its aeronautical.
ATC closed on occasion due staff shortages, restricted taxiways, yet rumour has it that tens of thousands spent on buying the airport hotel.Better facilities for visiting aircrew perhaps?

[IB4138]

Might attract more attention from potential new carriers, if it were to be renamed " Sedgefield Tony Blair International".

[DTVAirport]

Possible new operator is apparently Wizz...flying 3 times weekly to as yet undisclosed destination in Poland.

Would certaintly raise the spirits a bit and-shock horror-represent a sensible and possibly popular route as would no doubt appeal to stag do's and culture vultures alike-added to the fact that Wizz already have a link to Peel at LPL and DSA:ok:Hmmm, whereas I think this is likely to be true, it's not the most common destination for airports such as MME. Sure, it could be successful initially, but if Newcastle were to get a route to the same destination, then I think the route would be killed off.

Speaking of Newcastle, what's this press release on their website? I get the impression they are after a monopoly in the north:

Newcastle International reassures North East travellers following bmibaby’s decision to terminate its operation from Durham Tees Valley Airport.

Newcastle International Airport notes today’s announcement by low-cost airline bmibaby that the airline will terminate all services at Durham Tees Valley Airport by 6th November 2006.

Newcastle International has five low-cost airlines providing services to and from 30 different destinations across Europe, providing the region with an extensive choice of low-cost routes. These destinations include all of those currently operated by bmibaby from Durham Tees Valley, which are Cork, Paris, London Gatwick, Alicante, Malaga and Palma.

Newcastle International’s low cost operators continue to perform strongly at the airport and are enjoying significant growth. Details of all the destinations currently served by easyJet, Ryanair, Flybe, Hapag-Lloyd Express and Jet2.com can be found on the airport’s website together will a full timetable of all scheduled services.

[skyman771]

Speaking of Newcastle, what's this press release on their website? I get the impression they are after a monopoly in the north:

You are a bit behind the times.... ! I reported this on this thread 3 days ago!:confused: Unfortunately it does seem though that although it is a bitter pill to swallow, history is once again suggesting that the region is unable to support two airports with similar aspirations and that there can only be one winner:{

[Shed-on-a-Pole]

The BMI Baby decision has evoked many emotions, amply demonstrated by submissions to this thread: "pretty foolish"; "shock and anger"; "despicable, what the hell are they thinking"; "seething with the arrogance of WW".

Sadly, whilst I'm sure we all fully sympathise with the staff and customers affected, arrogance and foolishness don't come into it. Only two questions matter. Firstly, did the MME base make a profit? Secondly, if not, is there a reasonable prospect of it doing so in the foreseeable future? BMI Baby views the answers to these questions in the negative. That's why they are leaving. The company is a commercial concern run for profit alone, not to feed civic pride or for philanthropic provision of a desirable service to the public. No profit, no service. BMI Baby is not foolish or despicable to apply this principle; it is the only way an unsubsidised company can survive in a cut-throat business environment. If the leaks aren't plugged the whole ship goes down. Clearly, it's disappointing in the extreme for those hit by the cutbacks. However, maybe it's better to say "thanks for trying" rather than "despicable, what the hell are they thinking." There's alot of airlines out there which have never given MME a chance.

I for one hope MME does attract new operators. But be under no illusion. In an environment of high fuel prices and anti-aviation policies from politicians, only profitable services will survive in the long term. Not just at MME but across the board. If in doubt, read afew of the other airport threads on PPRUNE ... grinding of teeth and howls of protest are par for the course in this industry. Civic pride postures, but money talks.

[mmeteesside]

Well to throw another spanner in the works, I have it on good authority that baby pulling out had very little to do with the profitablity of the base. My crystal ball tells me it was more to do with the landing fees.

On the other hand I'm not sure whether MME could sustain a route to Poland or Hungary with Wizz, although if it was the only route to 'the destination' in the north east then it might do well.

mmeteesside

[GBALU53]

If BMI Baby pulling out due to landing fees it seems odd that it has happened so quickly.

This may just be speculation and could be another reason.

Regional airports want the bussiness but find it diffulcate to work and help the local based operators.

With a number of regional airport having aircraft 0f the Boeing 737 size some route cannot sustain this size of aircraft for to long and numbers on some routes start to dwindle.

With some reports of operators looking to take on some of the routes droped could this be another foot in the north for JET2 or Thompson or would this have effect on the airports close to Durham they operate from??????

[DTVAirport]

Ironically, I'm using a bmibaby example here, but bmibaby has hubs at BHX and EMA, so why can't Jet2.com have hubs at NCL and MME?

[SWBKCB]

Well to throw another spanner in the works, I have it on good authority that baby pulling out had very little to do with the profitablity of the base. My crystal ball tells me it was more to do with the landing fees.

Sorry - I don't understand this point. Why would they be bothered by landing fees if profitability was OK??
:confused:

[pug]

Ironically, I'm using a bmibaby example here, but bmibaby has hubs at BHX and EMA, so why can't Jet2.com have hubs at NCL and MME?


I think the size of the catchment area in the midlands is huge compared to the north east unfortunately.

Its like the HUY and DSA thing, though MME is far better connected than HUY both LBA and NCL are not too far away serving the larger cities and conurbations, that is obviously then where the airlines will want to fly to.

You may be lucky at MME, Peel can work wonders. Just seems hit and miss for airports like MME and HUY (though HUY hasnt realy touched low cost flights yet) someone may come along and decide that it will compete with both LBA and NCL at once and base at MME, but, who does that leave?

My moneys on TOM!

[mmeteesside]

Well I'll let the whole reason out now, if I dare :}

Apparently baby asked for cheaper landing fees (than they already had which I bet were already discounted!), then MME said no, BHX said yes so off they went and pulled the base and moved extras into BHX

My bet is still on Jet2 to base here, with TOM a close 2nd

mmeteesside

[pug]

mmeteesside you seem to know your stuff regarding mme! would LS realy open another base so close to two others?

[MME4eva]

well if the refusal by MME with regards to landing fees is true then i applaud DTV airport authority!!:D

Odd I know to applaud losing business but I really do think it is a two way relationship and since they arrived WW have taken the :mad: !!

1. Given the 'freedom of DTV' with regards to competitors being refused to base operations...source: credible insider from MME

2. Subsidised landing fees (at least initially and probably still a lot cheaper compared to other regionals e.g. EMA and LBA)

3. Infrequent and poorly timetabled destinations with apparant little consulation with DTV airport authority (e.g. BFS and forever changing the times on the CDG run meaning businessmen were driven to NCL and LBA)

4. Dropping profitable routes (e.g. PRG) and introducing 'dubious' routes with little need (e.g. NOC)

5. Treating passengers poorly (well documented flight to JER that took several days to be rectified and various personal stories from friends and relatives of planes going tech either at MME or downroute particularly when my relatives were stuck there for 48hrs which ended up with a nightime coach trip from EMA back to MME)

6. Poor punctuality (a simple look at 'arrivals' most days on ceefax confirms how WW are usually late incoming)

so...after a few days to let the news soak in the words 'blessing in disguise' spring to mind!!

The future? Personally I would like to see operations spread out more evenly over several operators even if it would mean W patterns from Girona, Stockholm etc which alongside operators such as Wizz and perhaps Air Berlin as a possible outsider?

[skyman771]

Ironically, I'm using a bmibaby example here, but bmibaby has hubs at BHX and EMA, so why can't Jet2.com have hubs at NCL and MME?
Why don't you simply extend your argument a little further and note that BA has hubs at LHR & LGW:D :D
As can be seen it is totally irrelevant insofar as the situation that exists some 250+ miles 'up the road'.
Possibly bmibaby failed as it realised that it was extremely difficult to go 'head to head' even on the most popular volume routes that are already established a little further still 'up the road'. Maybe this is a reason why destinations like Knock? were tried:ugh:
Most of the arguments & criticism of Bmibaby that I have seen on this site appertain to their manner of affecting a withdrawal, which I agree seem deplorable:eek: .
However the discussion ongoing as to whether they were profitable has at times been far too 'shallow'. For most business that I deal with, decisions are not based on historic events but much more on future projections. Bmibaby clearly have access to highly advanced forecasting models and market research and for whatever reason the parameters that they identified that they would have to operate within, whether landing fees, pax no.'s or whatever did not add up. It would thus have been a combination of any number of factors that precipitated their decision and once made they must have felt that there was no point in procastinating and a structured withdrawal would have only created more bad feeling & further losses (or less profit for those that don't see it).:sad:

[DTVAirport]

More bad news - I've been informed that all Onur Air flights have been prematurely cut. Whether they will return next summer or not remains to be seen.

[Travel Agent]

RE: Onur Air, it's still showing available to book as far as 19th October to both DLM and BJV with Goldtrail.

[mmeteesside]

I believe that it's just the Holidays4u one (Thu morning) that has been 'prematurely cut' the two Goldtrail ones seem to be still going.

mmeteesside

[Travel Agent]

mmeteesside

It was always going to be a short season, however at the moment they are due to do both BJV and DLM for most of next summer.

[jabird]

Well, how many times have we seen locos pull out of UK bases completely - it seems quite rare. Is there an element of the baby screaming to be treated like a grown up, and throwing its rattle out of the pram in an attempt to be seen as a big boy like Ryanair?

If there's an element of repetition here, it is that FR have already dumped all but one of their Brum routes, and that Baby are now trying to be the big player down here.

Why all the speculation about just one airline coming in? I doubt Peel would want to get their fingers burnt. Yes, sure, they could go cap in hand to Ryanair - just because they pulled CIA doesn't mean they couldn't test out a few other routes - GRO etc, and why wouldn't other airlines also operate routes IN to MME, without having to take the immediate risk of setting up a base operation?

I'm not sure about MME being BE territory - they seem to prefer airports near larger cities, and wouldn't they want decent yields to cover the capital costs of their new a/c? Globespan would make sense, as would TOM - both have presence at other Peel airports, so I'm sure the negotiations are well underway.

Now probably isn't the best of times to have to deal with this withdrawal - so will we see a rapid recovery, or will we see some poker playing before the start of the summer season.

My money would be on a couple of Ryanair routes to be announced before the end of the year, but no new base. I could then see GSM sticking in a smaller 737, but not announcing it until the start of next year.

[skyman771]

Jabird
I suspect some serious pontificating in your posting. What I tend to agree with however is that it is unlikely that between now & next summer that any Loco will jump in '100%' and take up what were two based units at MME. These things take time, marketing & equipment for starters have long lead times.
The down side is that as the BMIbaby MME operation was in itself fairly small in global terms, albeit large in terms of MME's op's. Ecconomies of scale are surely lost on single based units in what is already a very competitive market, and so any incumbent Loco is at a disadvantage to the competion at NCL & LBA before it even commences.:ugh:
I also don't go too much on W's, one would need a serious number of this type of op to fill the gaps. As for Wizz unsure where this came from...probably more likely in that 'destination based' carriers may incur lower overheads / setup costs than other options. One has to ask, is such a service likely to be a sustainable high volume Loco route ? I suspect that LS developments elsewhere may have some impact on the success or failure of this.

[mmeteesside]

Well, from what I'm hearing I don't think it's going to be TOM that will be basing here.
However, does anyone know whats happening with regards to TOM Summer 2007 from DTV? Is it to be a 738, or is it to be a 752? Is there to be an aircraft at all? :{

mmeteesside

[HH6702]

2 pages full about the growth of the north east airports by low cost carriers and the future of both NCL and DTV.

Talks about management from both airports out in dubai at the minute.

The main point was that DTV hope to announce new routes within the next two weeks.

[DTVAirport]

This thing in Dubai, it sounds kinda like a trade show a bit like Farnborough or Paris Air Shows? Let's hope the airport management bring a little more than themselves back to the northeast!

[MME4eva]

nice to see WW treatin the flying public of the Tees Valley region with the usual contempt and incompetence:

Yet again today a 2 hr delay on the JER and knock on cancellation of the LGW rotation and a 2 hr delay on the ALC!

Really makes me glad they're going as they're a joke...never a day goes by without a lenghtly delay it seems with WW

MME deserves better!

[skyman771]

This thing in Dubai, it sounds kinda like a trade show a bit like Farnborough or Paris Air Shows? Let's hope the airport management bring a little more than themselves back to the northeast!
More likely a sore head! :E :E

[DB5]

From this mornings Northern Echo Friday 22 Sept:

Ryanair investigates taking off where bmibaby closed the door

RYANAIR last night said it was in discussions with Durham Tees Valley airport with a view to expanding its presence there, following the exit of low-cost rival bmibaby.

The no-frills airline, which operates flights from Teesside to Dublin, may look at launching new routes from the region over the next 18 months.

Ryanair's European sales and marketing manager, Caroline Baldwin, said: "We are growing significantly in terms of numbers of routes this year.

"I couldn't give any exact details, but it is a possibility that we would launch new routes over the next 18 months or so as we are always looking for new opportunities.

"I don't know if we would do any London routes, but we have a big presence in Spain, and we could be looking at routes to Shannon, as well as European countries, including Italy, Germany or the Nordic states."

She said Ryanair was in talks with airport bosses.

[DTVAirport]

I personally don't want to see Ryanair at MME, mainly because they fly to unheard of airports rather than the main ones, e.g. Stockholm Skavsta instead of Stockholm Arlanda.

But I suppose beggars can't be choosers...

[daz211]

So you think the following are airports people have never heard of !

LEI,BRI,BLL,BRE,FAO,FEZ,FUE,GRZ,MAD,AGP,MLA,RAK,MRS,PSA,OPO, REU,
RIX,SZG,TRN,VLC. To name afew.

I would put it to you that pax living in the above listed places might
not have heard of DURHAM AIRPORT.

If you dont want the routes there are many other that do.

[DTVAirport]

The only airports in the list you provided which are unheard of are BRI, FEZ, GRZ, MRS and RIX. The rest are pretty commonly known, and I've just partially contradicted myself I know.

I never said I didn't want the routes, I just said I would prefer Flyglobespan flying to Barcelona than Ryanair flying to Girona and calling it Barcelona.

[daz211]

DTVAirport

Well all the above airports listed are used by flag carrier airlines and im sure you must be the only person on here that has not heard of them.

[Piltdown Man]

I think that what was meant that when you choose to fly to say Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Oslo or Milan, you actually bloody well end up there. Taking people there is a bit like bringing people to Darlington, Newcastle or York and calling the airport Durham (or will it be renamed Newcastle South or London North).

PM

PS. I recon the people who do the ads for RY are the same ones who do the ads for the cosmetic companies.

[DTVAirport]

Well all the above airports listed are used by flag carrier airlines and im sure you must be the only person on here that has not heard of them.I've heard of them, but the average passenger hasn't. Piltdown Man has the right idea, if you go to Frankfurt Hahn, you're not in Frankfurt, if you go to Frankfurt Main, you are. Unfortunately, MME is one of the airports that is named after a place it is not in.

[daz211]

People must be happy with Ryanair or the company wouldnt be so big would it, and not all pax want to travel to the city centre, some are not like sheep and have a mind of their own, some want to see more of a country than just the city, lets not forget the people in these countries how live outside the city, secondry airports are convinient for alot of people just look at Stansted and Luton in this country.

There is always transport provided say for eg at CIA airport to take you to the city of Rome if thats where you want to go, and if you didnt know CIA is closer to ROME than FCO.

Ryanair do not hide the fact that they fly to secondery airports if you dont like it dont use it, there are plenty others that will.

[Centre cities]

If one of the earlier posts is correct and the airport would not do a suitable deal for Baby over landing fees to keep them there hence the move out I might bet a pond to a penny they end up doing a far bigger deal to get Ryaniar there.

Perhaps they should have done one in the first place. Who knows.

Centre cities

[SWBKCB]

There have been a number of comments about the Echo's attitude towards the airport previously, and this piece from yesterday does seem to go out of its way to be negative.

However, whether you agree with the renaming or not this isn't the way to build up the 'brand'...:ugh:

"Airport asked public to pay for new signs
ROAD signs directing travellers to an airport have still not been updated - two years after its change of name caused outrage in the region.

Opponents criticised the decision to re-brand Teesside Airport and claimed that the cost of altering the signs - estimated at £250,000 - was a waste of money.
Last night, on the eve of the second anniversary of the switch to Durham Tees Valley, The Northern Echo learned that airport bosses had tried to get public cash to pay for the changes.

continued...
Airport owners Peel Holdings wanted a contribution from regional development agency One NorthEast - but were told: "You've had enough from us, already."

A spokesman for One NorthEast said: "We were approached for funding for new signage, but declined as we considered this a matter for the airport operators.

"However, One NorthEast has invested heavily in the future of the airport, funding a new £2m access road, the £530,000 passenger shuttle bus link from the main terminal to Darlington railway station and helped route development into Durham Tees Valley, such as the new Brussels service."

A total of 135 signs need to be replaced - some with wording and some with an aeroplane image - but bosses at the airport said that they were confident that they will be updated by the end of the year.

Project manager Gordon Smith said that the airport owners were on the verge of finalising an agreement with the Highways Agency to begin the work.

"Unfortunately, it has taken longer than we would have expected," said Mr Smith. "But we should be in a position fairly soon to get things under way."

The name-change was criticised by, among others, Middlesbrough Mayor Ray Mallon, Stockton South MP Dari Taylor, and Redcar and Cleveland Council cabinet chairman, Eric Empsom.

But supporters of the move insisted that the name should reflect the entire region - saying the move was favoured by the airlines operating from the airport.

Bmibaby was among a number of airlines which pushed hard for the change in the hope that the Durham name would attract more passengers from Europe.

Last week, it was announced that the company was withdrawing its low-cost services from the airport - six year-round flights and two seasonal ones.

Source: Nothern Echo website - 9:22am Saturday 23rd September 2006"

Thank you for your contribution. Can you quote your source?
AA&R Moderators

[DIRECTTANGODELTA]

Looks like BMI Babyhave done the dirty on MME again!! They have reduced the based 737 to one aircraft due to a tech problem with a BHX based 737. This has caused the cancellation and delay on many flights over the last few days as they dont want to disrupt the BHX programme!! Good riddance to you from MME and lets hope you never return!! I hope the local press pick this up.:\ :\ :\ :\

[carbheathot]

Not sure about road signs SWBKCB, most of us around here know where the airport is anyway, and dont like the idea of our taxes being used to prop up a daft marketing idea dreamed up by mancunians who think that running airports can be carried out by remote control yon side of the Pennines:uhoh:
But I can say that the departures board at Alicante was showing TEES-SIDE airport on Friday afternoon!
Whats in a name anyway?

[SWBKCB]

not saying that the road signs are significant in themselves, but is this an indication of either the attitude/commitment of Peel or the competence of the local management? Whether or not you agree with the name change (and like you I don't think it makes much difference), if you're going to do it why not do it properly??

:confused:

[carbheathot]

Yes,it is essential that if something as significant as changing the airports name is to be done, then it should be done properly.That's why a lot of people were bemused when 12 months after the change ,many tour operators were showing TEES-SIDE in their brochures, most european departure and arrivals boards had TEES-SIDE on their displays, and up until very recently 119.8 and 118.85 were TEES tower and TEES radar!
The problem with the road signs was allegedly that Highways Agency were unhappy that drivers seeing the Durham tees-valley signs would wrongly interpret then as directions to Durham City,25 miles up the (wrong) road.
I think that it is ironic that the very Airline who insisted upon Peel rebranding the airport have now pulled the plug.
For the sake of a lot of peoples jobs it is to be hoped that Ryanair or Thomsonfly get in quickand pick up some of the routes, or a cold winter will be followed by a pretty miserable summer.

[SWBKCB]

I know you never say never, but given these quotes from Philip Meeson of Jet2 on the NIA website following the launch of additional NCL flights, I don't think it's going to be LS.

“Today, with the addition of another four terrific Spanish destinations, we have set our sights on continuing to serve the people of Newcastle, Teesside and beyond by offering them low cost fares to the destinations of their choice"

“Of course, with bmibaby pulling its operation from Teesside, we anticipate even more passengers from the south of the region making the short journey north, in fact bookings are already suggesting the people of Teesside love Newcastle Airport and our low fares to boot.”

[skyman771]

... in fact bookings are already suggesting the people of Teesside love Newcastle Airport and our low fares to boot.”
And so they should! ;) :uhoh:

[HH6702]

Well it was between jet2 and flyglobespan.

Still have one airline in the running. Remember the airport was hoping to find a replacment within two weeks so if you dont hear anything be the middle of next week i would start to get a little worried.

[DB5]

There's nothing at all that I and many others from these parts love about Newcastle airport. Why should I have to drive 35 miles north, or south to LBA for that matter, adding to the congestion on the A1, when there's an airport on the doorstep.

[pug]

Any chance of FLYbe? I recon you could well hear something from FR too! They could start like they have at BOH and work their way up to a base? I still think TOM could be a possibility too, dont they only offer the sun routes from NCL? They could have something similar to DSA? Just a thought.

[HH6702]

well i dont think NCL really want FR to expand think they will be happy with jet2 and easyjet. problem with ryanair you fly miles from any town unlike easyjet and jet2.

think FR would be happy at durham tees valley

[daz211]

People keep on about Ryanair flying miles from anywhere, thats ok,
but dont you think thats why they are the largest european airline,
by flying those routes they dont go head to head with other airlines
and pick up alot of extra trade in europe where people dont want to drive miles to major airports.

If you all stop and think, we all rave about our local airports in the UK,
so why put down an airline that flys to local airports in europe.

Europe is far larger than the uk, so people in europe would have to travel
a larger distance to get to an airport if it was'nt for ryanair, I think other airlines in the uk are missing a trick as most of Ryanairs flights are full.

[MME4eva]

Personally I'd be over the moon of FR were to start operations from MME...or should I say re-commence operations!!

i have, however, several concerns about FR:

1) they have tried CIA from MME which was from all accounts not as well supported as believed

2) they have just reduced frequency on the DUB route from 1xdaily

i.e. surely that would make u think that FR would have to make a go of the above routes on a daily basis if they were to start operations to their other (possibly not as popular) routes on a daily basis

HOWEVER...

a) one solution for the FR management to dip their toe in the water is to offer what they do at DSA where they fly to european base airports on a 3xweekly basis rather than a dailt operation

b) added to that, I genuinely believe there is an untapped market to some of the german routes (offering flexible options for onwards travel to germany, france and the benelux countries) and ive wondered for ages why they havent ever tried a girona given theoptions to second homers, city breakers and the bucket and spades

c) finally, as other posters have pointed out, the whole 'ryanair only fly to secondary airports miles from their destination name' fits perfectly with the MME brand-which we all know is actually miles away from Durham!!

apart from TOM I really think this is the only plausible option for MME and the noises from both FR and DTV are promising!

[jabird]

Well, LS' additional routes from NCL up the game a bit, but this also turns up the heat on U2, who haven't had the best of summers on Tyneside.

Maybe Mr M is just rubbing salt into the situation, or could this be a bluff to squeeze MME for a deal? The economics of one based aircraft would not be so good for an outsider, but LS have already done something similar at BLK,whereas baby are now focussing on an axis which includes BHX, EMA and MAN. Should we really rule LS out completely? Or, after AH's constant bleatings about airport costs, could U2 ever be tempted to switch bases?

Interesting times ahead.