NCL Ghost Town ?

[ABZagain]

Rumour has it Braathens (I think thats how its spelt) has today suspended ops from NCL

[dv8]

More reason for BE or CitiExpress to snap up the Braathens & Sabena/DAT routes and take on some unemployed NCL crew. As BE did with Gill CC.

[toontartcart]

ghost town is the right word to describe ncl at the moment. firstly gill air go under, then air 2 bob withdraw, now braathens and the latest rumour jmc to close base? somebody somewhere needs to come and save ncl from disaster. maybe theres hope of go taking over air 2 bobs scheduled leisure routes and already BE have come to the rescue again on the BRU service! as the song goes THINGS CAN ONLY GET BETTER

------------------------------

are citiexpress really clued up to the vacant routes?

[Go-arounder]

Well just think what GILL could have done given the chance, Brussels 10,000pax X month, Stravanger 4000pax X month plus all of the routes they were just starting to make a profit on! Never did like Scottish banks!
Still GO would have been a little slower starting and BE have been a god send.
As for Air2bob, well they have had aircraft based at Newcastle a good while but only had based crews over the last four years and then mostly only cabin crew. JMC looks OK for now I hope.
ABZ AGAIN I guess from the smile you don't like "why I" land?
:confused:

[ 06 November 2001: Message edited by: Go-arounder ]

[starship]

I believe that even though there is a VERY bad situation at NCL at the moment, things as TOONTARTCART says "Will only get better".

Why ghost town?

Destinations served by Gill Airways are all still being served, and the loads on GO are VERY promising (double those on Gill).

SN leaving the BRU route has been replaced by BE, whom I expect will continue the success of an already very successful link.

The network served by Air Two Grand was not small, and for First Choice to still be selling those holidays must mean that other carriers will be serving those routes. One more based aircraft from another existing NCL charter carrier would cover just about the whole AMM programme.....
SCANDIC / AIRTOURS......

Air Scandic are interested in increasing their presence at NCL, following a highly successful Summer 2001 programme gaining a mega customer support base.

British European I believe will make a major success of their new base in NCL......

The customer base for low cost carriers is already here in NCL .... infact there are hundreds of pax daily, interlining through major hubs on rediculously priced tickets, to regions served by low cost carriers from London.

My thoughts go out to all affected by the recent problems here in NCL ( I myself am one of you). The future, as stated on a previous thread I feel is BRIGHT, just there is a bit cloud in the way......

Good Luck to all.

cheers,

starship :)

[ABZagain]

go arounder

Love the Toon the smiley was finger trouble

[JB007]

I'd put money on NCL been Go's next base!

[toontartcart]

starship, do you know something the rest of the ncl aviation community don't? as you say another based charter aircraft would cover the AMM programme but before the pullout by AMM, airtours were already basing two a/c for next summer (1 A320 and 1 757). And Scandic increasing their presence is doubtful, unless 2 finnair 757s are leased. unless someone knows different things will be the same as last year, apart from air 2 bobs flights will be operated by the likes of islandflug, spanair, futura and other foreign carriers.

i do hope british european do well, thou the bru route may not be that promising, considering much of the sn traffic was onward connecting pax, though only time will tell.

on a positive note, JB007 i pary to the highest god that you are right and ncl is the next GO base - it would be the best thing to happen to ncl for years. :p

[controller friendly]

You haven't seen a ghosttown unless you've had a trip to BFS lately!
The only saving grace is that the flights that are operating, are mostly full from what i hear :confused:

[sluggums]

toontartcart, 2 A320's actually

[HiSpeedTape]

Lets hope that AIH's plans for two based A320s next year have changed to using their own aircraft and not two of Skyservice's with their attendant Pilots and Engineers. Lets keep our own lads and lasses flying our own aircraft Plleease!

[ 10 November 2001: Message edited by: HiSpeedTape ]

[DIRECTTANGODELTA]

With reference to the above,the Skyservice operation only ever takes place at Teesside and Leeds/Bradford and visits Newcastle on "W" flights.Teesside is still getting Newcastle based A320s in for fuel at least twice weekly due to runwaylength/wind component/obstacle clearance off 25 etc,etc(but thats another story).In defence,the crews are excellent and very professional but not helping the unemployment situation!!As far as I know it will happen again next summer. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[late pushback]

A little bird tells me that AIH is about to pull its NCL - SFB a330 route.......

[WAIF-er]

Hispeedtape,

I dont know how much you are aware about the AIH & SSV setup, but I struggle to understand your "lets keep our lads & lasses flying our aircraft"?

The size of the AIH fleet enables them to maintain full utilisation all year round. Any excess demand is sub-chartered to others and also with an agreement with Skyservice to take their 320's. The sum total of this means that Airtours dont have to lay off people and aircraft during the winter.

If they put 2 of their own 320's at NCL, then another UK base will lose out, because the Skyservice aircraft have to go somewhere!

The SSV A330-300 will be doing NCL-MAN-SFB-NCL over the winter, using AIH pilots & cabin crew, all of whom are MAN based.

I'm sure NCL will pick up in time.

[toontartcart]

WAIF-er lets hope NCL does pick up in time. Lets recap the last few months. Firstly Gill went down and BE picked up the CDG and BHD routes. ABZ still vacant, leaving BA as a monopoly? STN picked up by Go and A2K and BU both withdrawn services.

What NCL needs is a full low cost operator base and a replacement charter for A2K, even though Airtours are doubling their base for next summer. Thats the only change for next summer, with SCY, BY, JMC and all the foreign carriers programmes being the same as they were this year!

So exactly how long does ncl have to wait for things to improve?

[starship]

In addition to toontartcarts posting,

BRITISH EUROPEAN have just announced that there is another cabin crew training course starting this week for NCL base. Good luck to all ex Gill / indeed any other airline who applied to BE.

cheers,

starship :)

[redfield]

Things do look bleak from some points of view at NCL but it's not 100% doom and gloom (only 85%!). Braathens intend to withdraw before the new year even though their pax figures are not disastrous, but Norwegian Air Shuttle who fly the route on behalf of BU are looking at keeping the route for themselves. Go almost certainly will expand before too long (their pax figures are high); the STN route will go to 3 rotations a day, and there's talk of expanding to European points on their network by next summer. The Brussels route is a worry at the minute: BE and DAT are both flying 146's on the route at almost the same times, each carrying between 0 and 20 people (there's been several empty aircraft recently). One airline will have to give in eventually - my guess is that BE will pull out once DAT re-establish themselves. As a BE employee told me the other day: "I hope we haven't overcooked things up here." So do we! As Toontartcart said, things can only improve! :p