CityFlyer to pull out of Ireland...????

[Flame]

Has anyone heard any news about CityFlyer looking at the possibility of pulling out Of Ireland..?, I am told that with BA looking at its LGW base, that Cityflyer reckon that there will be openings for better yielding routes out of LGW than Ireland and may go down that road, as and when BA pull out of some short Haul routes from LGW.

It may be true, as EI , being One World partners already are servicing LGW from Dublin at the moment

[fox_trot_oscar]

CityFlyer, to all intents and purposes, no longer exists to make its 'own' decisions.

However, SNN and ORK have already disappeared since the summer season and DUB has reduced from around 7 daily at the peak to 3 now with no nightstop.

I hope a BA 'mainline' presence is maintained in Southern Ireland, but in these difficult times, who knows....

<img src="frown.gif" border="0">

[cumulo-granite]

FO,

Yes - let's hope so. Even with the EI competition and latterly the codeshare agreement, I always believed that the three routes were 'decent' ones - with the possible exception of SNN...

<img src="confused.gif" border="0">

[yaffel1]

Well, Dublin was a strong route, although BA decided to make it more difficult by giving EI some slots, Cork was always borderline and Shannon was a disaster.

Under the new BA cost structure ORK and SNN were never going to survive, and it would have made better sense strategically to have handed over all of the Dublin slots for EI to operate rather than give up so many for Easyjet.

But, as has already been said, this is now a BA operation, not a CityFlyer one anymore.

[Tom the Tenor]

Papillon, Do you think Easyjet could make a hand of a Gatwick - Cork service? Once BA got it's hands on City Flyer it was always going to be curtins for LGW-ORK. On another thread it is said City Flyer turned around an aeroplane with three people but now with the BA name it takes SIX people! Ryanair have offered to start LGW-ORK but only if they get start-up incentives from Cork but as they are not a new carrier there is, quite rightly, no go from Cork. Easyjet would, of course, be eligable. <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

[yaffel1]

Tom the Tenor,
I can't really see why they would want to operate it. It is not one of their core markets and would also put them straight up against Ryanair who fly ORK-STN. LON-ORK is a pretty marginal market and to have that amount of competition would mean that something would have to give. Easyjet are much better served at LGW in both duplicating their LTN operation and picking key markets, as they are already doing. If they had a very large presence at LGW I suppose they might turn their attention to it eventually but I wouldn't hold your breath.

You're stuck with EI or FR for a while I'm afraid.

(Edited for stupid typo!)

[ 08 January 2002: Message edited by: Papillon ]</p>

[sgt.culpepper]

Tom the Tenor.Your comment on the incentives at ORK are not quite right.As I understand it, it is a new route that attracts the discounts not a new carrier.
Flame, I believe that BA are having a rethink on their plan to downsize at LGW, so perhaps the City Flier situation may not arise.

[akerosid]

I've heard allegations that BA is reconsidering the predicted downsizing of its LGW operation, but if EZY gets in there with anything like the kind of capacity they're talking about, will they have a choice? I don't think so; better make a graceful withdrawal than lose millions fighting EZY; it has the confidence, the war chest and the low costs to have life very unpleasant for BA.

As for ORK, I would not be surprised; low cost airlines on mainline routes, without much competition or downward pressure on fares, can do very well indeed - for instance, anyone try and get a cheap fare on FR's LGW-DUB??!!

[In trim]

Don't expect to see easyJet on LGW-ORK....it just ain't going to happen. Not for now, anyway.

easyJet want to mximise the number of turnrounds through each airport on their network and, to a large extent will concentrate on routes out of LGW that are already on their network....great economies of scale, handling infrastructure already in place, etc. Not only would ORK be a new city, but it would be an entirely new country, with no established marketing support, etc.

LGW growth over the next year unlikely to cover any stations which aren't already on the network.