SOUTHEND - 4

[Expressflight]

I can understand the LGW price being cheaper but I'm a little surprised that STN and LTN departures are more expensive.

Do Thomson holiday prices vary according to demand on a virtually daily basis in the same way that, say, EZY flight tickets do? If so that could be the explanation perhaps.

The first flight I could find on the Thomson website just now departs 25th May, not the 18th. What date did they originally announce the flights would commence?

[Barling Magna]

Thomson's original announcement back in November didn't give a date. They just stated "Flights start in May 2013 and run through to October."

[LTNman]

Traditionally IT brochure prices have always been more expensive from Luton and Stansted. This feeds extra passengers to Gatwick where most of the capacity is. Even my neighbour who lives no more than a mile from Luton used Gatwick last year to save money.

I think online price differentials are maintained leaving Luton and Stansted customers at a financial disadvantage thus cutting demand but maybe increasing profits for the likes of Thomson. By pricing Southend in between Gatwick and North London airports they are testing the water?

[Barling Magna]

I guess so. Let's hope it's a test that SEN passes.

[Barling Magna]

55,320 total passengers in February. That seems an encouraging figure to me and I believe, for the first time ever in its history, Southend has now seen over 700,000 pax pass through in a 12 month period (714,154 to be precise).

[Expressflight]

Yes, some very encouraging numbers for February.

It looks like VCE achieved a 68% load factor in its first three weeks of operation, with DUB improving to 73% and having its second highest monthly pax total (only last July being greater).

[willy wombat]

Out of interest, did Southend never exceed the 800,000 annual pax number in the glory years of the '60s?

[Expressflight]

No, I think it was something like 670,000 in around 1967.

[LN-KGL]

Southend peaked with 683283 terminal passengers in 1967 according to UK CAA

[LTNman]

A flight every few minutes in 1967 with aircraft like the Bristol 170 carrying around 20 passengers. Wish I could find my Southend Airport year book dated around 1970. I am sure Southend was something like the UK's second or third busiest airport in those days.

[LN-KGL]

Southend had 27369 air transport movements in 1967 and with that the average passenger number per flight was 25. 1967 wasn't the peak year counting air transport movements. The statistics I got goes back to 1961, and among those years 1962 has the highest with 37812 air transport movements. In other words the average number of passengers to/from Southend in 1962 was more than 10 passengers lower than five years later.

[Tagron]

Southend indeed for a time enjoyed the distinction of being the UK’s second or third busiest airport, in terms of movements, though this related to the early 1960s, several years before the passenger peak. I believe (though am not certain) that the claim of being second busiest consisted of not just ATMs but the substantial amount of activity generated by the Southend Municipal Flying School which included a large number of training movements by Austers. The Flying School, an anomaly in itself, became unviable due to the growth in commercial traffic particularly at weekends and ceased operations in 1964.

By 1967 there would have been few movements by the Bristol 170 car ferries which carried only 20 passengers at most. In fact the B170s had largely moved to Lydd, and BUAF at Southend had become an all Carvair operation. BUAF Carvairs were carrying up to 55 supplementary passengers although the more common configuration was for 25.

A substantial number of Southend’s ATMs in the 1960s would have been freight. SEN in that period ranked third in the UK for freight tonnage carried.

Channel Airways were the main contributor to the 1967 passenger statistics, with their 83-seat Viscount 812s for which they had contracts with major inclusive tour operators. Channel had the reputation of cramming more seats into their aircraft than any other UK operator. Figures that come to mind are 42 pax in a DC 3, 88 in a DC4, 139 in a Trident 1.

[Expressflight]

Tagron

I agree with your configuration figures for the Channel Airways aircraft: they really knew how to cram them in!

In 1967 there was a total of 35,549 movements, so around 8,200 non-ATMs, and 50,010 tonnes of freight was handled. The same source for those statistics, which I thought were 'official', show a figure of 692,685 for the total number of passengers in 1967.

It seems that the highest total movement figures were achieved in 1989 in fact, as the figures I have show a total of 113,463 if training overshoots are included. Only 175,306 pax passed through SEN in that year. Perhaps LN-KGL can confirm if those figures match his records.

Freight peaked in 1964 with a throughput of 64,540 tonnes.

[LN-KGL]

UK CAA only reported 91 926 movements in 1989 and 10 389 of these were classified as commercial movements. The same source also report the total passenger number only to be 99 426 and the cargo to be 10 786 tonnes. The largest passenger destination for SEN in 1989 was Billund, Denmark with 28 639 passengers.

[Expressflight]

LN-KGL

The 'official' figures I quoted come from a printout SEN sent me in 2010 when I requested the numbers in connection with some PR work I was helping them with. It seems strange if those are completely erroneous and I cannot imagine how they could have come to be so at odds with the CAA figures.

The document is headed 'Annual Statistics for Years 1954 to the present'; 'the present' seeming to be 2003 which is the last year shown. So much for relying on figures obtained from source!

[Barling Magna]

I hope Southend will be represented at the Routes Europe forum in Budapest in May. Some new routes by airlines other than EZY would be welcome.

[Expressflight]

I rather doubt it and I don't even know if the new appointee is in-post yet to replace Jonny Rayner, who left for EDI a couple of weeks ago.

[fatmed]

Has the Thomson charter been pushed back to 1st June start as looking at the Thomson flight page it says no flights available for Sat may 25th. Was looking for half term getaway ? Anyone know

[Expressflight]

When I looked at the 25th May departure last week it seemed to have very little availability so perhaps it is now sold out.

[Expressflight]

I'm pleased to say that SEN will be at Routes Europe in May. The replacement for Jonny Rayner will be announced early next month I believe.

[Barling Magna]

That's a relief. It shows they are still genuinely interested in going out and attracting new airlines. Perhaps they can start to make use of the Routes Online website too? There are many second and third tier routes which would be viable from SEN, with the right equipment.

[davidjohnson6]

Barling - perhaps you could suggest some of the routes you have in mind ?
Hint - Saarbrucken is not a viable route :-)

[southender]

Now that the first year of operations at the revamped airport has achieved everything and more than a lot of people expected, how is the limit on night flights affecting things.

Has the airport ever got anywhere near the 120 monthly figure (flights/movements I'm not sure which) imposed as part of the regeneration package?

The good old days of BAF operations or an Argonaut awakening most of South Essex with a 2am departure have long gone and will never be repeated, but is there any regular night traffic through SEN these days.

Do the German or Spanish Metroliners still pop up at all sorts of times or is it just the occasional maintenance or positioning flight that disturbs the wee small hours.

Cheers

[Expressflight]

No doubt Barling Magna has his own thoughts on this, but I would suggest just a few for starters:

Caen
Groningen
Dijon
Rotterdam (possibly)

I hesitate to suggest any UK domestic destinations as I believe the APD scuppers the chances of most candidates.

The phrase "with the right equipment" would indeed be a crucial element in making any of the above routes a success.

[Phileas Fogg]

Expressflight,

With route suggestions such as those you're lost at SEN and you'd be better placed in Oxford/Kiddington and/or Shoreham-By-Sea!

How about such mainstream routes as PAR, FRA, DUS, MUC, CPH, ZRH, MXP, ROM etc?

[8674planes]

I would like to see some business routes such as Manchester, Glasgow and Bristol possibly?

[Expressflight]

Cheap as ever I see Phileas.

I assume your 'suggestions' are facetious.

[davidjohnson6]

My personal and humble opinion...

The first train from London arrives at 0630 while the last train departs at 2300. This means any departure before about 0800 or arrival before about 2130 has to survive purely on Essex residents. If an airline wishes to base aircraft overnight at SEN, then the potential customer base is limited and such an airline efectively must look to mainstream cities (although not necessarily primary airports if it saves on airport fees)

Until the trains have extended hours, I'm partly with Phileas on this one in terms of which routes will work for now. Any niche cities could only work for aircraft based elsewhere or flights that are a) in the middle of the day and b) far from an airport that currently enjoys good service to London.

[Barling Magna]

Since you ask, I'd suggest Copenhagen, Munich, Cologne, Milan, Madrid, Budapest, Prague, Warsaw, Nice, Hamburg.......

[Toxic Thrust]

I would go for CGN, NCE, MXP and certainly a stab at some more eastern European destinations. I am also suprised that Malta has not appeared as a two time s week space filler as the Burstin flights of the 80's used to be well populated with aged Southenders for some year round sun. Historically the airport also had links to the Scandic part of Europe (Braathens, Transair, Maersk, Baltic) and some of those thinner routes might work on something smaller than an A319

[Expressflight]

davidjohnson6

I agree with you regarding the problem for a SEN-based aircraft and they certainly need to do something as soon as possible about the lack of early trains.

That problem doesn't arise to the same extent though if the aircraft is mainland Europe based (note that the SEN-DUB changes to DUB-SEN next month as an example of getting round that shortcoming), and that has been the intention with the airports/operators that I've recently been involved with on possible SEN routes.

Barling Magna

I answered your original question "second and third tier routes which would be viable from SEN". Your suggestions are all primary destinations, as were those offered by PF, and there's no reason why EZY shouldn't perhaps show an interest in some of them as they might support an A319. My thoughts were on those thin routes which might supplement the EZY traffic; something which I think it is important for SEN to try to attract.

[LTNman]

The first train from London arrives at 0630 while the last train departs at 2300. This means any departure before about 0800 or arrival before about 2130 has to survive purely on Essex residents.

Didn't Aer Lingus reverse the Dublin route because of this? It surly can only be a matter of time before the railway extends its hours.

[Expressflight]

LTNman

See my post above.

[Barling Magna]

Fair point, Expressflight. I was responding to Phileas' wind up......

Some 2nd and 3rd tier destinations could include Billund, Bergen, Lyon, Maastricht, Bordeaux, Hanover, Gothenburg, Salzburg.......

[tws123]

Would be good if Maastricht Airlines planned route from SEN to Maastricht in 2014 comes to anything. Their first flights start in less than a weeks time (25th March), and depending on how successful their launch is, will probably determine if the network expansion is likely to go ahead.

[Barling Magna]

Maastricht Airlines start-up delayed until 1st May.......

Delay of operations | Maastricht Airlines (http://www.maastricht-airlines.com/en/uitstel-vluchten/)

[tws123]

Looks like a minor delay in the overall scheme of things, but none the less they'll be annoyed at this.

[LTNman]

Only 17 passengers booked on this mornings Belfast service. Room to spare even if Easyjet was using a Bristol 170. Clearly it is still early days and today was midweek in March but I would be expecting much high numbers than that. Does anyone have a monthy breakdown of loads per route?

Edit: Actually has this Belfast service been running almost a year now? If it has these figures are quite bad

[GAZMO]

The difficulty with the Belfast service is getting to SEN to the 7.15 flight. As in previous post the first train arrives at 6.30, and though SEN is an easy airport to pass through it is tight if EZY want you at the gate 40 minutes before the flight.

It is more important that NI pax have the early morning flight from BFS. From May the schedule is being downgrade to daily ex Tuesday

Would be better if late morning and evening flight from SEN

[Barling Magna]

Amsterdam - 11283 (72%)
Belfast - 7438 (48%)
Dublin - 4948 (74%)
Jersey - 3565 (57%)
Alicante - 4407 (94%)
Malaga - 5821 (93%)
Barcelona - 7543 (86%)
Faro - 4378 (88%)
Geneva 2918 (78%)
Venice - 2571 (69%)



Not sure how accurate these stats are; I've copied them from another forum. Apart from BFS and Jersey they look pretty good for February.

[Expressflight]

The load factor for SEN-JER seems to actually be 71% for February, assuming they operated the published schedule of MFSaSu throughout the month, and I calculated AMS at 75%. Otherwise I agree with Barling Magna's figures for the other routes. I would suggest that's a pretty good overall performance for February and the VCE load factor is lower due to the fact the service only commenced 8th February, with probably few inbound travellers on the first couple of rotations.

LTNman

Your are quite right is suggesting that the BFS route performs poorly overall. Load factors have been below 60% in all months other than June, July & August as far as I can calculate. The current first arriving train from London isn't a practical proposition for catching the 0715 BFS, but whether any progress is being made in changing that situation I don't know.

[McGoonagall]

It surly can only be a matter of time before the railway extends its hours. Unfortunately the railways are a commercial beast these days. Putting on a new service is not as straightforward as it sounds. Like airlines, railway companies do not carry surplus units. Every train will be diagrammed either in service or planned maintenance with maybe one or two on stand by in case of failures. Paths for an earlier train would have to be obtained, this may not be possible because of planned engineering work. Staff would have to be diagrammed and intermediate staffed stations manned earlier. This all costs a lot of money.

They would look at the cost benefits and the revenue generated from two flights, one a medium TP and the other a 319, will not make the figures add up I'm afraid. The one bright spot on the horizon is that the Greater Anglia franchise is to be re-let in mid 2014. Prospective bidders should be encouraged by the airport management and others to put an earlier train in their franchise bid.

[Expressflight]

McGoonagall

I go along with all your points apart from the number of flights affected.

An 0600 arrival train would meet the needs of passengers on up to four A319 departures this summer, so the numbers using the service could be considerably greater than you were suggesting.

[McGoonagall]

That would make it better. Perhaps easyJet could have an arrangement with GA to sell rail tickets on the flights as FCC does with Luton arrivals. It is important to get an earlier service as it can only be a win-win situation for all concerned.

[tayair6]

London Southend Airport is celebrating its busiest 12 months on record.

More than 720,000 passengers used the airport in the year to the end of February 2013, beating the previous record of 692,000 travellers, back in 1967 when it was the UK’s third busiest airport.

The airport’s managing director, Alastair Welch, said: “We designed our new facilities to be simply easier and the whole team continues to work hard to ensure we deliver on our very special commitments to passengers – that they should wait no more than four minutes to go through security and that, on arrival with hand baggage, they are on the rail station platform within 15 minutes of leaving the aircraft.

“It is clearly this unique service that means more and more passengers are choosing London’s newest airport.”

[davidjohnson6]

Sounds like there's a competent person working in PR who is good at drafting written statements for staff to sign and getting the desired message out to the wider world...

[Phileas Fogg]

“It is clearly this unique service that means more and more passengers are choosing London’s newest airport

Ah, that will be Oxford/Kidlington that more and more passengers are choosing then :)

[nonemmet]

If the first train were to arrive at 0600 easyjet would move their first departure forward to 0645. Easyjet have odd ideas about time.

[mikkie4]

Once again SEN comes to the rescue of LCY,dont know why cityflyer dont move to SEN, it must have bean noticed that itmake more sence to either base/fly into SEN rather than keep diverting from LCY due to bad weather

[AirLCY]

Maybe because the customers don't want to fly there?

[Expressflight]

mikkie4

I'm afraid you're getting into the realms of fantasy.

Still, it's nice to see LCY diversions on a frequent basis with BA's wetleased Saab 2000 on their IOM-LCY service doing so yesterday morning.

AirLCY

The odd thing was that both the LCY and IOM departure/arrivals boards showed the LCY-IOM as cancelled and it appears the aircraft positioned back to IOM empty. Why would they not coach/train the outbound pax to SEN? I don't think I would be very happy if I was booked on that flight and discovered that had happened. Perhaps both airport's information boards were incorrect, although that seems unlikely.

[Phileas Fogg]

Expressflight,

Perhaps they needed to get the aircraft back to IOM to protect the rest of the day services, i.e. cancel one flight in favour of protecting the rest of the day!

The joy of scheduled services ... "Cancel, rebook first available flight"

Somewhere, someplace, there will be guys in a back room with all the information to hand and in the best place to decide which pax to upset and which pax to protect and often such is not obvious to airports and/or airport handling agents.

[Lord Gumboil Jnr.]

Gentlemen All.

For what it is worth - I understood some while ago that the train operator is keen to operate additional trains and that it is Network Rail who are being intransigent, claiming that due to maintenance requirements they cannnot release the track. It was suggested to me that there were those connected with the railway who would prefer to see the 'privately' operated station fail, as they think it is they who should put their mark of 'efficiency' on it! There was mention of some outdated trade union views. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this, but assessed the information source as being reliable.

[davidjohnson6]

I can understand that Network Rail can prevent trains running during the night and that opening train stations on the route can quickly get very expensive.

Chartering buses / coaches is not expensive and a way to test demand before making a bigger organisational change - also keeps Network Rail out of the frame. What motivations would Greater Anglia / Abellio have towards operating coaches, stopping at maybe 2 stops en route and which would accept train tickets as valid ? Would the Dept of Transport or a rail regulator have any cause to object either ?

[Lord Gumboil Jnr.]

davidjohnson6

Interesting questions to which I do not have the answers, apart from wondering whether for the operation of any form of regular coach service, however temporary/experimental, that possibly some form of road passenger transport licence would have to be sought.

[vulcanised]

Isn't the X10 an option?

[LTNman]

I understood some while ago that the train operator is keen to operate additional trains and that it is Network Rail who are being intransigent, claiming that due to maintenance requirements they cannnot release the track.

I wonder where you got that information from as it seems to be rubbish.

The truth is that trains do run a lot earlier and a lot later but in the wrong direction. While there is no train service serving Southend from London that would allow passengers to catch the first easyjet departures of the day the first train from the airport heading to London leaves at 04:35 followed by a 5:05 departure.

At night there are London departures right up until 00:18 which arrives at Southend at 01:20. From the airport the 23:05 is the last London bound train of the day which is of no use if you are arriving at anytime after 22:30.

Stobart doesn’t help matters by forcing late arriving passengers to leave the terminal who would be prepared to wait for the 04:35 departure to London.

All of London’s airports with much better 24/7 public transport links still have passengers that spend the night in the terminal so they don’t have to travel in the early hours but that is not an option here at Southend.

[Expressflight]

LTNman

For what it's worth my understanding of the situation is in line with that of Lord Gumboil Jnr and that Greater Anglia are prepared to offer earlier trains. It does seem to be Network Rail who do not want to agree to this.

[LTNman]

Maybe so but you still can't get past the fact that there is only 3 hours in the night when trains are not running. It's just a shame that they are travelling in the wrong direction to benefit the airports passengers.

[EssexMan61]

In fact the current operating times are actually even greater than set out by LtnMan -

Monday - Saturday - First train departs Southend Victoria at 0400 and is scheduled at Southend Airport Station at 0405.

Monday - Saturday - Last train departs London Liverpool Street at 0050 and is scheduled at Southend Airport Station at 0147.

Sunday equivalent times are 0615 / 0619 and 0044 / 0148 (although in reality Sunday trains are currently frequently partially replaced by a substitute bus service due to engineering.

[EI-A330-300]

EI have released SEN-DUB for winter and its down to 6 weekly, more could be added as EIR don't release full schedules yet but what is release is for T/A connections. I can't see the third daily flight for the winter season anyway.

[Lord Gumboil Jnr.]

LTNman

The fact that trains are running during times that would be beneficial to the airport, were they to be operating in the opposite direction, hardly changes the fact that it does seem that there appears to be those who will not co-operate with the Stobart operation. This is all the more borne out by the pleasant manner in which you went about blowing a hole in the claim that the track cannot be released due to maintenance requirements. I did say that I could not vouch for my earlier remarks, but it is interesting to read that Expressflight has also heard something on the 'lines' of Network Rail not being helpful. I have further been advised that there are positioning trains that pass through the station after the last evening departure to Liverpool Street. Short of hanging around after my cocoa time one night I cannot confirm this is gospel, but my informant should know what he is talking about.

[EssexMan61]

I frequently catch the last train (0050 from London Liverpool Street)on the way home from work. It is not unusual for this to be "switched" from the "down" line to the "up" line at points between Shenfield and Southend Victoria (the route reduces from 4 track to 2 track operation once the mainline branches off at Shenfield). Presumably there is some reason (maintenance I guess) which currently necessitates single-line working during the wee small hours. Can't say exactly how long this goes on into the early morning as if you miss the 0050 at Liv. Street you have to wait for the 0528 or shell out for a taxi home. Certainly - when i was a kid in the 70s - trains did run all night on this line - albeit at very extended intervals.

[Lord Gumboil Jnr.]

That is very interesting information EssexMan61 and probably goes someway into throwing light on the problems that exist regarding the operation of later trains serving Southend Airport to London.

Noting your remarks concerning the night operation of the Liverpool St. - Southend route back in the 1970's only goes to show how privatisation has all been 'in the public interest' I don't think!

[Expressflight]

The easyJet 2013/2014 Winter schedule has appeared on their website today and the SEN programme looks quite encouraging with frequency increases on many routes compared to this Winter.

[Jack1985]

PMI also year-round now.

[FRatSTN]

The easyJet 2013/2014 Winter schedule has appeared on their website today and the SEN programme looks quite encouraging with frequency increases on many routes compared to this Winter.

And Stansted with further decreases. EasyJet are really starting to p*** me off with this grow at Southend and cut back Stansted strategy they seem to have adopted. I can't see why they can't find a way to grow at both of them. Ryanair can grow at both Liverpool and Manchester and at Edinburgh and Prestwick at the same time, so why can't EasyJet do the same here???

24 departures with 6 maybe 7 based aircraft I made it on a Monday in January from Stansted and that really is outrageous to say the least, regardless of what "extra" they have at Southend! There better be a big new route announcement up their sleeves.

Southend is a great alternative to those living in East London, Suffolk and Essex, but what good is it to those living more than 30 miles from it?! Stansted is a more than realistic option even to us in the Midlands, unlike Southend. I thought EasyJet went to Southend to serve a greater catchment area, instead they've got themselves a much smaller one!!!

I hope EasyJet will one day see sense and realise the damage they are causing to their customer base and their support from those in the Stansted catchment area. I'm not opposed to EasyJet growing at Southend, but I am opposed to EasyJet migrating traffic to Southend from Stansted.

[davidjohnson6]

FRatSTN - while I sympathise with your situation, Easyjet has no public service obligations at Stansted. It has no formal duties to people living in one part of the UK - its duties are to its shareholders to provide a good return on capital, and possibly also to its employees to provide continued employment. A commercial airline should target profit, not turnover / volume of passengers. Travelling over 30 miles to an airport does not seem a great hardship - perhaps an hour's drive ?

[vulcanised]

The reported fee increases at STN may well have influenced them.

[pabely]

Fee increases from MAG?

[Barling Magna]

Easyjet won't be able to move too many more aircraft over to SEN, it's just not big enough even with its greatly expanded terminal opening in December. I'd be surprised to see more than 5 EZY's based at SEN by summer 2014 so at least that number should remain at STN.

[pabely]

Or maybe another North London airport which will have free overnight stands shortly???

[davidjohnson6]

If Easyjet were to base 6 (or even 7) aircraft at Southend year round, the airport would be getting rather close to hitting the 2 million passengers per year mark, at which point various constraints loom large. Are Stobart ready for such a 'all eggs in one basket' business model ?

[LTNman]

Easyjet will have restrictions imposed on them at Southend,

Night Flight Controls (2300hrs – 0630hrs)

• No Passenger Flights to take off or land between 2300 and 0630 unless they are Delayed or Diverted, but up to 90 Passenger Flights per month may be scheduled to land during the shoulder period of 2300 and 2330hrs

With only an average of 3 flights a night allowed between 23:00 and 23:30 and nothing after that holiday flights arriving in the early hours won't be happening at Southend.

[Barling Magna]

Exactly. Under current conditions SEN won't grow above 2 million pax annually, but that's always been in Stobart's business model so hopefully they are happy with it. Maybe another airline would pay higher fees than EZY, so perhaps Stobart would like to attract others - otherwise why would they bother going to Routes Europe in May?

[tayair6]

Dont forget Easyjet have expand at Gatwick that reduce Stansted service

[EssexMan61]

Further to Lord Gumboils previous post - and at the risk of sounding like a complete anorak - YES - the service was miles better when it was operated by British Rail - Eastern Region - but I think that the costs must have been enormous (nothing necessarily wrong with that given the vital nature of public transport).

We used to have deprtures from Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria at 0022, 0122, 0323, and 0420 every morning before the start of the "normal" daily service. From Southend Victoria - there were services to Liverpool Street at 2335, 0217, and 0410 (and all these were EVERY night). In addition - even small stations en route like Hockley had staff (one!!) on site 24 hours per day. And this was in the 1970s - not some dinosaur age!!

So - there would appear to be absolutely no reason why this line could not return to 24 hour operation - if the current owners / franchisees so desired. BUT - obviously - it all comes down to money against service and I doubt we will ever see this again.

But - Network Rail / Greater Anglia ( or rather Abellio) et al - British Rail did it decades ago - if you want to bring this back - what is stopping you?

[LTNman]

Nine and a half minutes of shear magic. Southend Airport at its best

AIR FERRIES - British Pathé (http://www.britishpathe.com/video/air-ferries/query/southend+airport)

[mikkie4]

loved the name FAT ALBERT,more planes should be named,trains have names whynot planes!!!!

[Hangar6]

Agreed EI name all planes and this extends to the four leased to Vs makes it a little more ersnnel

[Barling Magna]

Don't forget Virgin's rock 'n' roll names on their aircraft: Dancing Queen, Uptown Girl, Jersey Girl, Tubular Belle, Virginia Plain, Ruby Tuesday etc.......

I preferred the Carvairs when they were named after bridges.....

[vulcanised]

Just so long as they don't name them after http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/censored.gif footballers !

[Barling Magna]

Just so long as they don't name them after http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/censored.gif footballers !

Southend United footballers would be OK, but Britt Assombolonga would need an A321 rather than an A319.......

[EI-BUD]

Easyjet won't be able to move too many more aircraft over to SEN, it's just
not big enough even with its greatly expanded terminal opening in December.


If easyJet want to expand at SEN, they could do so without basing more aircraft by serving the airport from other bases with aircraft from those bases. Allowing the SEN fleet to serve destinations that are not bases.

This could work well within the current schedule, i.e. early inbounds from other bases when the based fleet are on outbound sectors, could work quite well.

If easyJet wanted to base more aircraft, could say another 2 be parked at remote stands and start their day slightly later than the first wave of flights by easyJet when the space become available at the terminal, though this may be considered less than effective...

EI-BUD

[LTNman]

It will be interesting to see what happens when Southend starts to edge close to 2 million passengers. I suspect it will be no different than London City and most other airports, the goal post will be moved.

[Expressflight]

EI-BUD

There will be a total of ten close-in stands in front of the extended terminal when it is completed in January 2014(?). There are currently five stands in front of the terminal and the other five are now complete and available to serve the extension to the terminal upon its completion.

[tayair6]

EI-BUD is right that set example that Easyjet wouldn't have problem with it .....simple as that .......

[Tagron]

The issue of 757 commercial operations from SEN was discussed recently on the Blackpool thread. I commented that my understanding was that a Code D aircraft such as the 757 was likely to need CAA approval to operate revenue flights from a Code 3C airport. I see that the SEN website now has a revised page of operational information, and under the heading of Maximum Aircraft Size is the following statement:

London Southend can accommodate passenger aircraft including up to Boeing 757 size,including most of the Airbus A320 and B737 families of aircraft, regional jets such as British Aerospace RJ-100 and Embraer 195 families. Operators must satisfy themselves that the weights and sector lengths that they operate their aircraft to, are at all times suitable. Wide-body passenger flights are not possible from London Southend.

The page it replaced, which was well out of date, only referred to 757 operations in the context of maintenance purposes. Hopefully this means that SEN now has CAA approval for 757 revenue operations, always assuming they had identified the need for it in the first place

[tayair6]

oh i assumed SEN is capable of it ...... all the best SEN future .....

[mikkie4]

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY SOUTHEND/EASY JET.HOPE THERE IS MORE TO COME

[tws123]

Heard rumours of Volotea evaluating scheduled services from SEN. Would be an excellent airline for SEN to get onboard, especially with the mix of city and leisure destinations that they currently operate. Has anyone got any news or thoughts on this?

[fatmed]

Would this be as a base? Or inbound traffic from an existing base? Would be good to sea Madrid and Milan from Sen

[Expressflight]

As I understand it the reports of them "evaluating scheduled services from SEN" is more wishful thinking than any definite statement from Voletea to that effect.

[vulcanised]

There are several regular daily commercial flights which don't appear on the arrivals/departures board.

Presumably these are freight carriers?

[LTNman]

Heard rumours of Volotea evaluating scheduled services from SEN.

If I was working for the sales teams at Gatwick, Stansted and Luton I would be checking this thread everyday for leads.:oh::oh::oh:

[vulcanised]

Visit the Southend Vulcan at Southend Airport on 28 Apr 2013 at 10:00 (http://www.echo-news.co.uk/events/Southend/850623.Visit_the_Southend_Vulcan_at_Southend_Airport/?ref=ms)

[Barling Magna]

March's passenger stats show that a total of 776,312 passengers passed through SEN in the first twelve months of the start of EZY operations. Most impressive.

[Barling Magna]

65,138 pax in March. Dublin and Belfast figures seem more encouraging at last:

Amsterdam 12,563, Faro 5693, Belfast 9786, Alicante 4608, Barcelona 8168, Malaga 5399, Palma 580, Dublin 5298, Jersey 4450, Geneva 3293, Venice 4239.

[Expressflight]

Barling Magna

GVA was actually even better that your typo said; 3,923 rather than 3,293.

March continued the improvement on DUB which started in February: January 3,330, February 4,948 and March 5,298.

[mikkie4]

just been looking at pictures of volotea 717,nice looking aircraft

[GAZMO]

Unfortunately the BFS service is going down to daily so numbers will probably decrease from May.
From info it appears NI pax are using the service but not from the SEN end

[Barling Magna]

Very likely. The services to Edinburgh start in May; I suspect they'll show higher figures.

[tws123]

Perhaps Thomson/First Choice will add new routes to its 2014 summer schedule which is released on the 25th April? Not sure how to interpret the article, but by the looks of things they should at the very least operate the Palma de Majorca route next year again which is good.

Thomson, First Choice unveil summer 2014 programmes (http://www.traveldailymedia.com/152087/thomson-first-choice-unveil-summer-2014-programmes)

[SENChris]

They will be offering Ibiza from Southend per the press release (http://communicationcentre.thomson.co.uk/News/Thomson-s-summer-2014-launch-includes-exclusive-island-hotel-and-new-Sensatori-14f.aspx)

[tws123]

That's good, but would have been nice to see some different destinations. I would guess that this may be operated by Volotea again since they also operate to/from Ibiza.

[JTSB]

You probably will see different routes, because I would imagine easyJet will stop flying SEN to IBZ if First Choice do the route - thus allowing easyJet to replace their route with something new.

[pamann]

It will more than likely be a once weekly charter flight to IBZ. I don't see easyJet dropping PMI as a destination this year just because Thomson are offering a weekly charter to tie in with their own package holidays.

[tws123]

I can confirm that Palma de Majorca will continue in 2014 as Thomson Cruises are offering SEN as a departure point for cruises from Palma.

News - Thomson Cruises slaloms its way to summer 2014 launch (http://communicationcentre.thomson.co.uk/News/Thomson-Cruises-slaloms-its-way-to-summer-2014-launch-150.aspx)

[mikkie4]

great news for SEN that they will be using SEN for their med cruise holidays in 2014......

[mikkie4]

thomson block booking easyjet seats for winter ski holidays

[tayair6]

Thomson getting worries Easyjet dominant

[tws123]

According to the Thomson booking engine flights will operate to Ibiza from 23rd May until 19th September using Jetairfly. Don't know if this is true as it only appeared this morning so would guess there could be some changes.

[Barling Magna]

Presumably using their B737-400s....?

[Tagron]

Jetairfly like Thomson are part of the TUI group. Their aircraft have the same livery as the Thomson fleet. So that seems to make sense. It looks like a choice between the 737-700 and the E190 for a SEN programme as they no longer use 737-400s. But there is plenty of time for changes.

SEN-PMI is also shown as operated by Jetairfly, with two rotations per week, a Tuesday service in addition to this year's Saturday flight.

[tws123]

Jetairfly operate 737-700s as their smallest aircraft I believe.
Also it looks like Jetairfly will operate the Palma route too in 2014.

Ibiza 2014 schedule (FRIDAYS):

DEP: IBZ 10:20
ARR: SEN 11:40

DEP: SEN 12:40
ARR: IBZ 16:05

Palma 2014 schedule (TUESDAY & SATURDAYS):

DEP: PMI 8:40
ARR: SEN 10:00

DEP: SEN 10:40
ARR: PMI 14:20

[Barling Magna]

They have a couple of E190s also, but yes I guess the 737-700s will be the equipment used.

[8674planes]

So Volotea are operating the SEN-PMI service this year and Jetairfly will be operating the SEN-PMI & IBZ in 2014?

[mikkie4]

Geneva airport has released details of easyjet schedual flights to SEN for winter 13/14,up to 6 flights per week and new flights on MON-THURS,might be something to do with the 4th based plane arriving in june

[Expressflight]

I assume these will be the 6 x weekly as bookable on the easyJet website and GVA are just catching up.

One piece of information that I gleaned from the latest published Minutes of the Consultative Committee was the statement there by Alastair Welch that EZY hadn't intended adding a 4th aircraft as early as summer 2013 in their original plans.

[Phileas Fogg]

Aren't GVA routes operated by EasyJet Switzerland (Formerly TEA) rather than mainline EasyJet?

[Barling Magna]

One piece of information that I gleaned from the latest published Minutes of the Consultative Committee was the statement there by Alastair Welch that EZY hadn't intended adding a 4th aircraft as early as summer 2013 in their original plans.

Wasn't the original plan that the expanded terminal would be open for the summer 2014 season rather than this year? Maybe that was in their thinking?

Anyway, all a sign of success, so roll on the fifth based EZY jet........:)

[tayair6]

That was i thought when SEN terminal is finished this year . THEN Easyjet or another Airlines prepare planned for extra routes from SEN ...... Next year

[tws123]

Seems a possibility that the Geneva route could become year round next year.

'Geneva, which features in the airport's winter schedule, could also became a year-round destination, according to sources at the airport.'

Source:
Routes News - EasyJet opens alternative London?Edinburgh route (http://www.routes-news.com/news/1-news/1374-easyjet-opens-alternative-london-edinburgh-route)

[Expressflight]

Equally interesting in that article is the comment that this summer's EDI is seen as being mainly a tourist route but that it will change to more business-friendly timings this winter. Does that mean double-daily I wonder.

Incidentally, the inaugural flight yesterday carried 72 pax outbound and 40 on the return.

[Tagron]

According to the timetable the plan for SEN-EDI is that the frequency will rise from six per week to seven in the course of the winter schedules. Monday.Tuesday and Saturday will be early morning rotations. Wednesday Thursday Friday and Sunday will be evening rotations. This pattern is identical to that adopted for SEN-BFS when that route reduces from double daily and with very similar timings.

[CabinCrewe]

You'd think they could have rustled up some freeloaders on an inaugural to make it look popular for the press!

[Barling Magna]

Yes, indeed. It was a strangely low key launch of the new destination compared with the launches that others have received over the past year. I'm sure EDI will be a popular destination from SEN though, given time for people to become aware of the service.

[Expressflight]

I hesitate to question easyJet's judgement on matters of scheduling but I'm surprised at the winter EDI schedule, which seems neither one thing nor the other for the business traveller. I would have thought that with four based aircraft a double daily could be accommodated.

They obviously originally thought that BFS needed a double daily frequency and now they will have both BFS and EDI routes being of only limited use to the business traveller.

[goldeneye]

SEN for business in London from EDI could be pretty good. RBS's office is only a few miniutes from Liverpool St station so I'm sure a double daily from EDI would work well for them. Not to mention many other companies and individuals.

[FRatSTN]

Monday.Tuesday and Saturday will be early morning rotations. Wednesday Thursday Friday and Sunday will be evening rotations.

That surely tells us that EasyJet are targeting leisure travellers from The Essex/East London area travelling to Edinburgh as a city break. Timings make it ideal for weekend vists (Friday night/Saturday morning to Sunday night) and Monday-Friday and mid week visits (which may appeal to some business travellers originating from Southend although the lack of an early morning rail service from London is an issue).

The timings don't seem favourable for travel originating from Belfast and Edinburgh to Southend. It seems EasyJet are realising that Southend is much more of a passenger generator than a receiver, (basically many more passengers using SEN as their origin than their destination) unlike the other London airports which are more 50/50 hence why they have timings and schedules to support that.

[Barling Magna]

I think you might be right about SEN being seen as a passenger gnerator, FRatSTN. However, there's no reason why that should be the case in the longer term. As numerous discussions on this and other forums have shown, SEN is only a few minutes further away from central London than STN so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. Maybe it's just that Southend sounds like a standalone town rather than LGW and LHR which sound like London airports (would London Crawley work as well...?) and Stansted which is just an airport near London. Of course, Luton is a standalone town too but it is deeply set within the nation's consciousness as an airport near London. Maybe it will just take time and word of mouth (always the best marketing tool) for Southend Airport to be perceived as London Southend Airport.....

[sxflyer]

72 out and 40 back isn't too bad actually on the inaugural EDI. It's a good indicator of the inbound and outbound demand. It gives a combined load of 112 once a few rotations have been operated if numbrrs temain consistent plus you would hope numbers would pick up a bit as word gets around.

[mikkie4]

once again SEN comes to the rescue of LCY,couple of emb 170 diverted due to high winds at LCY,dont know why airlines that use LCY cant see that rather than keep diverting to SEN it would be better and more cost efective for them to use SEN

[AirLCY]

Pretty obvious answer, it's rare compared to the total flights into LCY and their passengers don't want to fly to SEN

[LTNman]

once again SEN comes to the rescue of LCY,couple of emb 170 diverted due to high winds at LCY,dont know why airlines that use LCY cant see that rather than keep diverting to SEN it would be better and more cost efective for them to use SEN

Maybe because the demand is for travel into the City Airport at a premium price and not Southend at a cheap price.

Two very different airports with two different markets.

[Expressflight]

I know that SEN would like to entice across a couple of airlines that currently use LCY but, as LTNman says, the attractions of LCY cannot be directly matched by SEN or any other LON airport.

The cost savings in using SEN would need to be extremely significant and only if their cost of using LCY was currently making a route uneconomic would a move to SEN make sense. If it came down to either dropping a route or transferring it to SEN they might choose the latter option. There may, of course, be one or two cases where that does apply. No doubt SEN will be making their case strongly at this month's Routes Europe event.

[tws123]

Aer Arann/Aer Lingus Regional intend to add a 4th daily Dublin rotation to take advantage of the 'popular' onward connections to the USA.

Article here: Aer Lingus Regional plans Southend expansion (http://www.traveldailymedia.com/153856/aer-lingus-regional-plans-southend-expansion)

[Locker10a]

Anyone know the price of a day return train ticket to Liverpool street from Southend??
Also good to hear about the extra Aer Lingus Regional flight! Its will be handy for day trips!

[LTNman]

£27.10 for a day return. £35.30 including a travel card for London.

[smallpilot]

LTN Man, the fare you quote is the full price 'anytime' day return. Off peak and weekend tickets start from a more reasonable £15 return, even cheaper in a 'groupsave' if 3 or more travel together.
The equivalent fares from STN are £32.80 (anytime) and £25 for the cheapest.

[EssexMan61]

I got dropped off at London Liverpool Street the other morning - I was en route to Luton Airport. £26-90 for a day return from Liv St. and the bus service at Luton Airport Parkway was a total shambles!!! Reminded me why I am not to keen on Luton. Still - at least there is a proper rail service to Luton in the early morning - WAKE UP GREATER ANGLIA!!!! EARLIER TRAINS FROM LONDON TO SOUTHEND PLEASE!!!

[Barling Magna]

It ain't no good shoutin' on 'ere to Greater Anglia. Contact them directly guv'nor...:)

[Barling Magna]

...... and always happy to help, here's the webpage you'll need....

Contact Forms ? Greater Anglia (http://www.greateranglia.co.uk/contact-us/contact-form)

[compton3bravo]

Did you complain to the people at Luton Parkway about ´´the total shambles´´ you encountered - if not why not. If you don´t complain you and tell them what you think it will not improve.

[LTNman]

Whether it is Greater Anglia for Southend or First Capital Connect for Luton I can't help but feel complaints fall on deaf ears and it won't make the slightest bit of difference.

I would think that the morning and late night train service or should I say the lack of a train service at Southend is having an impact on passenger numbers and might well have an impact on airlines thinking about using Southend. This issue really needs to be fixed.

[Expressflight]

LTNman

I agree entirely that the current lack of early and late trains "really needs to be fixed", but I'm not aware of any progress on the issue.

When comparing prices from SEN for 06:30 holiday departures this summer with those from LTN for example, there doesn't seem to be any negative impact on yield as a result of the lack of an early train. I can't help but feel though that the BFS route has suffered for that reason and it simply hasn't worked as a double-daily service. That may change this summer with it operating once daily with 0715 departures only on M, Tu & Sa with evening departures on all other days. Load factors on this revised schedule will be interesting to see. Aer Lingus Regional have, of course, revised their schedule from DUB to give a first SEN departure at 09:15 and pax numbers seem to increasing.

If EZY/SEN thought the train situation was a serious problem overall surely they would have at least trialled a coach running, say, from Victoria via Liverpool Street and one or two other pick-up points to arrive SEN at around 05:30.

[virginblue]

Wondering what critical mass is required for a coach operator to start a coach service from SEN to Stratford or Liverpool Street. Access wise, all three London area airports focusing on LCC traffic are extremely expensive to get to when having to use the rail service. I have long given up on the Stansted Express and usually take the coach to Stratford and connect from there.

[Pain in the R's]

With the Champions League final only 2 weeks away and slots and aircraft parking in short supply around London I would expect Southend to do really well but will it?

[TSR2]

With the Champions League final only 2 weeks away and slots and aircraft parking in short supply around London I would expect Southend to do really well but will it?

It would appear that Stansted and Gatwick are to get the bulk of the flights and maybe Luton will see an increase in exec flights but I doubt Southend will see much.

[Expressflight]

There's an interesting item within the Stobart Group annual report published this morning.

When talking about their investment in RE it says:

"Our next phase is to use the airline to start new routes out of LSA (SEN) with focus on Spring 2014"

Possible destinations.......? Discuss.

[Barling Magna]

Excellent. As we had thought, more services from SEN had to be one of the main reasons for Stobart's investment in RE. Possible destinations, other than Carlisle, could be Manchester, Exeter, Aberdeen, Newcastle, Paris, Caen, Strasbourg, Rotterdam, Groningen, Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Cologne, Hamburg...................

[Barling Magna]

Having read the summary now, I notice they refer to a maximum capacity of five million pax annually for SEN. That's the first time I've seen that in writing. Seems rather an ambitious total for such a small site?

[serko]

there's more information in their presentation especially on page 37. They are targetting 300,000 passengers from Air Arran



http://ripassetseu.s3.amazonaws.com/www.stobartgroup.co.uk/shared/_files/documents/may_13/STOBARTGROUPSITE__1368692874_Stobart_Group_Preliminary_Resu. pdf

[tophat27dt]

I don't see the point in asking for speculation about future destinations. Why can't we just wait and see? I doubt if Luxembourg would be one of them although me working here I would love that, but Luxair have increased their flights into LCY, EZY have added LGW this year, plus 3 BA LHR flights most days, not to mention CityJet/AFR into LCY. Yes, you could argue that a percentage of those pax might fill a daily ATR flight; let's wait.

[LTNman]

Having read the summary now, I notice they refer to a maximum capacity of five million pax annually for SEN. That's the first time I've seen that in writing


I have been saying for months that the previous claimed capacity of 2 million passengers was so much hog wash and I was right despite people here pushing the company line.

[Barling Magna]

Come on LTNman, you must have been right on some other occasions in the past. Looks like you are this time too. I'm not sure people were toeing the company line though, rather than disbelieving that little Southend could cope with much over 2 million pax per year - but LCY does from a much smaller site, so ........

[LTNman]

So Stobart will be pulling out of in-house services when the magic 2 million figure is reached to comply with the law so will lose control of the workforce.

Long term car parks next to the terminal will end up on the other side of the airport. The convenience of passing through immigration will become a thing of the past and picking up your hire car will be a bus ride away. Welcome to the world of a larger airport.

I have seen all of this happen at LTN over the years yet more passengers is never enough. I am not knocking Southend for one moment but as Southend grows all those nice things that makes Southend what it is today will be lost in the pursuit of ever more passengers.

[Barling Magna]

I hope not, but you may well be right again.

[Barling Magna]

802,287 pax over the past year. That's an excellent total, over 100,000 above the highest figures in the 1960s golden era......

[asdf1234]

From memory there is a binding legal limit of 53,000 ATM's per year at Southend. Someone with more time than me can work out how much of the limit is taken up by freight, biz avn, gen avn etc. in any one year. The remainder will certainly go to scheduled and non-scheduled passenger movements. My guess is that the ATM limit will be reached circa 3m pax.

I suspect Stobart's are talking about 5m pax because at the current EBITDA levels (barely breakeven) the investment decision is looking shaky. Once capital expenditure is taken into account the owners need huge pax increases to offset the mounting losses.

So much for Stobart's telling the locals (and the local authorities) that 2m pax was all they ever wanted. Airports devour huge amounts of money and that is without runway extensions, new control towers, rail stations and terminal buildings. I think reality is beginning to bite.

[FLYAIR10]

Excellent. As we had thought, more services from SEN had to be one of the main reasons for Stobart's investment in RE. Possible destinations, other than Carlisle, could be Manchester, Exeter, Aberdeen, Newcastle, Paris, Caen, Strasbourg, Rotterdam, Groningen, Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Cologne, Hamburg...................


Please add Ostend-Bruges to the list as an extension of DUB-SEN or a stop on SEN-OST-BCN or SEN-OST-JERSEY-SEN &v.v. or SEN-OST-KRAKOW. Maybe Stobart has to invest in OST. SEN and OST are complimentary in a way...

Grtz.

[Barling Magna]

Some (limited) progress on the executive aircraft front:

From Lisbon to London Southend | Latest News | Community Relations & News | London Southend Airport (http://www.southendairport.com/news/latest-news/from-lisbon-to-london-southend/)

The number of exec jets has been slowly growing at SEN. Maybe Ms Lo Bao will be the answer to the need for more expansion of this side of SEN's business. Not so sure about her hopes for the Essex summer weather though.....

[vulcanised]

Interesting development.

I wonder how the hotel is doing? Not seen any mention since the opening.

[maliyahsdad2]

Vulcanised,
The hotel "appears" to be busy, always plenty of cars parked outside, the restaurant is very nice (a bit slow when we went) and seems to be well used.

[Barling Magna]

Yes, each time I've been the hotel has been busy. The restaurant was quite good, but it's a shame that you can't see the airport from most of the tables. Good views from the bar area though, and from the extended landing at the top of the stairs where the internet PCs are. The triple glazing is so good at reducing the noise that I kept missing the Airbuses taking off. I could hear the ATR42 taxiing though!

The bedrooms are comfortable; the one I stayed in had a huge picture of a Bristol Superfreighter on the wall which reminded me of the old days..........

[mikkie4]

welldone to all at SEN for their first non easyjet holiday flight to palma mallorca (boeing 717) depts 10.20.lets hope theres many more to come




















thomson

[tophat27dt]

Any ideas how many pax out on their first charter to Palma?

[Charlie Roy]

Please add Ostend-Bruges to the list as an extension of DUB-SEN

As an Irishman living in Ostend, this would be my dream come true :ok:
PS - I saw an advertisement for the new series of "The Only Way is Essex" showing the cast jetting off from London Southend airport to Malaga.

[mikkie4]

someone mentioned 125,dont know how many pax a 717 holds

[VickersVicount]

Thats the standard all economy config of a 717 and the config in use by Volotea

[LN-KGL]

Hawaiian Airlines has 123 seats in their B712s - 115 in Economy with 30-31" pitch and 8 in First with 37" pitch.

[angels]

Read the above carefully and remember it.

It will be the last time you see Hawaiian Airlines in this thread!

[Buster the Bear]

If bears were allowed to gamble, I would place some cash on the airport becoming even 'oranger' come April 2014, more than some had previously predicted?

[davidjohnson6]

Buster - you may well be right but the words eggs, basket, one and put begin to come to mind...

[tws123]

davidjohnson6 is quite right - we want the airport to be 'simply easier' not 'simply EZY'!

Surely there has got to be an airline coming soon perhaps 2014?

[Barling Magna]

We've been there before at SEN.......... the closure of Channel AW, withdrwal of Air UK and later the closure of British World all showed the impact of putting all the eggs in one basket. But easyJet is such a great catch for SEN that further growth of the orange kind should be welcomed. I also think that Aer Arann will come through with more routes, possibly in 2014. Thomson's "toe in the water" should encourage them to immerse their whole foot in 2015.

For SEN the future's bright, even if largely orange.......

[mikkie4]

Thomson/Jetairfly offering fly cruises from SEN in 2014 to the western med,thats one more toe in the water

[Expressflight]

The 'Phase 2' plan for Aer Arann is specifically aimed at making SEN "Not a single airline airport, derisks easyJet influence." (statement taken from the Stobart Group Annual Report).

The trick will be to choose routes than can be sustained (and sufficiently 'niche' as to make them unattractive to EZY) and to have the fleet capability to operate them. On that score perhaps they will retain a few ATR42s for that purpose or, alternatively, add two more ATR72-600s. The latter option may narrow the choice of destinations somewhat on account of the higher total operating costs of a new aircraft.

[Buster the Bear]

Volotea B717 seat 125.

[SENChris]

Arrivals board this morning is showing an Atlantic Airways aircraft from Karup, Denmark. Presumably this is for maintenance or does anyone know differently?

[claron]

Atlantic here for a Charter.

[tws123]

What aircraft was it - the new A319 or an Avro RJ?

[tayair6]

from Faroes island sound interesting ......

[Barling Magna]

OY-RCC RJ100.

[tayair6]

it direct arrived from Karup Airport

[tayair6]

sorry misread your message ,chris

[tayair6]

Any suggested why Volotea Airline had been delay for 40 mins?

[welkyboy]

Late arrival of incoming aircraft due to delays at Palma, quite common at this time of year

[tws123]

Also Thomson now appear to be accepting bookings for flights only on the Ibiza and Palma routes, and not just package holidays from next year (throughout the Summer 2014 programme) which is good news I think. Although it does not increase the capacity that Thomson offers, it does however help to get bums on seats by providing another option for flying with them.

[gilesdavies]

Just watching BBC Look East this lunchtime, and had a report from Southend Airport, talking about the expansion to the terminal...

It was only a brief news article, but while talking about the expansion today to the Managing Director, he went to talk about how today they were pleased to announce Thomson/First Choice were adding additional routes to their summer programme commencing 2014 and also that easyJet were basing an additional aircraft at the airport...

Anyone able to expand on any of the above, nothing really showing on the airports website...

[tws123]

What he means is this...

Thomson/First Choice flights

Palma de Mallorca:
*NEW* Summer 2013 1x Weekly (SAT) began on May 25 to September
Summer 2014 up to 2x Weekly (TUE, SAT) May to September
*NEW* Ibiza:
Summer 2014 1x Weekly (FRI) May to September

New EasyJet flights as of June 2013 with additional based A319

*NEW* Berlin-Schönefeld:
begins 17 June - 6x weekly
*NEW* Krakow:
begins 17 June - 4x weekly
*NEW* Newquay:
begins 20 June (Summer seasonal) - 3x weekly

Plus Barcelona and Alicante up to 2x daily

What he also did not mention, which is possible...

Aer Lingus Regional (Aer Arann)

Dublin:
2013 - 3x daily
2014(?) 4x daily rotation expected to be added but TBC

[tayair6]

THOMSON AND FIRST CHOICE....
Will it still be charter by Voltea Airline or run theirs own Plane next year ....

[LGWAlan]

Thomson websites all show JetAir running the SEN flights - ie TUI Belgium

[tws123]

Jetairfly will operate both Palma and Ibiza flights next year - the question though is what aircraft they will use. It will either be a Jetairfly E190 or B737-700, and most likely they won't use their B737-800s. Do not go by what it says in the Thomson brochures as it stated that Volotea operate B737-800s which as we know they don't, they use B717s instead.

[FLYAIR10]

Jetairfly will operate both Palma and Ibiza flights next year - the question though is what aircraft they will use. It will either be a Jetairfly E190 or B737-700, and most likely they won't use their B737-800s


Jetairfly will be basing at least one plane at Ostend airport. If they station a second at OST ,they could include SEN in the daily schedule of that plane and even offer cross channel flights between Southend-Ostend-Bruges. depending on the schedule offered ,that could be interesting for 1-day or weekend trips between UK and Belgian province of West-Flanders & v.v. :)

[rowly6339]

The UK’s largest tour operator Thomson and First Choice have this week announced that from summer 2014, they will be flying twice a week to Palma, Majorca, and also adding a flight to Ibiza to their schedule – tripling their service from London Southend Airport in just 12 months.

The move to introduce these routes is part of the tour operator’s strategy to ensure their customers across the UK can fly from their local airport and stay at the best hotels in some of the most exciting destinations.

Paul Cooper - Airport Negotiations Manager for Thomson and First Choice - explains why they have decided to expand their partnership with London Southend. “Adding these routes from London Southend Airport demonstrates our commitment to the East of England and following the success of similar routes across a number of regional airports, we know that the demand is there and we know customers are keen to fly from their local airport. Expanding access to our portfolio of destinations and hotels is a key part of our overall strategy and we hope that this move will enhance the holiday experience for our customers.”

Thomson and First Choice made the announcement during a tour of Phase 1 of the major extension to the airport terminal. The new Arrivals area is on schedule to be operational by 17 June.

Stage 1 of the terminal became operational a year ago and is less than 100 paces from the new railway station. Passengers flying out from the airport wait for a maximum of 4-minutes for security, whilst those arriving with just hand luggage can expect to travel from plane to train within 15 minutes of leaving the aircraft.

This Stage 2 extensionis to ensure these high standards of service are not compromised as passenger numbers grow towards 2 million per year by 2020.

The terminal building is becoming 90 metres longer and will open in phases throughout 2013. Phase 1 - the Arrivals area - will have enhanced baggage reclaim facilities and much more space for immigration as well as a dedicated domestic arrivals route.

The amount of space for passengers in the security area will increase (Phase 2 - opening October), as will the number of check in desks / baggage drop off points (Phase 3 – opening November). The Departure Lounge will also grow in size to enhance the experience for passengers relaxing and awaiting boarding after security - this 4th and final phase of the project will complete in December 2013.

London Southend Airport MD Alastair Welch says “We are very pleased that Thomson and First Choice have taken the decision to expand the services they offer from London Southend so soon and we hope this will allow even more of their passengers to experience our new and expanding facilities over the next year.”

[LTNman]

tripling their service from London Southend Airport in just 12 months. love the spin:ugh:

[CabinCrewe]

one service a week up to three a week looks like a tripling to me

[cumbrianboy]

LTNMan ... from tiny acorns ....

[LTNman]

Don't shoot the messenger but I hear from Easyland HQ that their love affair with Southend will soon be over as the airline prepares in the long term to move services to another Essex airport after doing a deal and using Southend as the lever.

[STN Ramp Rat]

I wonder how this will effect the SEN business, I suppose EZY are committed to a deal at SEN so therefore no immediate changes


Stansted agrees deal with easyJet to reverse decline - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/10116735/Stansted-agrees-deal-with-easyJet-to-reverse-decline.html)

Manchester Airports Group (MAG), which bought the Essex airport for £1.5bn in February, has signed a long-term agreement with easyJet that will see the low cost airline increase its passenger numbers out of Stansted from 2.8m to 6m over the next five years.

The partnership is a major coup for MAG, which is aiming to restore confidence in Stansted after customer numbers collapsed under its previous owner BAA, the group now known as Heathrow Airport Holdings.

Passenger numbers reached a peak of 23.8m in 2007 before the financial crisis but have since slumped to 17.5m.

The reversal was blamed on a decline in leisure travel during the recession - upon which Stansted is heavily dependent - but airlines also pointed a finger at BAA’s pricing structure. BAA fought a three-year legal battle to keep hold of Stansted but was told last summer that it would have to hang a “for sale” sign on the asset.

MAG is hoping to restore Stansted as a serious player in the London market by attracting an extra 5.5m passengers a year over the next five years. However, Andrew Harrison, the new managing director, of Stansted, said there are currently a lot of misconceptions about the airport, which might have discouraged airlines and passengers from choosing it over rivals Gatwick, Heathrow and Luton in the past.

“There’s a lot about Stansted which is misunderstood,” Mr Harrison said. “There’s a perception that it is hard to get to. There are trains every 15 minutes out of Liverpool Street and Tottenham Hale.
“This [deal with easyJet] will hopefully give confidence to other airlines that Stansted is a real option.”
Over the next two years MAG will invest £50m to improve facilities for passengers, including speeding up the security process.
EasyJet had reduced capacity at Stansted over the last 2-3 years in favour of Southend, which had a more competitive pricing structure. At present, it operates eight aircraft from Stansted, which can serve up to 27 routes, but it intends to more than double its customer base at the airport over the next five years.
In February, Stansted’s biggest customer Ryanair threatened to cut capacity by 9pc in response to an increase in charges but is now in talks with the new owner about its operations.
Stansted has planning permission to accommodate 35m passengers a year without building a second runway
Mr Harrison said the airport could help “bridge the gap” in capacity in the South East over the next 10 years, while the Government-appointed Airports Commission decides where additional runways should be built.
The airport is also hoping to attract long-haul carriers that will offer direct routes to the Middle East and Asia.
“There’s only really Stansted that has got spare capacity [in the South East],” Mr Harrison said. “We could add 130 flights a year. We believe that will go a long way to bridge the gap in terms of spare capacity.”

[Powerjet1]

I think Luton has far more to be worried about than Southend. With all the uncertainty regarding the change of operator ie Abertis to AENA or whoever, and lack of any progress re expansion programme, Luton is extremely vunerable. You only have to look at easy's winter schedule with very few flights on a tuesday/wednesday. Luton, you have a problem!!

[sxflyer]

I would have thought Luton would be at least as vulnerable, if not more so, through this deal. Southend has a niche role to play serving a large local catchment, the sun routes go out full or as near as, and that is probably the future at SEN. Probably less focus on city routes.

Longer routes aren't possible from SEN anyway, and this is another direction EZY are heading in - so possible growth on Greece/Turkey/Egypt at the expense of LTN, perhaps nicking a route or two like TLV. Or, a stab at a comprehensive Scandinavian network to turn up the heat on Norwegian - the Scandinavians used to love STN, and the flight is shorter

[Tagron]

The other factor that appears to have escaped attention in these forums is that as a result of purchasing Flybe's LGW slots EZY will need 7-8 aircraft to use these slots or risk losing them, plus of course the routes to fly them on as of summer 2014. Perhaps they could sell or lease out some slots or maybe achieve some scheduling efficiencies that would reduce the requirement, but 25 slot pairs per day remains a lot to cover. Those extra aircraft will have to be found from somewhere.

Meanwhile, three new EZY routes from SEN commence next week with the arrival of the fourth based A319. This year's new routes appear nothing like as strong as the Spain/Portugal routes if ticket prices are the guideline though of course it is still early days. It will be interesting to see what spin EZY use in the publicity that could be expected to accompany the launch. How about "we are committed as ever to SEN", "we are absolutely thrilled..." etc etc ?

Then there is the rumoured EZY new aircraft order announcement of which may be imminent and which could be the indication of future strategy, expansion (Stelios notwithstanding) or simple replacement. Interesting times ahead.

[gilesdavies]

Luton, you have a problem!!

I think you are entirely right!

I just hope that is not the case, but when you look at everything it seems to be the most vulnerable of the London bases...

- They still hasn't submitted planning permission for expansion and at peak times the airport is more or less running at capacity.
- The airline has publically stated in previous years they are unhappy with the passenger experience at LTN, with the railway station location, queues at security and border control, etc...
- easyJet currently only have 15 A320's due for delivery, and these need to spread across all their bases to expand and LGW will require 5-6 to cover the recently purchased slots from FlyBE.

In recent years Abertis seems to have grown complacent at Luton, just cashing in, without the need for spending on infrastructure or growth.

I am no expert on landing fees or costs for using airports, but I get the impression Luton is also quite expensive. I remember reading last year Monarch withdrew an A321 from the airport, due to the airports costs. If SEN and STN come along with competitive deals, of course easyJet are gonna come knocking!

[Pain in the R's]

Easyjet have always liked 24/7 airport bases for maximum flexibility. It always stuck me as a strange decision to open a base at an 18 hour airport like Southend with a poor early and late public transport network.

Maybe the writing is on the wall for Southend?

Stansted= 24 hour airport with 24 hour rail and coach links.
Southend= 18 hour airport with part time rail links and no coach network.

It is not as though Southend helps itself by allowing passengers to stay in the terminal overnight. By all accounts they are kicked out and told to wait outside while the security staff grin at them through the glass.

[Barling Magna]

Well, you never know in the airline business, but I'd have thought EZY would be happy to carry on at SEN where they obviously have a very competitive deal and have shown that a clear demand exists. They can grow at STN without impacting on their SEN base's current level of operations. They may well decide not to place any further growth beyond 4 based aircraft though......

SEN does need to attarct other scheduled operators, but I know it's damned difficult in these hard times.

[Tagron]

For the avoidance of doubt, Southend operates H24. There is a scheduling restriction which precludes scheduling of flights in the night period. but delayed services are permitted H24. Does anyone believe EZY will not have taken account of this when they decided to open a SEN base ?

[Pain in the R's]

Yes Southend is a 24 hour airport but not for easyjet. Oh and its terminal closes overnight. Come on Southend you can do better than this. Stansted sees you as a thorn so you need to fight back.

[Buster the Bear]

Airlines will expand if the market is there and the incentives are in place. Beyond the expiry of any 'deal', the long-term viability of routes is profit and yield based.

[Expressflight]

On the subject of the SEN terminal closing at night, I wonder just how many people would actually arrive on the last train from London and then 'camp out' in order to catch their 0630+ flight. If it's a substantial number then perhaps they will rethink their night closure policy. The train situation doesn't seem any nearer resolution and I agree entirely that it must impact on the airport's attractiveness to some degree. Likewise the addition of coach services would be useful but the current traffic levels probably don't make that commercially attractive.

It will be very interesting to see if the new routes to Berlin and Krakov succeed as they represent the second phase of easyJet's SEN operation. Certainly the recommencement of expansion at STN by easyJet cannot be particularly good news for SEN in terms of the likelihood of additional aircraft being added to the base, but surely LTN will be the most likely loser in this new situation.

[davidjohnson6]

Express - have a look at The Guide to Sleeping in Airports (http://www.sleepinginairports.net)
Some of the comments from about 10 years ago may have been from me...

[photoman27]

According to you lot SEN is already on the way out! so i'll say good by & go home to hang myself byyyyy!

[LTNman]

I think Southend Airport will still be around after we have all past on.

[tayair6]

just wait a see when Sen have finished theirs development extension in end of year ...... it will be interesting to hear any news bulletin from Easyjet for 2014

[mikkie4]

so ezy have a ten year contract with SEN,if they wanted to could they buy themselfs out,couldnt they?

[tws123]

Nobody really knows what the future holds for the SEN base unless you actually work at EasyJet. I highly doubt that they would have spent all that time and money on creating a base if they were not fully committed to it, and the 10 year contract demonstrates this. Personally I feel that no EZY growth at SEN for the next few years or so won't hurt it, but merely consolidate its position, and perhaps it will encourage other airlines to come in, making the airport more diverse and less dependent on EZY for the majority of its traffic. Let's be honest here, a 4 aircraft base in just over a year is some achievement and the range of destinations are pretty good and attracting pax! I would put money on the EZY representative they send on Monday at least indirectly mentioning their future position at SEN to try and stop us lot from worrying.

[tayair6]

it wouldn't happen as Stelios haji-ioannou would be at war with Director. Easyjet don't want bad public and honour the contract with SEN.

[Pain in the R's]

I would have thought no airline is going to commit to a 10 year deal with a new untried base without a cancellation clause built in if things don’t go to plan. 10 years is a very long time if losses are being made.

[flight_mode]

The company I work for recently advised employees travelling between Berlin and London to start using EZY from/to SEN as it offers the fastest office-office speed.

I guess that’s predominantly down to the small simple terminal, trains every 15 minutes and probably a lot less holding. I really see the advantage of SEN for Central London business travellers. Getting from LGW and LHR into central London takes a lot of time, involves a lot of walking, quing, waiting and the express rail services are a rip off. London City is fine but flight prices are several notches higher and you’re packed into the terminal and then those little departure “rooms” like sardines. The DLR is slow and sometimes even goes backwards! LTN and STN are all-round poor for business travellers IMO.

[mikkie4]

WELCOME TO SOUTHENd!!!!!

[Pain in the R's]

flight_mode.
So Southend is London's best Businessman’s airport? I don’t think so
I don't think even Southend Airport would see itself as a businessman’s airport. Also one flight a day is not an ideal situation for office to office travel particularly when it is a lunch time departure from Southend thus wrecking most of the business day with travel. While Southend indeed does have a simple terminal it also has the longest rail travel time to London with a train service that stops at every station as it heads to the capital.

[tophat27dt]

Pain in the Rs....
I think we are all getting a bit fed up with your negative views on SEN...maybe you are LTNman in disguise.........change the record please.

[Buster the Bear]

Even with the runway extension Southend is only 'niche'. Without the huge revenue streams of terminal shopping and car parking, the airport has to make money. Anyone know the actual detail of the 10 year deal? Are orangeJet obliged to grow the business?

The 'niche' factor will be removed once H.M.S. Great Britain sails into good digit growth. By then MAG, AENA, GIP & Ferrovial will have invested mega cash into the 5 London airports in preparation for the 'up turn'.

Unless Stobart are 'home and hosed', thier shareholders will be demanding answers as to the huge investment for the size of the company and no dividend from the airport operation. Madness is Carlisle!

Stobart moved in whilst Stansted future was in doubt due to H.M. Govt ruling that they must be rid of Gatwick and now Stansted.

MAG and GIP have cash to burn, so you need a Flybe type based operation and other lo-co A319, 737-700 operators to sign up quickly.

No use having a railway station if it is not 24/7 to London.

[Pain in the R's]

It is still early days for Southend. No one would have believed Southend would be where it is today say 5 years ago. :D Southend is clearly the dark horse of the pack when it comes to London airports but it does have one hand tied behind its back with its runway limitations, opening hours and transport links. So far it hasn’t stopped Southend’s growth but it has to be a drawback when airlines compare Southend to Stansted under MAG.

[flight_mode]

Pain in the Rs

Southend is definitely not London's best Businessman’s airport – but it has the potential to serve a few key business routes really well. EZY are also business friendly with their Flexi fare.

[Barling Magna]

Pain in the R's and Buster are both largely right. But I'm sure Stobart are playing a long game on SEN - most unusual in today's business world, I agree. They must realise it will take many years to recoup their investment, but the group has a broad portfolio and can cope with one or two longer term prospects provided their core logistics brand remains a cash cow. They certainly had the courage to invest during a recession and they deserve praise for that. SEN is never going to compete seriously with the other London airports (except maybe LCY), but I'm pretty confident that SEN will achieve what they seek, successful airports make money. I'm a bit more worried about Stobart's investment in Aer Arann though - even successful airlines struggle to make much money.........

[Expressflight]

Buster

I doubt that anyone will be able to supply you with details of the deal EZY have negotiated with SEN, but I would assume that it includes a commitment by them to meet specific staged traffic levels over time. No doubt though there is also a suitable escape clause within the 10 year agreement should things turn sour. It's worth bearing in mind that the 4th based aircraft has come in 12 months ahead of plan, which would suggest they are seriously happy with the way things are progressing.

Pain in the Rs

Neither flight_mode or anyone else seems to have suggested that SEN is "London's best Businessman's airport" so I don't really understand your comment. Certainly when I've flown to BFS or AMS there are plenty of suits on board and I've heard numerous positive comments from them about using SEN. It's certainly the most pleasant and speediest London airport I've ever experienced for business travel, and I've used them all many times. I do agree with your remark about flight timings and frequency but they probably suit enough business travellers to produce the necessary numbers.

I've used the train service to London a couple of times and the extra journey time really wasn't noticeable. It's the lack of space for leisure pax suitcases that is more of a problem I would suggest.

Being something of a 'niche' airport I would think SEN is most likely to attract niche airlines/routes and I know for a fact that considerable interest was generated at last month's Routes Europe conference. Don't forget that the terminal was running at capacity at peak times last year and will do so again this Summer, so until 2014 when the terminal extension is completed it would be unrealistic to expect a rush of new airlines or routes.

[tophat27dt]

Expressflight is absolutely correct. Don't expect a big rush until all the expansion programs for the new enlarged terminal are completed, and prospective customers have been able to come and view prior to making a decision if SEN is suitable for their new operations.

[ajamieson]

SEN is very good as a niche alternative to other London area airports. It may work for some business travellers, but not for most. I like it, but couldn't survive on it.
Also one flight a day is not an ideal situation for office to office travel particularly when it is a lunch time departure from Southend thus wrecking most of the business day with travel.
True.
it also has the longest rail travel time to London with a train service that stops at every station as it heads to the capital.
Untrue.

[tophat27dt]

Does anybody know how the loads were today on the new Krakow and Berlin flights?

[cjags]

97 outbound to KRK, 104 in

128 outbound SXF, 121 in

[Tagron]

The following is an extract from a London Southend news release today. I have pasted what looks to me the most interesting part of the announcement, as I have not heard SEN management refer to future prospects in such terms, in particular the engagement with the Davies Commission..

< London Southend Airport recently celebrated its first birthday as a regenerated regional airport and its busiest year ever – but further new capacity is coming available to support the airport’s growth, allowing it to make a real difference to the issues faced across the other London airports.
Five additional aircraft stands have now been completed and significantly increase the airport’s capacity. These stands are part of the expansion of the new passenger terminal and follow hot on the heels of the opening of the Arrivals development last week.
London Southend Airport MD Alastair Welch said ‘With much debate about future airport capacity in the South East, our investment demonstrates the very significant capacity which now exists at London Southend and we are actively engaging with the Davies Commission to ensure the airport’s potential is understood as part of the commission’s deliberations. The five new stands we have opened this week form a small part of the capacity development underway at the airport. ’ >


The statement above is a matter of record of the airport's position and that is all. On past performance it may unleash a welter of commentary that does nothing to enlighten anyone. I shall not participate.


flight_mode may be interested to know, in the light of his recent post, that the EZY SEN-Berlin changes to an evening rotation with the winter schedules. I don't know whether or not that will be an improvement for him and his company?

[sxflyer]

Excellent first day loads for SXF, great to see such high numbers inbound who would presumably be mostly Germans and demonstrates that SEN is attractive for such pax. The outbound figures are much higher than I anticipated, this route could be a real winner if things keep up.

KRK also off to a good start, it proves that 97 people are able to make it to the airport for an early (non-bucket and spade) flight despite a lack of trains and locked terminal overnight and I would expect those numbers to rise over the next few rotations as (some) of the inbound pax start feeding in.

Hopefully, if these numbers hold up, they will keep the doubters quiet.

Related to the above, I think the SXF figures show what could be possible for the BFS route if it could be op by a BFS based aircraft, in the morning at least, resulting in arrivals/departures at SEN more suited to NI pax and availability of onward train connections.

[8674planes]

Sorry, but does anyone know the reg of the 4th Easyjet aircraft from this morning?

[Expressflight]

8674planes

The 4th aircraft is G-EZAC.

Very encouraging numbers on the KRK and SXF inaugurals; particularly the inbound figures.

[tayair6]

At paris air show we expect order from Easyjet for A320NEO .how will it fix in for SEN if they get rid of A319 in Future

[tws123]

I thought from previous discussions on this issue that the A320 neo would actually be capable of flying from SEN unless i've heard wrong. I'm sure someone else on here can give you a more confident response on this.

There is also the possibility of EZY ordering the new CSeries Bombardier which could also operate into SEN, but even more of a benefit is that they can operate longer distance routes too.

Interesting read on this HERE (http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/EasyJet+hints+CSeries+order/8396899/story.html)

[cjags]

I do believe that the A320 would actually have marginally better performance out of SEN, though given the high density easyjet configuration realistically I don't think it's suited for destinations further than already operated.

[Wycombe]

I believe EZY to NQY also starts this week - will be very interesting to understand what the initial loadings on that are once the first few rotations have taken place :ok:

[mikkie4]

looking at the ezy seat booking site the flight is over 3/4 full on the first day (20th) not bad

[cornishsimon]

fingers crossed the NQY route does well and lasts, this route and U2 are well needed at NQY currently.

Any idea how the return loads are looking on the initial ?



cs

[mikkie4]

only 24 seats pre booked for NQY-SEN

[Tagron]

I feel it is premature to try and form firm conclusions as to the performance of these new aircraft from the SEN runway and hence their full payload range capability. I have not seen yet any detail performance data for any of these new types and in any case there will be various weight variants and power plant options. It will be the engine choice that will be the major determinant of full payload range capability from SEN for a given type. Certainly it will be interesting to see to what extent EZY take account of SEN runway limitations in their new order.

I am aware that the Bombardier C Series is claimed to have an improved range capability from LCY in comparison with existing types. However it is a virtual certainty that the LCCs like EZY would require a heavier high density seating version, so the LCY situation may not necessarily read across to SEN. So really it is a case of wait and see.

[mikkie4]

good pax numbers for may, 77,300,running total 813,058 16.2%increase on last may

[Expressflight]

As Tagron says it's much tooo early to draw any conclusions resulting from a possible easyJet order for the A320neo. It's certainly true that Airbus have said the neo will have better field perfomance, mainly due to the wing sharklets I believe, but I cannot find anything on their website quantifying it.

I think I remember reading last year that the neo should be able to depart at a weight around 3 tonnes greater than the existing variants for any given runway length. How much of that represented greater payload and how much was additional aircraft basic weight I don't know.

[Tagron]

A (very) rough and ready estimate. If that predicted 3 tonne RTOW increase is achieved in practice, it would equate to a 500nm increase in full payload range compared with existing variants, and assuming the same basic weight and engine thrust rating, which of course we don't yet know.

[tayair6]

Subject to shareholder approval, easyJet has identified a future need for 100 A320neo aircraft. These will be preceded by 35 A320ceo aircraft equipped with Sharklets. Of the 135 aircraft, 85 will be for replacement

[tayair6]

Meaning ageing A319 and some of it A320 will be phrase out .....

[8674planes]

Do we have PAX numbers for the First Newquay flight today?