Eastern Airways new route Dundee - Manchester

[Chocks Wahay]

From the Dundee Courier:

A NEW Dundee to Manchester air service is due to take off in the summer, it was announced at the city council’s economic development committee last night.

The committee approved a proposal for Humberside-based regional airline Eastern Airways to operate the service.

Making the announcement, economic development convener Mervyn Rolfe said it would be a tremendous boost for Dundee Airport.

"We have been working with Eastern Airways for some time on the possible introduction of a Manchester service and I am delighted that it is becoming a reality."

He pointed out that Manchester would provide the opportunity to connect with flights all over the world.

Among the onward destinations available will be Washington, Chicago, Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, Munich, Oslo, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The service will initially use the 18-seat Jetstream 32 turboprop but it is intended to upgrade to the larger Jetstream 41, which can take 29 passengers, if the demand is there.

Final details are still to be worked out but there could be as many as three return flights a day plus a Sunday service.

Eastern Airways managing director Richard Lake said, "This will be an ideal addition to our services and will complement our other routes.

"We are looking forward to working with Dundee Airport, where we have been impressed with the excellent facilities available.

"Although there is no exact start date for the service, I am hopeful that the first flights from Dundee to Manchester will be made during the summer."

Councillor Rolfe said the new service would be of great benefit because it meant people from this area will be able to fly direct to Manchester "where there are countless flights around the globe."

"Demand for the ScotAirways service to London City Airport has been extremely encouraging and the Manchester provision is obviously a great boost for Dundee Airport as well."

SNP councillor Kenneth Guild said it was very good news. Manchester was a growing hub airport with many opportunities for onward flights to other destinations.

Conservative group leader Bruce Mackie also welcomed the announcement which, he said, justified the faith that many people had in Dundee Airport.

Dundee Courier (http://www.thecourier.co.uk/febcourierrede/NewsStory.cfm?StoryID=23969&Today=140502)

[Northwest 34]

Fair enough but the sad thing is that Manchester is viewed as more important to Dundee than are the major Scottish airports at Glasgow and Edinburgh. This in spite of Dundee being only 90 minutes drive from 90% of Scotlands population and only just over an hour by rail from Edinburgh Airport (which the GNER and Scotrail trains whoosh past en route to their first stop another six miles beynd the airport)

NW34

[Chocks Wahay]

The rail journey may take an hour, but when you add transport from the train station to EDI you'd be looking at nearer two hours. The problem, as you rightly point out, is that the kind of flights we're talking about aren't available from EDI anyway. Dundee to GLA by public transport would be maybe 2.5-3 hours, and not cheap to boot, so the Manchester flight begins to look more attractive (depending on the Eastern pricing of course). Anyway, the bottom line is more flights = more jobs :-) Presumeably (hopefully) the aircraft will be based at Dundee as it would be much cheaper than basing it at Manc.

[niknak]

Good news for as long as it lasts.
I sincerely hope that it works, but I happen to know that the route is heavily subsidised in terms of cheap landing fees/operaing costs at Dundee.
As I've posted before, Eastern are very astute and will never take the risk, all their fares are around the same or a little more than the 1st class rail fare, and they work on the basis that this sort of route will be supported by business customers whose time is money.
I don't know what the business link from Dundee to MAN is, but all the same, I hope it works out for them. :)

[NorthSouth]

Of course there's nothing new about a Dundee-Manch route. Business Air ran it for years with Saab 340s as a stop on the way to/from Aberdeen.

Let's just hope another commercial service into Dundee doesn't make the controllers there even more paranoid, grounding all VFR traffic as soon as there's a hint of an IFR movement.

[dundoniandean]

I can tell you from my very happy days at Business Air's Revenue Accounting department at Dundee Airport not so long ago, the flights from Dundee to Manchester were not too badly priced and timed to suit the business traveller.

Business Air put a mountain of effort into interline agreements with lots of other carriers to streamline all their Scotland to Manchester routes with Manchester - Germany/France/USA/Austria/Italy/Switzerland flights.

The sad thing is that despite the attractive prices, times and the Business Air product itself, the passengers just didn't seem to be in abundance. Other Business Air routes done better and that was with the competition from BA on ABZ/EDI/GLA and BFS to MAN.

I really wish Eastern luck with DND-MAN. Two words of warning though - keep prices sensible, it's not too far to go to EDI or ABZ to get cheaper fares with BD and market the route like hell in the local Tayside and Fife press - Business Air found that concept difficult to grasp.

Ah the memories! McHoots to you all!

[Chocks Wahay]

back then all we had was an NDB and a piece of seaweed to find the place
Some things never change - it's still NDB & Seaweed at Dundee. Fortunately the weather on the east coast of Scotland is invariably CAVOK, so getting in's no problem :-)

[Anti Skid On]

Would be nice too if Mr. Business man coming from afar came into MAN instead of LHR; I am sure there must be business travellers who need to get to Dundee (Timex executives excluded).

Also, would the fares be cheap enough to get Joe Public to EGCC to catch charters? (as opposed to 5 hour drive plus parking charges or 6 hour train ride)

On a side note there is a small outfit here in NZ called Origin Pacific, running J31's/J41's and Metroliners on regional routes. They do a deal for passengers where you can buy NZ$1000 credit up front (£300). If you turn up and want to fly, and there is a seat (like standby I suppose) you get it for the cost of the cheapest seat for that route. If you do 10 trips in a year you also get the mean seat price (e.g. one trip) creditted back to the account. Has anyone tried a system like that in the UK?

[Luke SkyToddler]

Let's just hope another commercial service into Dundee doesn't make the controllers there even more paranoid, grounding all VFR traffic as soon as there's a hint of an IFR movement.

Hahahahahahaaa ... oh the memories ... how many thousands of orbits have I done for that sodding Dornier ... if I only had a penny for every "Tayside 2X, hold at the end of the downwind leg until further advised" :rolleyes: Those controllers used to roll out the red carpet for that airline like I have never seen before or since ... I hope Eastern know what they're getting themselves into here, a whole extra 3 schedules a day to cope with would cause several major nervous breakdowns in that tower :eek:

[niknak]

AntiSkid what planet were you born on?:p
Paying anyone up front is risky enough, but an airline! :eek: :rolleyes: :eek:
Incidently, when were you at Leeds?
niknak ([email protected])

[Meeb]

Chocks... Dundee has an ILS, and has for some years. It has had a LLZ for at least 12 years.

Luke, maybe you do not understand the speed of the 'sodding Dornier'. I thank ATC for their professionalism at Dundee. After a near miss with an idiot lighty who could not even see the airfield from the south bank of the Tay, keeping you all bloody grounded sounds the better option...:mad:

[160to4DME]

Jesus, give a swell head a few gold bars and put him in an aircraft which flies turboprop speeds at jet levels (a right royal pain in the a$$) and all of a sudden they forget that they once were idiot lighties.

Get a life; the world doesn't revolve around your precious little Dornier. :mad:

[Meeb]

A little jealous perhaps...:D It was said very tongue in cheek! I was only pointing out that commercial traffic OCTA requires everyone to display good airmanship. As I am a lighty examiner, your statement is very hollow! Chill bud...;)