SKYWORK

[mikkie4]

SKYWORK are to fly from BERN - SEN from DECEMBER 2X DAILY DEPT BERN 06.45 local time EVENING DEPT SEN 20.00 local time,seats available to book by end of the month,any idea what aircraft they might use?

[davidjohnson6]

mikkie - the Internet is a good place to start finding out about an airline

Sky Work Airlines - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyWork_Airlines)

[Barling Magna]

It will be a Dornier 328.

[mikkie4]

Nice to see that they prefer SEN to LCY

[LTNman]

This is the first time an airline has moved their London flights from London City to Southend. By doing so they have had to shift their evening departure from 18:30 to 20:00 to allow for the extra travel time to Southend, which will give a local arrival time of around 22:30.

This is a significant event for Southend and no doubt others will be watching to see if there is an impact on passenger loads. Even if there was no doubt operating costs will be much lower to offset any reduction.

I have flown to Berne many years ago with Dan-Air in a HS748 as it got me to where I needed to be . The alternative was a fast jet to Geneva and then a train so hopefully passengers will remain loyal. It will be interesting to know what regular passengers think who have got used to flying over Central London to now find they are flying over the mudflats off the Essex coast and also now having to experience the crowded old railway stock to get them to and from Southend.

[mikkie4]

Any idea what the pax numbers are on the lcy-berne ?

[NickBarnes]

2184 was the pax total for May 2014

[Skipness One Echo]

Nice to see that they prefer SEN to LCY
They've been squeezed out by the high charges out, like Darwen, Air Southwest, Eastern et al before them. It's not really a preference if we're being honest. The catchment area will be smaller and the target being Swiss financial services may well simply just nip from Canary Wharf to LCY and connect with Swiss.

B(w)anker snobbery is going to be a major factor here. "You're flying from WHERE?"

[sxflyer]

It will be interesting to see how this works out.

Canary Wharf - Stratford - SEN is an easy journey. It is a slightly captive audience though. If one needs to travel Berne-London, it would be a case of chopping off your nose to spite your face if you switch to Basel (about 1 hour drive from Berne) because you don't want the 45 minutes extra train journey, some of which will be offset by the flight being a few minutes quicker.

At the times the flights operate, pax will be through the terminal in no time.

[davidjohnson6]

Zurich airport has an excellent train service to all over Switzerland, including trains every 30 mins taking 1h15 to Bern. Zurich also has a high frequency air service to London City - up to 11x per day against Bern's 2x per day

While Bern has a direct route to London City, there is a clear reason to choose Skywork for passengers travelling between London and Bern or the Bernese Alps (think skiing). Lose that connection to LCY, and the high frequency to Zurich becomes a lot more competitive, to BACF and Swiss's benefit

[Phileas Fogg]

But Dan Air were putting BAe146's in and out of Berne all those years ago and they weren't doing it from LCY.

I think too much emphasis is being put on the location of Canary Wharf to LCY ... There will be punters from other areas of London, the home counties etc. and for them I'd expect SEN to be less of a pain in the butt to travel to/from than LCY.

[NOP]

Through a previous job, SkyWork were for a while continually looking for ACMI cover and it always seemed to include the Sunday rotation of BRN-LCY-BRN.

In some cases they even used to ask for BRN-STN from the off before even knowing whether going into LCY was a possibility, so I'm not really surprised to see them shifting from LCY.

[davidjohnson6]

They put up a good fight but alas it was not to be...

[Alsacienne]

I was very tempted to use Skywork from BSL to LCY when LX pulled out .... but their tickets seem to be totally directed to the business market or to those who can claim 'expenses'. Way too pricey for me, hence RYR to STN from either BSL or SXB - and very happy with the service to date.