Stansted-4

[Sotonsean]

Thanks for the clarification as I've not personally read or seen anything regarding Turkmenistan Airlines moving from London Heathrow to London Gatwick.

Before I made this post I obviously had to do a quick search online and you are indeed correct.
Aeroroutes.com have listed it since I last checked the site and it is even posted on the London Gatwick Wikipedia page.

Turkmenistan Airlines are commencing flights between Ashgabat and London Gatwick on the 03 April 2024. It's a shame though that the airline didn't make a return to London Stansted.

[JW95]

Is there, or will there ever be a solution to STN's long term problem of losing airlines to other airports? I remember this being a key issue during when BAA owned the airport, particularly during 2007-2012, where STN had been losing multiple airlines and services to LTN, LGW and even LHR (e.g. Aegean). I do appreciate the challenging economic recession at the time, which obviously had a major affect on air travel in the UK as a whole for a few years, in addition to the fact that BAA were almost boycotting investment into STN in favour of focusing on LHR. When it finally came to BAA's decision to sell STN, I remember the media and commentators maintaining that a change of ownership at STN would be beneficial for the airport in terms of airline and route diversification, and the new owners at the time (MAG) had made it a key priority to expand beyond FR's long running dominance at the airport. Fast forward to 2024, I think it is fair to say and observe that MAG have been nowhere near as successful in attracting a more diverse airline offering to STN in the same way that GIP have been successful at LGW. Granted, some progress has been made (e.g. Jet2's base; Emirates to Dubai; Royal Jordanian), but again, cannot compare to the success that LGW has enjoyed. I do accept and appreciate that the two airports serve different catchment areas, however, MAG had spent (and continue to spend) a lot to purchase and then revamp STN, and yet still the issue of airlines leaving persists. It is a shame, because I really had high hopes for STN when BAA left and the new owners arrived, but in some ways, I feel that the airport was a more pleasant place to fly from when BAA owned it; prior to the revamp, the departure lounge felt more spacious with more seating and natural lighting; the check in hall felt more spacious and would be better suited to deal with the increased volumes of passengers passing through the airport today than the current layout does).

[pabely]

Answer - Ryanair.

[pamann]

Don’t forget that the shoreline check-in has allegedly been given the go ahead. This should improve the land-side experience. The problem with the terminal is that MAG don’t seem to be that good at creating a quality experience when it comes to their airports. Gatwick has been greatly improved in the last few years. The last revamp of the STN terminal by MAG definitely made the experience worse. But they should also be commended on their gains such as Emirates and Jet2 which are success stories for the airport. Though I’d have liked to have seen a US carrier or two by now.

[Keanaga]

Answer - Ryanair.
numpty

[Skipness One Foxtrot]

numpty
He's right. When your anchor carrier, responsible for by far and away the majority of your footfall, pays "relatively little" in terms of airport fees, then MAG can't just splash the cash with no ROI. But STN remains overwhelmingly Ryanair and the business will have to spend accordingly. I was through last weekend and it was absolutley fine, amazing what a cross subsidy from a group can do when you need a new terminal. But BAA was a state enterprise when the Norman Foster STN was being planned, MAG isn't quite the same.
Or maybe I am wrong and MAN revenue will be spent at a group level at STN?

[JW95]

Don’t forget that the shoreline check-in has allegedly been given the go ahead. This should improve the land-side experience. The problem with the terminal is that MAG don’t seem to be that good at creating a quality experience when it comes to their airports. Gatwick has been greatly improved in the last few years. The last revamp of the STN terminal by MAG definitely made the experience worse. But they should also be commended on their gains such as Emirates and Jet2 which are success stories for the airport. Though I’d have liked to have seen a US carrier or two by now.

I completely agree with you. I think MAG made a big mistake when they decided to demolish islands J&K and relocate security there, the previous area was working fine and could have been extended without it being moved entirely. Had they done that, this would have freed up additional space in the check in area, which is what today's layout now lacks, and the whole thing just feels much more cramped now with the landslide-airside boundary having been shifted. However, I am optimistic that the new shoreline layout should hopefully improve things. I also agree with you regarding the terminal today. Although BAA had more-or-less given up on the airport towards the end of their ownership of STN, the departure lounge layout back then was a lot better and from a passenger standpoint felt more spacious. If I remember correctly, once passengers cleared security, they more-or-less went straight into the departure lounge rather than today's longer walk through Duty Free? MAG definitely have made the experience a lot worse, and it will be interesting to see what they're planning on doing next once the terminal extension designs have been finalised. Like GIP had with LGW, MAG had a good chance to turn STN around and improve it, and they have failed to do so, especially with the last £80 million transformation project. They have, admittedly done well in attracting Jet2 and Emirates to the airport, but so many others have been and gone since MAG took over in 2013 (e.g. SAS, Air India, Logan Air), so the issue RE. diversifying and retaining airlines beyond FR and EZY etc is still very much an issue, which MAG seem to have not been able to overcome. Like you, I am also disappointed that STN has still not been able to attract and retain any of the US carriers (e.g. JetBlue), despite all of the investments into "improvements". The other thing is MAG have more-or-less ignored passenger areas (boarding gates). While they were quick to remodel the terminal, they have put very little investment into refurbishing the satellites, with the exception of satellite 1. SAT 2 for example is now well past needing an upgrade, having not been refurbished for many years.

[FRatSTN]

Some adjustments made for Summer 2025 TUI programme. Still 2 based aircraft but changes as follows:

Dalaman - Monday AM rotation dropped, new Tuesday PM added replacing Rhodes rotation. Freebird/TBA carrier for Tuesday evening removed.
Rhodes - Back to 2 weekly flights after increasing to 3 for Summer 24. Tuesday PM rotation replaced by Dalaman.
Corfu - Time change for Monday PM service now departs 14:40.

That leaves Monday AM slot before re-timed Corfu rotation for a probable new destination. My guess would be Tunisia.

[pamann]

That leaves Monday AM slot before re-timed Corfu rotation for a probable new destination. My guess would be Tunisia.

Either that or Naples being a Monday. Tunisia would be a good unserved addition for Stansted.

Back in 2019 Tui announced both Tunisia & Skiathos as new summer destinations for 2020. Unfortunately covid put a stop to that one. Would be good to see some real expansion from Tui at Stansted and a third aircraft based in the summer months. Unfortunately it does feel like Tui’s eggs are in one basket south of the Thames.

[01475]

I've never really paid attention to any routes that weren't the one I was interested in; Stansted to Glasgow, which seems to be slowly dying. In fact renewing my easyJet plus seems risky as it's unclear how many flights there might be for me to use it on!

Is this part of any wider trend? Is it a Glasgow domestic thing? A Stansted domestic thing? A domestic thing? An easyJet thing? Or just a Stansted to Glasgow by easyJet thing? :)

[FRatSTN]

I've never really paid attention to any routes that weren't the one I was interested in; Stansted to Glasgow, which seems to be slowly dying. In fact renewing my easyJet plus seems risky as it's unclear how many flights there might be for me to use it on!

Is this part of any wider trend? Is it a Glasgow domestic thing? A Stansted domestic thing? A domestic thing? An easyJet thing? Or just a Stansted to Glasgow by easyJet thing? :)

There's numerous factors. Since EZY closed their STN base during 2020, only 4 routes have remained except for a small number of flights to Switzerland that operated this winter.

Of those, STN-GLA is probably the best recovered in terms of capacity at 20x weekly for most of the summer. It does reduce slightly to 17x weekly during peak summer before returning to 20x weekly, no doubt to make may for more lucrative summer sun routes out of GLA.

BFS and EDI routes are still a bit below their 2019 levels but they have Ryanair competition on those.

AMS is still well below pre covid frequency at usually just 2 flights daily, reduced to just 6x weekly over peak summer. It used to be up to 4 daily in 2019. The slot position in AMS with the restrictions on movements imposed by their government is probably not helping there.

[JW95]

Does anyone know who is reasonably likely to be next to fly from STN in the near future? It is a given that FR is, and will always remain STN's largest airline by some distance, and I am sure we will continue to see expansion from them. Equally, I am sure we will see further expansion from Jet2, STN's second biggest carrier, but what about other airlines coming to STN?

[FRatSTN]

Does anyone know who is reasonably likely to be next to fly from STN in the near future? It is a given that FR is, and will always remain STN's largest airline by some distance, and I am sure we will continue to see expansion from them. Equally, I am sure we will see further expansion from Jet2, STN's second biggest carrier, but what about other airlines coming to STN?
Probably anyone's guess at this point. No doubt a few odds and sods but unlikely to be anything substantial until after STN-TP I would imagine.

[pabely]

Are there any more early morning slots available? Ryanair will just use more away based aircraft but this will limit further Jet2 expansion.

[FRatSTN]

Some adjustments made for Summer 2025 TUI programme. Still 2 based aircraft but changes as follows:

Dalaman - Monday AM rotation dropped, new Tuesday PM added replacing Rhodes rotation. Freebird/TBA carrier for Tuesday evening removed.
Rhodes - Back to 2 weekly flights after increasing to 3 for Summer 24. Tuesday PM rotation replaced by Dalaman.
Corfu - Time change for Monday PM service now departs 14:40.

That leaves Monday AM slot before re-timed Corfu rotation for a probable new destination. My guess would be Tunisia.

Another tweak for TUI Summer 25 schedules.

Friday Dalaman (16:45 departure) has been dropped and replaced by Freebird/TBA which now operates Sunday evening. This results in Dalaman going from 4x weekly in S24 (TUI op Mon, Thu, Fri, Freebird op Tue) to 3x weekly in S25 (TUI op Tue, Thu, Freebird op Sun).

That means there's now two gaps for new additions on Monday morning and Friday evening. My guess would be either 2x weekly Tunisia, or possibly 1x weekly Tunisia (Monday) and 1x weekly Skiathos (Friday) - Both those routes were due to start in S20 but of course didn't due to Covid.

Another possibility would be Naples as mentioned above, but I would think less likely.

[pamann]

Another tweak for TUI Summer 25 schedules.

Friday Dalaman (16:45 departure) has been dropped and replaced by Freebird/TBA which now operates Sunday evening. This results in Dalaman going from 4x weekly in S24 (TUI op Mon, Thu, Fri, Freebird op Tue) to 3x weekly in S25 (TUI op Tue, Thu, Freebird op Sun).

That means there's now two gaps for new additions on Monday morning and Friday evening. My guess would be either 2x weekly Tunisia, or possibly 1x weekly Tunisia (Monday) and 1x weekly Skiathos (Friday) - Both those routes were due to start in S20 but of course didn't due to Covid.

Another possibility would be Naples as mentioned above, but I would think less likely.

Previous summers both Agadir and Bourgas have operated for a season or two. Both of these would also be strong contenders for a Monday or Friday flight. Do we have word of when Tui will officially put summer 2025 on sale?

[LGWAlan]

JSI on an evening not likely - the airport closes early. However - TUI do operate Monday from other airports

[pamann]

JSI on an evening not likely - the airport closes early. However - TUI do operate Monday from other airports

Monday morning JSI and a Friday evening NBE would make the most sense. Hopefully the full programme will be on sale in the next couple of weeks. Expecting SunExpress to continue with Antalya and Tui having an allocation.

[FRatSTN]

The Monday Corfu was re-timed to a 14:40 departure so whatever the new addition is will have to be back by around 13:30ish as things stand. Skiathos, Agadir, even Bulgaria would be too long for that.

[JW95]

Probably anyone's guess at this point. No doubt a few odds and sods but unlikely to be anything substantial until after STN-TP I would imagine.

I suspect you're right. I do hope that MAG will be able to do more to attract more airlines to STN further down the line- GIP have had a very successful track record in turning LGW around following the North and South Terminal transformation projects as far as airline diversification and expansion is concerned, yet MAG still haven't been able to do this quite as well as GIP have (although granted we now have a large Jet2 base which I am sure will see further expansion, as well as Emirates).

RE. the STN-TP, are there any updates on this? All seems to have gone a bit quiet on the project recently, and the terminal extension info page hasn't been updated for some time now.

[Paulesx]

Anyone have any update on the new EK lounge at STN, last I heard was an April opening but not heard much lately.

[Sotonsean]

Hong Kong Air Cargo, I wasn't aware of the fact that this airline had commenced scheduled cargo flights to London Stansted.

The first scheduled flight by Hong Kong Air Cargo landed at London Stansted on the 04 February 2024.

The schedule for Hong Kong Air Cargo HKG-STN.

RH364 HKG 00.05 STN 10.00
RH365 STN 12.00 HKG 09.30+

Flights are operated by an Airbus 330F.

Although I have the schedule I'm not aware of the frequency.

Great news for London Stansted in securing yet another major cargo carrier to the airport and it's ever increasing cargo portfolio.

Edit...I had a look at the London Stansted Airport website and read the news article regarding Hong Kong Air Cargo. I hadn't previously read it. The article states that the frequency will initially be operated twice weekly.

[Keanaga]

Hi it's up to Four a week some weeks seems to vary, also
Georgian use aB767 on a Hong Kong route more advice though.

Regards.

[Keanaga]

Adhoc not advise that should say apologies.

[ATNotts]

Hi it's up to Four a week some weeks seems to vary, also
Georgian use aB767 on a Hong Kong route more advice though.

Regards.
A great deal of the increase in HKG and China freighters to various UK airports must surely be the disruption to the Red Sea ocean freight route via Suez that has forced manufacturers in China and their European customers to use air to maintain their supply chains.

its an "ill wind" and all that.

[Keanaga]

Looking to start Enfidha in Summer 2025 schedule.

[FRatSTN]

So that's both the Monday AM and Friday PM gaps filled. Same overall capacity as S24 at 28x TUI departures per week plus 1x Freebird/Other carrier. One frequency per week each to DLM and RHO cut to make way for the Tunisia route.

I notice though the Monday Corfu in S25 gets back now at 21:50. That would be a nice little opportunity to add something like a late evening PMI or IBZ departure at say around 23:00 as they do from some of their other bases over peak summer. Doubt that will happen here though.

[FRatSTN]

Looking to start Enfidha in Summer 2025 schedule.[/QUOTE]

Looking to start Enfidha in Summer 2025 schedule.

So that's both the Monday AM and Friday PM gaps filled. Same overall capacity as S24 at 28x TUI departures per week plus 1x Freebird/Other carrier. One frequency per week each to DLM and RHO cut to make way for the Tunisia route.

I notice though the Monday Corfu in S25 gets back now at 21:50. That would be a nice little opportunity to add something like a late evening PMI or IBZ departure at say around 23:00 as they do from some of their other bases over peak summer. Doubt that will happen here though.

[LW940]

Looking to start Enfidha in Summer 2025 schedule.





So that's both the Monday AM and Friday PM gaps filled. Same overall capacity as S24 at 28x TUI departures per week plus 1x Freebird/Other carrier. One frequency per week each to DLM and RHO cut to make way for the Tunisia route.

I notice though the Monday Corfu in S25 gets back now at 21:50. That would be a nice little opportunity to add something like a late evening PMI or IBZ departure at say around 23:00 as they do from some of their other bases over peak summer. Doubt that will happen here though.[/QUOTE]

This is something that happens at CWL for July - September where one of the aircraft does a late night PMI on Tuesdays departing at 22:40 and arriving back at 04:20 the following morning

[pamann]

So that's both the Monday AM and Friday PM gaps filled. Same overall capacity as S24 at 28x TUI departures per week plus 1x Freebird/Other carrier. One frequency per week each to DLM and RHO cut to make way for the Tunisia route.

I notice though the Monday Corfu in S25 gets back now at 21:50. That would be a nice little opportunity to add something like a late evening PMI or IBZ departure at say around 23:00 as they do from some of their other bases over peak summer. Doubt that will happen here though.

This is something that happens at CWL for July - September where one of the aircraft does a late night PMI on Tuesdays departing at 22:40 and arriving back at 04:20 the following morning

Don’t forget that Tui are block booking seats on SunExpress to AYT & ADB which explains the lack of Tui metal to AYT for summer 2024 and beyond. The service is featured daily to AYT peak summer 2024.

[FRatSTN]

Don’t forget that Tui are block booking seats on SunExpress to AYT & ADB which explains the lack of Tui metal to AYT for summer 2024 and beyond. The service is featured daily to AYT peak summer 2024.

Yes, I think that gives them an uplift of about 30,000 seats on S23 if I remember rightly. Plus in S23 they had a Titan A320 based for pretty much the whole season whereas this summer is expected to be 2x 738's again on TUI metal.

[Skipness One Foxtrot]

Have Stansted gained all of Qatar Cargo and Emirates Skycargo ops from LHR?

[ATNotts]

Have Stansted gained all of Qatar Cargo and Emirates Skycargo ops from LHR?
BHX certainly has some Emirates Sky Cargo services, whether on a temporary basic remains to be seen.

[richardwpprn]

Are there any BACF charters on Saturdays this summer 24 from STN?

[Sotonsean]

Are there any BACF charters on Saturdays this summer 24 from STN?

Are you looking at Saturday in particular?

BACF are operating as in previous years, a weekend seasonal charter flight from STN to Calvi.

BACF are operating seasonal weekend scheduled flights from STN to Florence, Ibiza, and Nice, all of which resume on the 19 May 2024.

These flights are operated on Saturdays and Sundays from STN although I can't confirm which flights operate on which day. I'm sure someone else will clarify that.

[richardwpprn]

Yes Saturdays. The aircraft from IBZ and NCE arrive early afternoon.

[pabely]

Short period of runway closure this morning for repairs. I believe RYR diversions were to x1 LTN, x3 EMA & x3 LGW.

[JW95]

Does anyone know whether LH are planning on continuing their STN-MUC flights? (They've disappeared off the STN wikipedia webpage; previously listed as seasonal). Hope they haven't left the airport completely.

[nguba]

BA CityFlyer has added a new seasonal route to Split from 7th September:

https://www.headforpoints.com/2024/04/26/british-airways-adds-a-new-route-from-stansted-to-split/

Seems a bit odd this is launching after the summer peak.