Charter Flight Surcharges

[wowzz]

First of all, my apologies, as this is a pretty mundane question, but I would welcome any insight.
A cruise holiday to Barbados, with P&O, operated by TUI, includes flights from LGW. Flights from BHX or MCR incur a £50 surcharge. However, flights from GLA or NCL have a surcharge of £175.
I appreciate that in both cases the distance is slightly further, but does it really cost an extra £125 per passenger to fly to and from these airports, compared to BHX or MAN, or is it just P&O taking advantage of the lack of any other local options ?

[S.o.S.]

That's a very good question - I have seen those discrepancies before and would like to know the answer.

[rog747]

TUI have large cruise ship flight contracts with P&O cruises, Cunard and also with in-house TUI Marella Cruises flying from many main UK, and smaller regional airports, such as BOH EXT NCL BRS BHX and until recently also from DSA.
Marella cruise ships operate from Majorca, Corfu, Marmaris (DLM), Malta, TFS DBV LPA MCT SIN MBJ and Florida using TUI direct charter flights.

Flights for P&O are mainly to the Caribbean and the Canary Islands and are in the Winter season usually.

Cunard Historically chartered 767-300's from BA from LHR for their Med fly/cruises flights that flew pax to ATH BCN FCO VCE and IST.
From the regionals, Cunard have used TUI and Titan.
Monarch, Thomas Cook and Virgin Atlantic have all been chartered for Cruise Ship passengers, mainy flying to the Caribbean.
I think Jet2 may also have flown some with the A330's.

Re the Regional airport flight Supplements -
The anomaly in these charges are likely due to the (often high) costs of the Positioning flights which are often the case to get the aircraft and a 'Checked Out' cabin crew to the regional departure airport, plus the HOTAC and taxi costs for them, which are often pre flight, and then post arrival when back in UK.
There are only a few TUI bases that have 787 checked out Cabin Crew.

Possibly P&O are hiking the supplement to cover/underwrite the flight just in case it is not a 'sell-out', although in my experience Fly/Cruises in the winter months to the warmer climes from smaller regional airports usually are sold out more or less as soon as they go on sale with local Travel Agents as they are so popular.
Some Travel Agents such as Hays Travel and Bath Travel have taken a whole cruise and flight allocation and it is up to them to sell it - which they do!

Also some cruise flights are 'Split Load' such as flying BHX-NCL-MBJ (and return) and this too will attract extra costs to be factored in to the 'seat costs' for the Charterer.

[SWBKCB]

The smaller regional airports have had longstanding surcharges for most bog standard charter flights to the Costas etc even when they are bases

[wowzz]

TUI have large cruise ship flight contracts with P&O cruises, Cunard and also with in-house TUI Marella Cruises flying from many main UK, and smaller regional airports, such as BOH EXT NCL BRS BHX and until recently also from DSA.
Marella cruise ships operate from Majorca, Corfu, Marmaris (DLM), Malta, TFS DBV LPA MCT SIN MBJ and Florida using TUI direct charter flights.

Flights for P&O are mainly to the Caribbean and the Canary Islands and are in the Winter season usually.

Cunard Historically chartered 767-300's from BA from LHR for their Med fly/cruises flights that flew pax to ATH BCN FCO VCE and IST.
From the regionals, Cunard have used TUI and Titan.
Monarch, Thomas Cook and Virgin Atlantic have all been chartered for Cruise Ship passengers, mainy flying to the Caribbean.
I think Jet2 may also have flown some with the A330's.

Re the Regional airport flight Supplements -
The anomaly in these charges are likely due to the (often high) costs of the Positioning flights which are often the case to get the aircraft and a 'Checked Out' cabin crew to the regional departure airport, plus the HOTAC and taxi costs for them, which are often pre flight, and then post arrival when back in UK.
There are only a few TUI bases that have 787 checked out Cabin Crew.

Possibly P&O are hiking the supplement to cover/underwrite the flight just in case it is not a 'sell-out', although in my experience Fly/Cruises in the winter months to the warmer climes from smaller regional airports usually are sold out more or less as soon as they go on sale with local Travel Agents as they are so popular.
Some Travel Agents such as Hays Travel and Bath Travel have taken a whole cruise and flight allocation and it is up to them to sell it - which they do!

Also some cruise flights are 'Split Load' such as flying BHX-NCL-MBJ (and return) and this too will attract extra costs to be factored in to the 'seat costs' for the Charterer.
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Not sure if I fully agree with your rationale about positioning flights. I thought TUI had 787s based at both GLA and NCL.

[PAXboy]

Looks like "The reason doesn't matter - just charge extra when you can" which is SOP in most corporate worlds.

[rog747]

Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Not sure if I fully agree with your rationale about positioning flights. I thought TUI had 787s based at both GLA and NCL.

In the busy Winter cruising season, when P&O cruises fly pax to BGI, and TUI to MLB and MBJ to join their ships) IIRC TUI base their Dreamliners at only LGW and MAN, so that is a Question you need to ask on the TUI Airways thread as I am not 100% sure on the Winter fleet bases.
Hence my full explanation of the Positioning flights and their extra costs.

In the Summer they also fly the 787 from various other UK airports including BHX EMA BRS NCL GLA (and once DSA) for both long and on some short/medium haul flights.