Glouchester Staverton schedules

[Findo]

Anyone have information on the proposed new opertion from Staverton with Dash 8 - 100 ?

A Bristol company Waypoint Aviation might be involved.

[nighthawk117]

Ive heard Edinburgh mentioned as one of the destinations. Does anyone know if this is a serious start up or just a hoax? there doesnt seem to be much information available on the airline, especially in the press. Sounds too much like a paper airline to me?

[niknak]

If it goes the same way that other attempts to run schedule services from Satverton have gone, (the London city venture in particular), it will be a complete non starter.
Staverton may be a great G.A airfield, but it will be never anything more than that. :rolleyes:
It suffers from the "council run" mentality that has big ideas and no action, particularly in respect of the potential to expand the airfield facilities and become a major player in the south west of the UK, which is a travesty.:*
Until they get someone with commercial accumen to run and expand the place, they don't have a hope in hell.

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

I'd like to see it expand as a biz jet base. Give me a decent Falcom or Gulf to fly out of there and I would be a happy bunny.

As for regular passenger services. I can't see it somehow.

Good GA airfield though and that is worth something.

WWW

[ppheli]

WWW
Given you state your location as Cheltenham, it seems odd that you have missed the recent bizjet expansion at Gloucestershire Airport (or did your job application to one of them get turned down, I wonder? :confused: ). Currentely are no less than TEN bizjets based, many of which have arrived in the last year.

1 x Gulfstream V
1 x Falcon 50EX
1 x Citation Jet
2 x Citation II
1 x Citation III
2 x Citation V Ultra
1 x Citation Encore
1 x 125-700

And it's about a year since the current airport manager started at Gloucestershire, so niknak ought to have some more confidence (and less rant) in the future of the place. :p

This thread seems to have attracted a load of sceptics up to now! (philosophical muse coming up...) Life is like walking up against the down escalator - you look and move forward, think ahead and be positive and you'll get somewhere. Stand still, accept the status quo and think that Dash-8 movements are not possible and down you go.

[Findo]

Not my part of the world but the Edinburgh "service" is being discussed here on aviation networks. Not sure where it started.

Does Staverton have regular charters / any schedules ?

I see Aurigny have been granted permission for a series to Jersey from 3rd May to 4th October. Is this s regular summer service ?

[excrab]

The aurigny route licences will almost certainly be for the weekend charters which run every year through the summer, if I remember rightly on behalf of Warners travel.

Unfortunately, as has been mentioned previously Gloucester/Staverton has fared porly for scheduled services. Air corbiere (apologies if thats spelt wrong) - Air Atlantiques scheduled service often used to operate a Cessna 310 on the Glos - Jersey route, as they had such poor loads. Then Orient air lost what little money they had when they upgraded from a Chieftan to a Banderante because they couldnt fill the seats.

The Airports main problem seems to be its good communications - why fly from there if you can get low cost services from BHX an hour up the M5 or BRS an hour down it. Unfortunately a Dash 8 100 with 36 seats doesn't really lend itself to low cost operations, and I would have thought the payload might be limited by the TODA. Couple that to the winter fog problems and lack of ILS and it seems a poor choice of airfield for the service, unless...

On their website Waypoint Corporate Aviation state that they specialise in corporate aviation solutions. Can anyone think of any large corporate customer in the Gloucester/Cheltenham catchment area that might have need of a regular corporate shuttle service to EDI (that is pure conjecture, but this is a rumour network after all).....

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

ppheli - No I had not missed the expansion of BizJet traffic. I live right under the main approach about 2.5 miles out so I get a reminder every evening. Nor have I applied to any position there as I am more than happy in my 737 for now. Nevertheless, having a significant succulent bizjet base on ones front doorstep may become more of an issue as one gets older and 900hrs a year and an hour long commute takes its toll. Therefore I wish all the operators at Staverton the very best of luck in their endeavours.

One would have thought that Zurich might have had a more significant corporate air presence at Staverton.

WWW

[BALU53]

I think you will find, when Air Corbiere operated from EGJJ to EGBJ it was either a cessna 406, or a 404, and NOT a 310. With ref to a dash operater using a dash aircraft out of EGBJ. SInce ther are no Dash 8-100 aircraft on the british register, and in view of FLYBe going to a complete Dash 8-400 fleet... Could this mean the VERY small Dash 8s may be taken up by this new company hoping to setup from EGBJ?:eek:

[Ididn'tget...]

Air Corbiere operated a F406 on the route but dropped it when they introduced a Metroliner, which was payload restricted. Orient Air were followed by ATS Vulcan for a short time with a Bandit. At that time, the flights operated from a wooden shack masquerading as a terminal!

NikNak
When were you there last? There's been major redevelopment in the last few years, including a new Terminal, Fire Station, hangars and radar....sounds like 'action' to me!! New MD started about a year ago and the place looked very impressive when I was there a few months back.

Excrab
The weekend Jersey service has been a success for many years, with a very good load factor apparently. Previous operators include Brymon Dash 7's and 8's, Titan Shed's and ATR42....even Dak's and Viscounts in the dim and distant past.
TODA/LDA is obviously a problem, I think there's a big threshold dispacement because of road in the undershoot, but it can't be much shorter than LCY?
BRS is the wrong side of the City from Gloucester and Cheltenham and Birmingham's only an hour on a good day...there aren't many of those on the M5!! Add on the check in time and the Car Parking mortgage and I reckon Staverton could be a viable alternative for the business market.

Don't know what the performance of a Dash 8-100 is like but best of luck to them...hope it all comes off!!

[Madtoonfan]

I can`t really see this deal pulling off as Staverton is a home for business and light aircraft, i dont think the charters would be a success

[excrab]

Madtoonfan,

The charters are already a success, as was mentioned by Ididn'tget, as indeed are all the charters into Jersey in the summer from every UK regional airport that has them. But scheduled services are something different.

Ididn'tget/Balu53,

Yes Aircorbiere primarily used a 404/406, however they also used a 310 on occasion when the loads didn't justify the larger aircraft. This I know for a fact as I saw it and spoke to the pilot flying it.
As far as Orient Air goes I don't know the ins and outs of the Bandit, but it certainly had "Orient Air" written on it. When they were operating the Chieftan the operation was on such a shoe string that they filed VFR when it wasn't to avoid eurocharges, and the Chief pilot used to say that if they had to go into the hold then all the profit from that days operations had gone. If a scheduled service is running that close to the wind you cannot really call it a viable route.

Regarding the performance of a Dash 8, I may be wrong as I only had performance data for a 300 available. Gloucesters runway 27 is about 66m shorter than 28 at LCY, and I believe that Dash200s aren't limited out of there although a 300 would be.

However I still find it difficult to believe that enough business passengers are going to be generated every day to make it viable, unless they have a corporate customer in the wings. Whilst BHX may be an hour away from Gloucester, for anyone living North of Worcester the obvious choice is going to be to drive there and get a £29 ticket with Ba or Flybe.

Don't get me wrong - I've been flying from Gloucester both privately and commercially for 25 years (off and on) and would like nothing better than to see it succeed. But judging on the historical performance of other attempts it will be an expensive and uphill struggle.

[Findo]

If the AAG DC6 operated last year then I would have thought a Dash 8 - 100 could make a reasonable load from the same runway.

[jaw2001]

Yes, it is serious and they do have a web site Waypoint Aviation (http://www.waypointaviation.com)

Routes to include EDI, GLA and possibly DUB.

However, when e-mailed recently they got a bit touchy and replied:- Thank you for your e-mail. Unfortunatly we cannot at this stage comment any further on this matter as we are legally bound by confidentiality. I do hope you appreciate the sensitivity of the situation and accept my appologies for appearing negative

[Findo]

Where is the information about schedules ?

[opsflyer53]

Findo

Not on their web site, but from another source

[MJR]

I think Gloucestershire Airport could make an excellent schedule/charter airfield with the appropriate business plan. If you look at around at the local business in the Area i.e. GCHQ, QinetiQ DSTL etc where regular quantities of staff make frequent trips to London (£100 on the train) and Europe there is some scope for revenue from excesses of government money spent on travel. I think the main stumbling block is the issue of the runway extension which there is very little commitment too and apparently provides a 'W' take off limitation for anything of SD360 size and above.

As for accessibility I do not know of many airports in such close proximation of a major motorway.

cheers


MJR

[Findo]

From Staverton this morning -


Thank you for your enquiry regarding schedule services, unfortunately at this moment in time there are no services out of Gloucestershire Airport, this position is unlikely to change during the next few months.

[boris]

I can confirm the use of Viscounts on the Jersey weekend operations by British Midland.
Training Captains only, 810s only, water meths selected for all take offs and severe weight restrictions. Very exciting, I can tell you.