Surprised this was not given a mention already, but on the 9th March, Air Southwest announced that it is due to commence a twice daily service between London City Airport and Plymouth and Newquay airports from 20th April.
These new routes are expected to revolutionise air travel between Devon and Cornwall and the capital.
Peter Davies, MD of Air Southwest:
“We expect it to be hugely popular with business travellers and have timed the flights to fit with busy working lives.”
“Day-return rail travel to the capital can be arduous and expensive. With our new London City service our customers will save hours of travelling time, with great value fares. It’s also ideal for a short-break in London, and will help to increase inbound tourism to both Devon and Cornwall.”
Richard Gooding OBE, Chief Executive of London City Airport:
“Plymouth was the first UK domestic destination ever served from London City in 1987, and it is great to see the service resumed. Air Southwest passengers will once again be able to travel to London’s financial centres faster than any other way with this new service. London City Airport’s close proximity to Canary Wharf and The City, with quick connections to the rest of London and the South East, makes it an obvious choice for the business traveller. With a check-in time of only 15 minutes, this new service will be popular with commuters wanting to maximise their business day.”
Does this mean they will still continue with the full no. of services to/from London/Gatwick, or are these being reduced to make way for the new LCY schedule?
And I wonder what kind of impact this will have on FR, who operate to NQY from STN?
By: A Spalding - 1st April 2009 at 07:54
Is PAR the name of the station or are you talking in trainspotter code now? 😀
WAC
‘PAR’ is the name of a place and train station – Funny enough it is also the 3 digit code.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Par_railway_station
Regarding me being geeky……. You already know the answer to that.
WAC!
By: Manston Airport - 31st March 2009 at 22:31
Hope Air Southwest all the best on this route and be great seeing there 300’s at LCY 😎
Is PAR the name of the station or are you talking in trainspotter code now? 😀
WAC
Yes Par is a station I think but if you want a code for London paddington its PAD ,A bit like LBA is for Leeds bradford airport ;):D
James
By: PMN - 31st March 2009 at 09:54
PAR, which is the nearest “main” line railway station for Newquay airport
Is PAR the name of the station or are you talking in trainspotter code now? 😀
WAC
By: A Spalding - 31st March 2009 at 08:17
although Im not sure how fast or regular rail from Cornwall to Paddington is.
PAR, which is the nearest “main” line railway station for Newquay airport is on average a 4 hour 30 mins train journey from Paddington :confused:
By: Arabella-Cox - 30th March 2009 at 18:52
From what I was told by locals when I was down in the area, the trains are excellent from London to Exeter (hence, no airline has succesfully kept a route to London from EXT, they couldn’t compete with the faster and cheaper train service). However, after Exeter the trains travel much slower, and aren’t particularly cheap. So thats why Air Southwest are able to run services from Plymouth and Newquay to London profitably. However I doubt the market has much growing potential left in it, so it seems surprising to me that Flybe think there’s space for them against a well established carrier on the route.
By: carl727uk - 30th March 2009 at 16:51
8 a day from Newquay is pretty good, but quite an eye-openner too, when you consider major industrial centres like Leeds/Bradford and Tees-side are loosing their London air link, although Im not sure how fast or regular rail from Cornwall to Paddington is.
By: A Spalding - 24th March 2009 at 11:26
I saw this route launch from an email Air Southwest sent me and wondered if it was a reaction to Flybe starting Gatwick-Newquay.
Exactly my thoughts!! Perhaps Flybe’s presence at Newquay has already had an impact on Air Southwest?!?!
And I wonder what kind of impact this will have on FR, who operate to NQY from STN?
I would imagine, not a lot.
Both Flybe and Air southwest already operate something like up to 8 (?) services a day to Gatwick. One thing I did notice is, after Newquay Airport shut for a couple of weeks in December, Ryanair never reintroduced their second daily service – not even for the summer season.
By: rdc1000 - 22nd March 2009 at 22:17
Apparantly Flybe have been reporting very good load factors on the NQY-LGW service since it started last month. This might be a reason why WOW have introduced LCY, as it would give them a reason to quietly drop off/reduce the LGW route.
I would disagree, but we shall wait and see. In my view this is a very clever move which will hurt FlyBe. This service will take the cream off the top of the route, i.e. take the passengers paying the most which will hurt FlyBe because they will loose higher yielding passengers, but will not be willing to compete because they won’t pay the charges at LCY as it doesn’t fit there model.
By: tomfellows - 20th March 2009 at 18:40
Apparantly Flybe have been reporting very good load factors on the NQY-LGW service since it started last month. This might be a reason why WOW have introduced LCY, as it would give them a reason to quietly drop off/reduce the LGW route.
By: Arabella-Cox - 20th March 2009 at 17:31
Flybe starting LGW-NQY? Well in that case it would make sense if one of the LGW-PLH-NQY frequencies was sacrficied for Air Southwests new route. Seeing as they have received no new aircraft (That I’m aware of!).
By: carl727uk - 20th March 2009 at 16:41
I saw this route launch from an email Air Southwest sent me and wondered if it was a reaction to Flybe starting Gatwick-Newquay. LCY-PLH was amoungst the first routes ever out of LCY, when Brymon started services from there.
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March 16, 2009 at 10:26 am