BA pulls out of LGW regional routes to SW

Locos make money through quanitity of pax output as previously said, so i would say if you got several L-co flights per week it’d do your economy a great deal of good. It’s porb take pax from the Charters, but it’s getting more pax in the air “cos it’s cheap”! They make take a short break because it’s good value for money, just as many are from Leeds now with Jet2!

Drawing away charter traffic is presumably what a low cost operator would want though?

There’s demand for that. The charter airlines would win as well, because then they could quit Exeter and concentrate at LGW. Isn’t that the whole point of regional air links – flights to London?

A service from EXT- LGW i think just wouldnt happen. A large, if not most of EXT’s business is charter flights. A link to LGW could lead to a decline in charter passengers not prepared to pay the supplements to fly from their ‘Local’ airport. This would mean a big decline in revenue for Exeter. Loco’s are not the way to go, as most money from this type of operation is from facilities such as shops and restaurants- Exeter just hasnt got enough of them! The only good point from this would be the increase in pax numbers, giving the airport moe scope as its somewhat shadowed under Bristol, but Ext’s facililites are already stretched!!!

i can unfortunatly see in a few years time to co-operation with Eastern turning into something similar…

I guess give it a few years and BA will start the cycle again where they think they should be involved in the regions, buy Aurigny and Air Wales to operate in BA colours before deciding that it is unprofitable and pulling out. Groundhog day!

I think route take-overs by independent regional carriers are the best way to go to ensure that regions retain their vital airlinks. Airlines like Air Wales always have an orientation similar to that of a regional airline, regional airports, aircraft, costs etc. I think that probably it could be the future of regional operations rather than BA franchise agreements like there used to be. Okay, Citiexpress will still be around but more so as a centralised carrier using one or two main hubs with smaller carriers like Eastern and Flybe. taking the majority of routes. Back to the good ole’ days of reliable regional operators.

excellent news! Good to see someone picking up behind BA!

Excellent. I think we all knew it would happen.

Air Wales are going to take over the route, utilising BA’s slots into Gatwick.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_news/england/devon/3042521.stm

The trouble with Air Wales taking over the service would be that they have no access to the Gatwick slots. Much of the traffic leaving both Newquay and Plymouth is connecting traffic. Unless you plan on catching the business traveller then the point of Air Wales flying into London City is pointless. Unless BA gave up the slots like they did with Aurigny?
I thinki British European could be a good option though not from Plymouth, Exeter would be more obviously suitable.

MPs tackle airline gap

BA says it will talk to other interested operators
Transport minister and Plymouth MP David Jamieson is holding an emergency meeting of South West MPs to fight the loss of flights to London.
British Airways is to pull out of the loss-making Gatwick-Plymouth-Newquay service in October.

Business leaders in Devon say the loss of the air route could lose the region millions of pounds in potential investment.

Some bosses have also claimed it could spell the end to hundreds of jobs in the South West, including 61 BA staff at Plymouth and 10 at Newquay.

‘Lose out’

Dave Robins, of Plymouth Marine Laboratory, one of the world’s leading marine research firms, said: “The market we are in is a global business.

“We want to be able to get to our destinations as quickly and as efficiently as we can, and we want people to be able to come here.

“If they feel they can fly somewhere else in the world and get the service that they want, then we will lose out.”

Dave Springbett from the Transport and General Workers Union, said: “There’s so much money being pumped into this part of the world in terms of regional development cash that it would seem that there’s a boom going on.

“So to pull out of these routes now because they have been losing money, could be the time when they start to make money.”

Investment fears

David Evans, managing director of BA subsidiary CitiExpress, said: “We are well aware of the importance of air links between the South West and London.

“For that reason we shall be working with interested parties who may want to operate this route, and we will do everything we can to make sure that these air links are retained.”

Mr Jamieson said the government would be encouraging talks between BA and other operators.

He said: “We rely so heavily on the contacts into London, and from there into other parts of Europe and the world for inward investment.

“So it is very important that we get that sort of investment that we have enjoyed in recent years.”

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As said above it’d b nice to see FlyBE put on a Birmingham and/or Gatwick run with the Dash 8s

I reckon Air Wales would be favourites to pick up the route – LCY wouldn’t be a bad choice either I don’t think!

..and surely as said aboe tourism… i weekend flight from Northern airports such as Leeds, Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool may save a 7 hour drive – if the price is right the same connections will appear as have to Jersey on a Sat/Sun from throughout the country. Even Exeter could do that i’m sure!

In contrast Ryanair recently doubled their daily flights to Newquay from Stansted and they are looking at expanding the South-West operation to Dublin as well. BA have lost a lot of passengers to this service, even if it doesn’t offer the connections.

As was mentioned above, why pay £300 for a 45 minute flight, Ryanair cost about £20 Rtn at the moment. It’s a sad decline, however I would imagine that Flybe will see it as a good opportunity to start a new Exeter-Gatwick service.

I think Saab is right, the best option would be to close Exeter and Plymouth and open a new regional hub in the South-West. I’m suprised that no loco’s have utalised Exeter other than Flybe. I would imagine a new central airport with a decent sized runway and terminal would really kick of the South-West’s aviation industry. Lets just hope that someone comes in to take over the routes.

I wonder what has happened about the Sutton Harbors Dash 8?

To be honest this is just another reason why Exeter and Plymouth should be closed for an airport on the South Hams. Devon and Cornwall are pretty sparsely populated areas yet rely so heavily on their airlinks because of the South West’s poor communications. If an airport was built there then at least you could concentrate two areas of traffic on to one airport increasing passenger numbers and making air services more viable.

About 18 months ago I flew LGW-PLH on a Dash 8-300. It wasn’t the fullest of flights and when I returned the next morning there were…2 passengers! On the return we were supposed to make a short hop to Newquay before heading to LGW, but after circling for 20 minutes the Capt. aborted the landing and headed straight to LGW due to weather issues. I gather this happens a fair bit dutring the winter?

To be fair though, BA seem to be playing their usual game – charge £300 for a 45 minute flight then witdraw it because nobody buys tickets at that price!

On the other hand, PLH is more of a grass strip than an airport – the facilities were non existent, so they might have had a hard time attracting passengers anyway.

Good old reliable BA Citiexpress :rolleyes: Is Citiexpress a European or domestic operation now, I just don’t know anymore?

Easy enough for people to shrug these routes but do you know how vital they are to a local economy, tourism and the well being of the counties people? No and nor does BA. It would seem though naturally BA do not give a damn, it is all high profit routes.

Anyway, Citiexpress is such a disgrace. They take these profitable companies Brymon, Cityflyer, Manx and BRAL who have a regional cost basis, regional aircraft and routes with a regional outlook and turn them into one mismanaged and unprofitable operation where they are losing money, base cuts and job losses. Brymon used to do very good on that route, such a shame now to see it go.

It is another nail in the coffin for regional airlinks. Hopefully Air Wales could take it over though it is hardly beneficial for connections if they routed into LCY. Could be good news for Flybe. at Exeter.

A major problem with the Plymouth/Newquay schedules was that they were operated by Dash 8’s. These aircraft are being retired in February, and there is no other aircraft in BA’s fleet capable of operating into Plymouth. If they can’t justify running into Plymouth and Newquay when they are operating a combined flight service (The aircraft route Gatwick Plymouth Newquay Gatwick) then there was no chance of a 737 operating purely to Newquay.
As goes the Orkneys/outer hebrides flights, these are operated by Loganair, so have no risk of being shut down as BACX has no control over them

i can see the above points, but if it’s benificial to the community to have air travel then why can’t it be subsidised by the government like other forms of travel, e.g. rural bus links etc.

A nations flag carrier that HUBS at LHR and LGW – where else really has that level of presence? Manchester has several routes, but otherds like EDI and GLA aren’t all non-stop routes.

Birmingham has DUO on behalf of BA, and Bristol, Aberdeen etc, have limited services

What about Leeds, Cardiff, Guernsey, Norwich, East Mids, Southampton, Humberside, Teeside, Liverpool etc? If Plymouth/Newquay aren’t profitable howsabout Barra and other Orkney/ Outer hebrides runs? are they not?

Indeed, a route which makes little or not profit is hardly worth continuing. Similar to Concorde I guess. That wasn’t making them any money and so, they’ve stopped it.