FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

RE: Scotland’s first Budget airline takes off at Prestwick.

Well I am sticking too my guns and saying I don’t think it will survive along with a few other start up carriers.Others obviously will not agree.

Scotland’s first Budget airline takes off at Prestwick.

A news article that I found about it!

PRESTWICK airport yesterday unveiled Scotland’s first no-frills airline as its second budget carrier after Ryanair, and hinted that a deal with a third was likely before the end of the year.

Flyglobespan.com, owned by the Edinburgh-based tour operator, Globespan, will launch scheduled flights to five Mediterranean destinations from the Ayrshire airport in April next year. Fares will start at the no-frills price of £49, including tax. It will also run less-frequent services to Palma, Malaga, Nice and Barcelona from Edinburgh airport.

Yesterday’s announcement ends months of speculation over which budget carrier would come next to Prestwick.

Leading contenders for the airport’s third budget airline are bmibaby, the newly-formed low-cost subsidiary of bmi British Midland; MyTravelLite, owned by the UK’s biggest package-holiday operator MyTravel; and Buzz, operated by the Dutch airline, KLM.

Globespan is Scotland’s largest tour operator, and is best-known for holidays to Canada and Majorca.

The new operation will be based at Prestwick, already the Ryanair capital of Scotland, and will operate daily flights to Palma, Majorca; flights to Nice and Rome three days a week, and flights to Malaga twice a week.

A ticketless internet-booking regime will run the service and the airline will operate under the Flyglobespan.com logo, with two narrow-body Boeing 737s leased from Channel Express carrying up to 180 passengers.

The company said a recruitment drive for 40 new cabin and ground staff will be launched in the west of Scotland in December.

Tom Dalrymple, managing director of Globespan, said: “Flyglobespan.com will offer direct, scheduled affordable air connections to popular sunspots not previously available from any Scottish airport.”

RE: FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

I agree. The regional, non hub airports are poorly served by the low cost airlines, and this is why I think that in my case there could be more choice. It’s all very well living in the catchment area of say Luton, Stansted and Bristol where you will be offered the choice of flying just about anywhere you want in Europe at low cost.

If you are in lesser served, albeit populated areas then the choice as I said before tends to be limited to linking to the mentioned hub airports. Another example based on my experience… Glasgow Airport has one of the largest throughputs of holiday makers in the UK (per head of population) These holidaymakers are all carried by the usual suspects, Brittania, JMC, Airtours etc. Now if you look at the low cost airlines operating out of GLA then the furthest you can fly direct is Amsterdam with Easyjet. Every other low cost option is domestic.

When I go abroad on holiday, I don’t always want a package deal, just a simple flight would do. Taking a flight only deal from the “usual suspects” is often as expensive as taking the whole holiday package.

Saab and others, if you think there is over provision of low cost airlines in your area, then please send some of them my way. We could do with more choice to be honest.

RE: FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

Its the way they are hubbed – LBA only has a 3x daily FR Dublin link – no other loco – and a catchment are of 7 million within an hour of something – it’s something which it has been gagging for!!!

RE: FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 09-11-02 AT 08:58 PM (GMT)]Am I suggesting amateurs are running these airlines? No,I am simply saying that these new airlines are being started up at an excessive rate by the people who seem to see the potential of setting up a new low cost airline.Anybody who has experience is getting on the bandwagon,proof comes with airlines like MyTravel or Palmair or Channel Express.Would you of thought this time a year ago that three charter and cargo airlines would go low cost?Everybody is doing it….

How many loco’s do you think the UK can support?I know it can’t be many more.In the end they will be victim’s of their own success and their demise will be because they have saturated the market. Ryanair,Easyjet and bmibaby all agree that there is only room for 2 or 3 low cost airlines and in the end it will be only the best profit makers and the best financed.

RE: FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

No, I didn’t say low cost airlines were the future and neither did I suggest that any old “Joe” should start any airline. Are you suggesting these new airlines are being run by amateurs Saab 2000?

Low cost to LA ? How different would that be from the current economy class to LA or indeed economy class anywhere long haul ? Yes you would be looking to be fed and watered, and you would expect to pay for the privilige on board, but what’s to stop the same basic short haul principle’s and economics being applied to long haul ? If it means you could travel around the world at a price that’s attractive then why not ? I think the vast army of travelling student back packers would be in approval if knowbody else would.

To get back to my original point by using a couple of examples. I have made regular trips by coach and ferry over the years to places like Ireland, continental Europe and the south of England. All I could afford was land travel as traditional airline prices were way out of my league. Getting to Northern Ireland took all day, getting to London took most of a day and getting to Northern Spain by coach was a bloody nightmare! If I now find that I can slash those travel times by flying quickly and cheaply then you can keep your trad airline service and prices.

Are there too many low cost airlines in the UK ? Well where I live all I see are Easyjet/Go planes flying overhead, so from my point of view there aren’t enough.

RE: FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

I agree that UK does not need as many low-costs as its getting.

RE: FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 09-11-02 AT 04:42 PM (GMT)]So it is right that every Tom,##### and Harry can start a low cost airline and use the old “We think there is market”gag?I have no problem with the likes of Easyjet and Ryanair,but what annoys me is that the everyone thinks they can jump on the band wagon and fly low cost.They all start with good intentions but is there enough passengers for new UK loco’s?

They may of bought travel to the masses but then again don’t BA offer low prices and a 100% better service than the likes of EZY?You can travel cheaper on BA than FR and can get a pleasent service,backup and somewhere near a city.

RE: FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

I disagree when you say low cost is future of airtravel. Imagine traveling low cost LHR-LAX……i say this becuase if you say low cost is future that will include long haul….LHR-LAX, low cost will be horrible.

RE: FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

The fact still remains that affordable air travel has for far too long been beyond the budget of your average Joe Bloggs. I think that in Europe in particular, the opportunity to affordably visit what were once considered to be “far off lands” is a good thing. Sure if you want your traditional full cost and or business class airlines, then they’ll always be around for those with the money to spend.

For me, the chance to hop across to the continent and back, whilst keeping most of my spending money for the trip and not the airline has been a godsend.

I met a 73 year old man on a GO flight to Belfast recently, who’d never flown in his life until that day because he always considered it to be too expensive. He loved every minute of it and it meant he could pop backwards and forwards to Scotland to visit his family more often. If that’s not a sign of why low cost is good then I don’t know what is.

Mind you, it was quite funny when the under-carriage was deployed on the way down. He asked me if that was the pilot putting the brakes on!

RE: FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

The UK in my opinion is though.There are areas which need low cost airlines,Spain,Portugal and Italy for example but not the UK.

RE: FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

Low cost are a well proven formula, which works if the basic principles aren´t abandonded. Debonair failure was due to this fact: leaving the low cost philosophy and trying to make a kind of hibrid thing which was a bit hard to succeed. The phenomenum is so clear that the regular airlines are adopting the low cost formula. Iberia is studying to operate only low cost. So the market is not saturated yet. At least in Spain we need a good domestic low cost.

RE: FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

There was also something in one of the papers the other day about a German no frills airline running flights out of Prestwick to key German cities. The place seems to be getting somwhere back to it’s heyday. All it needs now is for BAA to buy it and return it back to mediocrity (lol).

I’m glad there are finally some decent routes on the no frills network for us Scots to enjoy. All that routing through Luton and Stansted to get to the continent was becoming a pain. Up until now the only available no frills routes from Scotland where to Luton. Stansted, East Midlands, Bristol, Belfast and Amsterdam. It will be nice to get a little further afield and to sunnier climes for less and also avoiding the famous “Scottish Airports” surcharges most holidaymakers know too well.

It’s just a shame BAA can’t do something to make Glasgow more attractive to these airlines. Still, more power to the guys running Prestwick. They’ve really turned the place around.

RE: FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 09-11-02 AT 09:22 AM (GMT)]Too many new low cost airlines are starting to saturate the market.Is there really a demand for so many new airlines?
When the market reaches it’s maturity in ten years time or so then all these airlines would of gone and we will just have two or three low cost airlines.After all,they are giving us nothing new and once BA’s and other airline message gets through that they offer cheap tickets and a full service, then people will abandon these airlines.

In my mind they will be as successful as Debonair or Ciaofly…made their impression and gone in a year or two.

RE: FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

Wowww……great. The first non-stop fly from Spain to Scotland¡¡¡¡
And at low cost¡¡¡¡¡

RE: FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 08-11-02 AT 09:08 PM (GMT)]I can’t understand why some people are so negative towards lo-cost carriers. In my opinion, it’s going to be the future of air travel – easyJet have made it big and by taking over “Go Fly”, they are going to make it even bigger.

Surely there are not too many people who would quite happily pay a higher price than they have to.. are there??

I think it’s a good thing. Lo-costs don’t operate from all airports and to have them at as many as possible is a good thing – a wider variety of flight available to us (the passengers) and the chance for the entire nation to fly for a fraction of the price.

But why oh why have they called themselves FlyGlobeSpan? They fly to four or five destinations in Europe – hardly spanning the globe!

RE: FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

lol, sorry guys!

here it is: www.flyglobespan.com

http://www.keymags.co.uk/dcforum/User_files/3dc8080d46354341.gif

RE: FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 08-11-02 AT 07:37 PM (GMT)]Yet another…
Seems like every UK airport must have a low cost airline opertor.Frankly it is becoming rather tiresome.Why must every new UK airline be low cost? What I wouldn’t give for a new traditional UK carrier.

RE: FIRST SCOTTISH NO FRILLS AIRLINE LAUNCHED

Whats the link, can you tell us? Do you know the name?

Everyone seems to hopping on the bandwagon.