Now Airlines?

Service start up suspended till October. I seem to of jinxed the airline.

Then again East Midlands and Cardiff are working quite well for bmibaby at Jersey just they are annoyed at the landing taxes they have to pay. Just I see the pricing structure changing after a while.

I completely agree Duesseldwarf, the business plan is pretty awful. I really can’t see the airline taking off (excuse the pun) particularly on the domestic services. To be fair if you buy a single with BA to MAN it will cost you £141, but a return with BA is just £59 and that’s from LHR, with NOW it’s £70 from LTN!!!

I can only see the airline dropping this pricing policy or going bust. As has been mentioned this one fair type set up has been tried by various airlines and they have just reverted to a classic pricing structure.

Their European services may be a different story, but in terms of MAN and JER they are gonig to get no where.

Martin

Point taken about the train service to Manchester from London – but one thing that has been mentioned since, which is a good point, is that they are MORE expensive that BA and BD from LHR to MAN.

If they get rid of that pricing structure, wouldn’t that be a broken PROMISE? You would have a serious amount of egg on your face if your main selling point was promoted as a promise and it was soon replaced by a more realistic alternative pricing structure! Can’t see the competition letting that one pass without a great big slanging match and adverts in the newspapers!!

There are serious flaws in their business plans, I feel. I don’t see how they are likely to make a penny in profit. I know the directors seem to have an aviation background, but I still have serious doubts. Pilots may be clever enough to be able to fly planes but that doeesn’t make them capable of RUNNING the airline.

I hope they prove me wrong – except on Tenerife where they will be…. erm ‘competing’…. with Monarch Scheduled!!

I guess we will just have to wait an see once/if they ever get off the ground.

Jersey would only really be competition in the summer months as Flybe. are only operating it on a summer basis. I believe the flight goes via London City as well so it could be a pulling point that NOW are direct. The prices are quite expensive, I know Flybe. are offering less than £45.
Jersey only has a population of 85,000 give or take a few, so unless they are planning to cater for the business community in the winter then I doubt it would be a success. Jersey is virtually dead in the winter with tourists and islander’s can not fill a 737 daily to Luton so really it depends on demand. Plus what happens if the 737 gets stuck there over night by fog? That will lead to problems.

The price structure is interesting and the management seem very well organised and enthusiastic. Their idea of a “new era” seems like a good idea though with set prices you would have to fill that 737 near enough to full to break even so how long that system will last I don’t know. GO and locally Le Cocqs had this system at the start and both got rid of it.

£35 single is more expensive than BA too!
I did a very enjoyable and short (30 minutes airtime) flight between LHR and MAN back in March, but I think the problem with NOW’s venture is just running it from Luton.

I’m not sure about the pricing structure, £35 single is more expensive than bmi from Heathrow to Manchester!

However I have to disagree with you Duesseldwarf, I fly to Manchester from London all the time now simply because even with check in and travel it’s cheaper and faster! I started flying instead of taking the train after the rail system completely collapsed in the Winter of 2000/01 and I haven’t looked back. I will never take the train to Manchester again, at £68 return from Oxford it is cheaper for me to travel to Heathrow and fly with BA or bmi and then get the train at the other end for the 20 minute trip into Manchester. The last time I took the train it took 8 hours instead of the normal 3, and that was not the first time.

I’m not sure about how successful Now will be, as I said the traditional airlines are cheaper on some of the routes and like you said Duesseldwarf easyJet and Ryanair are very tough competition. I have a feeling this will be another Debonair I’m afraid. I’ll still fly with them once though, just to see what they’re like 🙂

Martin

What are people’s opinions on this planned airline? Do you think they will become a success or another failed airline?

My opinion is that although they will only have direct city-pair competition on a couple of their routes (JER – flybe. and TFS – Monarch Scheduled), they will also be operating to cities that have hefty daily Ryanair or easyJet services (or both in the case of Rome) from other London Airports. I still believe that price is what matters on short sectors to most passengers and if Ryanair and easyJet can offer lower fares to the same cities, I can’t see a big rush away from them to be honest.

The only routes Fly-Now will operate that will be lo-co competition free are Lisbon, Valencia and Manchester.

Lisbon has been tried already by Go but was dropped – poor loads?.
Manchester is too much hassle to fly to when trains will be cheaper and probably quicker than checking in at LTN, flying to MAN, picking up luggage and then getting train to Manchester Piccadilly. Also, I don’t think Manchester is a particularly cheap airport to operate in to.
Valencia – not sure the demand for this one will be able to keep it afloat. Alicante is well served from LTN and VLC is quite a bit north of ALC. Lots off people flying to ALC actually head south of ALC to Torrevieja etc. This is why Murcia is the better choice and has been recently discovered by the low-cost boys.

I wish them luck but I have severe reservations that it will be possible to make a proifit by selling every seat at the same price on every flight to the same city every day of the week and only pushing it up £5 in the summer and down £5 in the winter.

Monarch Scheduled used to offer every seat on a given flight at the same price but the big difference there was that the price of a seat depended on the date-band and then day of the week within that date-band. For example, weekends during school holidays would be more a fair bit more expensive than a Wednesday when schools were not off. It’s a rather simple form of yield management – granted, but the complete lack of this, I think, will be Fly-Now’s downfall.

Looking like a 737-300 operation.

Cheers Martin… the link I provided is from the Justplanes website…! I think they need to do a redo on there info!!!

www.now-airlines.com

I cant seem to get on the real Now website?

http://www.fly-now.com/ This is the usual home page is it?

Thanks Saab, I may well take you up on that, I haven’t been down to Jersey before so it should be an interesting visit 🙂

Well if you need any help with spotting info etc I would be pleased to help. I am over there a few times a year spotting so I know some of the places.

When I start my own airline, it’s going to be called “Later Airlines.”

yep i was initially going to take a pot at this company before i was offered my more “local” position to home.

Interestingly on www.aviationjobsearch.com they are looking for Junior Cabin Crew as well those with previous experiance. Unusual for a new start-up to provide initial training – usually they go for those that have the experiance – most have a big buisness plan!

Thanks for that Saab, I hope to get booked on to one of their Jersey services for a days spotting down there.

Flights for August I believe, later than was anticipated. Bookings should begin in June.