Good news. I really hope this happens. BMI have had it too easy for too long on this and so many other routes from LBA.

On my stats thread on my forum is a list of the lengths of the main runways in the uk. For the record the runway at NEMA is the same length as that at DSA. Heathrow’s runway is the longest in the uk and infact for an airport that is claiming to be a new intercontinental airport DSA has a relatively short runway.

The European Union bit you touched on… I think the aviation industry will be rocked sooner or later if expansion carries on the way it is. I don’t think governments are doing enough to push for better, more fuel efficient aircraft. The odd 10 or 15% fuel saving here and there, isn’t enough and if the likes of the European Union catch on, we’ll all be paying through the nose to fly.

Good news all round it seems. I’m just looking forward to the Jet2 announcements now. I wonder what PM will pull out of his hat? I notice on the LBA Masterplan the airport is showing 3.1 million passengers now for 2006, is this now achieveable?

I think Jet2 will look to Europe for the next base IMO

HI

I’ve been up to LBA today and Rumour has it that Eastern Airways are looking at a LBA-Cardiff service

This might have something to do with Eastern having a spare BAe Jetstream 41 aircraft at the end off this month. This is the aircraft that currently operates the Norwich – Manchester service that has just been axed due to competition from Flybe’s new NOR-MAN low cost service

Anyone like to add comment????

The last I heard was this route was on the cards but although the airline has enough spare aircraft, there is a shortage of crews at LBA to facilitate expansion at the moment.

Indeed. FlyBe services from LBA have looked to be successes so far, with BHD remaining 3x daily despite the Jet2 BFS service, SOU been upgraded to twice daily, and EXT remaining at once daily. There have been lots of rumours about FlyBe expansion from LBA, as there have been from alot of other airports but we have been one of the only regional airports to get a French destination from them which looks good.

As someone on the LBA group pointed out, Jet2 have a fantastic number of flights from LBA now that summer is in full swing, just look at the destinations served today, we could have only dreamed of this a few years ago!

LS201 AMSTERDAM
LS323 BELFASTINTERNATIONAL
LS391 MILAN BERGAMO
LS197 IBIZA
LS343 VENICE
LS271 ALICANTE
LS185 MALAGA
LS331 ROME – FIUMICINO
LS195 PRAHA/RUZYNE
LS315 PARIS (CHARLES-DE-GAULLE)
LS227 PALMA
LS241 NICE
LS265 MALAGA
LS231 BARCELONA
LS223 TENERIFE
LS251 FARO
LS257 PALMA
LS207 MURCIA
LS205 AMSTERDAM
LS347 DUSSELDORF
LS375 MAHON
LS273 ALICANTE

We take Jet2 for granted now, but they really have transformed LBA!

This is true enough. How much more expansion can LBA cope with?