FlyBe timetable from Birmingham (new routes)

Alicante – 4 times weekly (M,W,F,Su)
Almeria – 3 times weekly (Tu,F,Sa)
Faro – 5 times weekly (M,Tu,W,Th,Sa)
Malaga – 6 times weekly (M,Tu,W,F,Sa,Su)
Murcia – weeky (Su)
Palma – 4 times weekly (M,W,Th,Su)

I assumed all of the routes would have been Daily as most locos do on the “Sunshine routes”. At least they are being sensible and expanding gradually.

This is what they are competing against at Birmingham:

Alicante, MyTravel Lite – twice daily , bmibaby – daily
Almeria, MyTravel Lite – 4 times weekly
Faro, MyTravel Lite – 5 times weekly
Malaga, MyTravel Lite – twice daily, bmibaby – daily
Murcia, MyTravel Lite – daily
Palma, MyTravel Lite – daily, bmibaby – twice weekly
Geneva, bmibaby – weekly

And theres also other competition in the Midlands

Alicante, WW ex NEMA – daily, EZY ex NEMA – daily, TOM ex CVT – 5x weekly
Faro, EZY ex NEMA – daily
Malaga, WW ex NEMA – daily, EZY ex NEMA – daily, TOM ex CVT – daily
Murcia, WW ex NEMA – weekly, FR ex NEMA – daily
Palma, TOM ex CVT – daily, WW ex NEMA – daily
Geneva, EZY ex NEMA – daily

Plus theres the numerous charters from Birmingham and NEMA. bmibaby have yet to announce their “20 Summer 2005 routes from Birmingham, so this could bring extra competition if they fly to Almeria, Faro or Murcia. And you also have to remember some airlines may increase frequency to twice daily on some routes?

Talk about competition – it may get nasty!!

If Flybe are getting 733’s, could that mean that their future fleet replacement will be 73G’s or 738’s to replace the 146’s?

The 5 new routes from London Gatwick are:

Shannon – daily increasing to twice daily in Summer 2005
Cork – twice daily
Knock – daily

Almeria – daily
Valencia – daily

I wonder if the Almeria and Valencia routes will still be flown from London Stansted to compete against Ryanair or if they will just concentrate on flying to LEI and VLC from LGW?

Surprised to see Valencia as a new destination! Hopefully it will be started from London too – Luton perhaps or maybe from Stansted to compete against easyJet on their new STN – VLC route?

I read in a magazine last week that for Summer 2005, flybe´s expansion plans will see expansion at Aberdeen, Manchester and Norwich. I´m surprised a Liverpool route is on the cards but I supposse a LPL – JER route would be a success.

It would be nice to see if flybe do develop Norwich as one of their new bases.

easyJet cuts costliest airport from its network – Zurich

easyJet today announces that it has chosen to stop flying to Zurich, the most expensive airport in its network.

The Zurich to London Luton route was previously profitable, but this has been impacted by a ludicrous 132 % increase in passenger fees at Zurich in the last two years, and onerous operating restrictions. As a result, the route will move to Basel and the airline leaves Zurich after six years of operations.

easyJet recognises the demand for passengers to travel to and from northern Switzerland, and has found in Basel Mulhouse EuroAirport a management team that is also enthusiastic about low cost, and who are interested in further developing this market.

The last easyJet flight to Zurich will operate on Sunday 31st October, and the new twice-daily service to Basel will commence on Monday 1st November 2004.

Ray Webster, easyJet Chief Executive said:

“No airline likes to remove services from its network – but our focus on enhancing margins and reducing costs is relentless. Airports and their ground handling costs account for 32% of our total cost base – higher than most other airlines. This is a rip-off, particularly as our customers do not value the airport experience – they simply use them to get from A to B.

“In order to reduce costs we aim to work in partnership with airport operators to help them deliver the right infrastructure, services and charges demanded by today’s travelling public. A very large number of European airports understand this arrangement; since the beginning of April, easyJet has started flying on 24 routes and announced a further 32 for the coming winter season.

“But other airports assume they can charge whatever they want, use ‘cost-plus’ pricing models, and charge for services that airlines don’t want or use. This is ‘old world’ thinking. Airports need to live in the ‘new world’ and provide the right infrastructure at the right price.

“As Zurich Airport has now realised, if there is no realistic prospect of progress, we will take our business and passengers, elsewhere.

“At any one time we are talking to a number of airports about future services – to date we have six new European cities for this winter. We continue to search for airports that are willing to restructure, and want passenger growth. Airports that ‘get-it’ and grasp the new reality will be rewarded with growth from Europe’s leading low-cost airline.”

One-way fares start from just £22.99, including taxes.

LTN – BSL 07.05 – 09.50
LTN – BSL 18:25 – 21:15

BSL – LTN 10:10 – 11:00
BSL – LTN 21:35 – 22:20

easyJet is also adding Budapest, Geneva and Rome from Bristol too. Flights can be booked today.

Maybe their will some sort of co – operation deal with Virgin Blue to let passengers connect to Melbourne and Brisbane etc?