WingflapsRE: Airline Business
Yes, I’m Luton based and work at the Monarch Airlines head office.
I used to live in North Oxfordshire, but moved down to South Bedfordshire especially for Monarch Airlines. I have had an interest in airlines and airliners since about 1987 when a BA Concorde pilot came into my class at primary school. That inspired me! Plus, we designed an airport during class at primary, and we even received some bits and bobs off Pan Am! My my, such a long time ago. Then I flew British Airtours in 1987. My first time in the skies. I wrote to them afterwards, and they gave me a letter stating that if I ever flew BA or British Airtours again, I should let them know and they will give me and my Brother a cockpit visit. Well, I took them up on that offer when my family and I flew BHX-FAO with BA in April 1992 (the same day EuroDisney opened). The pilots invited my Brother and I to land at FAO in the cockpit, so we ended up spending the last 45 mins of the B737-200 flight in the cockpit listening to FAO ATC.
After the FAO trip, I had the avaition bug well and truly in my veins.
From then on, I started to collect airline memorabilia and had quite a nice hobby going until I wound it down for my A-levels in 1997.
I’ve since graduated twice. Once at Coventry Cathedral and once at Wolverhampton. I gained a 2:1 BA Honours in Bus. Admin. and wrote my dissertation on the future of airline alliances.
I gained an interest in airline strategy whilst doing my studies and it came in handy for my dissertation!
I interviewed Brian Summers, the MD of Birmingham Airport in his office; the Director of Strategy of BA; and I flew down to British European at Exeter for the day (when BE where still doing BHX-EXT!!) and interviewed the Director of Strategy and also meet the now ex CEO, Barry Perrott. The man at BE is the one who decides the aircraft types and network.
So, I had an interesting time researching my dissertation.
After graduating, I wrote to many a UK airline trying to secure a job. The closest I got to getting a job interview was with GB Airways, but they didn’t have any vacancies in the end. It was post September 11th, so there wasn’t much about. A bit of a bummer.
In the end, I kept the MON job vacancies page book marked from their website. At the time, MON were one of the only airlines to advertise on their websites. I wrote in for a job in Economic Planning and got it! I was over qualified academically, but you need to try and get your foot in the door some how.
Any how, I am now in the early stages of promotion to Economic Analyst. Don’t go into airlines if you want a decent salary though!
The Economic Planning Manager and I prepare the airline’s budgets, catering costs, monitor the Scheduled flights’ bookings, cost each route the airline flies for the charterers, cost the ad-hoc flights, maintain the world airport charges information, cost positioning flights and so, so much more. We cost the flying programme basically.
We are going to be getting involved more with the fuel prices.
I work in the same office as a man who used to run Dan Air. He has many an interesting tale to tell. They were the days of real aviation! I also work alongside a man who helped set up Orion Airways.
Rgrds.
Wingflaps.
WingflapsRE: Airline Business
You’re thinking of G-MONC which cost about $3m to fix! That was a mixture of factors and the report of that incident is on the CAA website?
It was my educational flight. A freebie. I was off work for the day, got paid and given inflight meals and drinks! Spiffing!
GIB is a difficult airport to operate into which is why I chose it for my ride. I’m glad I did! I was thinking “I hope this is going to stop soon, because there’s water over there!”
I recommend GIB to everybody. It’s safe!
I’ve still got to open my £5.50 1 litre bottle of Gordons Gin I bought in GIB duty free.
WingflapsRE: Airline Business
Very true. Slots are priceless.
I flew in the jump seat of G-MOND on 4th August last year from LTN to GIB and back. B757’s making an interesting ride from the cockpit! I was amazed at the size of the fuse panel above the pilot seats!
We had to wait for a dog to clear the runway before take-off from GIB. I was only there for an hour, but I’ve touched the GIB soil!
WingflapsRE: Airline Business
I’m afraid I don’t have MSN messenger or the other one you mentioned.
If you drop me an email (my home email) then I’ll see how I can help you out.
I forgot to mention that within the cost of the in-flight meal are other elements. These being an airport levy, dry stores cost and wash-up charge.
The airport i.e. LGW/BHX/MAN et al charge the catering company/airline a levy on the catering uplifts. This levy is say 10% of the basic meal cost. The levy is another source of income for an airport, besides the other ways they generate revenue (landing charge, parking charge, passenger service charge and their cut from airport retail outlets’ profits etc).
Dry stores are the items such as the cutlery pack, food dishes etc, which have to be costed in. The wash-up charge is paid when the food dishes arrive back in the UK and are cleaned ready for re-use.
Airport slots are not controlled by an airport, but rather through a company called ACL (Airport Co-ordination Ltd). When an airline requires a slot, you contact ACL and not the airport in question.
Slots are historical. If you don’t make use of your slots, you loose them and they get re-distributed next time around to other airlines.
Certain airports also charge airlines for noise and emissions. The more noisier the aircraft i.e. B737-200, BAC1-11, B727 etc, the more expensive it is to fly to an airport which charges. Emissions charges become the more expensive if you have unclean engines on your aircraft which will give out more N Ox emissions on landing and take-off cycles.
UK airports don’t tend to charge these items at the moment, but a lot of European airports do.
By the way, the new Monarch Airlines livery model aircraft arrived at head office a couple of weeks ago. If anyone is interested in purchasing any, they may sell them by post. (A320,A321,B757,AB6,A330).
Try writing into the In-flight Product department at Monarch Head Office if you’re interested.
WingflapsRE: Airline Business
Slot allocation is usually based on the historical rights of an airline at an airport (i.e. if you’re a frequent operator from LGW, you will be allocated xx number of slots a year in ratio to your historical number of flights operated. You also get a certain number of slots for operating ad-hoc flights allocated as a percentage of your historical slot rights at an airport. I believe that is what slot allocation is based on, don’t hold me to that.
Catering costs are calculated according to volume. If you are an airline who uplifts large amounts of catering from LGW for example, then you are likely to get a volume related discount from the LGW catering company. All catering costs will be commercially sensitive to an airline and you will not be able to obtain these. Although I have got many different prices for UK and European airport catering in my memory, I’m not in a position to disclose the information. Most UK charter airlines will uplift both the outbound and inbound flight’s catering from the UK departure airport due to the quality of food from the foreign airports. Spain, Portugal, Greece and some longhaul airports are used for uplifting. Italy is very expensive.
Aircraft lease costs and maintenance costs will again be commercially sensitive to each individual airline. Lease costs are usually costed on a per month basis.
I could help you out with the published airport and navigation charges if you need information for landing, parking, terminal navigation etc. This is information that all airlines receive and would therefore not be commercially sensitive.
En route navigation costs will be more difficult for you to cost, as there are weight factors to calculate into the costing plus you would need to know the distance in kilometers you will be over-flying each country to calculate the charge for that country.
I think BOH and NCL have their airport charges listed on their webites. NWI is VERY expensive for landing at night time.
I hope this information helps. Good luck!
Wingflaps.
WingflapsRE: Monarch Airlines to Cuba (Holguin)
It is only planned to fly for three weeks. I checked on the aircraft activity display screen today and they aren’t positioning sectors between LGW/GLA/LGW (I previously mentioned positioning). A meal will be served on these sectors too.
I’ll double check on Monday that it is VRA that has closed. I was updating the Cuban landing fees a couple of weeks ago, when VRA wasn’t listed. I believe they have transferred most equipment to CCC i.e. fire cover, handling equipment etc.
The A330 will be in ‘old’ colours too. The next aircraft to appear in the new Monarch colours will be G-OZBG an A321, in early May.
If you’ve got any other questions, drop me an email. You can find this in my ‘profile’.
WingflapsRE: Monarch Airlines to Cuba (Holguin)
I work in the planning and sales department at Monarch Airlines. It is 100% definately planned on an Airbus 330-200. We have two A332’s in the fleet and the registration will either be G-SMAN or G-EOMA. These aircraft carry 374 seats, 323 economy and 51 premium.
It is a short series of flights and I believe it is a LGW based A330. The aircraft will position to Glasgow to fly direct to Holguin.
(LGW/P-GLA-HOG-GLA/P-LGW).
Varadero airport is now closed to International traffic, so no more charters will fly there, but the Cubans have opened up Cayo Coco (CCC) as an alternative to Varadero (VRA).
WingflapsRE: The loss of regional routes
V1, British Airways were losing over £300 million a year on their European route network. It also costs BA around an extra £200 million a year from splitting operations between LHR and LGW. They only use LGW because LHR is too crowded and they need an over spill airport for their operations. Would you operate loss making routes from LGW, especially when the airline industry is suffering its worst financial problems for around 20 years?
Regards,
Wingflaps.
WingflapsRE: Best airline
On airlines where the drinks are ‘free’ or complimentary, you are probably paying for them in your flight ticket.
WingflapsRE: “ambassador airways” and “paramount”
Try asking Jeeves at http://www.ask.co.uk
He may point you to some websites.
WingflapsRE: Charter Airlines
My parents flew on Ambassador Airways BHX-ACE-BHX in September 1994, a few weeks before they folded I think. Anyway, they said at the time that there was no inflight entertainment or magazine provided, so the four hours dragged.
I have got an Ambassador Airways pilot bear in my remaining collection (Ambassabear), but I’m afraid it’s not available for sale, trade or anything.
Wingflaps.
P.S. My parents have also been on Flying Colours. I think I still have the logoed boarding passes.
WingflapsRE: air rage
The part which reads ‘first flight’ should read ‘WORST flight’. Sorry.
WingflapsRE: air rage
We had a problem on our Eurocypria flight from BHX to Larnaca last July.
About a third of the plane were young hooligans who were not necessarily drinking, but were hurling foul language just because nobody could stop them. It was the first flight I have ever been on. They started BEFORE we left the gate at BHX!! Why the hell couldn’t the Eurocypria crew chuck them off the flight or give them a verbal warning?? Hell, I sure wouldn’t have minded waiting for 40 suitcases to be off loaded or to be inconvenienced by a de-tour to another airport enroute to Larnaca to offload them and have them arrested.
The Eurocypria crew did nothing to help the innocent passengers. We came to the conclusion that they were nearing the end of their shift and just wanted to get home. If we had been on a British airline, they sure as hell wouldn’t have got away with their language and behaviour. The crew didn’t even read out the riot act or anything. Alcohol shouldn’t be served at the airport or onboard planes. I know it would be unpopular, but it would cut back the number of incidents.
WingflapsRE: BA’s Deli Service on Shuttles
V1, you seem to be forgetting the industry climate which all airlines have to operate within. A sharp economic slowdown, possible worldwide recession, high fuel prices etc impact all airline’s performances including BA’s recovery. BA are doind well considering their situation.
WingflapsRE: Worst Ever Charter Flight
No, personally I would say Airtours International are the worst and Monarch Airlines the best.
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