cloud_9Some people really are sick in my opinion…a colleague of mine came up to me the other day and said “Hey, do you know the main thing that has been learnt as a result of the accident in Glasgow?”…I replied with a cautious “No” because judging from the way he said this I already got the sense that what he was going to say next wasn’t going to be nice…and he said “Pigs can fly!”…with the pigs reference being towards the Police.
I was shocked!:mad: :apologetic:
cloud_9Do you think this project could be successful?
Whilst you’ve got some of the basic principles right, such as the use of secondary airports, I certainly echo what Matt-100 says in #2 in answer to your first question.
I’m not sure I’d want to sit on a high-density B767 for seven hours…
United and American/US Airways still operate Boeing 757’s on a number of routes across the Atlantic. These are obviously much smaller than a B767-200, and hilst they are not “high-density” configured, the seats are quite closely packed in if you’re travelling in the standard Economy cabin and I have often seen/had to deal with customers complaining about the comfort levels whilst onboard. The only solution we have to offer in this instance though is to inform the customer that we do offer a small Economy Plus section, which is located towards the front of the main Economy cabin, however they are required to pay the necessary fee to upgrade to if they want extra legroom (unless they’re a frequent flyer with us in which case they are free to choose any seat, subject to availability of course!).
Do you have any suggestions?
Firstly, have you looked at other similar airline business models that are already in existance but operate in different marketplaces?
The most obvious example I’m thinking of here would be Air Asia X who predominantly fly Airbus A330 aircraft with x12 Premium FlatBed seats and x365 seats in a 9-abreast (3+3+3) configuration in Economy. The reason for offering the Premium FlatBed seats I guess is so that they can charge a higher fare for use of these seats, which will ultimately offset the losses incurred as a result of selling any Economy seats at below-cost. They know that by only offering x12 seats, they are likely to be able to fill all of these on most flights.
As for other suggestions, here are some extra revenue options that you might want to consider if you haven’t already done so…
– Meals: Offer a very basic snack for “free” (included in the fare!)…a packet of peanuts or crisps and a soft drink perhaps, but also offer other items available for purchase, including the option of a hot meal service if a customer books it in advance.
– Allocated seating & extra legroom : Charge an additonal fee for pre-assigning your seats in advance and for any bulkhead/exit rows that may offer a few inches more legroom than a regular seat..
– Entertainment: Charge for the rental of an iPad or similar tablet device that comes with pre-loaded content.
– Duty free & Merchandise: You make a comission on any items that you sell onboard, plus why not sell a variety of goods with your logo on it…things that people may need whilst their away that they may have forgotten to pack (e.g. beach towels, hats, sunglasses…to name but a few!)
– Advertising opportunities: Why not charge companies to advertise their brands on both the interior (e.g. magazine, overhead bins, seat-backs/headrest covers, napkins, etc.). And don’t forget about the exterior of the plane too…here’s a great example of a logojet from several years ago: http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?68439-Gourgous-New-Logo-jet-From-airliners-net
Whilst I hope that some of these suggestions are at least useful, being as totally honest as I can I personally think that you would still struggle even if you chose to implement all of the above. Why you may ask? Well it’s quite simple really…people’s attitudes to long-haul travel vary so much more compared to when they travel short-haul. As charliehunt suggests above, 2hrs is bad enough and I would be minded to agree with him; I only just about managed to survive an EasyJet flight between London-Gatwick and Tenerife several years ago thanks to having several movies and games loaded onto my iPad…but even that gets boring after a while! I personally perfer the frills that some airlines offer, and would gladly pay that little bit more if I knew that I was going to get a better service.
Also, another thing to take into the account is the booking process because if you have lots of additional extras that you need/want to market in order to generate additional revenue, the process of actually booking a flight will become a whole lot harder, longer and ultimately less user-friendly, which could put customers off from choosing to travel with you.
Best of luck to you all with your studies!;)
cloud_9If it was as relatively easy to break the northern runway into two, extend it and introduce a 10 degree angle to each other as you suggest, don’t you think that BAA would have suggested this as a possible option in their own submission to the Davies Commission, or better still already have done it?
I’m no expert, but I can’t see it being that easy, which is why adding new runways and additional terminals is the option put forward.
I think that this also highlights one of the significant disadvantages that LHR has…it’s location and the area it is in is very constrained for space when it comes to expansion potential. If a new airport were to be built on the other side of London and joined up to the High-Speed rail and/or Crossrail network, it would only take 24mins to get into the Canary Wharf area of the City, which lets face it is where most of the big business is conducted thesedays. Whilst that’s slightly longer than the current 15mins on the Heathrow Express, that only goes to Paddington so travellers then have the hassle of having to get x2 Underground trains or a taxi in order to reach their final destination.
Everyone that is against the idea of a new airport says that you can’t close down LHR because of people’s jobs…well if people are as motivated as me to want to work in the industry, they will take whatever steps they can to ensure that they are able to move to a new location. Failing that, once the new airport has been constructed and becomes operational, Heathrow can then be turned into a huge new sub-city with residential areas and various business parks that will more than cater for if not provide even more jobs for the local population.
cloud_9nick40moose is right…it’s not Boeing’s fault or problem to solve, it would come down to engine manufacturer, in this case GE.
Of course due to amount of bad press that the aircraft in general has had since it launched, the media will pretty much do anything to link two stories that are about the same subject, in this case the Dreamliner, and try to make out that situation is a lot worse than it actually is.
cloud_9Of course Matt-100, thanks for that.
I knew there had to be a simple explanation for it. I’m aware that airlines wet-lease their aircraft to other airlines, but I didn’t take into consideration the fact that the operating carrier’s flight code is used.
I should have known better (feeling :stupid: & 😮 now).
cloud_9Wow, that’s almost $200bn worth of orders…$170bn of which comes from the x3 major Middle-Eastern carriers (EK, EY & QR); they are certainly a formidable force when you look at stats like those above.
I wonder how long it will be before we’re all flying LHR-JFK (via DXB, AUH or DOH)…:p
cloud_9A great set of photos there Maikel, thanks for sharing.
There is a reason why the 757-200(w) is one of my favourite aircraft and photos like the one of the US Airways example shown above really help to prove this…she just looks gorgeous!
Shame that we won’t be seeing it in the US Airways livery for much longer now that the merger with American has finally been agreed between all parties.
cloud_9I think Flybe’s biggest mistake is/was its massive order for the Embraer E175. They’ve begun replacing some of their Dash8 Q400 fleet with these new aircraft and I don’t understand why because the turboprop has been proven to be just as economic and more environmentally friendly. The E175’s are bigger in terms of capacity, so I think that they have tried to over-stretch themselves and it’s back-fired, hence why they now find themselves in the position they are in now.
Details of the base closures and job losses have been announced: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/nov/15/flybe-closure-six-bases-redundancy-details-exeter-jobs
Bases at Aberdeen, Guernsey, Inverness, Isle of Man, Jersey and Newcastle will shut, although a spokesman for the airline said it would continue to fly to the airports.
The carrier also indicated there would be cuts at Belfast, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Southampton.
Now that’s a pretty large cull of bases and cut backs, and if you also take into account that they will no longer be flying to/from London-Garwick from the end of March 2014, things must be really quite bad for them.
The bizarre thing though is that they have in fact made a profit…(Half-year results showed profits after tax of £13.6m on revenues that grew 3% year-on-year to £351m), so it is a rather confusing situation. The new CEO says they’ve got to “shrink to grow”…this could be just as risky, couldn’t it?
They may not have used based MSE aircraft, as testing the water, and also EDI and MAN bigger business catchment areas.
I see your point about testing the water, and I agree that basing an aircraft or two is/would have been a bigger risk, however I think it would have allowed them to conduct a far more conclusive test of the market potential at MSE. To blame the discontinuation of a route due to lack of passengers when you choose to operate flights that are of no use to a large market segment (i.e. business travellers) is wrong in my opinion.
To get back to the topic at hand though, I do wonder how long KLM will remain at MSE? The flights are timed pretty nicely to allow for onward connections to KL’s global network (plus it’s cheaper to fly via Europe in order to avoid higher APD taxes!), so if the locals do not make use of the services available then the airline will simply drop the route, and then they’ll all moan that they have no services from their local airport, but it’ll be their own fault.
cloud_9The only reason the domestic routes didn’t work on that particular occasion was because they were operated to suit Flybe and not the customer. Flybe used aircraft that were based at the destination airport, which meant that they operated an early morning return flight to/from the destination before heading down to Manston. This ultimately offered a very late morning arrival into Manston and an early afternoon departure, which is hopeless for attracting the key business traveller market, thus the flights only appealed to leisure travellers.
When Flybe announced that they were dis-continuing the flights to Manston, they said: “We tried different routes and the numbers simply weren’t there. It’s impossible to sustain routes without the passengers.”
We’ll had they of chosen to base x2 Dash8 Q400’s at MSE and flown twice-daily return flights to EDI and MAN, I think they would have been far more popular and probably would still be available today.
cloud_9So what is Air France/KLM doing so wrong that causes them to make huge losses when the majority of other global carriers are making a tidy profit?
cloud_9Indeed, I’m sure The Gloags will have known the figures when they made their offer…but we won’t know what their intentions are until the sale is sorted, which is due to be completed by the end of the month.
I do sincrely hope that they and KLM can work together in order to boost the traffic travelling to/from the airport and hopefully try to attract new carriers to launch flights to/from the airport. If KLM were to pull their flights it would be a devestating blow and would prove all the critics of the airport right.
I suspect that both BA and EasyJet have been competitively pricing their flights to AMS from LCY/LGW/SEN/STN just to add to the pressure.
Perhaps an ERJ operator such as bmi regional would suit the airport, or possibly a couple of domestic routes operated by a Dornier 328 (CityJet) or possibly Jetstream 41 (Eastern Airways) aircraft would help?
cloud_9Although unrelated to the Gloags, there are plans for a new 800 housing development to be built close to the airport, with the potential for a “Thanet Parkway” rail station to be built that will offer connections to London using the high-speed line.
cloud_9Indeed, I know that United fly the 757-200 on a number of their transatlantic routes into the UK…at BHX, EDI, GLA, MAN and LHR.
We often get strange looks from passengers when they board and the occasional question as to whether the aircraft is large enough to fly over the Pond.
For the past few weeks though we’ve had a 2-class 767-300 operating on the 1600 departure, and apparently from next year (date tbc), we’re going to be using 3-class Boeing 767-300’s on most of the LHR-EWR flights.
cloud_9The A.318 is not that small for the trip.
When you consider though that airlines have B747’s/777’s and A330/340’s flying on the London to New York route, the A318 is a relatively small aircraft to operate on such a route. That said, the airlines that fly the larger aircraft cater for both business and leisure travellers, whereas the A318 service caters for a very niche market; usually the financial services sector whose executives fly regularily between the two cities. Most of these people will work in the Canary Wharf/Docklands area so London City is obviously a better airport for them rather than having to trek over to LHR.
cloud_9Hi jshjosh,
Firstly, welcome to the forums.
Yes, the flights do still operate with the A318; 0950 & 1600 departure from London City. It is the only aircraft within the A320 family that has the steep approach compatibility.
Like mrtotty, I’m not too sure about any specific modifications that were made to the aircraft from an engineering point-of-view…however the way they manage to do the trip on the way there is with a technical stop via Shannon in Ireland. The aircraft stops for fuel and the passengers get off and clear through US Preclearance, thus allowing a much easier and faster arrival in the US.
The aircraft, which can normally accomodate 107 passengers, has just 32 seats in an 8-row, 2+2 all business-class cabin configuration.
For a better look, see this link: http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/British_Airways/British_Airways_Airbus_A318.php
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