With the current chief exec I don’t think we’re going to see much change for the better. This whole strategy of ditching full service and intertwining baby fares was his idea. And from what he says in the article, I don’t think he’s going to change it back. He talks about “the new strategy” like its all going to plan and this is want they want. I doubt it is, but if he recognised that it was going so badly that it was causing serious harm surely he’d revert back to the old way. In fairness, bmibaby from their original bases have sorted themselves out. The fares are low cost now, and although not perfect, delays have been brought down. They also seem to be more committed to developing existing bases than previously, as demonstrated by the expansion at CWL this summer, which has been neglected over the past 18 months. The problem now lies with bmi mainline, which is the backbone of the business. With rising fuel costs and cut throught competition, bmi can’t afford to lose passneger numbers like this, as eventually they will start to lose money. Either they sort themselves out quickly, or they could be heading down. I can see a market floatation within the next 3 years, if only to raise cash to save the company if things get bad.

Just seen Wales Today (BBC Wales news). Air Wales ending scheduled ops was one of the main stories. They had aviation experts, and said the reason behind 6Gs troubles was that it never advertised in it’s 6 year history, so quite simply hardly anyone knew about it. They also didn’t use travel agents, they relied only on the call centre and website, which apparently can only be done if you are a large carrier which 6G isn’t. And they didn’t offer any extras to business travellers, and their timings & frequencies were often not suited to anyone. They were also criticised for their eratic changing of routes. And heres the staggering thing; Roy Thomas, the chairman, in total invested £30million into Air Wales, none of which was spent on advertising, apart from a brief sponsorship deal with the Ospreys.

Yeh some route takeovers have been announced (see thread about Air wales collapse) with more set to follow.

ALL IS NOT LOST!!!!

It seems the airline has been preparing for this for some time. CWL-MAN & NQY were going to be operated by Air Wales initially, but when they realised things were going **** up they agreed to give it to WOW. Also, it’s already been agreed that:

CWL-ORK goes to Aer Arann

CWL-NCL, ABZ & BRU goes to Eastern

and then of course WOW already have the planned MAN & NQY services. More routes from other airlines are set to be announced shortly. At least they have prepared for this, so job losses will be minimal and the services will remain. All of a sudden things seem a little brighter. Theres is also this BBC article I read below:

Airline to end scheduled flights

Air Wales will cease flights on 23 April
Air Wales has announced it is to stop running scheduled passenger flights from next month.
Up to 80 jobs will be lost as the Cardiff International Airport-based company moves to charter flights and freight transport only.

It blamed the move on “spiralling costs” and “aggressive competition” from larger low-cost airlines.

Three airlines are expected to take over routes to destinations including Aberdeen, Cork and Manchester.

The news came as ferry operator Stena Line announced it was cutting sailings between Holyhead and Ireland, also blaming budget airlines and rising fuel costs.

In a statement, Air Wales said it was becoming “increasingly impossible for independent regional airlines such as Air Wales to operate profitably without substantial subsidy”.

Air Wales currently flies to 10 destinations from Cardiff and a number of others from bases in France, Manchester and Ireland.

The company is holding discussions with other carriers over handing on its routes to them.

Three have been announced already, with Aer Arann flying Cardiff to Cork, Eastern Airlines taking over Brussels, Aberdeen and Newcastle services and Air Southwest flying to Manchester and Newquay.

Increased costs and high competition in the market place have made it virtually impossible to exist as a passenger focused airline

Roy Thomas, Air Wales chairman

Just last month, it re-launched the service linking Cardiff with Brussels, with Welsh assembly government support.

An assembly government source said the money was awarded to the airport rather than the airline, so it had not been lost but would need to be taken over by another airline.

It is also hoped that staff losing their jobs will be offered posts with the companies taking over the routes.

Air Wales chairman Roy Thomas said they had made the decision “with sadness and regret”.

‘Red herring’

“Increased costs and high competition in the market place have made it virtually impossible to exist as a passenger focused airline,” he said.

“Without the vast economies of scale required to sustain and successfully compete in the passenger airline business today, it has become clear that Air Wales now needs to centre on charter and freight services to continue operating in the airline industry.”

WHERE FLIGHTS ARE SWITCHING
Aer Arann – six flights a week, Cardiff to Cork, from 24 April
Air Southwest – twice-daily Cardiff to Manchester, Cardiff to Newquay, from 10 April
Eastern Airlines – Cardiff to Aberdeen, Cardiff to Brussels, Cardiff to Newcastle, from 24 April
Source: Cardiff International Airport

He added all passengers booked with the airline after 23 April would get a full refund and help finding alternative flights.

The airline began operating in November 1999, flying from Cardiff International Airport and Pembrey in west Wales to London, before expanding to Cork and other routes.

Cardiff International Airport’s managing director Jon Horne said: “We are sad to learn that Air Wales is to cease scheduled operations and hope that the impact on jobs can be minimised.

“Meanwhile, other airlines are preparing to announce scheduled operations from Cardiff International on routes that Air Wales will be giving up.”

The announcement of the end of scheduled services came hours after Stena Line ferries announced it was cutting back fast ferry services between Holyhead and Dun Laoghaire, near Dublin.

Dr Anthony Beresford, a lecturer in transport in the Cardiff Business School said the ferry companies faced long winters and “peaky” sailing times.

He said: “Fuel costs are high yes, but they would be better off running smaller ships. The problem they’ve got is that they have very large vessels which are very thirsty to run.

“The impact of this is that if you cut the frequency, it is directly going to tend to push jobs into the part-time and informal sector”.

Dr Beresford said the rising cost of fuel being blamed for the airline cuts was “quite frankly a red herring because other airlines are experiencing the same problem”.

He added: “Yes, there is competition from other airlines, but the main competition budget airlines face [within the UK] is from people driving to their destination.”