It was doomed as soon as the ideas for DSA started to take off. I can’t remember BRU or AMS services but there were a few in the UK and DUB. Anyway, even when they did fly passenger numbers were pathetic, it was a no hoper from day 1. DSA has definately finished it off now. Stretching west to east that area of north England has LPL, MAN, DSA, LBA, and thats enough, I don’t think it could sustain another commercial airport. The best hope I think it has is becoming a flying academy, and I mean the whole whack, like a centre of excellence. But I don’t see where they’ll get the funding from to set it up, and will it really make a profit?

Yes the comment at the end is very true! At the end of the day Air Wales are out to make money, and if they don’t make money then somethings not right. This is obviously a route thats not working for them, partly their own fault, and they’ve decided to pull the plug. The fact is a number of Air wales routes in the past have not been profitable, which has led to them making a loss every year. They don’t help themselves much, but if they are pulling this service, then it probably means its a big drain on their coffers.

I may be the odd one out here, but I actually think it may be beneficial for the airline to collapse and then reform. I mean, they have too many a/c, too many staff and not a hope in hell of getting rid of any of them. Most of the routes they operate make a loss, but they can’t stop operating them becuase if they did they’d have even more surplus staff and a/c. The unions won’t even take a pay cut let alone full blown job losses. When I went through arrivals at LCA a few months back, there were at least 10 cabin crew in uniform standing round handing out promotional leaflets, most of which ended up on the floor or in the bin. Thats 10 cabin crew being paid to do ****** all! This is there problem, with the unions involved it’s just going to keep getting worse. But if the government prepared for a collapse, got some extra funds together etc., and the airline did collapse, Cyprus could have it’s own airline flying again within months AND it would be profitable! If it collpases it’s completely free of baggage. They can cherry pick the a/c and profitable parts of the business, hire only the staff they need, pre-plan a good efficent route network and be flying again in no time at all. The debt of the old company would have to be transferred to the new company, but as long as they make a healthy profit on their routes then they should be able to gradually repay them. In fact, they could just sell Eurocypria, which is worth a bit, and write off a large chunk of it there and then. How does that sound? Am I alone in thinking this, or does anyone agree.

God that United livery looks really dated now! great shots 🙂

I personaly think that Airbus made a mistake by pumping so much money into the A380. I know they thought that airlines would rather have hubs than go from point-to-point, but they must also have known that the market for such a huge beast was much smaller than the 787. For a start, huge a/c like that are only really used by flag carriers or large pan globe airlines, and even then many only go as big as the 777. The 787 however appeals to many more airlines- flag carriers, other pan globe airlines, charter airlines , high capacity internal routes (in places like USA). The natural replacement for the 757/767 is the 787, and so many airlines around the world use these aircraft that they will turn straight to Boeing for the next model (plus Boeing are cheaper). The A380 doesn’t have a predecessor- the largest Airbus before it is the A340 and that doesn’t have anywhere near the capacity of the A380. It’s a completely different size market. Therefore the only rival to the A380 is the 747, which has been around for donkeys years, is used by lots of different airlines, and shows no signs of bowing out. In fact Boeing are now going to bring out a stretched version to better compete with the A380, further limiting the A380s market, for the same reason as the 787. At the end of the day, smaller capacity, longer range & two engines is the latest “in” thing. Although the 747 continues to do well, it’s sales over the past few years have been falling, while sales of the 777 have been soaring, now more then ever. I can see Boeing coming out on top.

* I know this thread is about the A350, I’m just saying why I think the 787 will win, and how I think Airbus should have competed head on with the 787 in the first place, instead of building the A380.

But Exeter-Cork now goes via Newquay!!

Oh jesus! I think they are just being downright bloody minded trying to muscle in on Air Southwests teritory. Air wales are always threatened by competition, and instead of facing up to it and trying to beat it, they try to scare it by doing the same back to them. Only, what makes commercial sense to the competition, doesn’t make sense for Air Wales, so they end up losing every time. Putting all ORK flights via Newquay just to try and establish a presense at one of WOWs bases is just plane idiotic, nobody wants to fly from NQY to PLH or EXT, its too short a distance, and having to go via NQY to ORK won’t do anything for that route either.

I would like to see Air Wales operate:

Cardiff to: Plymouth
London Gatwick
Leeds Bradford
Newcastle
Aberdeen
Jersey
Belfast City
Dublin
Knock
Cork
Rennes
Paris Beauvais
Brussels

Plymouth to: Cardiff
Newcastle
Dublin
Paris Beauvais

Exeter to: Cork

Newquay to: Cork