Charters

[TheLocalYokel]

Innsbruck

The Austrian F 70 Saturday service begins tomorrow with Mayfly showing AUA 2573 arriving 1400 and departing as AUA 2574 at 1440. The following Saturday (31 May) it's shown on Mayfly as arriving at 1340 and departing at 1420.

Mayfly also shows OVA 8722 arriving from INN tomorrow and departing for INN as OVA 8723 at 1205 with the same schedule shown the following Saturday. The type of aircraft is not indicated.

A check reveals OVA to be Aeronova, a Spanish airline with it seems a single ATR 42. I don't know whether these movements are for just the next two weekends or for the season.

If for the season I wonder who it's on behalf of. The AUA flights are for Inghams.

 

[User0001]

Mayfly also shows OVA 8722 arriving from INN tomorrow and departing for INN as OVA 8723 at 1205 with the same schedule shown the following Saturday. The type of aircraft is not indicated.

A check reveals OVA to be Aeronova, a Spanish airline with it seems a single ATR 42. I don't know whether these movements are for just the next two weekends or for the season

Those 2 OVA flights could well be Estonian Air, using the BHX based E170, s Im sure Ive seen it flying with something like an OVA code, but my memory fails me to exactly what that code was.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Summer 2016 Verona

It looks as though there will be only one flight on Saturdays to Verona in summer 2016. Inghams seem to be taking seats on the TUI flight (Mistral B 734) again. Last summer Inghams contracted bmi regional to operate a flight each week on its behalf but it now looks as though they will revert to their practice of summer 2014 by taking seats on the TUI flight.

The fact that Flybe will commence a Saturday Verona flight from CWL this coming summer may have played a part in this. CWL is now shown as an Inghams lakes and mountains departure airport for Italy (the first time for many years) and I read elsewhere that not only are Inghams taking seats on this but they are allowing customers who have already booked from BRS to switch to the CWL flight at no additional charge.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Summer 2016

The season has started this weekend with the second Thomas Cook A 321 arriving to form a 2 x A321 summer base as has been the case for the past two or three years.

Thomson will again have two B 757s based this summer although tomorrow morning three Thomson 757 departures are shown on Mayfly leaving at 0600 to both Zakynthos and Kos and at 0730 to Palma. The latter returns at 1315 and leaves at 1414 to position to LGW, so it appears to be a one-off.

The third Thomson based aircraft, a B 737-800, seems to have no work this week although I seem to remember it did not begin to operate until later in May last year.

There are two 'W' diagrammed Thomson 737-800s shown on Mayfly in the coming week: from/to Alicante tomorrow lunchtime and from/to Naples on Friday early afternoon.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Summer 2016 Verona

It looks as though there will be only one flight on Saturdays to Verona in summer 2016. Inghams seem to be taking seats on the TUI flight (Mistral B 734) again. Last summer Inghams contracted bmi regional to operate a flight each week on its behalf but it now looks as though they will revert to their practice of summer 2014 by taking seats on the TUI flight.

The fact that Flybe will commence a Saturday Verona flight from CWL this coming summer may have played a part in this. CWL is now shown as an Inghams lakes and mountains departure airport for Italy (the first time for many years) and I read elsewhere that not only are Inghams taking seats on this but they are allowing customers who have already booked from BRS to switch to the CWL flight at no additional charge.

Inghams are operating their own Verona flight again in summer 2016 with a bmi regional E145. The TUI flight this summer to Verona is a Neos B738 replacing the Mistral B734 (sometimes subbed by a Go2Sky B734) of recent summers.

The Saturday Innbruck flight is being operated by a CityJet ARJ85 instead of the Austrian F70 that has been the type in the past few summers.

 

[Marko1]

Looks like there be no charters to Corsica or Sardinia next summer according to Corsican places and sarditur websites

 

[Jerry]

Who were they operated by and for?

 

[Marko1]

Bmi regional have flown to Corsica for several years. Sardatur operated their first flights this summer using bmi to Cagliari

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Looks like there be no charters to Corsica or Sardinia next summer according to Corsican places and sarditur websites

Bmi regional have flown to Corsica for several years. Sardatur operated their first flights this summer using bmi to Cagliari

bmir have flown to Bastia for Corsican Places at 1 x weekly since 2013. Total annual passenger numbers for this relatively short summer season operation with bmir have never been high - 1291 in 2016 being the highest.

easyJet had tried Bastia as a peak summer route (1 x weekly) for a few years until 2010 and carried around 5,000 passengers annually.

This year Corsican Places split their season from BRS with Bastia early summer which was replaced by Figari from mid July until the latter part of August, with Bastia then returning for three weeks in September. It's a shame that Corsica has gone but it seems that it was never more than a niche route with Corsican Places.

Cagliari was even more truncated operating a short 1 x weekly season in part of July and August.

Ryanair operated Cagliari at 2 x weekly in the summer of 2009, BRS's worst summer in the past 21 years in the sense thai it is the only one in that period to have seen a drop in annual passenger numbers - at the height of the recession. Other one-summer wonder Ryanair routes in 2009 included Perpignan, Montpellier, Toulon and Trieste, none of which has ever returned.

Had some of these routes operated during a more favourable period one wonders if any would have stuck.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Santa flights Christmas 2017

Looking at the BRS winter timetable for 2017/2018 it looks as though the Santa and similar flights still hold up, year after year.

This season the following are shown:

Thomson

3 December Kittila 3 nights
6 December Kittila 4 nights
9 December Kittila day trip
10 December Kittila 3 nights
11 December Kittila 4 nights
16 December Rovaniemi day trip
17 December Kittila 3 nights
20 December Kittila 4 nights
24 December Kittila 4 nights

Transun

24 November Enontekio 3 nights
15 December Enontekio 3 nights
17 December Enontekio day trip
22 December Enontekio day trip

They also have flights to Kiruna on 4 February for 7 nights and on 15 February for 3 nights

Thomas Cook

3 December Rovaniemi day trip
10 December Rovaniemi day trip
17 December Rovaniemi day trip

Hurtigruten

9 February Bergen 12 days
26 February Tromso 6 days

It's funny how the the destinations vary. Some years ago Rovaniemi was very popular then almost dropped out of the BRS routes for a year or two. Ivalo featured in recent years but this year there appear to be none.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Re my previous post, there does appear to be at least one Ivalo flighty after all. Mayfly shows Small Planet A321 arriving from Ivalo at 1615 this coming Saturday (2nd December) and positioning to Stansted at 1705. I can't find from Mayfly when it went to Ivalo from BRS, or for which tour operator.

 

[alphagolf]

Re my previous post, there does appear to be at least one Ivalo flighty after all. Mayfly shows Small Planet A321 arriving from Ivalo at 1615 this coming Saturday (2nd December) and positioning to Stansted at 1705. I can't find from Mayfly when it went to Ivalo from BRS, or for which tour operator.

It went out at 0730 this morning to Ivalo.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Santa flights Christmas 2017

Looking at the BRS winter timetable for 2017/2018 it looks as though the Santa and similar flights still hold up, year after year.

This season the following are shown:

Thomson

3 December Kittila 3 nights
6 December Kittila 4 nights
9 December Kittila day trip
10 December Kittila 3 nights
11 December Kittila 4 nights
16 December Rovaniemi day trip
17 December Kittila 3 nights
20 December Kittila 4 nights
24 December Kittila 4 nights

Transun

24 November Enontekio 3 nights
15 December Enontekio 3 nights
17 December Enontekio day trip
22 December Enontekio day trip

They also have flights to Kiruna on 4 February for 7 nights and on 15 February for 3 nights

Thomas Cook

3 December Rovaniemi day trip
10 December Rovaniemi day trip
17 December Rovaniemi day trip

Hurtigruten

9 February Bergen 12 days
26 February Tromso 6 days

It's funny how the the destinations vary. Some years ago Rovaniemi was very popular then almost dropped out of the BRS routes for a year or two. Ivalo featured in recent years but this year there appear to be none.

It seems that easyJet is also operating to Kittila again this season. Last winter they operated on through January into February but, as with this winter, Kittila is not shown in the easyJet booking engine presumably because the flights are operated exclusively for a tour operator or operators.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It seems that easyJet is also operating to Kittila again this season. Last winter they operated on through January into February but, as with this winter, Kittila is not shown in the easyJet booking engine presumably because the flights are operated exclusively for a tour operator or operators.

Two easyJet Kittilas tomorrow (Sunday 10 Dec) plus a TUI Kittila and a TCX Rovaniemi.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Ivalo

Having said that Ivalo was not featuring this season on Santa flights with flights concentrating on Kittila, Rovaniemi and Enontekio instead (per BRS hard copy timetable) there was a rotation to Ivalo at the beginning of this month as posted earlier in this thread, and another tomorrow morning that returns on Wednesday, with Small Planet (A321) again the carrier.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Santa flights 2018

I've now had a detailed look at Mayfly with the following results - departures listed (total 30):

Friday 24 November
Enontekio - Enter Air B738

Wednesday 29 November
Kittila - easyJet A320

Thursday 30 November
Ivalo - Small Planet A321

Sunday 3 December
Kittila - easyJet A320
Kittila - easyJet A320
Kittila - TUI B757
Rovaniemi - Thomas Cook A321

Tuesday 5 December
Ivalo - Small Planet A321

Wednesday 6 December
Kittila - easyJet A320
Kittila - TUI B757

Saturday 9 December
Kittila - TUI B757

Sunday 10 December
Kittila - easyJet A320
Kittila - easyJet A320
Kittila - TUI B757
Rovaniemi - Thomas Cook A321

Monday 11 December
Ivalo - Small Planet A321

Wednesday 13 December
Kittila - easyJet A320
Kittila - TUI B757

Friday 15 December
Enontekio - Enter Air B738

Saturday 16 December
Rovaniemi - TUI B757

Sunday 17 December
Kittila - easyJet A320
Kittila - easyJet A320
Kittila - TUI B757
Rovaniemi - Thomas Cook A321
Enontekio - Enter Air B738

Wednesday 20 December
Kittila - easyJet A320
Kittila - TUI B757

Saturday 23 December
Ivalo - Small Planet A321

Sunday 24 December
Kittila - easyJet A320
Kittila - TUI B757

 

[Jerry]

Hurtigruten will offer Northern Lights fly cruises to Bergen from Bristol on 19th November 2019, 26th January and 15th February 2020.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Cost of charter/package holiday flights from BRS

Living in Exeter, I think it would be fair to say that many people confuse charter flights with scheduled flights and hence the assumption that EXT is expensive to fly from.
With the exception of the occasional last-minute booking, we've always found charter flights/package holidays from EXT to be cheaper than any similar offering from BRS to the same resort/hotel - sometimes saving in the region of £400 to £600, plus the additional cost of driving to/from BRS and any shambles on the M5!
However scheduled flights from EXT are very expensive compared to BRS.

Interesting comment from one of our Exeter-based members the other day in an EXT thread that he generally finds charter flights/package holidays cheaper from EXT than from BRS to the same resort/hotel.

Usually where there are a lot more options, as BRS usually provides over EXT, the economy of scale comes into effect with the larger provider seeing lower prices. Given the amounts that can apparently be saved going from EXT I wonder if many people from the Bristol area are aware and use EXT on occasions because of price.

On the other hand, if the BRS market can sustain these higher prices it must have a positive effect on yield and might be one reason for the substantial increase in flights and destinations by the two main holiday providers in the past year or so.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Interesting titbit for those of us not in the aviation industry and perhaps not aware of costs. Bristol Bears Rugby Club was due to play a European Cup match in Paris on Sunday which has been postponed because of Covid. They had chartered an aircraft at a reported cost of £40,000. I'm assuming it was a 50-seater. The airline is not mentioned.

Bristol had a plane chartered at a cost of around £40,000 for the trip to France and the overall cost of taking 30 players, plus coaches and support staff, costs in the region of £75,000 for a trip to Europe in Covid times.

Bristol Bears left feeling the cost as Stade Francais game is called off

Bristol Bears are yet to play in Europe this season following two cancellations in the first two rounds

www.bristolpost.co.uk

 

[Jerry]

I'm assuming that's for a return? It does show how expensive professional sport is.