CSA Czech Airlines

[Ray Finkle]

As the song goes, another one bites the dust.

Czech gone for winter with no flights showing from Nov 4th but at least they return from March 29th. I guess with the way things are going we should just be thankful that they'll be back next summer, maybe.

Down to just a 2x weekly Jet2.

 

[Brum X]

BHX on a cold February afternoon in winter 2019/2020

 

[nwoody2001]

in fairness, thank god for Jet2.com ...Prague was unserved for years from bhx....

 

[58terminus]

in fairness, thank god for Jet2.com ...Prague was unserved for years from bhx..

It was not served for years.Why? It seemed to be doing well first time around with Czech sometimes operating 2 on some days and also Bmibaby.
Then its gone completely!.
Then it comes back and the stats show it is carrying more or very close to most of the airports we are competing with who have benefited from uninterrupted services and it gets cut back again.
What the hell is going on at BHX? Why when route reductions are required are we always the first in line even when a route seems to be increasing passenger numbers month on month?
It cannot be solely down to the airlines.There must be an underlying reason for the chaos and uncertainty that has prevailed for the last 2 or 3 years.

 

[Paulsstrange]

It was not served for years.Why? It seemed to be doing well first time around with Czech sometimes operating 2 on some days and also Bmibaby.
Then its gone completely!.
Then it comes back and the stats show it is carrying more or very close to most of the airports we are competing with who have benefited from uninterrupted services and it gets cut back again.
What the hell is going on at BHX? Why when route reductions are required are we always the first in line even when a route seems to be increasing passenger numbers month on month?
It cannot be solely down to the airlines.There must be an underlying reason for the chaos and uncertainty that has prevailed for the last 2 or 3 years.

I've been saying it for years the airport is too expensive for airlines to operate from so naturally we get the chop first !

 

[Ianbutty]

As the song goes, another one bites the dust.

Czech gone for winter with no flights showing from Nov 4th but at least they return from March 29th. I guess with the way things are going we should just be thankful that they'll be back next summer, maybe.

Down to just a 2x weekly Jet2.

Drop off in hens and stags. The city are clamping down. Beautiful city....apart from the hens and stags. No surprise it is going for the winter. At least the locals can enjoy their city in relative peace.

 

[58terminus]

I've been saying it for years the airport is too expensive for airlines to operate from so naturally we get the chop first !

If this is correct and i have heard it many times what is the end result? A business cannot keep selling the same product as its competitors
at inflated prices without eventually going bust. Are they heading down the same path as some of their largest customers have over the last few years.
Hypothetical but they have had problems with the ILS for runway 33 for years now. Can they not afford to get it fixed?.
How many go arounds do airlines have to endure before they conclude this is an airport not going anywhere?

 

[Coathanger16]

Hypothetical but they have had problems with the ILS for runway 33 for years now. Can they not afford to get it fixed?.
How many go arounds do airlines have to endure before they conclude this is an airport not going anywhere?

To be fair to BHX, the only time the full capabilities of the ILS are needed are in low visibility operations. Under these conditions winds are generally light so the other runway, with full ILS, can be used. All other times the Localiser only approach or other non-precision approaches (NDB/RNAV) would be fine.

 

[58terminus]

Dropped some people off at BHX early on 16 Sept as i was off that day drove around to Sheldon Country Park as many years since i was there that early ,about 0730, to view the early morning rush.
Poor visibility so did not see any landing.but did hear 2 in 5 mins climb away over Sheldon engines on full power. Gave up and went home.
Checked later one was a Ryanair and the other a Eurowings.Both looped around to land on 15. I doubt either crew, passengers or airline were impressed.

 

[Matt995]

Flybe culling routes, now CSA for winter? who's next?

I should think Nick Barton must be wondering what he's taken on with the Birmingham job? Airlines leaving, ILS issues, airbridges on the old "Eurohub" condemed as being unsafe to use, high landing fees.... the list goes on

I wonder how much say he has at the airport? Do the shareholders, senior management etc, make all the decisions?

Seems it's time for major changes at the airport, the last few weeks have been dire on the airline front, a new change of direction is a must, else the airport is going to be left behind.

 

[Ray Finkle]

It was not served for years.Why? It seemed to be doing well first time around with Czech sometimes operating 2 on some days and also Bmibaby.
Then its gone completely!.
Then it comes back and the stats show it is carrying more or very close to most of the airports we are competing with who have benefited from uninterrupted services and it gets cut back again.
What the hell is going on at BHX? Why when route reductions are required are we always the first in line even when a route seems to be increasing passenger numbers month on month?
It cannot be solely down to the airlines.There must be an underlying reason for the chaos and uncertainty that has prevailed for the last 2 or 3 years.

Uninterrupted service? Possibly something of a dream for BHX. Whenever a new service arrives the first question asked on here is, 'how long will this one last then?'

After the end of Bmibaby we saw the likes of Prague, Warsaw, Lisbon etc remain absent for several years, all key routes. It's been two years since Monarch closed and whilst other airports moved quickly to replace services here at BHX we're still waiting for news on Lisbon, Valencia, Stockholm and Gibraltar? Are customers to these destinations now being loyal to BHX and taking connecting flights or are they now using direct flights from other UK airports? In my experience, and it is only anecdotal evidence, it's the latter and the more people head to London the more they will get used to doing so.

Why does BHX take so long to replace a dropped route?

Is it loyalty to airlines? We won't do a deal with X as it may upset Y, further down the line Y end up cutting routes, X now aren't interested and we have to wait 5 years to do a deal with Z? I don't know the reason but it has been like this as long as I can remember and nothing ever seems to change.

It now seems that there has never been a greater need for easyjet and a few new routes will not be enough, a base needs to happen and it needs to be a quick growing one at that.

 

[jfy1999]

I've been saying it for years the airport is too expensive for airlines to operate from so naturally we get the chop first !

It was not served for years.Why? It seemed to be doing well first time around with Czech sometimes operating 2 on some days and also Bmibaby.
Then its gone completely!.
Then it comes back and the stats show it is carrying more or very close to most of the airports we are competing with who have benefited from uninterrupted services and it gets cut back again.
What the hell is going on at BHX? Why when route reductions are required are we always the first in line even when a route seems to be increasing passenger numbers month on month?
It cannot be solely down to the airlines.There must be an underlying reason for the chaos and uncertainty that has prevailed for the last 2 or 3 years.

Which airlines are you thinking of, though? Some may have chopped BHX before other airports but in the vast majority of cases it has turned out to be part of a wider route cull in which much larger airports have also suffered.

BHX has often been the smallest UK airport served by an airline so when times get tough it is the done thing for airlines to retreat to London and Manchester, and Scotland (since Scotland has a big tourist market and isn't sandwiched between the first two). But in the case of Norwegian, Blue Air, Vueling, American and United, even London, Manchester and Scotland haven't escaped the route cuts. They were just less noticeable because those airports had a larger operation to begin with.

Flybe's route cull is UK wide and as things stand we have got off lightly with only two routes permanently cut. Icelandair's route cull has become worldwide with even the global giant that is San Francisco being dropped!

Yes a case could be made that Ryanair have singled BHX out for destruction if their s20 schedule remains unchanged, but Girona, the Canaries and Murcia are missing from most other UK airports, plus the Belfast and Glasgow bases have already been cut, so again, we are not the only ones affected.

If the few carriers who are expanding, the likes of Jet2 and Wizz, were growing at other airports but not BHX, then I would consider that to be evidence of deeper underlying issues. But right now they are growing us with the rest. If easyJet keep growing it would indicate more of an airline problem than a problem with the BHX landing charges, or ILS, or whatever.

Now my question re: Czech is, can we really compare Czech to Jet2 and easyJet? BHX is their only UK point and the brand awareness over here must therefore be very limited (when was the last time we saw an advert for them?). Furthermore they are in the middle of a complete fleet transition, we haven't had one of their own aircraft on the flight in months as everything is being operated by their new owner Smartwings (who have been running up big losses as a result of the takeover plus new aircraft orders). Czech Airlines seem to be a whole different animal from Jet2 and easyJet!

The issue seems to be as Ray says: too much loyalty to an airline, plus I would add a willingness to get "anyone and everyone" serving a route as a short term fix (Primera) rather than trying to grow sustainably with airlines that have been proven to make the routes work.

On Matt's point re: infrastructure, Mr Barton will be used to major problems from his time at Luton Airport...

 

[Coathanger16]

Something worth remembering about BHX is that many of our routes are (or were) served by foreign airlines, rather than a large airline with a base at BHX. There are 2 points to be made here:

Firstly, that when the airline is reviewing the BHX route it is doing so against the rest of its network. Having almost 50 airports larger than BHX in Europe to possibly serve, we're always going to have a lower priority and hence be more likely to be dropped. As @jfy1999 highlighted, these foreign airlines also usually lack brand awareness in the UK (or at the very least have a much lower brand awareness than the likes of EZY or RYR).

Secondly, at most other UK airports, the routes that BHX have lost are served by either EZY or RYR. 9 times out of 10 if they drop a route it is replaced by another destination or an increase in frequency on an existing destination, hence the impact of losing said route isn't noticed as much - certainly in terms of passenger numbers using the airport.

Although we all seem to be in despair about BHX these days, I wonder how the airport management feels about the airport at the moment. Even with the loss of TCX, I wonder if the combined effect of Jet2 adding additional capacity as well as natural year on year growth will mean the loss of passengers from BHX will be negligible or even no overall loss at all.

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there all, yet again, with another airline or travel company gone, same old story, like with monarch Airlines, Jet2 comes in and starts to soak up as much excess that it can, a very commendable job done by them, yet no other airlines stepping in at all, and bhx is very expensive to us for airlines, but even any deals that are agreed, this is only for a limited time, then we wonder why again, when you look at landing fees, mtow per aircraft at £12 or £13.00 per tonne or part, plus per passenger as well, then you wonder, why the difficulty.. Andyc

 

[Matt995]

On Matt's point re: infrastructure, Mr Barton will be used to major problems from his time at Luton Airport...

I'm sure he is used to major problems, but Birmingham is a different animal to Luton, not only is Luton closer to the 'holly grail' that is London, buy he might have had 'free reign' at Luton to talk to any airline, and negotiate landing fees/costs etc..

I fear at Birmingham he can't do that, the board, shareholders, executives etc.. seem more interested in just making a profit every year, rather than increasing passenger numbers, routes, airlines (especial low-cost airlines) , and he might well have his 'wings clipped' in being able to negotiate a deal with airlines re costs etc.. guess only time will tell.

 

[58terminus]

Even with the loss of TCX, I wonder if the combined effect of Jet2 adding additional capacity as well as natural year on year growth will mean the loss of passengers from BHX will be negligible or even no overall loss at all.

Isn't that the perceived problem. Happy to plod along as long as the numbers stay about the same or don't drop to much?
So we lose Berlin .Doesn't matter we will replace the it with more Palma. Lyon? throughput easily replaced with a few more Alicante.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Isn't that the perceived problem. Happy to plod along as long as the numbers stay about the same or don't drop to much?
So we lose Berlin .Doesn't matter we will replace the it with more Palma. Lyon? throughput easily replaced with a few more Alicante.

Lots of glossy headlines about record passenger numbers yet so many key destinations remain unserved

 

[Ianbutty]

Isn't that the perceived problem. Happy to plod along as long as the numbers stay about the same or don't drop to much?
So we lose Berlin .Doesn't matter we will replace the it with more Palma. Lyon? throughput easily replaced with a few more Alicante.

Spot on. Holiday traffic does not make a city prosper. It takes people and the economy away. We need investment coming in. Get on it Barton otherwise....

 

[Brum X]

At least this change to seasonal isn't BHX specific and LGW has also been made seasonal.

Information credit to https://www.routesonline.com/news/3...artwings-moves-uk-to-seasonal-service-in-w19/

CSA Czech Airlines and Smartwings in last week’s schedule update filed service changes to the UK, which becomes summer seasonal routes. Following service will be suspended in winter season.

Prague – Birmingham CSA service suspended 05NOV19 – 28MAR20
Prague – London Gatwick Smartwings service suspended 12NOV19 – 28MAR20

 

[BHXflyer]

Really surprising news.. This is a popular route, we've booked at least 50 customers that are due to be travelling Nov - Jan. Now they are rerouting them via its Skyteam partners or they are giving them a full refund. Absolutely shocking!!