Route Development & Rumours

[White Heather]

What are we talking here? a base or more routes or?

A base at this stage seems unlikely as easyJet tend to build up their presence first. More flights using aircraft based elsewhere seems more likely and better utilises LBA terminal capacity at quiet times of the day.

A base may hopefully come later when the terminal development is fully completed (2026) and ideally further new stands built in addition to the two being constructed this winter. There's also the thorny issue of the night quota and the CLEUD appeal to resolve. Unless its confirmed that Q.C 0.25 aircraft are exempt, and easyJet use them here, LBA is already exceeding it's quota and a base will exacerbate the situation.

 

[gcoabc1]

A base at this stage seems unlikely as easyJet tend to build up their presence first. More flights using aircraft based elsewhere seems more likely and better utilises LBA terminal capacity at quiet times of the day.

A base may hopefully come later when the terminal development is fully completed (2026) and ideally further new stands built in addition to the two being constructed this winter. There's also the thorny issue of the night quota and the CLEUD appeal to resolve. Unless it’s confirmed that Q.C 0.25 aircraft are exempt, and easyJet use them here, LBA is already exceeding its quota and a base will exacerbate the situation

I fully agree WH. One phase at a time - steady as she goes.

 

[Aviador]

We often read posts saying "is there enough demand for more capacity from LBA"? Here is a list of the top ten routes from Manchester. Not only are they all doable from LBA, a sizable proportion of passengers using services to these destinations from Manchester are potential LBA customers, many would even prefer to use LBA if the choice if flights is available.

​

Manchester Airport’s most popular destinations during September were:​

​

1. Palma de Mallorca – 105,987​

2. Dalaman (Turkey) – 89,919​

3. Dubai – 89,269​

4. Antalya (Turkey) – 89,269​

5. Amsterdam – 88,697​

6. Alicante – 87,079​

7. Dublin – 84,876​

8. Tenerife – 78,330​

9. Malaga – 63,727​

10. Faro (Portugal) – 58,596​

​

source: Manchester Airport​

 

[lbaspotter]

Loganair’s new CEO, Luke Farajallah has just done a very interesting interview with BBC Scotland.

Concerns over important air routes for NHS patients

The boss of Loganair says one of the most important air routes for NHS patients is hard to sustain at current passenger levels.

www.bbc.com

Could this be the rumoured new LBA services his on about half way though the article?

"We're also looking at other regions of the UK which don't necessarily have that connectivity to the south coast or London.

Eg Southampton, Heathrow & Newquay

 

[Finger66]

@lbaspotter I think you are dropping hints without actually being able to say anything. Almost at November now which is when the rumoured announcement was to come

 

[LBA4EVER]

It generally tends to be autumn esp November from observation when the airlines announce new services so like mentioned elsewhere if we are due anything new from easyjet and other carriers i expect an announcement in the next few weeks.

 

[SierraHotel]

Upon checking the Aurigny website, LBA is no longer an option. Presumably it has been axed?

 

[Starflyer]

They have not said LBA is axed, despite making a clear statement only yesterday about other routes being cut (EMA, NQY and LPL) and that others (EXT and STN) are under review. More likely that as they have no flights currently on sale within the system range, LBA is temporarily not visible - like Palma and their other summer destinations.

 

[White Heather]

Upon checking the Aurigny website, LBA is no longer an option. Presumably it has been axed?

They have said that flights will only go on sale in stages with the main routes going on sale first, so it seems that they must only release what they view as secondary routes later and possibly only when they know the demand is there and they are capable of operating them. But as Starflyer has said, LBA was not mentioned as being canned or under review - in fact it wasn't mentioned at all!

 

[Finger66]

If we are unfortunate enough to lose GR, perhaps it's something LM could take over if we end up with a based aircraft or two!!!!!!

 

[752]

LBA has not been mentioned at all, hopefully a sign that it isnt dropped

 

[Seasider]

No news is good news

 

[Finger66]

My concern in all this is though that they have op from EMA for a long long time now and suddenly that has gone. If they can say BHX will pick up EMA traffic and MAN pick up LPL traffic then they can easily do the same re LBA, so let's hope our route is profitable.

P.s where are Dan Air with their CI program when you need them (one for the oldies)

 

[Seasider]

Come on, surely you remember BKS with their CI program.

Apologies to our younger members on the forum.

 

[Finger66]

Come on, surely you remember BKS with their CI program.

Apologies to our younger members on the forum.

BKS are before my time - but not too much prior. Dan Air defo my first recollection of a major CI program from LBA

 

[Starflyer]

No news is good news

I agree. If they were going to ditch LBA-GCI, I think they would have said so. You wouldn't plan to have two lots of bad news (this week, we're dropping LPL, NQY and EMA, next week we're dropping LBA) - you'd get all of the bad news out in one go, to avoid the public perception that this is death by a thousand cuts. Without any firm knowledge on which to base this statement, I'd be confident LBA-GCI will be back for 2025.

 

[Finger66]

@Starflyer I do also agree with this sentiment, I suspect all dropped routes would have been announced at once. Plus I believe our GCI route does quite well

 

[gulftraveller]

The CAA statistics show GR carried fewer passengers from LBA than EMA and about the same as Liverpool in 2024.

 

[Finger66]

Wasn't EMA at greater frequency though which would suggest a lower LF from there. It is easier to get to MAN from LPL than it is from LBA so they may still want a presence easy of the Pennines. Here's hoping

 

[752]

The CAA statistics show GR carried fewer passengers from LBA than EMA and about the same as Liverpool in 2024.

I think EMA has more frequencies / longer periods of operations. Happy to be proven wrong if its the same.