Rumours about new destinations or airlines?

[LBA787]

Iceland is showing on the map now.. looks like there currently updating the route map to show the new routes. They will be hot on it as jet2 seem to keep their wbsite updated on a daily basis.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

http://www.routes-news.com/airports/ite ... g-for-gold

This link leads to a very interesting and upbeat Routes News description and assessment of LBA's current position, listing and describing the various announcements of recent months.

What caught my eye in particular was this paragraph.

While London Heathrow has welcomed China Southern Airlines and London Gatwick has attracted a number of long-haul operators, Leeds Bradford Airport is currently poised to secure a Qatar Airways link to Doha, with a new Monarch Airlines base, network expansion from Thomson Airways, budget carriers Jet2 and Ryanair and, most notably, a landmark new connection to London Heathrow courtesy of British Airways. LBA has, so far, had a strong nine months of 2012.

I wasn't aware that such a move was thought to be imminent.

 

[LUFC Jonno]

I hope this rumour is true as a second long haul route may quickly lead to a third one. The only question I have is what aircraft they would use?

 

[tleeds]

That is extremely interesting! It has been a subject that has been mentioned continuously for a while now, but the most likely candidate for any such gulf service was looking to be Emirates. Up until the continued expansion over at Manchester, Qatar have obviously noticed Emirates seizing market share from other airports also, such as; NCL, BHX.

With Etihad expanding at Manchester with their ties also with Manchester City, it is looking fruitful such a route could happen!

Exciting prospects and securing a Gulf route from LBA really would complete the set for the year! Fab news, if the speculation is true!

They currently have A332/3 aircraft which are to be replaced soon by B787's and A350's!

 

[Bigman]

An A330/300 series would be unable to operate into LBA (so I keep hearing). A 787 however would be a different matter, and one hell of a coup!! As usual though, I am not holding my breath and will believe it when I see it.

 

[White Heather]

Getting Qatar airways would be fantastic, especially if they are here for the next World Cup which is in Qatar of course. I wonder if the Qatar Airways A320 that was at LBA last year had any connection with this? Of course it could turn out to be nothing, but given where this is written, you have to be hopeful. Of course, Qatar from LBA has been the subject of previous discussion on the forum and there are some who were adamant that it would not happen! I guess we will just have to wait and see now, but it would be nice if it wasn't too long a wait.

 

[User0001]

Unfortunately the article is an error.

The exact same article is sent to subscribers via email in the form of 'the hub' a week before it hits the general public website.

That article stated it was 'Birmingham poised to get Qatar airways, while LBA had secured a monarch base'.

The article will be ammended in due course, but unfortunately LBA is not on Qatar's radar, and they are not poised to get a route.

 

[empire]

Indeed. This was the original article.

http://www.routesonline.com/news/36/the ... yorkshire/

 

[Bigman]

Oh well, never mind, at least all the other stuff was correct.

 

[whoshotjimmi]

Qatar, of course, have the 787 delivery issue which would put aside any talk of that happening anyway.

 

[Bigman]

whoshotjimmi...it's all very well saying 'of course' about Qatar delivery problems, but many of us do not know about industry wide information to as great an extent as obviously you do, so a less patronising stance would be appreciated.

 

[Aviador]

I didn't read it as patronising but it is easy to take things the wrong way with writen text with out the ability to hear the person directly.

Back to the topic.... "rumours about new destinations or airlines"

 

[whoshotjimmi]

whoshotjimmi...it's all very well saying 'of course' about Qatar delivery problems, but many of us do not know about industry wide information to as great an extent as obviously you do, so a less patronising stance would be appreciated.

Sorry you think my comment is patronising. It is not. I am merely adding information to the thread having read an article that I was originally directed to from here. My use of the phrase "of course" is grammatcally correct in this instance. I make no apology for my use of grammar - I am a stickler for it.

My point is that, due to the delivery problems Qatar are experiencing, there won't be any aircraft available to start a link to LBA and the 787, being the ideal aircraft for the job, is massively behind schedule - which Qatar have been incredibly vocal about.

Better?

 

[Bigman]

Thanks for that whoshotjimmi. I am all for people putting factual info on here.

 

[Moo2009]

Well the end of the year is near, any thoughts what will the next new route to be announced from LBA and the next new airline to come to LBA

 

[Jordan-34092]

New York!!! I wish

 

[leedsman]

My fingers are crossed for Lufthansa to FRA, the new runway there might improve the chances a little?? Norwegian would be a nice addition too...time will tell.

 

[tleeds]

The airport have been on a roll this Summer in landing [literally] new airlines and new routes!

I think we might see more from easyJet. They have operated Geneva for a few seasons now, and I think we'll start to see more from them, in the form of maybe some other W leg routes. Grenoble is the one many thought would be the next route from them but it looks like MON and Jet2 have sealed that up already!

I expect to see Thomson stabilise their operations along with Monarch and their fruitful list of routes! With these two now expanding, it's become very tight for much more expansion! As a result, as mentioned previously I expect to see more from overseas airlines..

(Sorry for this being in Rumours as well - one of the moderators feel free to move the discussions over to the wish-list thread.)

 

[752]

I hope Monarch and Thomson expand their winter operations for 2013 and hopefully BA will continue with the London route

 

[White Heather]

I think it is high time we had Toronto back - Air Transat have the equipment to operate the route and they have used LBA in the past. Norwegian to Oslo would be good and we really do need to get something between Leeds and Scandinavia soon. Copenhagen is also a route that we should be looking to get back sooner rather than later. Ryanair to Warsaw is a must - LBA had great loads when we had Warsaw before, despite rediculous scheduling and were very unlucky to lose it for 'other' reasons. Finally Frankfurt - it seems to have been coming to LBA for a long time but has never made it. Hopefully that might change in 2013, perhaps with the new BMi or Flybe on an E170/190 would be good. I can't see Lufthansa ever coming to LBA - they are too happy over at MAN and don't seem to be up for taking risks by flying to alternative airports.