Eastern Airways

[Jerry]

5 days too go until the Paris route starts. One thing i've noticed is that Air France don't seem to be mentioned now. I wonder if the codeshare that was supposed to be on the route has been dropped?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1647647059917303813

 

[Jerry]

5 days too go until the Paris route starts. One thing i've noticed is that Air France don't seem to be mentioned now. I wonder if the codeshare that was supposed to be on the route has been dropped?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1647647059917303813

The airport has now confirmed on social media that the codeshare isn't happening due to what they state as unforeseen circumstances and they say Air France are working on it.

 

[Finger66]

I will leave you to make up your own acronyms for A F where Eastern are concerned! Might be doing them a disservice there as may be nothing to do with them but something doesn’t seem right!

 

[gulftraveller]

Given the airport is ORY, the AF codeshare is academic. It would allow interline connections to a small number of French destinations plus Réunion. This route should do alright on point to point, but it makes the airport look silly advertising it as an AF route.

 

[Jerry]

Given the airport is ORY, the AF codeshare is academic. It would allow interline connections to a small number of French destinations plus Réunion. This route should do alright on point to point, but it makes the airport look silly advertising it as an AF route.

They wouldn't have advertised the Air France part if they weren't told it wasn't going to happen.
The codeshare is more important for point 2 point as it puts it onsale on Air France website.

 

[Jerry]

Eastern Airways new Paris Orly route started today.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1649413451616329730

Eastern Airways new Paris Orly route started today.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1649413451616329730

Now onsale on Air France website.

Cardiff Airport: Daily flights to Paris take off as airport looks to a less turbulent future

https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2023-04-21/how-much-will-flights-to-paris-cost-as-cardiff-introduces-daily-flights

 

[Jerry]

The Paris flight got a water cannon salute!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1649452206326796288

 

[MrFenner]

The fares being shown on the AF website seem massively inflated! This doesn't bode well for bookings via that stream - let’s hope they’re adjusted accordingly soon.

 

[geoff]

Any idea what the loads were like today?

 

[Tinkerman]

The fares on the ORY route look incredibly healthy from a T3 perspective … But you’ve got to wonder whether those fares appeal to the masses.

 

[CWL94]

With the base price now set at £182 return I would say next to no one; compared to the multiple daily offerings at BRS for a 1/3 of that price!

Such a shame as originally the pricing was set at around £120 return which is slightly more appealing!

 

[Jerry]

I doubt they will appeal to the masses. The problem is how do you make a route like that profitable for an airline like Eastern?

Quick comparison shows them twice as expensive as Aer Lingus on the Belfast route but around the same pricing as Loganair on Edinburgh and they seem to be doing OK.

 

[Jerry]

With the base price now set at £182 return I would say next to no one; compared to the multiple daily offerings at BRS for a 1/3 of that price!

Such a shame as originally the pricing was set at around £120 return which is slightly more appealing!

It appears that prices have increased even more too essentially double the original pricing.

 

[YorkshireLad]

The loads on the ORY flights in April were shocking! 6.7 passengers per flight for a 9.5% load.
EMA had 10.5 passengers per flight (14.5%)
SOU had 10.1 passengers per flight (14.1%)

I can see the routes being dropped very quickly at this rate

 

[Pontyboy]

We all knew it would be absolutely dire - I really don’t understand why CWL management would allow this to take place. PR disaster that a route starts and fails so badly and will come to an end especially when Flybe made a good success of it for many years. Many questions here but why would eastern start this route. Do they really like making a heavy loss.

 

[Finger66]

This is Eastern of late all over though. Doing haphazard random thing with no clear company direction. It’s also operating to the wrong airport in Paris for the best connections. I do fear that unless there is a sudden upturn in pax numbers then all 3 airports may lose their ORY connection. Unless of course AF are subsidising this in any way - but even they wouldn’t support these kind of potential losses for long

 

[Tinkerman]

On that basis, how on earth are the fares so high (and have been pretty much since Week 1, after they started in the “Reasonable” ballpark).

Something’s not quite right with the operating model here …

 

[Finger66]

Should be attractive fares to start to help advertise the routes and get bums on seats. Then think about the price rises as the aircraft fills. LCC competition from other airports. I am not suggesting T3 give the seats away but it ain’t rocket science all of this. They may have been better starting EMA, or SOU, or CWL twice daily and then introduced the same from the others as better frequency appeal helps too - again not rocket science.

 

[Jerry]

We all knew it would be absolutely dire - I really don’t understand why CWL management would allow this to take place. PR disaster that a route starts and fails so badly and will come to an end especially when Flybe made a good success of it for many years. Many questions here but why would eastern start this route. Do they really like making a heavy loss.

They can't stop a company operating a route into Cardiff and imagine the stick they'd get if they did?

 

[Foxlimayankee]

They can't stop a company operating a route into Cardiff and imagine the stick they'd get if they did?

Airlines don't just open a route without discussing with the Airport. 99% of the time it's the Airport that's encouraged them to start it up. If CWL didn't want them they would just offer them standard rates. I would imagine T3 have been given a good deal across all 3 airports.
The marketing has been non existent so I'm surprised the airport hasn't contributed to that.
Wasn't the lead in time for the start quite short anyway? The next few months will be telling.