Route Development & Rumours

[LBA4EVER]

My wishlist for 2023!

PLAY to iceland, very handy for both the sights of iceland and to connect to the USA.

LH to frankfurt and munich (in my opinion this route would do better than the NCL and LPL routes for a number of reasons) LH are desperately needed here at LBA.

BA To heathrow, not sure how it works but could they use the flybe slots?

Flybe to announce LBA as their 3rd uk base with some decent routes inc south coast.

Jet2 to announce some new exciting routes out of what is their home base(where it all started) LBA, inc lisbon, madrid, continue bergen plus other destinations. I Believe its their 20th anniversary so a good opportunity there!

The A321neos of wizz air have proved to be an excellent aircraft at LBA so perhaps a few new routes from wizz to slightly further afield places such as abu Dhabi and sharm El-Sheikh thru W leg flights.

A 4th based ryanair 737 at LBA.

OUT THE BOX
A pakistan route
Wideroe to bergen (comp for jet2)
Iberia express
Vueling return.

Thats my wishlist and what i believe are potentials.

 

[HX3]

LBA4EVER it is Bacău that they serve which is Romania, not Baku, Azerbaijan.

Looking at future routes, all mentioned would be great additions. FRA, CDG are priorities. A Scandi route would be good.

Holiday routes to Egypt and Cape Verde.

 

[LBA4EVER]

LBA4EVER it is Bacău that they serve which is Romania, not Baku, Azerbaijan.

Looking at future routes, all mentioned would be great additions. FRA, CDG are priorities. A Scandi route would be good.

Holiday routes to Egypt and Cape Verde.

My error (walk of shame, edited out) Wizz do actually fly to baku though. Looks to be a nice city with beach resorts

 

[HX3]

No worries LBA4EVER, I only wish they did do Baku from LBA, some of the architecture is fantastic, would be a great addition.

I know with current infrastructure that none of the ME carriers would be interested in LBA, but I wonder if flydubai would ever take a punt. They do many secondary airports, one of which is SZG where the terminal is pleasant but very small, they also have Turkish. Granted the market is diaspora for IST and a mix of inbound/outbound tourism for DBX. Could LBA have potential for a 3x weekly?

 

[Finger66]

LBA has so much potential full stop. It’s the relevant airlines that have tried new routes at wrong times on wrong frequencies that seem to kill it. SK a very good recent example. LH could make a killing at LBA if they do FRA and MUC right. AF on CDG would open up more on their alliance with KL so would surely complement each other - in addition to the p2p traffic. 2023 needs to be the year that airlines wake up and smell the LBA coffee

 

[LBAYORKIE]

The fact is that whilst more budget carrier routes are to be welcomed what we really need is another legacy/national carrier that offers multiple onward connections.

 

[Aviador]

The fact is that whilst more budget carrier routes are to be welcomed what we really need is another legacy/national carrier that offers multiple onward connections.

It would be nice to give the bigger airports some more competition, perhaps Turkish Airlines would be a good start. They've been mentioned many times before here and I believe it was mentioned not long ago that Turkish Airlines have earmarked LBA as a future route. Fingers crossed.

 

[Finger66]

Think I have mentioned before that NCL is next on TK’s hitlist, but yes let’s hope LBAisnt far behind. Interesting that LH are adding LGW and BHD to their UK connections to FRA, so again let’s hope LBA is on their radar.

 

[White Heather]

My daughter had a break in Nuremberg recently , flying from MAN via FRA with Lufthansa, after her original booking from LBA with KLM via AMS was cancelled.
On her return, I tracked her flight back on FR24. Her Lufthansa flight from FRA to MAN was actually operated by a Germanwings A320, but it was frustrating that the whole way back, it followed a Lufthansa Embraer from FRA to LPL.
You have to wonder what LBA hasn't got that puts off the likes of Lufthansa - or rather what it does have that they dont like. Clearly, the proximity to MAN argument holds no water as LPL is nearer to MAN than LBA and the two airports have catchment areas that to say the least overlap. LBAs catchment area is more distinct and geographically seperated by the Pennines, heavily populated, and without a solitary flight to Germany.
It seems a no brainer to operate a flight here despite the slot restraints at FRA.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

My daughter had a break in Nuremberg recently , flying from MAN via FRA with Lufthansa, after her original booking from LBA with KLM via AMS was cancelled.
On her return, I tracked her flight back on FR24. Her Lufthansa flight from FRA to MAN was actually operated by a Germanwings A320, but it was frustrating that the whole way back, it followed a Lufthansa Embraer from FRA to LPL.
You have to wonder what LBA hasn't got that puts off the likes of Lufthansa - or rather what it does have that they dont like. Clearly, the proximity to MAN argument holds no water as LPL is nearer to MAN than LBA and the two airports have catchment areas that to say the least overlap. LBAs catchment area is more distinct and geographically seperated by the Pennines, heavily populated, and without a solitary flight to Germany.
It seems a no brainer to operate a flight here despite the slot restraints at FRA.

I agree, it would seem on the face of things to be an 'easy sell' for the LBA development team.

 

[AirBingley]

I agree LH would offer great connectivity but also given the KL track record AF to CDG would seem logical for further connectivity as LS is more leisure based. This is especially relevant with ongoing capacity issues at Schipol!

 

[LBA4EVER]

It all comes down to the bad stigma and image LBA has and its poor infrastructure. mr gove (leveling up role, you could not make it up) has really not helped by essentially putting a stop to our new terminal.
A city like leeds and west yorks should easy have an airport with LH, AF, IB and at least a few long haul ops, but it does not, the reason is staring us in the face, its all down to infrastructure, End of!
And it aint because of MAN! LH and other airlines have proved this.
Going to hide now haha

 

[Kevin Farnell]

You have to wonder what LBA hasn't got that puts off the likes of Lufthansa - or rather what it does have that they dont like.

Please don't take what i am about to say as derogatory, or an insult to LBA, but could it be due to the terminal facilities? The reason I mention this, is a comparison with BHX. When I first started visiting BHX, the original 1930's terminal (along with several tagged on extensions) was in service. Then in the mid 1980's, a new terminal was opened on the eastern side of the airport. Immediately, Air France, Lufthansa and Swissair launched daily services. I remember a quote from Swissair along the lines of 'we have long wanted to serve Birmingham, but we didn't want our passengers to experience the outdated facilities of the old terminal'. Could something similar be the case at LBA?
I'm not very familiar with LBA, but have been looking it up online. One thing from photos, that puzzles me is that several stands at the terminal seem to be used for vehicle parking or have buildings constructed on them whilst aircraft are parked hundreds of metres away (surely the wrong way round).
I'm also aware (from posts here), that plans for a new terminal were turned down and so, further redevelopment of the current terminal is the only option. I totally agree that LBA, it's passengers and airlines would benefit and deserve a new modern, purpose designed terminal giving greater efficiency as well as being more environmentally sustainable.
Just my thoughts.

 

[Coathanger16]

You have to wonder what LBA hasn't got that puts off the likes of Lufthansa - or rather what it does have that they dont like.

Something to consider is that Lufthansa will be looking for a decent number of connecting passengers on a particular route before launching a new service.

Whilst Leeds has Aer Lingus to Dublin and KLM to Amsterdam, Liverpool has been without a connection to a European and/or UK hub in over a decade now.

A quick look at available seats for next week shows that from LBA, EI & KL have just over 4600 seats available, whereas at LPL, LH only has just under 500 seats available.

Simply put, at Liverpool there is no direct competition to Lufthansa flights, whereas at Leeds there are already 2 airlines competing for connecting passengers.

 

[gulftraveller]

My experience working with airlines means I really do not believe that they care about terminal facilities, as long as they can park their aircraft. The LBA potential catchment is heavily cannibalised by MAN, partly because the surface transport options to LBA are not great. Whatever explanations we may come up with, BA, SK and VLG decided that their LBA routes did not meet economic expectations. The management should focus on successful models such as Jet 2’s IT type flights.

As coathanger says, the LPL comparison does not really work as LBA already has KL and EI as legacy carriers. If KLM were operating 3 or 4 daily on 737s, an extra legacy carrier such as LH might be in with a shout.

 

[A400]

Please don't take what i am about to say as derogatory, or an insult to LBA, but could it be due to the terminal facilities?

It hasn’t stopped Jet2 Ryanair ( and according to a user on the Ryanair thread next year will be ryanairs biggest ever schedule at LBA) and Wizz and the other airlines that fly here do I don’t see why terminal facilities should be an excuse for airlines not to operate here.

In an ideal world a newer terminal would be great but we can’t have that. Yes it’s the case LPL has only LH for connections and we have KL and EI but Newcastle and others have all 3 so can’t see why they can’t make a FRA-LBA work

 

[LBAYORKIE]

I think one thing that a legacy carrier would expect is a functioing air bridge.

 

[White Heather]

It hasn’t stopped Jet2 Ryanair ( and according to a user on the Ryanair thread next year will be ryanairs biggest ever schedule at LBA) and Wizz and the other airlines that fly here do I don’t see why terminal facilities should be an excuse for airlines not to operate here.

In an ideal world a newer terminal would be great but we can’t have that. Yes it’s the case LPL has only LH for connections and we have KL and EI but Newcastle and others have all 3 so can’t see why they can’t make a FRA-LBA work

Irrespective of connections, we also need flights to Germany for visitors to that country. It's unbelievable that we dont have a single German destination other than the Christmas specials. Dusseldorf did well for Flybe 1. Jet2 have operated to Hamburg and Berlin but dropped both as they moved away from city routes, whilst Ryanair operated to Weeze for a season. And BMI Regional were about to operate to Munich (a route previously served by Monarch) but they went bust before it even started. LBA and German routes seem unlucky but the demand has been there in the past.

Yet the biggest draw in Germany, Frankfurt, was last operated by Brown Air on their single Gulfstream 1 in the early 80s. I would think that LH could make it pay from LBA with a mix of long haul interliners, plus those (like my daughter) switching to internal German flights to the likes of Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, & Nurrmberg. A twice daily Embraer, as used at LPL would be ideal.

However, regarding the terminal, I have been told by at least two LBA directors that LH are very picky about the terminal experience for their passengers and the chances of getting them here would have increased significantly with the new terminal. However, the new extension, when built, coupled with the major re-vamp if the existing terminal (part of which is now underway) will hopefully sort some of the concerns held by LH and others.

LBA said only this month that there are new carriers knocking on the door but not likely to start until 2024. Let's hope that LH are one of them!

 

[Kevin Farnell]

It hasn’t stopped Jet2 Ryanair ( and according to a user on the Ryanair thread next year will be ryanairs biggest ever schedule at LBA) and Wizz and the other airlines that fly here do I don’t see why terminal facilities should be an excuse for airlines not to operate here.

I think that largely depends on the airline. Airlines that are ranked 4* or 5* (LH were 5*, but I believe have been downgraded to 4*), will want their passengers to have the 4 or 5* experience from arriving at the airport to their destination (especially for business class or above). The airlines that you mention, are low cost carriers and don't have the same expectations for their customers.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

I think that largely depends on the airline. Airlines that are ranked 4* or 5* (LH were 5*, but I believe have been downgraded to 4*), will want their passengers to have the 4 or 5* experience from arriving at the airport to their destination (especially for business class or above). The airlines that you mention, are low cost carriers and don't have the same expectations for their customers.

I absolutely agree. However, KLM seem to accept the current facilities, as did BA -albeit a business class lounge had to be built to satisfy them. I think these are anomalies as generally legacy carriers do have higher standards and their customers likewise.