Route Development & Rumours

[michael]

I am in agreement with Michael, forget LHR, try IST and either FRA/CDG for connections.
I don't agree with his suggestion of using MAN. For any one on the East Coast, the drive is horrendous and the less said about TPE, the better.

I'd agree with you Seasider if I lived on the east coast but I don't, I'm on the Pennines so for me although I hate to admit it MAN is handy

 

[Kevin Farnell]

I am in agreement with Michael, forget LHR, try IST and either FRA/CDG for connections.

I've heard that MUC is a much better airport to transit through than FRA and so may be a better fit for LBA.

 

[Starflyer]

Istanbul would be by far the best new hub option for LBA. The only downside is that the Turkiye/Pakistan bilateral air services agreement is limiting. Other than that, the availability of multiple sizes of Turkish Airlines aircraft to serve the route and meet demand together with a really good range of connections would mean it's both realistic and ideal.

 

[LBA4EVER]

One thing I would add is although I understand the challenges airlines face but just what is it exactly that makes operating from Manchester to Heathrow so much more appealing than operating from Leeds to Heathrow? Both are large cities with huge urban conurbations. Perhaps I'm being somewhat nieve but sometimes it seems as though some airlines just want to be where the action is, not necessarily where they need to be. BA hasn't aquied the nickname London Airways for no reason.

Or perhaps its more down to those little bad stigmas LBA has, just a thought.. Hopefully very soon this will change and we get TK, LH and maybe BA back.

 

[Statto]

Istanbul would be by far the best new hub option for LBA. The only downside is that the Turkiye/Pakistan bilateral air services agreement is limiting. Other than that, the availability of multiple sizes of Turkish Airlines aircraft to serve the route and meet demand together with a really good range of connections would mean it's both realistic and ideal.

I was trying to do some fag packet maths on the size of the market for connections from LBA. I reckon the total market from MAN is about 4m pax per year. That is, people routing MAN-XXX-XXX (and return). So if LBA could reasonably claim to be the preferred departure point for, say, 20% of that market, that’s an opportunity. There‘s simply too much frequency and choice from MAN to claw it all back, but with the right schedules, I don’t think its unreasonable to believe LBA could support

Heathrow - 200k
Paris - 150k
Istanbul - 125k
upgrade to Amsterdam - 100k

Newcastle looks like it has about 800-900k of passengers routing NCL-XXX-XXX and return, so as a crude estimate feels about right.

I guess the issue is a good interlining service needs frequency and frequency needs slots, and the slots just aren‘t available. BMI regional seemed to spend most of the early 2000s chasing slots for LBA-MUC, LBA-FRA and LBA-CDG and got nowhere fast. So you end up with fudges like the BA to Heathrow schedule or SAS to CPH and they just aren’t appealing enough. So maybe TK is the answer and keep pushing KLM to upgrade the AMS service.

 

[Finger66]

One heck of a lot of sense and logic in that post @Statto

 

[HX3]

I’ve seen that a few airports will be gaining flights to Tirana shortly, and travel pages describing Albania as the next big thing. I wonder if LBA may see flights any time in the future?

 

[Finger66]

I would certainly say if it's cheap (which I honestly don't know) then yes a good chance. The continuing squeeze on purse strings is I am sure going to get the travelling public re-evaluating their destinations. So potentially one for RYR or WZZ

 

[Jerry]

One thing I would add is although I understand the challenges airlines face but just what is it exactly that makes operating from Manchester to Heathrow so much more appealing than operating from Leeds to Heathrow? Both are large cities with huge urban conurbations. Perhaps I'm being somewhat nieve but sometimes it seems as though some airlines just want to be where the action is, not necessarily where they need to be. BA hasn't aquied the nickname London Airways for no reason.

I think Manchester as a destination is much more widely known than Leeds (2 massive football clubs for a start) plus Manchester airport is more an airport for the entire north of England where Leeds is one more for just Yorkshire. So an airline like BA will probably feel it needs too serve Manchester much more than it needs too serve Leeds and serving Manchester can also have the effect of offering Leeds by the fact that they're so close.

 

[lbaspotter]

I'm really surprise to see how many BA Gold Card holders we have in Yorkshire whom must now be using Manchester or Newcastle to Heathrow.

Can't tell you how I know, I just do..

 

[XEROX]

I'm really surprise to see how many BA Gold Card holders we have in Yorkshire whom must now be using Manchester or Newcastle to Heathrow.

Can't tell you how I know, I just do..

Most likely folks from affluent North Yorkshire with lots of money ....think to be eligible its minimum 4 first class trips per year. (or £3k if you know the right people lol)

 

[LBAYORKIE]

I'm really surprise to see how many BA Gold Card holders we have in Yorkshire whom must now be using Manchester or Newcastle to Heathrow.

Can't tell you how I know, I just do..

Well BA arent doing them any favours by not flying from their local airport.

 

[Seasider]

If they are not paying, they will not be bothered.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Well BA arent doing them any favours by not flying from their local airport.

If they are flying First Class, they will probably be chauffeured from their front door to LHR (and back) and prefer that to a connecting flight. And they wont be paying for the flight themselves.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

If they are flying First Class, they will probably be chauffeured from their front door to LHR (and back) and prefer that to a connecting flight. And they wont be paying for the flight themselves.

I woukd think they are more likely to be business class travellers, the few I know are.

 

[KARFA]

If they are flying First Class, they will probably be chauffeured from their front door to LHR (and back) and prefer that to a connecting flight. And they wont be paying for the flight themselves.

BA certainly don’t chauffeur anyone to/from the airport.

and I know many (like me) who pay for their own flights. The days of work trips in F are rapidly diminishing. Even J is not given quite as generously as it used to be.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

BA certainly don’t chauffeur anyone to/from the airport.

The company that they work for may well pay for a driver to get them to/from LHR. A few years ago, I had to fly out to San Diego on company business. I was only booked economy on Virgin/United with a transit through San Francisco. The company I worked for still booked a driver to get me to LHR (and back). So, you don't need to fly First or Business to get chauffeured.
I admit it It was horrendous! 3 1/2 hours to get from just north of Cambridge to LHR - I nearly missed my flight. I could have been at BHX in just over half that time and still flown with United.

 

[KARFA]

The company that they work for may well pay for a driver to get them to/from LHR. A few years ago, I had to fly out to San Diego on company business. I was only booked economy on Virgin/United with a transit through San Francisco. The company I worked for still booked a driver to get me to LHR (and back). So, you don't need to fly First or Business to get chauffeured.
I admit it It was horrendous! 3 1/2 hours to get from just north of Cambridge to LHR - I nearly missed my flight. I could have been at BHX in just over half that time and still flown with United.

I work for a ftse 100 company and we certainly don’t provide chauffeurs to/from the airport. Can I humbly suggest you are making some fairly broad assumptions here.

And back on topic yes just to add I would like BA back at LBA. I dislike MAN, and often go to NCL even though it’s further away.

 

[752]

OK, interesting one for us. Travel Weekly have posted about a new package holiday company called HolidayBest Link: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tourism/new-operator-holiday-best-to-launch-to-trade-within-weeks

Looks to be in buddying up to the trade sector which is a great idea. On further investigation it states they are chartering aircraft to run Turkey flights, looking on their website it looks like we maybe seeing another new route / airline - Southwind Airlines, planning to operate x1 Weekly flight to AYT on Wednesdays using B737-8MAX. Example of the flight schedule and times below:

Wed, 10 Jul 2024
Leeds departure 11:00
Southwind Boeing 737-800 MAX
Antalya arrival 17:10

Wed, 17 Jul 2024
Antalya departure 07:00
Southwind Boeing 737-800 MAX
Leeds arrival 10:00

Note: these times are different to the TUI & Sun Express flights/times on the same day.

Hopefully this new operator will have a successful launch and the flights come into fruition.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

OK, interesting one for us. Travel Weekly have posted about a new package holiday company called HolidayBest Link: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tourism/new-operator-holiday-best-to-launch-to-trade-within-weeks

Looks to be in buddying up to the trade sector which is a great idea. On further investigation it states they are chartering aircraft to run Turkey flights, looking on their website it looks like we maybe seeing another new route / airline - Southwind Airlines, planning to operate x1 Weekly flight to AYT on Wednesdays using B737-8MAX. Example of the flight schedule and times below:

Wed, 10 Jul 2024
Leeds departure 11:00
Southwind Boeing 737-800 MAX
Antalya arrival 17:10

Wed, 17 Jul 2024
Antalya departure 07:00
Southwind Boeing 737-800 MAX
Leeds arrival 10:00

Note: these times are different to the TUI & Sun Express flights/times on the same day.

Hopefully this new operator will have a successful launch and the flights come into fruition.

I notice they are serving Egypt from some airports- I wonder why Leeds has been overlooked?