Vueling

[Tinkerman]

VY won't base at CWL, the seasonal base idea would push their seat costs up, and wouldn't really work operationally. Imagine the setup costs, and if an aircraft went tech, the reason why no airline has based at CWL since Baby.

Any base less than 2 or 3 aircraft is too uneconomical, economies of scale take precedence and BRS would win.

 

[Jerry]

Had a quick look at the stats for June and July and Barcelona is a bit of a concern. June it's down by 30% to 3565 and July it's down 23% to 4344 and the times are the same for next year so i can't see any improvement.

 

[Aviador]

There has been a fair amount of press about the Catalonias campaigning to cut tourism to the region.

 

[Tinkerman]

Yeah, inevitably the timings have had an adverse impact on the BCN service, but look at this way. VY have put exactly the same timings on for next Summer, they must be happy with what they're getting from it.

Figures actually looking good across the board, VY's other routes show promising signs. BE also looking promising although this is the wrong thread for that.

 

[Jerry]

There has been a fair amount of press about the Catalonias campaigning to cut tourism to the region.

Guess they'll be happy then!

 

[Jerry]

CWL-PMI today was operated by EC-MLE the Disney 25th Anniversary livery. So a nice one for the spotters!

 

[Jerry]

Something going on with Vueling as Barcelona has been taken off sale and PMI dropped to 3 weekly for summer 2018. Malaga is still 4 weekly and Alicante is still 5 weekly.
On the LBA forum Vueling have been linked to these Monarch rumours so I wonder? Or they could be putting up new times.

 

[Jerry]

Cardiff Airport twitter told me BCN hasn't been dropped just that Vueling are doing updates. So hopefully both will get better times.

 

[Tinkerman]

Interesting, Vueling linked to purchasing the short haul arm of Monarch ? Now that would be interesting, and could potentially result in an increased CWL operation of sorts.

As long as it is coming back then not to worry.

 

[Jerry]

Interesting, Vueling linked to purchasing the short haul arm of Monarch ?

Not sure if it's a purchase but some sort of joint venture possibly. It would give Vueling access to the UK market which they found hard to break into because of the high competition and then they could focus their aircraft more on Italy.
If it happened and it's a very big if (Jet2 and Easyjet have also been mentioned in all this) then either Monarch could replace Vueling at CWL which would mean a base but Vueling woud continue to sell the CWL flights on their website, they share the CWL market which would also require a Monarch base but maybe smaller or absolutely nothing would change and VY would continue as they are at CWL.

 

[Tinkerman]

That all sounds pretty good, but very hypothetical at best.

BE would not be a bad partner airline at all for MON given their similarities in terms of UK airports, and possible feed into the short-haul and long-haul operations.

 

[Jerry]

That all sounds pretty good, but very hypothetical at best.

BE would not be a bad partner airline at all for MON given their similarities in terms of UK airports, and possible feed into the short-haul and long-haul operations.

Yep it is hypothetical, hopefully we'll find out soon enough and Flybe i don't think has been mentioned but i'm pretty sure their CEO mentioned a tie in with another airline a couple of months ago.

Something else that's interesting it looks like Vueling are changing the days for BCN to Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

 

[CraigW92]

Well hopefully BCN will get a few better timings, the two 21:45 departures in the week have halted the momentum and good work that VY had done on BCN, also to an extent PMI.


BCN

May 16: 71%
May 17: 56%


June 16: 83%
June 17: 58%

July 16: 90%
July 17: 71%

Pretty clear that timings are an issue, looking at BHX and MAN they seem to have fairly reasonable departure times, hopefully something similar could be arranged and the service can regain its momentum, PMI currently has the same timings, as mentioned by Jerry above reduced to 3 X weekly currently, AGP also has a few timing tweaks including a late evening Saturday departure which I hadn't noticed before, Will be interesting to see the rest of the summer schedule ( July and August ) when it's released.

 

[Jerry]

A 23.00 arrival time in Malaga on a Saturday isn't nice but if VY wanted to add another flight there would be the potential for a morning CWL departure as well. With Alicante in the morning there could be a potential there for an evening departure as well. At the moment ALC in June is 5 weekly and AGP is 4 weekly.
With PMI at the moment it's 3 weekly but on the calendar it comes up as 4 weekly with a flight on Saturdays but it's not on sale.
If PMI and BCN do go on sale on Saturday's i'm wondering if that will be the first time all 4 Vueling routes have been operated on the same day?

 

[Jerry]

Barcelona is back on sale. So Vueling summer 18 so far looks like this.
Barcelona 3 weekly Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
Tuesday BCN-CWL 11.00-12.10 CWL-BCN 12.45-15.50
Thursday BCN-CWL 13.55-15.05 CWL-BCN 15.40-18.45
Saturday BCN-CWL 10.25-11.35 CWL-BCN 12.15-15.20 (A319)*


Palma de Mallorca 4 weekly Monday,Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
Monday, Tuesday and Thursday PMI-CWL 15.30-16.55 CWL-PMI 17.40-20.55
Wednesday PMI-CWL 16.15 CWL-PMI 17.00-20.15

Malaga 5 weekly Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday
Monday AGP-CWL 06.50-08.25 CWL-AGP 09.05-12.40
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday AGP-CWL 07.30-09.05 CWL-AGP 09.45-13.20
Saturday AGP-CWL 17.35-19.10 CWL-AGP 19.45-23.20

Alicante 5 weekly Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday
ALC-CWL 10.40-12.10 CWL-ALC 12.50-16.15

So that will be 17 weekly rotations with Tuesday and Thursday each seeing 4 rotations from all the routes.
I'm curious to see if PMI does well whether we'll get a Saturday flight as well.
*According to a poster on Wales Air Forum the Saturday flight is on an A319.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Those are better timings for BCN aren't they?

 

[Jerry]

Those are better timings for BCN aren't they?

Yep much better. Some nice decent timings much better than arriving at 1 am in Barcelona! Hopefully those timings will reverse some of the damage done to the passenger numbers. I'm also hoping Vueling shifting days might mean Iberia Express will operate Madrid on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

 

[CraigW92]

Vueling celebrates 600,000 passengers milestone at Cardiff Airport



VUELING·WEDNESDAY, 4 OCTOBER 2017



Low-cost Spanish airline Vueling celebrates its 5th year and 600,000 passengers at Cardiff Airport.
Low-cost Spanish airline Vueling has surprised its 600,000th passenger Sharon Clain Mahoney from Bridgend, with a pair of free return tickets to either Malaga or Alicante, the gateway to the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca regions.
The prize was awarded during a celebration at the Gate before boarding a scheduled flight to Palma Mallorca today. Passengers at the Gate also enjoyed individually iced birthday cupcakes, Vueling gifts and had their picture taken with an Instagram frame to commemorate the Spanish airline’s five-year service offering to local residents.
Since operating its first flight from Cardiff in spring 2012, Vueling has increased capacity at Wales’ national airport by 300% over a five-year period, providing more than 190,000 seats for Welsh passengers alone last summer.
This winter season, Vueling will be offering more than 30,000 seats with flights to popular Spanish destinations Malaga and Alicante. Situated on southern Spain’s Costa del Sol and surrounded by a wealth of resorts overlooking golden sandy beaches, Malaga promises a getaway for all occasions. An ideal destination for all times of year thanks to its mild climate, visitors can take in the city’s soaring Renaissance cathedral nicknamed La Manquita or hop down to trendy Puerto Banus for a touch of celeb spotting. For city break enthusiasts looking uncover a slice of Spanish culture, Alicante offers a thriving city port location, home to the old town of Barrio de la Santa Cruz which promises a wealth of narrow streets to explore, striking coloured houses and a strong nightlife scene.
Gabriel Schmilovich, Director of Network Strategy and Planning said: “We’re thrilled to have reached another important UK milestone with Cardiff Airport. Cardiff remains an important part of our network and it’s a real achievement to have transported 600,000 passengers over 5 years, offering greater choice for those travelling through Wales.”

Spencer Birns, Commercial Director at Cardiff Airport, added: “Vueling has provided our customers with consistent and regular flights to four key Spanish destinations over five years, during which time the airline has responded to our customers by adding more choice.
Alicante, Barcelona, Malaga and Palma Mallorca are wonderful destinations, and 600,000 passengers is testament to just how popular these services are. We look forward to Vueling’s continued success at Cardiff Airport.”

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[Jerry]

That's great! CWL and Vueling have built up a good partnership and i'm sure they be here in another 5 years time and hopefully with more routes!

 

[Jerry]

To promote Vueling's 5th anniversary at Cardiff Airport, Vueling and the airport are running an online competition on the airports Facebook page to give away a pair of tickets to Malaga or Alicante.