Helvetic Airways

[TheLocalYokel]

Many thanks, alphagolf.

It's obviously a positive sign that they are to continue but slightly disappointing that it's back to 3 x weekly after 4 x weekly in the summer just ended.

It appears the Monday flight has been ditched for next summer which on the face of it seems a bit surprising given that it's the start of the working week and the route has a strong business passenger complexion.

 

[tpm]

It appears the Monday flight has been ditched for next summer which on the face of it seems a bit surprising given that it's the start of the working week and the route has a strong business passenger complexion.

Pleased that the route continues as well, but I wonder how many business passengers it really carries. Personal experience suggests business passengers are in the minority. Are there any public stats on how many passengers on each route say they're flying on business?

 

[alphagolf]

TheLocalYokel wrote:
It appears the Monday flight has been ditched for next summer which on the face of it seems a bit surprising given that it's the start of the working week and the route has a strong business passenger complexion.

From a BRS to ZRH point of view I can only presume the thinking around no Monday service is that if any business pax had meetings on a Monday morning, they would can fly in Sunday evening and be suitably refreshed for a meeting first thing. Great if you have a couple of days of business to do, but not if you wanted to return before the next available flight on a Wednesday.

Personally I think the release of the schedules up to now have been shocking, hopefully the much earlier release of the Summer 2014 schedule is a sign that Helvetic is thinking a little more long term and will encourage travellers to use the flights in greater numbers.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Pleased that the route continues as well, but I wonder how many business passengers it really carries. Personal experience suggests business passengers are in the minority. Are there any public stats on how many passengers on each route say they're flying on business?

I'm not aware of a route by route breakdown by business/leisure traveller but this CAA survey of BRS, neighbouring airports and London airports passenger traffic in 2012 gives a broad overview.

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/81/2012CAAPaxSurveyReport.pdf

From a BRS to ZRH point of view I can only presume the thinking around no Monday service is that if any business pax had meetings on a Monday morning, they would can fly in Sunday evening and be suitably refreshed for a meeting first thing. Great if you have a couple of days of business to do, but not if you wanted to return before the next available flight on a Wednesday.

Personally I think the release of the schedules up to now have been shocking, hopefully the much earlier release of the Summer 2014 schedule is a sign that Helvetic is thinking a little more long term and will encourage travellers to use the flights in greater numbers.

That was my thinking. Monday being the start of the working week would appear to be the day when business traveller might be in larger numbers, and not just on this route, although tpm's experience suggests that this type of passenger does not constitute the majority on BRS-ZRH.

Like you, I'm pleased that there is a much longer lead-in booking period for the summer. The winter seemed ludicrously short although when Helvetic decided on inserting BRS stops on the original CWL-ZRH route they only gave a few week's notice for the December start.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

December 2013 passenger figures

Helvetic took a rest in November and returned to its F100-operated BRS-ZRH route on 13 December at 2 x weekly (Fri and Sun) compared with 3 x weekly the previous winter.

There were 6 rotations (12 legs) in December that carried exactly 600 passengers according to CAA stats, giving an average load of 50. This compares with an average load of 35 in December 2012 when 917 passengers were carried at 3 x weekly during the whole month.

On this admittedly brief evidence it seems that the airline knows what it is doing in restricting the winter service to Fridays and Sundays.

Summer 2014 will be 3 x weekly (Wed, Fri and Sun) compared to 4 x weekly in summer 2013.

 

[Aviador]

I can't see this route ever performing better than what it's doing now. It's been given a good go so I hope the passenger levels it's achieving is sufficient to warrant it's survival into the longer term.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I can't see this route ever performing better than what it's doing now. It's been given a good go so I hope the passenger levels it's achieving is sufficient to warrant it's survival into the longer term.

2013 was 4 x weekly in the summer instead of the 3 x weekly of summer 2012, meaning there were a third more seats each month. However, the total monthly load numbers last summer were up most months over 80%.

December's average load compared well with mid summer's load average and was over 40% up on December 2012.

What I think may be happening is that the experience they now have at BRS has shown the airline which days work best and they are concentrating on those.

There is no doubt a market exists between Bristol and Switzerland as shown by the Geneva route (primarily easyJet but some weekly winter charters as well) which again in 2012 (still waiting for 2013) carried more passengers (175,000) between the UK and Geneva than any other UK airport outside London, even beating Manchester. This has been the case for several years past.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

June 2014

CAA stats show that 1481 passengers used the route in the month, giving an average load of 57 which I think is the best month since the route started. June was up 6% on June 2013 when it was 4 x weekly compared with 3 x weekly this summer, so a good result which still needs to be sustained regularly and improved upon.

It's to be hoped the yield is at least satisfactory for the airline.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

July 2014

CAA stats show that 1698 passengers used the BRS-ZRH route in July which was 13% down on July 2013.

However, 2013 saw four weekly rotations against this summer's three per week. July 2014's figures show an average load of just over 65 which is easily the best month since the route began. So some real progress has been made with loads this summer thus far.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

August 2014

CAA stats show that 1641 passengers used the BRS-ZRH route in July which was 2 % down on August 2013.

However, 2013 saw four weekly rotations against this summer's three per week. August 2014's figures show an average load of 58.6, down a few points on July but August is likely to see fewer business passengers.

No availability shown beyond the end of October. This happened last year with a late announcement that last winter would be 2 x weekly beginning in December - ie no service in November. It can only be hoped that the same will occur this year.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Winter 2014-2015

Still no booking availability for BRS-ZRH shown on the Helvetic website. It was around this time last year that it was announced that last winter would be served but at 2 x weekly and from December with November seeing no flights.

The last three months this summer have seen average loads on the 3 x weekly service just either side of 60 with July just over 65. Perhaps not brilliant for a 100-seat aircraft but it may be the yield was good in the summer; certainly average loads were noticeably up on summer 2013 which was 4 x weekly.

 

[Aviador]

I would lean towards not righting the route off yet given the late release of flights last year. Hopefully passenger loads and the routes yield were of sufficient numbers to enable it to continue.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Winter 2014-2015

Looking increasingly unlikely that there will be a Helvetic service this winter.

The Helvetic website shows Ohrid-Zurich, Skopje-Zurich and Pristina-Zurich now bookable for the coming winter but nothing for the other routes including BRS-ZRH.

It will be a shame after this summer saw a fairly impressive rise in load factors. Even if the route returns next summer some momentum will have been lost.

 

[superking]

winter 14/15
a crying shame if this route does not carry on, as a lot of work has been done to make it work.
perhaps the gva route with lots of rotations per week has some effect on zrh route, as ground transport is very good which ever airport is used.
remember back in the year dot crossair tried the route from brs,and they had the same problem,lack of passengers,without the number of services per week to gva as we have now.
so between these factors zrh is one of the routes that does not work in any shape or form.
a shame really as zrh a big finance centre

 

[alphagolf]

Winter 2014

BRS-ZRH Fights Suspended

I contacted Helvetic yesterday to enquire about BRS-ZRH over the winter they have apologised that there will be no flights to Bristol over the winter but flights will re-commence again in Spring 2015.

Will be interesting to see what schedule they come back with? Wonder if anyone else will give it go......... of the opinion that bmiregional would be a good fit, smaller planes either the E135/E145 would probably work give the business sector a double daily operation it may work.

alphagolf

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I contacted Helvetic yesterday to enquire about BRS-ZRH over the winter they have apologised that there will be no flights to Bristol over the winter but flights will commence again in Spring 2015.

I wondered last winter if they were going to take a break but they came back - eventually - with a 2 x weekly service beginning in early December.

As superking points out it does seem something of a surprise that Zurich is a struggle, especially in winter. Summer wasn't at all bad with easily the best load factors since the route began.

At least Helvetic is to return next year but it's another step along the road to making BRS, like many regional airports, a two-tier airport: busy in summer but relatively quiet in winter.

The around 60 average loads of this summer might have had bmi regional looking. Two thirds of those loads I imagine would be very attractive on 49-seat aircraft but I can't see BM starting a winter route at this late stage especially with the thought that Helvetic would be competing next summer.

so between these factors zrh is one of the routes that does not work in any shape or form.
a shame really as zrh a big finance centre

BRS-GVA, mainly easyJet but with some winter ski charters, carries more passengers to/from GVA than any UK airport outside London and has done so for a number of years (over 181,000 in 2013). easyJet is obviously far better known, particularly in the UK, and its multi frequencies and generally lower fares than Helvetic give it a huge edge.

The evidence of this summer taken with the airline's decision communicated to alphagolf is that ZRH works for Helvetic in that season but apparently not in winter.

 

[tpm]

Shame, I was hoping to use this service again later this year. Zurich Airport has excellent ground connectivity, especially into the rail network. Unfortunately the Wednesday and Friday flights were schedule to arrive quite late this season: with an arrival time of 22.20, you're looking at trains from 23.00 onwards, which doesn't really get you very far.

 

[alphagolf]

Bristol - Zurich

Further to my previous post, I have received another communication from Helvetic Airways advising that the Summer 2015 schedule will be finalised by the end of October after which it will be viewable on the airlines website.

Hopefully with a longer lead-in time, loads can be further improved on. I do think some of the arrival times into Zurich are a bit late within the current schedule, so would be nice to see this changed somewhat.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Further to my previous post, I have received another communication from Helvetic Airways advising that the Summer 2015 schedule will be finalised by the end of October after which it will be viewable on the airlines website.

Hopefully with a longer lead-in time, loads can be further improved on. I do think some of the arrival times into Zurich are a bit late within the current schedule, so would be nice to see this changed somewhat.

That certainly ought to be a help not least because it won't leave a void in the booking engine for a long period.

There might be another reason why Helvetic has pulled out this winter.

I mentioned in my earlier post how huge the BRS-GVA route is - the biggest in the UK outside London airports. This coming winter easyJet (by far the biggest contributor to the GVA route) has increased its schedule to up to 21 weekly rotations in the ski season - up by two from last winter - including five on Saturdays and four on Sundays.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

September 2014

CAA stats show that 1151 passengers used the route in the month, down 33% on September 2013 when the service was 4 x weekly as opposed to 3 x weekly this summer.

Average load was 48, exactly the same as last September.

It's certainly a drop from the previous three months when loads were either side of 60 with 65 the best.

The route is supposed to be returning next March but it seems to be stuck in the 50-60% load factor range for most of the summer. Whether that is deemed good enough only time will tell.