Thanks alphagolf. I was actually looking for connecting flights though. I tried Bristol-Vancouver, Bristol-Singapore, and Bristol-Sofia for dates in May and September. Guess I'll try again next week.
 
tpm said:
Thanks alphagolf. I was actually looking for connecting flights though. I tried Bristol-Vancouver, Bristol-Singapore, and Bristol-Sofia for dates in May and September. Guess I'll try again next week.

I see what you mean, I just tried BRS - Shanghai in May no results. But also tried Kuala Lumpur this time it brings up dates but no flight prices.

Looking at the where we fly page, has no mention of bmiregional, just the Brussels Airlines codeshare. So have a feeling there is some work to do on the website.
 
I noticed on the ITV West Country channel today that bmi regional and Bristol Airport now sponsor the weather forecast segment within the local news programme. I'm not a great telly watcher so don't know how long this sponsorship has been going on.

It's all good for the airline's profile in the area because I suspect a lot of people do watch the telly.
 
Wednesday 28 May 2014

I note there are two arrivals from Munich shown today on the airport arrivals website: BM 1846 sched arr 1710 as usual, plus BM 9134 with a sched arr of 1515. BBC Ceefax shows this one as Aberdeen/Munich.

I believe the MUC was cancelled yesterday, or at least the inbound was. Maybe this is playing catch-up.
 
Friday 30 May 2014

The morning Frankfurt and Hamburg rotations did not appear to operate today although the evening ones did.

The morning flights were not shown on the BRS website, Mayfly nor on BBC Ceefax today. I've checked the next two Fridays on the bmi regional website and both daily rotations to both destinations are bookable.
 
The winter schedule has been released with no Milan flights after October. Has it been dropped?
 
The winter schedule has been released with no Milan flights after October. Has it been dropped?

That seems to be the implication. In another part of this website someone was questioning the viability of bmi regional as an airline recently. A substantial number of routes have have been started then axed in the past year around the country and abroad.

In one sense it's perhaps not surprising with a new airline (at least an airline under new ownership) that there would be some trial and error. Hannover only lasted a summer season last year but that was always a surprising choice for a route even though Bristol and Hannover are twinned. I was surprised though that on some days last winter Aberdeen was only single daily.

Frankfurt and Munich ought to be goers now the LH code share is in place although when I tried a dummy booking for long haul via FRA from BRS recently I couldn't get beyond the end of this summer season whereas BHX for example was bookable through the winter with LH, albeit they don't use bmi regional from BHX.

I won't be at all surprised if Helvetic to Zurich is axed this winter. Loads seem to be stuck below 50% each month. It's a pity if these niche business routes do go but it seems that airport like BRS will be more and more in thrall to the easyJets and Ryanairs of this world.

One of my pet hates with the aviation industry is communication, or rather a lack of it. New routes are invariably trumpeted to the skies but when routes are axed they are usually allowed to sneak out the back door with no publicity from airline or airport and it's only when a punter tries to book that they realise there is no longer a route.
 
Many thanks for that link, tpm.

30% growth would mean another 3 or 4 cabin staff at BRS which, as you suggest, tends to indicate some expansion whether a new route or two or increased frequency on existing ones. Milan Malpensa is still not bookable for the coming winter so if it has been axed that would provide yet more flexibility for route manoeuvring.

I also note the comment about robust growth on the German routes following the LH code share.
 
Perhaps they are going to do cdg twice a day instead of milan. cdg crying out for another operator..
 
Perhaps they are going to do cdg twice a day instead of milan. cdg crying out for another operator..

I've been wondering about bmi regional and Paris although they might believe that easyJet would quickly trump them with increased rotations of their own.

Like easyJet any bmi regional route would be point to point only unless they can cosy up to Air France for a code share which I guess would be unlikely as it might impact on AFKLM's BRS-AMS.

The cost and availability of slots at a decent time might be a limiting factor for bmi regional even at Orly which in fact would be an imaginative alternative to CDG.
 
sinse the code share with LH, was wondering if the pax loads have increased at all.or is this a sensative information, for bmi/LW to know and not shared.
 
sinse the code share with LH, was wondering if the pax loads have increased at all.or is this a sensative information, for bmi/LW to know and not shared.

The raw passenger numbers are publicly available on the CAA website each month and as bmi regional is the sole operator on the routes it flies from BRS the figures always relate to it alone.

It's difficult to compare this year with last year in the sense that the two LH code share routes (FRA and MUC) did not operate to the same frequency in April last year (this April being the latest month for which CAA figures are available). FRA was 6 x weekly and MUC wasn't operated at all in April 2013. In April 14 FRA was 11 x weekly and MUC 6 x weekly . Furthermore, the LH code share wasn't announced until early April this year so it would have taken some time for the news to spread and for passengers to take advantage.

June will be the first month in which true comparisons can be made with 2013. FRA went from 6 to 11 weekly in mid May 2013 and MUC began its 6 x weekly service at the same time (as did MXP and HAJ but the latter was axed at the end of last summer). Also by June the effects of the code share ought to be capable of more realistic measurement.

These are the April 2014 CAA figures:

Frankfurt (E145) 2174 passengers, average load 23.6 load factor 48.2%
Munich (E145) 1547 passengers, average load 29.7 load factor 60.6%
Hamburg (E135) 1979 passengers, average load 21.5 load factor 58.1%
Milan Malpensa (E145) 1186 passengers, average load 28.2 load factor 57.6%
Aberdeen (E145) 2551 passengers, average load 27.7 load factor 56.6%

I'm not sure that all rotations operated especially at the beginning of April which would give slightly higher loads. ABZ particularly seems low with load factors in excess of 60% most months last year.

Although bmi regional does have fare sales from time to time its fares look pretty steep at times - obviously a good thing for the airline if they can sell at these prices, if not for the customers. There are many sectors towards the end of June showing fares above three figures; some are in the £200s and £300s and even £450 in one or two cases. July shows more availabilty for around £70 per sector on most routes but there are still dates when the lowest sector fares are in three figures, again well above in some cases.
 
The morning Frankfurt and Hamburg rotations did not appear to operate today although the evening ones did.

The morning flights were not shown on the BRS website, Mayfly nor on BBC Ceefax today. I've checked the next two Fridays on the bmi regional website and both daily rotations to both destinations are bookable.

I posted the above on Friday 30 May this year.

Today the morning FRA and HAM rotations were not shown on the BBC Ceefax, Mayfly or the airport's website. From this the reasonable conclusion is that they did not operate - they weren't shown as cancelled.

Yet, as with Fridays in the above quote, the evening rotations are shown as operating today and a look at the bmi regional website shows FRA and HAM bookable on morning and evening rotations for the next two Mondays (I didn't look beyond that but both routes are supposed to be 2 x daily Monday-Friday and daily on Sundays).

Can anyone explain this puzzle?
 
It's a public holiday in many parts of Germany (Pfingstmontag, Pentecost), so maybe the demand for the early morning rotation just wasn't there and/or they're operating on a Sunday schedule instead.
 
It's a public holiday in many parts of Germany (Pfingstmontag, Pentecost), so maybe the demand for the early morning rotation just wasn't there and/or they're operating on a Sunday schedule instead.

Thanks for that, tpm. I wondered about that with Friday 30 May but it appeared then that there was a public holiday the day before.

If it is the case it suggests that the LH interlining code share on the FRA route is not contributing much at the moment because that ought not to be affected by a German pubic holiday.

Addendum

I think you've cracked it, tpm.

The next German holiday affecting the whole country seems to be Friday 3 October (Day of German Unity) and on that day neither the morning FRA nor HAM rotations are available for sale, although they are for the following Friday.

It still seems a bit odd though with FRA, having regard to the LH code share.
 
http://www.insidermedia.com/insider/sou ... istol-base

Further to the post last week in this thread concerning information re BRS and bmi regional linked through the BRS Twitter page, the bmi regional CEO has now elaborated in the linked report above.

In summary he says that his airline has invested £5 million into BRS in the last year - I'm not sure whether this is a notional figure along the lines that Ryanair loves to cite when it opens a new base or expands an existing one.

There are currently 80 airline staff at BRS with the Twitter link last week saying they will increase the number of cabin staff by 30%. Seven aircraft are based at BRS which would include those used on the Airbus corporate shuttle and almost certainly the aircraft that operate for Brussels Airlines. Last year bmi regional carried 105,000 passengers through BRS.

The airline is working closely with the airport to 'identify new routes and opportunities'. There are plans to increase the FRA route to 3 x daily as demand builds.

Clearly the airline is intent on expanding its BRS presence. Most of its routes are business orientated so it's hoped that the local business community will support the ventures. If it doesn't it will have no grounds whatever to moan about a lack of business air links.
 
A regular poster on a well known aviation forum who is a regular business traveller out of BRS posted today that loads are on the increase following the LH code share to FRA and MUC. His last flight from/to MUC saw 45 and 49 respectively on the 49-seat E 145.
 
June statistics for bmiregional's Bristol Network.

Figures based on all flights operating as per published timetable.

FRA:
(E145) 3076 passengers, average load 32.7 load factor 66.7%

MUC:
(E145) 1779 passengers, average load 34.2 load factor 69.7%

HAM:
(E135) 2076 passengers, average load 22.0 load factor 62.8%

MXP:
(E145) 1785 passengers, average load 34.3 load factor 70.0%

ABZ:
(E145) 2849 passengers, average load 30.3 load factor 61.8%

Improving load factors across all routes which is a good sign, but LF's aren't the answer to successful routes, depends what the yield the route is achieving.
 
Many thanks alphagolf. I think there was a German public holiday on 9 June that reduced the FRA and HAM rotations from two to one that day and 265 of the MXP total figures are charter passengers although operated by bmi regional.

On some days there are two bmi MXP flights, one of which is the charter but I don't know for whom. This has been taking place for many months as for example last April when it was discussed on this thread.

On Mondays the scheduled daily BMA 1815 from BRS to MXP which leaves BRS at 1130 is complemented for some reason by a BMA 8502 which departs BRS at 0930 for MXP.

Similarly on Fridays a BMA 8503 arrives from MXP at BRS at 1700, one hour after the scheduled daily BMA 1816.

Incidentally, there's still no availability after October for the scheduled MXP on the bmi regional website so it looks as though it has been axed, at least for the winter. Let's hope that unlike the Hannover it returns next summer.

Like you I wonder how much of the code share passenger revenue bmi regional is getting from LH, bearing in mind that bmi needs the code share far more than LH does.
 

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