KLM

[TheLocalYokel]

One other problem with closing airports on the 25th is that when its the 25th here, it is already the 26th in some parts of the world, so it is possible that a passenger might leave wherever they are on the 26th and arrive back in the UK on the 25th. By closing all airports on the 25th we could potentially be stopping people boarding flights home until the 27th if they are in the Far East for example.

I believe that White Heather makes an extremely valid point.

Bristol Airport had five arrivals and five departures on Christmas Day - 2 KLM (to/from AMS), 2 AF (to/from CDG) and 1 TOM to/from TFS (in fact there was another TOM arrival from Sharm in the early hours of Christmas Day morning).

The KLM and AF no doubt catered mainly for connecting passengers at AMS/CDG and the two evening inbounds were necessary to accommodate the early morning outbounds on Boxing Day. The alternative would be to have accommodated crews in the Bristol area from Christmas Eve until Boxing Day morning.

 

[Aviador]

LBA787 I think the figure will be close on 50 people required to run the airport for the one flight. The airport will be obliged to open for the one flight whether the airport makes any money from it or not. The original point I was making was they never used to do it so other than for profiteering reasons there's no reason why they need to do it now. It's not just something that's happening in the aviation industry, it's happening in retail as well. Only five years ago Morrison's supermarket used to close for two to three days over Christmas, now they only close on Christmas Day itself even then only because they are currently legally required to. It's a slippery slope until we all (the working generation) end up working Christmas Day as a "normal" day. Anyway, I feel like I'm flogging a dead horse with this one.

 

[LBA787]

Yes it's all for the airlines profit aviador! I'm sure my company would be running at a loss at our smaller airport stations in the UK. Only LHR, LGW & MAN will have made them some cash on the 25th. Whether that was enough to offset the losses at our other units only my boss will know....

The retail giants will push and push for greater opening hours. It won't be long before they abolish the short Sunday hours so are allowed to open 24 hours a day 365 days a year including Christmas and new year!!

Anyway I'm switching back to aviation now! :whiteflag:

:crazy:

 

[Galaxy]

Flew KLM this last week LBA - AMS back, great service, early landings, fantastic automation at Schipol with check in and baggage....but why do they letter the seats on the Fokker F70 as AC DEF - what's up with having a B???

 

[cmj]

I presume it's so that regardless of aircraft type A and F are always window, C and D always aisle.

Think the E190s are AC DF, the 737s ABC DEF.

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

The retail giants will push and push for greater opening hours. It won't be long before they abolish the short Sunday hours so are allowed to open 24 hours a day 365 days a year including Christmas and new year!!

One retial giant! ASDA. I bloody well hope they don't get there own way the horrible green supermarket. Keep it as it is, i hate there greed this xmas there was NO NEED to open at 00:01 on 24/12/12. WHY? There was also no way to open on Boxing day or be open today and tommorow! They are utterly greedy and i hope the goverement does not move. The law i love - which pee's this lot off though- is that on Good friday every store over a certain square footage has to be shut hahahaha!

 

[Jordan-34092]

The retail giants will push and push for greater opening hours. It won't be long before they abolish the short Sunday hours so are allowed to open 24 hours a day 365 days a year including Christmas and new year!!

One retial giant! ASDA. I bloody well hope they don't get there own way the horrible green supermarket. Keep it as it is, i hate there greed this xmas there was NO NEED to open at 00:01 on 24/12/12. WHY? There was also no way to open on Boxing day or be open today and tommorow! They are utterly greedy and i hope the goverement does not move. The law i love - which pee's this lot off though- is that on Good friday every store over a certain square footage has to be shut hahahaha!

you got to see it like this, business is business at the end of the day there no point in being shut if you know the competition is going to be open that particular day. Besides you got to be competitive and try to undercut the competition one way or another

 

[Tarn Spotter]

Appreciate not a retail forum, but can I just state the rules on trading. Large retail stores over 3000 sq. feet only have to close only one day a year by law, i.e. Easter Sunday.
There are no restriction on Good Friday trading at all, in fact it can be treated by employers as normal day of work. A lot of employers in West Yorkshire have easter holidays as Monday and Tuesday, Good Friday been a normal day of work.
The only time large have to close on Christmas day is if the 25th falls on a Sunday.
As an employer I have a number of staff who dont celebrate Christmas, but wish to have time off in the year to observe their religious festivals. We therefore need to be in a position to offer work on a 365 day basis, we should not force people if it compromises their religious believes, however, the recent national census showed a waning in people religious believes.
There was nothing stopping the supermarkets opening last tuesday apart from giving the time off to staff in the future.

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

Yeah i got it wrong haha! Sunday!
BACK TO AVIATION ... was WHSMiths open in the airport?

 

[wawkrk]

Air France is to launch a new low cost regional airline.HOP.
Flights are already planned to Aberdeen and Bristol in the UK.
I wonder if LBA may be eventually added to the route network.
KLM also have similar plans as part of the groups restructuring.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Air France is to launch a new low cost regional airline.HOP.
Flights are already planned to Aberdeen and Bristol in the UK.
I wonder if LBA may be eventually added to the route network.
KLM also have similar plans as part of the groups restructuring.

HOP! is the new name for the restructed AF regional arm (previously AF Regional, Airlinair and Brit).

In Bristol's case the previous 3 x daily AF (operated by Airlinair) ATR 42s will be replaced by a 6 x weekly HOP! E190s.

This is a severe retrograde step for BRS though it's been known to have been coming for several months.

 

[JakeS]

HOP! isn't necessarily a new airline as such, simply the 3 existing Air France subsidiaries Brit Air, Régional Compagnie Aérienne Européenne and Airlinair to be branded under 1 name. Never say never but as these 3 subsidiaries have only tapped into the UK market (Brit Air operating at Southampton/Birmingham and Régional Compagnie Aérienne Européenne at Aberdeen) I don't think HOP! will be making a bigger presence at UK airports than it currently does without substantial changes in its business plan.

Edit: Apologies for reiterating TheLocalYokel's post as I was compiling this message when there were no responses.

 

[cmj]

Air France is to launch a new low cost regional airline.HOP.
Flights are already planned to Aberdeen and Bristol in the UK.
I wonder if LBA may be eventually added to the route network.
KLM also have similar plans as part of the groups restructuring.

HOP! is the new name for the restructed AF regional arm (previously AF Regional, Airlinair and Brit).

In Bristol's case the previous 3 x daily AF (operated by Airlinair) ATR 42s will be replaced by a 6 x weekly HOP! E190s.

This is a severe retrograde step for BRS though it's been known to have been coming for several months.

3x daily, or even 2x daily is of use for business users and connections at CDG. 6x weekly must be aimed at tourists to Paris. We have Jet2 for that from LBA - not sure what BRS has other than Hop! now.

The low-cost lot don't go where I need to and even if they did they wouldn't have the times or flexibility. I guess it would be a train over the hills to MAN, or down to LHR if KLM did something similar at LBA.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[offtopic]

3x daily, or even 2x daily is of use for business users and connections at CDG. 6x weekly must be aimed at tourists to Paris. We have Jet2 for that from LBA - not sure what BRS has other than Hop! now.

The HOP! E 190 will be daily (no Sats) to CDG from BRS replacing, as I posted earlier, the current 3 x daily AF (Airlinair) ATR 42s. AF booking site also shows several connections to CDG each day via AMS using BRS's 4 x daily Cityhopper rotations (2 E190 and 2 F 70). Journey times are lengthy though.

easyJet also flies daily on BRS-CDG.

Several months ago AF announced a considerable reduction in its regional services, mainly reduced frequencies, of which BRS is one of the victims.[/offtopic]

 

[cmj]

KLM seems to be aligning it's "service" with Ryanair by now charging for hold bags!

The latest in their great "piss off frequent flyers" moves - maybe it will play into the hands of BA?

 

[airforced]

KLM seems to be aligning it's "service" with Ryanair by now charging for hold bags!

The latest in their great "piss off frequent flyers" moves - maybe it will play into the hands of BA?

I'm sure it will cmj. I've noticed recently that KLM are, more often than not, quite expensive these days when routing elewhere through AMS. This sort of move is a 'shooting themselves in the foot' moment to my mind.

I used to travel with them quite a bit, and very good they were too, but since being taken over by Air France it has been downhill all the way I'm afraid.

 

[Tarn Spotter]

They are certainly going to have to reduce their air fares, my son flying to AMS this month, Jet2 prices including hold luggage, seat reservation etc, lower then KLM without the new charges from April.

 

[dmrodgers]

They are certainly going to have to reduce their air fares, my son flying to AMS this month, Jet2 prices including hold luggage, seat reservation etc, lower then KLM without the new charges from April.

I agree, I've just booked a flight in April with British Airways out of LBA to visit my son in Dubai. Used to always fly KLM and have been a member of their frequent flyers club for some considerable time. However when checking this time KLM were far more expensive so it's off to BA for me. The good news is I can try out our new BA London service and whilst its only 2 more passengers it all counts to helping the service survive.

 

[Galaxy]

When I went to Amsterdam in December, KLM were MUCH cheaper than Jet2, approx £45 each way, Jet2 were around £70 each way without the bags etc. The KLM flights both ways were 100% full.

 

[Seasider]

According to LBASpotters' summer timetable, all flights are due to be operated by F70 but I thought one was to be operated by E195. Is this a response to BA?