Longhaul from Bristol

[Kernow Bravo]

Surely enough time for BRS to attract a long haul service and develop it enough so it sticks around once runway 3 opens.

There was a similar situation around 10 years ago when the EU-US Open Skies agreement liberalised access to LHR for all US carriers. (previously only BA, VS, AA & UA were allowed to operate to the USA from LHR). The stateside carriers who were forced to operate from (mostly) LGW - at the time CO, DL, NW & US wasted no time in transferring their flights to LHR.

Some have attributed CO's access to LHR as a contributory factor in the disappearance of CO 757s from BRS, and arguably BRS management can foresee history repeating itself once LHR is not so slot constrained, hence they are not pursuing the runway extension.

Interesting that of those four carriers which moved from LGW to LHR, only one now retains its identity! Arguably the spirit of Continental remains of course, thanks to the United livery, but a lot has happened in 10 years.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It may be that after further tests Boeing ups the performance specs for the 787 allowing TUI to fly their longer long haul flights more routinely without fuel stops as well as perhaps allowing TUI to serve destinations slightly further afield. Goa is roughly the same distance from Bristol as Cancun - not sure if that has been discussed elsewhere but could TUI serve Goa from BRS?

BRS had a Goa service during one season. It was in the late 1980s operated by Paramount Airways. It operated via Gatwick and made two or three further stops before reaching Goa. I presume Paramount's MD83s were used. Not the sort of operation calculated to attract may customers from the area unless price was an attraction or a passenger was an aviation nut.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It may be that after further tests Boeing ups the performance specs for the 787 allowing TUI to fly their longer long haul flights more routinely without fuel stops as well as perhaps allowing TUI to serve destinations slightly further afield. Goa is roughly the same distance from Bristol as Cancun - not sure if that has been discussed elsewhere but could TUI serve Goa from BRS?

BRS had a Goa service during one season. It was in the late 1980s operated by Paramount Airways. It operated via Gatwick and made two or three further stops before reaching Goa. I presume Paramount's MD83s were used. Not the sort of operation calculated to attract many customers from the area unless price was an attraction or a passenger was an aviation nut.

 

[superking]

Paramount used MD83s on the GOA route. They did a split load with Gatwick.Top up fuel in Gatwick and im sure they did 2 fuel stops on route. It was a popular route from Bristol,just a shame they split load with Gatwick.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Paramount used MD83s on the GOA route. They did a split load with Gatwick.Top up fuel in Gatwick and im sure they did 2 fuel stops on route. It was a popular route from Bristol,just a shame they split load with Gatwick.

I was looking for a post by conns757 but have yet to locate it. He used to do the loading docs for the flight and set out the en-route stops in the post I can't find. I think there might have been one in Italy and one in the Middle East, possibly Sharjah. Unfortunately, conns hasn't visited F4A for a while.

 

[superking]

1 stop I know was 1 of the Greek islands but mind is a blank to remember which one.

 

[Red Flyer]

PAT went via RHO

 

[superking]

TY red flyer for helping to get mind working. As always there is some one that can answer any quiries about things.

 

[forest1979]

Hello everyone..
Just been reading about Turkish fleet expansion.. given the efforts that are going in, do we think Bristol might be still on their radar or is BHX and LHR in to close proximity for them.. been some discussion on here before about Turkish but didn’t know if the feeling was that this was dead in the water so to speak..

I also last night saw a you tube video on BRS and why people use it.. a bit old now as 90% if the people interviewed were going to or coming from Newerk with quite a lot being American. Reasons.. didn’t like LHR, good connectivity, liked using their local airport. Shame in one way as it was clearly popular.. not really sure today if this would be the case.. The Americans are certainly aware of the West Country and it’s offferings. we have lots of them visiting Kernow along with Chinese, Germans etc..

 

[Jerry]

Would though the lack of airbridges be a problem for Turkish? With them being a full service carrier i wonder if that would be a requirement and if BRS would be willing to pay to install one for them?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Hello everyone..
Just been reading about Turkish fleet expansion.. given the efforts that are going in, do we think Bristol might be still on their radar or is BHX and LHR in to close proximity for them.. been some discussion on here before about Turkish but didn’t know if the feeling was that this was dead in the water so to speak..

I also last night saw a you tube video on BRS and why people use it.. a bit old now as 90% if the people interviewed were going to or coming from Newerk with quite a lot being American. Reasons.. didn’t like LHR, good connectivity, liked using their local airport. Shame in one way as it was clearly popular.. not really sure today if this would be the case.. The Americans are certainly aware of the West Country and it’s offferings. we have lots of them visiting Kernow along with Chinese, Germans etc..

Turkish to BRS was certainly thought to be a strong possibility a couple of years ago - even the ubiquitous Simon Calder not usually a staunch BRS supporter thought then that BRS had a good chance of being one of the next Turkish Airlines UK airports. Since then the topic has strayed into the long grass.

I believe that the current IST is somewhat struggling for room but the new much larger IST is, I read, on the cusp of replacing it. Whether that will lead to a host of new routes both to Europe and to the East I don't know. I don't think that Turkish currently flies to Australasia which is something they might want to review if they have notions of competing with the MEB3.

To answer your Turkish question directly, I have no idea and have heard nothing to suggest anything is imminent.

As for Continental and indeed any BRS-NYC route, because the USA is such a vast country many Americans regard 100 miles as no distance at all and don't always take into account (probably some don't even know) that travelling 100 miles in the UK can be a daunting prospect at times compared with many 100-mile journeys in their own country. Hence LHR probably seems next door to Bristol.

The loads on the BRS-EWR were generally very good although the recession had some negative impact at times. It seems it was the yield that was the problem and the fact that Continental had gained access to LHR which they didn't have when they began their BRS-EWR route. With US 'legacy airlines' pulling out of or cutting back at larger UK airports than BRS I can't see much prospect of a NYC link in the foreseeable future.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

Possibly, but if they were to come in it would like be a 737 or A32x which would be more of a feeder aircraft so the expectation of an airbridge may not be there. It would certainly raise eyebrows for the QR route at CWL.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Would though the lack of airbridges be a problem for Turkish? With them being a full service carrier i wonder if that would be a requirement and if BRS would be willing to pay to install one for them?

Continental operated without air bridges. BRS has planning consent for air bridges and has hinted that they will be provided if a long haul scheduled carrier turned up - I think they were mainly thinking of one of the MEB3 in that context.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I forgot to add that the fact that Turkish will operate double daily from BHX next year probably makes a BRS route less likely.

 

[andrewgreen]

Could Istanbul be a possible route for easyJet ? If it was and Turkish have got wind of it maybe that’s why they have gone twice daily from Birmingham and not tried Bristol.
It seems like no one is keen to take on Easy at Bristol !

 

[Jerry]

EZY are super strong at BRS but would Istanbul be a route that interested them? Do they even fly to Istanbul? I'd have thought EZY would look at more leisure type routes or more city break routes.

 

[andrewgreen]

Istanbul is a city break isn’t it ? All be it a bit further afield than the usual .
I know several people from south of Bristol who have used Turkish from Birmingham for a few days in Istanbul, indeed I would consider it

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Could Istanbul be a possible route for easyJet ? If it was and Turkish have got wind of it maybe that’s why they have gone twice daily from Birmingham and not tried Bristol.
It seems like no one is keen to take on Easy at Bristol !

Istanbul is a city break isn’t it ? All be it a bit further afield than the usual .
I know several people from south of Bristol who have used Turkish from Birmingham for a few days in Istanbul, indeed I would consider it

easyJet would be only point to point to IST. The much greater value of a Turkish Airlines connection would be its feeding into the airline's network to the East, and if they can get some Australasia routes and others not currently served when the new IST becomes operational very soon they could begin to be a substutute for the lack of a MEB3 to a degree.

I might have over-egged the BHX Turkish increase in that I learned on the BHX thread today that it is an increase from 12 weekly to 14 weekly and they used to fly the latter frequency in 2016.

EZY are super strong at BRS but would Istanbul be a route that interested them? Do they even fly to Istanbul? I'd have thought EZY would look at more leisure type routes or more city break routes.

easyJet does not currently use IST.

Nearly half of easyJet's well over 4 million BRS passengers per year use the airline for business purposes so it's far more than a leisure airline at BRS. The strength of the region's economy might be one reason why easyJet operates a disproportionately high number of routes and flights from BRS relative to the airport's size.

https://www.bristolairport.co.uk/ab...s-and-media-centre/2017/3/easyjet-record-2016

easyJet flies year-round to eleven European capitals plus Edinburgh and Belfast, as well as seasonal routes to Reykjavik and Sofia (beginning this winter). easyJet also flies to a number of other important European business centres. Ryanair flies to five other European capitals plus Sofia which it too will begin as a seasonal route later this year, albeit the capital city seasonal routes from BRS are mainly leisure-orientated. The other European capital served is Brussels, by flybmi year-round.

It would be a bad thing for the local economy if easyJet began to turn its back on the routes used heavily by business travellers in favour of more leisure routes that would simply put it into greater competition with the likes of TUI and Thomas Cook. Their track record at BRS with 'business routes' suggest that they would have little reason to alter this approach substantially. Some of the routes could stand higher frequencies given the passenger numbers, but that's always a tricky point because increased passenger numbers gained through additional frequency don't always mean a corresponding increase in yield for an airline.

Turkish to IST on a daily frequency would be positive for both leisure and business travellers, whether making for Turkey or further afield.

 

[Jerry]

Istanbul is a city break isn’t it ? All be it a bit further afield than the usual .
I know several people from south of Bristol who have used Turkish from Birmingham for a few days in Istanbul, indeed I would consider it

I suppose it is yeah thinking about it now.

 

[Coathanger16]

Turkish have over 160 narrow body (A32N/B737M) on order and a new "mega hub" opening in October this year. Just my personal belief but I suspect Bristol will be a matter of when not if for Turkish.

Only thing that could change that would be one of the MEB3 launching routes to BRS which is rather unlikely at this stage - Qatar at CWL, Etihad rather struggling $$$ & Emirates don't have an aircraft small enough for BRS.

I would certainly think there is enough demand in the SE for a connection to another hub (besides AMS), especially if that hub offers one stop flights to Australasia.