Jet2.com

[CraigW92]

Good choice of destinations also, which you look at pretty much would do pretty well at Cardiff mind, seems now they are spreading there wings a little more, Was BHX mentioned alongside CWL in the rumours or was it one or the other essentialy ?

Looking at the destinations, thanks to Ray for this information:

ALC 5x weekly from March 31st going daily mid May.
HER 2x weekly from April 30th.
PFO 2x weekly from April 2nd
FAO 5x weekly from March 30th going daily mid May.
FUE 3x weekly from April 2nd.
GRO 2x weekly from April 28th.
LPA 2x weekly from April 1st.
IBZ 4x wekly from 27th March going 6x weekly mid May.
ACE 3x weekly from April 1st.
PMI 5x weekly from March 31st going daily from mid May.
AGP 5x weekly from March 30th going 6x weekly mid May.
MAH 2x weekly from April 29th.
REU 3x weekly from April 29th.
RHO 2x weekly from April 27th.
TFS 4x weekly from March 31st.

ALC, AGP, PMI, TFS and FAO I'd put under our core sun routes, shouldn't be a problem for BHX with the catchment, however for CWL like myself and you Local and others have pointed out any new airline will want these come what may- essentially the core money routes aswell, certainly would say IBZ, ACE, HER would do very well from here as would a few others on that list. ACE is one that I actually thought FR might have added for last winter.

 

[Aviador]

Announced this evening that Jet2 are to set up a base at BHX from next year. CWL was also rumoured to be another airport in contention when the BHX rumours surfaced several months ago. Will have to wait and see.

Never say never, it is still plausible Cardiff will see a Jet2 base next year.

One thing that Jet2 seems to always do is release its schedule on different days, I think this is primarily to avoid overload on their website.

I've mentioned before the airline seems to like to duel base as it helps with both crewing and maintenance so that's Leeds and Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh and now East Midlands and Birmingham.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Good choice of destinations also, which you look at pretty much would do pretty well at Cardiff mind, seems now they are spreading there wings a little more, Was BHX mentioned alongside CWL in the rumours or was it one or the other essentialy ?...................



...................ALC, AGP, PMI, TFS and FAO I'd put under our core sun routes, shouldn't be a problem for BHX with the catchment, however for CWL like myself and you Local and others have pointed out any new airline will want these come what may- essentially the core money routes aswell, certainly would say IBZ, ACE, HER would do very well from here as would a few others on that list. ACE is one that I actually thought FR might have added for last winter.

To respond to your query (not to answer it because anyone outside the airline or airports would presumably not be aware with any certainty), a few months ago there were strong rumours abounding that an airline was looking to open three UK bases. At that time BHX seemed a certainty to be one of them if the rumours were true, and it seems they were. Other airports mentioned as being the other two included CWL and BRS at various times, although BRS seemed to fade out of the picture if further rumours were to be believed.

As you point out, some of the sun routes included in the new BHX portfolio would do well at CWL as they would at BRS in themselves. My reservation though is that I'm not sure that there would be sufficient punters for another loco to pitch up at BRS in anything like the BHX numbers just announced given that easyJet, Ryanair and the major charter carriers seem to have the routes covered already, and the BRS catchment is nowhere near as large as that at BHX. CWL may be a different proposition with some of the routes, given that there still seems room for Vueling and/or Ryanair to expand. If they don't then another carrier such as Jet2 could step in.

Interesting comment from a poster on another aviation website, someone who is not the greatest BRS fan judging from posts in the past, who believes that Jet2 at BHX will significantly hit easyJet's operations at BRS. I don't think that's likely as BRS draws a relatively few number of punters from the BHX catchment. Jet2 at CWL might be more of a challenge to easyJet though, although the age-old problem of persuading West Country punters to use CWL will remain, especially those in the north of the BRS catchment who would have Jet2 at both BHX and CWL from which to choose.

So my gut feeling is that if Jet2 does decide on Severnside it would more likely be CWL, especially if a large chunk of that £13 million route development money is still to be spent.

 

[Ray Finkle]

We are currently screening candidates for a reputable growing airline, who will shortly be based at three of the UK’s busiest airports, one of which being Birmingham. In 2015 over 6 million passengers on the continent flew with them.

http://www.indeed.co.uk/cmp/My-Career-Hunt/jobs/Cabin-Crew-Member-26365bef44ec6548?q=cabin+crew

The above is a section of the job advert from March this year, it was rumoured to be Jet2 and has turned out that rumour was correct.

There has been some speculation about the other two potential airports and that both Bristol and Cardiff have been spoken to, along with Liverpool. I have no idea if there is any substance behind that speculation, I only knew about the BHX rumour.

It could of course be that the other two airports are already existing bases with extra crew being hired.

Interesting times and if Jet2 are spreading their wings across more of the UK then I think the South West region has a very good chance of seeing something.

 

[Jerry]

To respond to your query (not to answer it because anyone outside the airline or airports would presumably not be aware with any certainty), a few months ago there were strong rumours abounding that an airline was looking to open three UK bases. At that time BHX seemed a certainty to be one of them if the rumours were true, and it seems they were. Other airports mentioned as being the other two included CWL and BRS at various times, although BRS seemed to fade out of the picture if further rumours were to be believed.

As you point out, some of the sun routes included in the new BHX portfolio would do well at CWL as they would at BRS in themselves. My reservation though is that I'm not sure that there would be sufficient punters for another loco to pitch up at BRS in anything like the BHX numbers just announced given that easyJet, Ryanair and the major charter carriers seem to have the routes covered already, and the BRS catchment is nowhere near as large as that at BHX. CWL may be a different proposition with some of the routes, given that there still seems room for Vueling and/or Ryanair to expand. If they don't then another carrier such as Jet2 could step in.

Interesting comment from a poster on another aviation website, someone who is not the greatest BRS fan judging from posts in the past, who believes that Jet2 at BHX will significantly hit easyJet's operations at BRS. I don't think that's likely as BRS draws a relatively few number of punters from the BHX catchment. Jet2 at CWL might be more of a challenge to easyJet though, although the age-old problem of persuading West Country punters to use CWL will remain, especially those in the north of the BRS catchment who would have Jet2 at both BHX and CWL from which to choose.

So my gut feeling is that if Jet2 does decide on Severnside it would more likely be CWL, especially if a large chunk of that £13 million route development money is still to be spent.

If Jet2 did turn up at CWL they would have less competition and more room for further expansion as there holiday side does city breaks as well so they could add a destination like Prague or Rome. I honestly think Jet2 would really suit CWL.

 

[Jerry]

Also i wonder if the maintenance facilities at St Athan would be part of Jet2 decision making on whether to base aircraft at Cardiff or not? because I remember hearing they were using Cardiff aviation to do maintenance on their planes.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

http://www.anna.aero/2016/07/07/jet2-com-announces-birmingham-base/

anna.aero did a piece today on the new BHX base - see above link.

In the article the Jet2 business development director was asked who is next for the airline, given that Jet2 tends to open a new base every two or three years, and would it be an overseas base? The reply was: “Jet2.com is set-up to serve the UK market, so it’s more than likely that if we did open up another base, it would be from this country......"

However, the airline's business development director didn't discount an overseas base entirely but went on to say: "...........but in the meantime we have lots to concentrate on here, with our new Birmingham base and growth across many of our other seven airports.”

No hints there then that any other new base is imminent but he might not say at this point in time if another base was likely soon.

 

[pug]

Personally not heard of anything in the pipeline, but then I'm not privy to it, and didn't hear about BHX until it was announced. That said, BHX was the next logical step in the growth and was seen as highly likely for some time.

My opinion is that they will have enough to focus on with BHX without announcing any further bases in the near future. Could be wrong but these agreements take time, and are expensive (financially and in terms of resources) to establish.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Thanks pug. What you say makes logical sense not that the aviation world is always logical.

 

[Aviador]

Back in the days when Philip Meeson was at the wheel he was fairly open with his expansion plans. These days everything is "commercial in confidence" so word tends to not get around the office like it used to do. Similar to Pug, although I wouldn't rule anything out, a new base of four aircraft is a sizable base so I think it's probably less likely.

 

[Aviador]

All said, I'm sure I read somewhere on F4A there are still 5 new aircraft that are short of a home. Can't find the post now.....?

 

[Jerry]

5 aircraft? 2 for Cardiff 3 for Bristol? Though with the large Easyjet base there is there room to base more aircraft at Bristol? Definitely room at Cardiff!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

5 aircraft? 2 for Cardiff 3 for Bristol? Though with the large Easyjet base there is there room to base more aircraft at Bristol? Definitely room at Cardiff!

I'd be very surprised if Jet2 pitched up at both CWL and BRS. I meant to put a question in the BRS thread about stands there. We have one or two members who are knowledgeable about that sort of thing. I'll do so in in a minute although I don't think Jet2 at BRS is very likely at all.

 

[pug]

I'm not really sure what the benefit would be of establishing at CWL presently, unless of course they were swayed by some generous subsidy to do so.. The use of a local MRO is unlikely to factor into their decision making.

Seems to me that their policy is to serve large cities with significant catchment areas. Wouldn't surprise me if STN were to eventually become a base again, but with passenger services offered this time. If you were to plot their bases on a map it would give pretty decent coverage overall.

 

[Jerry]

I'm not really sure what the benefit would be of establishing at CWL presently, unless of course they were swayed by some generous subsidy to do so.. The use of a local MRO is unlikely to factor into their decision making.

Seems to me that their policy is to serve large cities with significant catchment areas. Wouldn't surprise me if STN were to eventually become a base again, but with passenger services offered this time. If you were to plot their bases on a map it would give pretty decent coverage overall.

If they did have Cardiff in mind then maybe they would be thinking more for the whole southwest area because the catchment area for Cardiff is rough 1.8 million so for there holiday side they would have to be looking at the whole southwest. And like you said the costs of setting up a base could be alleviated by the welsh government like it was for Flybe. Would be great to see them turn up because i think a 2/3 aircraft base would work but i wouldn't be surprised if they decided to base at STN or LGW next.

 

[Aviador]

To be honest I wouldn't be surprised to see a duel base BRS and CWL operation in the future. Doubling up the bases makes the running costs cheaper. Although this could happen in the future I don't think both bases would be announced simultaneously.

Food for thought... a member of the LBA forum says "advanced talks" are taking place for another new base.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

To be honest I wouldn't be surprised to see a duel base BRS and CWL operation in the future. Doubling up the bases makes the running costs cheaper. Although this could happen in the future I don't think both bases would be announced simultaneously.

Food for thought... a member of the LBA forum says "advanced talks" are taking place for another new base.

If there is to be a new base and it is to be in the UK then it seems almost certain that it would in southern England or South Wales, given the airline's spread of bases from BHX northwards.

We've discussed the pros and cons of CWL and BRS in earlier posts but it might be time for Jet2 to venture into the London area if they are intent on opening new bases. Not to do so would leave them out of the largest market in the UK.

I would not rule out CWL entirely though, especially with a potential financial leg up from the Wales Government's multi million pound route fund.

 

[Aviador]

I don't know to what extent the airlines cargo operation is now in the South. I think Stansted is still a cargo base? Stansted is also owned by the Manchester Airport Group so I would expect Stansted to be at the front of the queue for a new passenger operation given they already have a successful relationship with the airline.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I don't know to what extent the airlines cargo operation is now in the South. I think Stansted is still a cargo base? Stansted is also owned by the Manchester Airport Group so I would expect Stansted to be at the front of the queue for a new passenger operation given they already have a successful relationship with the airline.

STN was the one I had in mind if Jet2 does decide to test the London waters.

 

[Jerry]

STN was the one I had in mind if Jet2 does decide to test the London waters.

STN would be the most logical choice for a new Jet2 base but I wonder if Jet2 could do CWL seasonal? They don't even have to use their own aircraft. They use Cardiff Aviation for MRO and they have a partnership in an ACMI venture so they could use one of their planes (or another charter airline) and i'm sure they'd get plenty of publicity if they partnered up with Bruce Dickinson! It could be a way for them to access smaller regional airports and their markets without basing planes.