Blue Air

[Bhx_fifteen]

Excellent news! Finally some long needed competition for ZB.

Also finally some reasonable flight times too.

A dummy booking shows insanely low fares of under £50 return!!! Good luck Blue air!

 

[Ray Finkle]

£191.90 return for four of us in May half term week. I'm almost tempted.

 

[JF57]

Excellent news! Finally some long needed competition for ZB.

Also finally some reasonable flight times too.

A dummy booking shows insanely low fares of under £50 return!!! Good luck Blue air!

Cobalt started with low fares on their website when they launched the flights in July. Now much more expensive. Reliability very poor and lots of complaints.
Will Blue Air go the same way?

 

[Bhx_fifteen]

The key difference is Cobalt are a new airline, Blue Air have been around for 12 years and already have an established base in Larnaca and 2 exiting routes at BHX.

They started LTN-LCA this year, and fares for next year are just as cheap as at BHX and frequency has increased.

...so i have every faith in this route and airline combination!!

 

[JF57]

The key difference is Cobalt are a new airline, Blue Air have been around for 12 years and already have an established base in Larnaca and 2 exiting routes at BHX.

They started LTN-LCA this year, and fares for next year are just as cheap as at BHX and frequency has increased.

...so i have every faith in this route and airline combination!!

I will have to keep an eye on their performance at LCA. Hopefully they will be reliable. If they are and the prices stay low they will make Monarch think.

 

[Aviador]

sounds like a pretty impressive service with warm food and drinks included in the price! Just like the good old days...

I'll gladly pay for food onboard. Everybody moans about it but I've always loved it because it adds to the whole flying experience.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I'll gladly pay for food onboard. Everybody moans about it but I've always loved it because it adds to the whole flying experience.

Me too, I quite like airline food.

It definitely adds to the experience but I also think that it kills a bit of time, a kind of break in the monotony.

 

[snagsanger]

I went to Majorca around 1994-ish on Britannia, had the best chicken pie and chips I've ever had.

By contrast, flew Thai to Sydney and didn't eat a mouthful for 24 hours!

 

[Ray Finkle]

Blue Air are opening a new base in Constanta next summer. It's currently offered from Birmingham on a coach transfer from Bucharest, hopefully if it's proving popular it may be a route for the future.

 

[Butty]

Blue Air are opening a new base in Constanta next summer. It's currently offered from Birmingham on a coach transfer from Bucharest, hopefully if it's proving popular it may be a route for the future.

Could be worth going for. Was once a popular destination for the Romanian coast resorts. Whizz fly to Luton, but not much else.

 

[Daza]

If I remember didn't Falcon/OAB operate a chartered Tarom service to Constanta from Birmingham for a summer during the late 80s or early 90s? It's the oldest city in Romania and the second most populous metropolitan area after Bucharest. I have Romanian ancestors and I am told that there are beautiful architecture and lovely costal resorts too maybe a route that would work for a bit of outbound tourism too? Something a little different.

 

[nwoody2001]

the airport only handled 68,000 pax in the whole of 2015... it isn't going to set the world on fire. The Blue Air base is also a single 130 seat B737-500 flying 5 (?) routes. there are only 2 other routes from the airport I believe, Turkish to Istanbul and Wizz to Luton...

Be an interesting route to have but I suspect their are many other target areas in Europe before BHX gets a look in....

 

[Ray Finkle]

Iasi has appeared in the drop down menu from Birmingham although not bookable.

The schedule shows it as a connection via Bucharest although only Sept and Oct are listed and a dummy booking comes up sold out. It's odd that only this one shows up when there are plenty more connections that could be made.

Could be something, could be nothing.

 

[Paulsstrange]

Interesting Ray ..one to watch..

 

[Brum X]

With today's unexpected announcement of a Blue Air base at LPL, this has confirmed to me that anything can happen.

If the likes of Blue Air are starting to base aircraft in the UK , then the same could be said about Wizz Air and Vueling and this is 4 months after the UK voted to leave the EU.

 

[JF57]

Blue Air keep sending emails out with 20% off offers for next 12 months. I have just received the third one in about a month. Are they struggling to fill the seats or trying to kill off the competition?

 

[nwoody2001]

Well you will see Wizz doing the same....

I suspect its more to do about building brand awareness. Whilst they are the biggest Loco in Romania, they have little brand awareness over here. Also, now they are expanding in the UK market to locations outside Romania, Look at our Larnaca route and the base at LPL, I suppose they really need to make sure their brand is known.

Selling a few seats for a major discount to get customers in to spread the word is the best and most effective way to do this, though it can be costly initially...

today though, if I was a brummie looking to fly to Cyprus, would I look at airlines and brands I know (i.e. monarch, ryanair, Thomson) or would I book through these airlines ive never heard of before (i.e. Cobalt and Blue Air)???

 

[JF57]

Well you will see Wizz doing the same....

I suspect its more to do about building brand awareness. Whilst they are the biggest Loco in Romania, they have little brand awareness over here. Also, now they are expanding in the UK market to locations outside Romania, Look at our Larnaca route and the base at LPL, I suppose they really need to make sure their brand is known.

Selling a few seats for a major discount to get customers in to spread the word is the best and most effective way to do this, though it can be costly initially...

today though, if I was a brummie looking to fly to Cyprus, would I look at airlines and brands I know (i.e. monarch, ryanair, Thomson) or would I book through these airlines ive never heard of before (i.e. Cobalt and Blue Air)???

As you say one way to get some "bums on seats". Hopefully the passengers will be happy and spread the word to make it work for Blue Air. Having read reviews of Blue Air people either seem to be very happy or very unhappy - not a lot in the middle.

As regular flyers with Monarch we have no intention of changing from them. Perhaps the new competition might cause Monarch to sharpen the pencil and drop the prices a little. That would be ideal still fly Monarch but cheaper.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Larnaca upgraded to a 738

Blue Air in summer 2017 season plans to expand Boeing 737-800 operation, as additional 13 routes to be served by the 189-seater aircraft. Planned new Boeing 737-800 routes in S17 as follow.

Bucharest – Copenhagen eff 02JUN17 3 weekly
Cluj – Hamburg eff 03JUN17 2 weekly
Cluj – Larnaca eff 09APR17 3 weekly
Cluj – London Luton eff 26MAR17 4 weekly
Cluj – Nice eff 10APR17 2 weekly
Iasi – Berlin Tegel eff 01JUN17 3 weekly
Iasi – Cologne eff 27MAR17 2 weekly
Iasi – Rome Fiumcino eff 01APR17 3 weekly
Larnaca – Birmingham eff 26MAR17 3 weekly
Liverpool – Alicante eff 29APR17 3 weekly
Liverpool – Hamburg eff 26MAR17 4 weekly
Liverpool – Milan Bergamo eff 26MAR17 4 weekly
Liverpool – Rome Fiumcino eff 26MAR17 1 daily

http://www.routesonline.com/news/38...ing-737-800-routes-in-s17/?platform=hootsuite

 

[Ray Finkle]

Great to see another totally new route on the arrivals board

11:25 EK39 Dubai (DXB) Emirates 388 Scheduled
11:30 BE7122 Stuttgart (STR) Flybe E75 Scheduled
11:30 0B3751 Cluj-Napoca (CLJ) Blue Air 738 Scheduled
11:35 FR2082 Madrid (MAD) Ryanair 73H Scheduled
11:40 BE7112 Milan (MXP) Flybe E75 Scheduled