Cobalt Airlines

[Ray Finkle]

Birmingham is now in the drop down menu although no flights are bookable as yet.

 

[User001]

And my prediction comes true.....

 

[Ray Finkle]

Sure does, I'd imagine 2x weekly.

They seem to have added Paris too.

On the 'destinations' page

Cyprus Larnaca
Greece Athens Thessaloniki Heraklion Chania
United Kingdom London Manchester Birmingham
France Paris

 

[Bhx_fifteen]

How exciting!!

Cobalt seemed to get off to a very rocky start, i've been following them closely.

The original CEO, Andrew Pyne, seemed a little over ambitious. There was very little time between the announcement of flights/bookings being open and the inaugural flight. A lack of aircraft led to passengers infuriated and people vouching never to fly Cobalt again. The new CEO seems a little more organised and i hope he can run the airline a little more smoothly.

A lot of the destinations originally announced never materialised - EMA, CWL, GLA.... but i'm delighted that BHX seems to be in the 2nd batch of their destinations.

Hopefully there isn't overkill to LCA with ZB operating up to 5x weekly, TOM 2x, TCX 3x (i believe this was originally meant to be 4x for S17 but plans have changed...?) and now 0B 3x too. All the above airlines offer something slightly different so hopefully all these airlines can support the route.

CO is an interesting start up; plans for flights to China for S17 are still on the table with LCA being a transit point.

I've always said that Cyprus is the perfect hub being on the crossroads of Europe, Africa and Asia, and LCA could offer a better location to transfer than DXB, for example, to certain locations. It was also mentioned that flights to Africa are in Cobalt's plans....one to keep an eye on.

 

[Bhx_fifteen]

I messaged Cobalt on Facebook regarding BHX-LCA and got this response:

Dear Pete, yes we are preparing to launch new destinations which is CDG (Paris) and BHM (Birmingham). We started preparing our system, website and booking system. By the end of this month we will announce everything. Please stay tuned.

BHM? Whoops! Glad to see it's confirmed though. I look forward to seeing the official announcement. Their fares are extremely low if you look at STN/MAN-LCA.

 

[Aviador]

BHM is of course Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport in the United States.
http://www.flybirmingham.com/

 

[JF57]

I messaged Cobalt on Facebook regarding BHX-LCA and got this response:

Dear Pete, yes we are preparing to launch new destinations which is CDG (Paris) and BHM (Birmingham). We started preparing our system, website and booking system. By the end of this month we will announce everything. Please stay tuned.

BHM? Whoops! Glad to see it's confirmed though. I look forward to seeing the official announcement. Their fares are extremely low if you look at STN/MAN-LCA.

They need to improve their reliability to be worth considering. Had a lot of startup issues.
Their prices were initially very low but then went up a lot. Not looked for a while.
With Blue Air to LCA and Jet 2 to PFO as new for next year plus Cobalt a lot of competition for the existing providers.

 

[Bhx_fifteen]

Their reliability has improved significantly since changing CEO. They're now taking delivery of their own aircraft rather than wet leasing which has improved things, and reviews have improved significantly. If you check prices now, they're extremely competitive. I do think it's a shame that their reputation was tarnished so early on but hopefully they will gradually gain the trust of the Cypriot public (and those for inbound tourism too).

 

[Jerry]

They're now taking delivery of their own aircraf

They've just taken delivery of an A319 and have an A321 on order as well so hopefully they will be able to keep on adding new routes!

 

[Bhx_fifteen]

They'll have 6 aircraft by the start of 2017 which is a high number for a carrier flying solely out of Larnaca, a relatively small airport, especially considering Cyprus Airways had just 5 aircraft before their demise.

http://cyprusbusinessmail.com/?p=33930#prettyPhoto

 

[Jerry]

They'll have 6 aircraft by the start of 2017 which is a high number for a carrier flying solely out of Larnaca, a relatively small airport, especially considering Cyprus Airways had just 5 aircraft before their demise.

http://cyprusbusinessmail.com/?p=33930#prettyPhoto

I believe there plan is also to start flights to China and the Middle East. I wonder if they look at WOW air and Icelandic Air and are using them as inspiration.

 

[JF57]

They'll have 6 aircraft by the start of 2017 which is a high number for a carrier flying solely out of Larnaca, a relatively small airport, especially considering Cyprus Airways had just 5 aircraft before their demise.

http://cyprusbusinessmail.com/?p=33930#prettyPhoto

LARNACA should have about 6 million passengers this year so not a bad size.

 

[User001]

Flights will begin December 10th and operate on Wed/Sat.

 

[jfy1999]

Now bookable on the website.

Times:
LCA 12:45 BHX 16:05
BHX 17:05 LCA 23:50

 

[Ray Finkle]

The seat maps are showing an A319 for the winter period, they only go up until the end of March at the moment.

 

[JF57]

The seat maps are showing an A319 for the winter period, they only go up until the end of March at the moment.

Brave starting in the winter. Will get some traffic around Christmas and New Year but rest of January and February will be quiet.
Next spring will be interesting with Blue Air starting up as well as the existing carriers - mainly Monarch

 

[Jerry]

The seat maps are showing an A319 for the winter period, they only go up until the end of March at the moment.

They are about to take delivery of an A319 so there fleet will include 1 A320 and 2 A319. The A319 is probably the right size to start the route and maybe they'll upgrade to the A320 in the summer. They've also got an A321 on order.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Not convinced about the photo but good to see it being advertised.

 

[nwoody2001]

...that might look really exotic to cypriots, you never know lol.

Good to see the route being advertised

 

[Ray Finkle]

It looks as if the Christmas holiday period is doing well with certain dates already sold out and others looking close.