Route Development & Rumours

[jfy1999]

Again, this is just more speculation from me but I can visualise a few scenarios where the BHX management might have thought Ryanair growth would potentially cause harm to some incumbent airlines. Whether they were justified in thinking so is another issue altogether but it seems plausible in the case of Germany which is pretty well sewn up by Flybe.

I imagine any more routes to Greece would consist of the likes of Cyprus, Kos and Rhodes, as those have been added from some other UK airports recently, but that would be frowned upon by a management set upon discouraging competition. It's a shame Ryanair don't look interested in opening more UK routes to Athens but then, Aegean only pulled out recently.

Perhaps the RD team think Jet2's new routes to Rome, Pisa, Naples and Venice are sufficient for Italy? I think routes to more "niche" destinations would be more likely to use a BHX based aircraft than away based, but that would obviously be part of the larger "package deal" which the management rejected...

 

[thunderchild]

Perhaps the RD team think Jet2's new routes to Rome, Pisa, Naples and Venice are sufficient for Italy?.

If it wasn’t Jet2 then Italy would be looking pretty poor this summer but even so I think capacity and frequency is well down compared to what MON were offering. I believe Rome was up to x6 weekly peak summer and Naples and Venice x3 weekly? I know people who would have booked Pisa from BHX have gone to BRS and LHR because the days didn’t work. Shouldn’t complain really, if Jet2 weren’t around all we’d have is Milan and Verona. Hopefully we might see some extra flights added next year but there a still a load of Italian routes missing - Bergamo the glaring omission!

 

[Ray Finkle]

During the peak period I think Rome was daily and Venice 5x weekly with Monarch?

We're now down to 4x weekly (2 in winter) FCO and 2x weekly Venice. Flybe have dropped Milan from a high of 3x daily down to just daily. Sardinia and Sicily are also poor with both just having a once weekly summer TUi.

Think of the positives, at least we've seen even more flights added to the Costa's and Canaries

 

[Jerry]

I wouldn't be so sure. I'm not saying they'll definitely come to BHX, but all the major European cities have plenty of capacity to New York so not sure what JetBlue could hope to achieve by flying to them...?

I don't think JetBlue would worry about the competition. They compete in markets like JFK-SFO and JFK-LAX which are just as competitive. With their Mint product i'd say they would be more looking at Premium LCC traffic so would probably look at Gatwick. They also have a pretty good following in the US and their own network to connect any passengers onto. Will be interesting to see what they do.

 

[thunderchild]

I didn’t realise Venice was that frequent; whatever their troubles MON had quite a good network from BHX comparable to EZY from other airports. Such a shame that no one is likely to replicate it anytime soon.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Such a shame that no one is likely to replicate it anytime soon.

We'll see soon enough if Primera are to be our saviours.

I can't say that I'm over impressed so far and if you look at their routes from other airports into Athens, Lisbon, Nice and Ponta Delgada they're all just weekly, which is hardly inspiring.

 

[thunderchild]

View attachment 8029

 

[Just Birmingham]

I remember when this thread was filed 20 times a day.

Last post was 2 weeks ago

 

[Ray Finkle]

Yeah after a bumper few years it does seem to have gone very quiet and not just at Birmingham.

The positives though

TUi adding four new routes and extra frequencies, we just need to hope that firstly, they don't replace existing routes and secondly, they actually remain on sale for more than two weeks.

Jet2 are about to release S19 and there will be growth.

Thomas Cook's S19 is an exact copy of this year just without Comiso, there are rumours of more to be added possibly this month.

Primera still haven't fully released winter yet so we'll see what (if anything) they have in store for next summer.

I think we know that Uzbekistan were in talks, I imagine that we should hear something in the next couple of months, if not I'd probably assume it's off?

Finnair have specifically mentioned Birmingham, it would be great to finally get them.

There was one other airline hotly tipped for an announcement but it all seems to have gone quiet on that front.

Emirates were close to bringing back the morning service this summer, maybe we'll have more luck this year?

Flybe and Ryanair have been the big disappointments, especially given the huge hole left by Monarch but I guess we have to be thankful that TUi, TCX and especially Jet2 have really stepped up.

 

[58terminus]

I remember when this thread was filed 20 times a day.

Last post was 2 weeks ago

Maybe it's just become more realistic rather than a wish list or in some cases people being mischievious?

 

[Brum X]

Maybe it's just become more realistic rather than a wish list or in some cases people being mischievious?

 

[58terminus]

???

 

[Brum X]

???

We are all more Cautious 58terminus before talking about new routes/rumours.

 

[Deleted member 8862]

Some know, some don't, some like to speculate, room for all three i venture to suggest..

 

[thunderchild]

Let’s hope Jet2 have a few new routes up their sleeves for Summer 19 - Nice and Kefalonia would be good, perhaps Verona to round of the Italian portfolio? It’ll be interesting to see if Jet2 as a whole will start branching out to places like the smaller Greek islands, Morocco or Cape Verde - they’ve pretty much got all the main European hotspots covered now so what next?

 

[Ray Finkle]

Maybe it's just become more realistic...

It did get a bit silly last summer, loads of variety in airlines but all flying to the same blooming places.

We've got less airlines now but the variety of destinations is improving. TUi have bought back Agadir and added Podgorica (please don't let it be another one season wonder), Jet2 have given us Pisa and Thessaloniki and even play it safe Thomas Cook have added Marsa Alam and Varna.

I'd just like to see some new markets opened up by Ryanair. Athens, Zadar, Valencia and Bergamo really stand out in particular.

 

[Eoin Reynolds]

Norwegian Winter 2018 changes
EDI-PVD suspended for winter
ORK-PVD suspended for winter
SNN-PVD suspended for winter
BFS-SWF suspended for winter
SNN-SWF going from 2X/wk to 4X/wk

 

[nwoody2001]

Norwegian Winter 2018 changes
EDI-PVD suspended for winter
ORK-PVD suspended for winter
SNN-PVD suspended for winter
BFS-SWF suspended for winter
SNN-SWF going from 2X/wk to 4X/wk

EDI-SWF also gone. The only airport that sustains any winter Norwegian traffic is DUB.

When it comes to cheap transatlantic traffic, it would appear that small narrow-body aircraft to tertiary airports 1-2 hours away from the destination just can’t sustain year round travel!

 

[jfy1999]

Rumour going round of an "imminent" announcement from JetBlue on TATL flights, let's hope BHX is among the routes they are planning to serve.

 

[BHX492]

That might be why Primera Air pulled the Boston route