Route Development & Rumours

[Ray Finkle]

Iberia arrives at 17:00.

The first Wizz Sofia doesn't arrive until 20:55.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

They're going to have to keep topping up the fire engines.

Kevin

 

[Ray Finkle]

We've then got Flybe Knock starting on Monday 28th, Bucharest on Tuesday 29th, Qatar on Wednesday 30th along with three Ryanair routes that week.

There's nothing then until Czech Airlines on April 22nd

 

[Jon Dempsey]

I noticed on the Midlands today report about the A380 Mr Kehoe also mentioned that Iberia start on Sunday. I think they'll get their share of the limelight

We also have the inaugural Wizz Air service to Sofia. I imagine that there will be a few glasses of bubbly supped on Sunday

Three FTWA's in one day! That'll keep anna aero busy!

I wouldn't imagine PK driving home from work on Sunday.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Nouvelle Air are down for 2x weekly (Mon and Fri) Enfidha for S17.

Obviously very much subject to change but hopefully things will have improved by then.

 

[Paulsstrange]

Austrian/Finnair. No news just quiries sorry.

I notice 2 Austrians in at Bhx this AM.
Brings me back to the question reference a Vienna route. Do we think we could gain the route soon and do we think Bhx are taking to Austrian?

We have a friend over from Vienna at the moment and she connected in via LH Munich and said lots do the same. Just a thought anyway.

While im at it has anyone got any info reference Finnair apparently Helsinki was a done deal ?

 

[User001]

In terms of the Innsbruck flights, they will likely bear no relevance to a Vienna flight, as those INN flights are fully chartered out by Austrian to tour operators (namely Inghams), so, there is no risk to Austrian once Inghams pays for the flight.

In terms of Vienna, if plenty of people are connecting, then it's a distinct possibility. Back when MAN was launched, Christian Schindler of Lufthansa said the route was introduced due to 'high numbers of passengers connecting on other flights from within the Lufthansa group'.

The fact Munich has been upgraded, and the quotes that pax numbers on their BHX routes continue to rise, it's possible that 2017 could see the route introduced.

2016 has seen the capacity on UK-Vienna rise significantly, with Easyjet starting EDI/MAN/BRS and still Austrian need to upgrade the MAN route to an A319 shows that demand is definitely there.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Austrian/Finnair. No news just quiries sorry.

Brings me back to the question reference a Vienna route. Do we think we could gain the route soon and do we think Bhx are taking to Austrian?

While im at it has anyone got any info reference Finnair apparently Helsinki was a done deal ?

There was a discussion about this on the Lufthansa thread (I think) recently. Vienna has been the number one short haul connection for Lufthansa for about four or five years now. I'd like to think they it is being discussed.

Finnair has been quoted by several sources as being a done deal and Tom Screen mentioned another Oneworld arline. Hopefully a case of when rather than if?

 

[jfy1999]

Re: Scandinavia, it would seem that it has had a similar history operating from BHX than Madrid has from various UK airports, tried by various airlines, chopped and changed and then dropped.

Back in the heady days of 2008 when Ryanair were promising 10 based aircraft for BHX, they flew to both Oslo and Stockholm. I have no idea how these routes performed under RYR, but when SAS took over Stockholm their initial performance looked okay as they soon increased from 3 to 6 weekly flights for summer 2013.

A poor schedule seems to have killed this route, but was it brought about by SAS tinkering with it and not leaving well enough alone? I remember there being evening 737 flights before Blue1 took over, I think they were switched to mid-morning flights under Blue1? Meanwhile we can only speculate as to how Oslo would have performed if it had survived the Flybe route cull.

Finnair would be a fantastic addition and if Norwegian have built up brand awareness in the region, then their level of service and prices could be a passenger magnet. They've made both Oslo and Stockholm work for MAN at only 3 weekly flights each (which I think are now increasing), and that's up against competition from SAS.

In other news, SAS will continue to operate Air Nostrum CRJ900s on selected flights throughout the summer.

http://airlineroute.net/2016/03/24/sk-ywcr9-s16/

 

[Ray Finkle]

Anybody shed further light on this?

I may have an idea but not 100%.

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.

The successful candidates will be based at Birmingham airport, predominantly working on services to Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. Training will commence in July with work commencing mid autumn. Our client welcomes all levels of experience to apply.

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

 

[User001]

Who do you think it is Ray? Seems quite a specific airline to be Eastern Europe and med.

Will be interesting to see what the other 2 airports would be, but couldn't find any other job descriptions matching the BHX one.

 

[Brum X]

Could we be about to see Wizzair base aircraft in the UK for the first time ?? They do also serve the mediterranean.

BHX/LTN/GLA ???

 

[User001]

Well, looking at the clues in the advert, it says they carried 6 million passengers in 2016. Given wizz carried over 10m in 2014, it's unlikely to be them.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I initially thought of Wizz but they handle way more than 6mppa.

There's a couple of rumours doing the rounds at the moment. One about an existing carrier planning significant expansion later this year and the other is an airline not currently serving Birmingham (that was supposed to be for 2017 though).

I'm not in a position to name them at the moment so I guess we'll see in time.

 

[Brum X]

So i think its fair to say that Monarch would be the existing airline as it fits there profile (Eastern europe would be a new one for them) but who is the new airline ????? Mmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[User001]

Im assuming the 'existing carrier' is Vueling or Norwegian as seen as they are in expansion mode at the moment. Given that rumours go around airports all the time, and I'm not aware of you having direct links in the industry to warrant a risk of you job for releasing info, can I ask why you cannot say the name of the other new airline?

Hopefully you understand from my angle but it can't be that commercially sensitive of a few people know about it?

 

[Ray Finkle]

Because when I was told I promised confidentiality and I have to respect that.

In 2014 Norwegian carried well over 26 million pax and Vueling carried a little over 17 million pax, so I doubt that it's either of those.

Who knows, I may be totally wrong. We shall see in time.

 

[User001]

This in named airline, how many did they carry? As that way it then narrows it down to them.

It's obviously not Monarch or anyone like that, as they are already based. I've tried to search a carrier that had about 6m pax last year but drawing blanks.

I named Norwegian and Vueling as they are also likely to announce new bases in 2016/17.

It's also interesting that this advert states BHX is one of 3 new UK bases, but, cannot find any further adverts matching a similar description. Seems very odd.

 

[User001]

I'm going to narrow down my search as I've found a few airlines that fit the bill.

I would have said Germania as they fly to the Med and Eastern Europe, but, they will have too many bases if BHX is opened up, as they currently have bases at LGW, MAN and NWI. The advert said 3 UK bases so BHX would make 4.

The other airline is SunExpress.

Currently carry about 6m passengers, and have a Turkish and German subsidiary to run various routes to the Med and Eastern Europe/Greece etc.

They could be about to start a UK subsidiary given the success of the German one?

 

[Brum X]

Transavia ??????