Route Development & Rumours

[Ashley]

Thanks for that nwoody2001 and you meant 2017. Next year is shaping up nicely and surely we will see further announcements in the near future.

 

[jfy1999]

No I think 2018 is right, as seven of the new Jet2 routes won't start until W17/18. In addition to Woody's list we also have the following starting this year that didn't operate in S16:

Flybe – Rotterdam, Luxembourg, Toulouse
Ryanair – Sofia, Warsaw
Blue Air – Cluj-Napoca
Vueling – Malaga

So for S17 the grand total is
Cobalt Airlines - 1 new route
Flybe - 3 new routes
Fly One - 1 new route
Jet2.com - 15 new routes
Monarch - 1 new route
Blue Air - 2 new routes
Ryanair - 6 new routes
Thomas Cook - 3 new routes (Malta, Naples, Comiso)
Thomson - 1 new route (Alghero)
Vueling - 1 new route

Total – 34 new routes

Out of the new Jet2 routes for W17/18 I would only expect Kraków, Madeira and Prague to be year-round so that would make 37 new routes by S18, but if we add the Jet2 ski destinations and Thomas Cook's W17/18 Cape Verde, that makes 42 new routes in total over 2017...

 

[Glenn Eldridge]

So new airlines to BHX next year....

Cobalt Airlines - 1 new route
Fly One - 1 new route
Jet2.com - 22 new route(s)

New routes from existing carriers....
Monarch - 1 new route
Blue Air - 1 new route
Ryanair - 4 new route(s)
Thomas Cook - 1 new route

I make that 31 new routes and 3 new airlines for 2017 so far????

Cobalt starts this year on December 10th

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there Glen, so where are cobalt flying to from Birmingham, and how often... Andyc

 

[ethanegcc]

Hi there Glen, so where are cobalt flying to from Birmingham, and how often... Andyc

Hi, Cobalt are flying BHX-LCA with an A320, twice weekly if I am not mistaken. Pretty much emulating their MAN/STN operations I believe.

LCA is Larnaca if you are not familiar with airport codes

 

[JF57]

Hi, Cobalt are flying BHX-LCA with an A320, twice weekly if I am not mistaken. Pretty much emulating their MAN/STN operations I believe.

LCA is Larnaca if you are not familiar with airport codes

Getting to be some competition to Cyprus now. Blue and Cobalt (interesting colour combinations) to LCA and Jet2 to PFO coming end of this year or spring next year.

 

[MJH]

Came across this link regarding Air India...http://micebreakingnews.com/amritsar-toronto-on-air-india-in-2017/

 

[Ray Finkle]

A good week route wise - Ray should go on holiday more often!

More than happy to go back for another week if it would help

Came across this link regarding Air India...http://micebreakingnews.com/amritsar-toronto-on-air-india-in-2017/

Thanks for the link.

It will be interesting to see how this ends up as the article doesn't actually mention Delhi. Obviously the ideal scenario would be keep the daily service that we have now and add a 3x weekly ATQ-BHX-YYZ-BHX-ATQ om top. I wonder though if we may see a 4x weekly Delhi and 3x weekly ATQ/YYZ? I guess we'll find out soon.

 

[User001]

I'm lead to believe the route will swap in May to do a DEL-ATQ-BHX-YYZ-BHX-ATQ-DEL.

 

[Paulsstrange]

Do we know planned frequency and aircraft type at all ?

 

[Bibin91]

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com...es-a-week-from-delhitehran/article9271367.ece

The Air India group is looking to launch the new flights to enhance its international footprint.

As part of this initiative, Air India plans to launch a Delhi-Birmingham-Toronto flight and a service linking Delhi-Cochin-Dubai. Both these flights are expected to be operated with a Boeing 787 aircraft and are expected to start in February.

In addition, a flight linking Chandigarh-Singapore-Bangkok is also proposed from March.

Incidentally, Air India operated a flight on the Delhi-Amritsar-Birmingham-Toronto route which was later withdrawn.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Will Air India have traffic rights between BHX and YYZ?

Kevin

 

[nwoody2001]

Well they did when they ladder operated the route 10 years ago ...we can only assume they didn't give them up!!!

 

[Ray Finkle]

Two new routes starting in the next two days.

Tomorrow sees the return of Toulouse with a daily flight by Flybe.

Monday sees Ryanair start their 3x weekly flights to Modlin, taking on Wizz Air who currently fly 3x weekly to Chopin.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Make that three routes in three days as I forgot that Vueling start Malaga on Tuesday.

Blue Air are also now 3x weekly to Bucharest.

 

[thunderchild]

If AI wants to add YYZ is switching to DEL-ATQ-BHX-YYZ-BHX-ATQ-DEL really the best way to go when Air Canada already flies YYZ-DEL direct?

 

[Glenn Eldridge]

If AI wants to add YYZ is switching to DEL-ATQ-BHX-YYZ-BHX-ATQ-DEL really the best way to go when Air Canada already flies YYZ-DEL direct?

Large Indian community in Toronto, can see it being popular with the Indians, the seasonal Transat flight carries many Indians so I'm sure the Air India service could be a hit with them.

 

[thunderchild]

I probably didn't make myself clear - I was thinking more about passengers travelling between Delhi and Toronto? Would they opt for AI with stopovers in ATQ and BHX when Air Canada can get you there non stop?

 

[User001]

I'm sure I read that Toronto is quite similar to Birmingham in that their diaspora is predominantly from the Armitsar area.

 

[nwoody2001]

Also people are forgetting the point of the exercise. The article this story came from was clear that it's about 'sweating the fleet' - making most efficient use of the fleet and existing surplus.

Hypothetically, if the YYZ-DEL is full, to increase capacity, you either need to add capacity on the direct YYZ-DEL link (which would take the capacity of an entire plane for an entire day just for one route) or you can increase capacity on an existing route (YYZ-BHX-DEL) ...yes his is still using an entire plane for an entire day, but this way capacity is being increased on both the YYZ-DEL and BHX-DEL routes.

The reality is, both BHX and YYZ are very popular routes to AI, and they probably don't have capacity in the fleet to increase capacity both both routes... there is your solution and the most efficient way of doing it!!!