Primera Air

[jfy1999]

BHX should do a deal with Norwegian, another 788 tonight, that's three different ones in the past week. Come on Norwegian open a 788 base - it makes sense !

Orlando, Las Vegas etc

Mmmm don't know about Norwegian, this is a map of the average profits/losses they are making per seat offered at each airport where they have long haul and it looks pretty grim:

I have no idea how profitable their short haul flights are but people are getting worried and on airliners.net there is a whole discussion thread on their financial situation.

 

[richard winterbourn]

I really don't hold with the view that it is difficult to sustain transatlantic flights from BHX because it is squeezed in between London and Manchester. For a start, let's look at Emirates, they don't suffer from this same problem, the very same airport is still squeezed between London and Manchester and has shown remarkable growth.

But with Emirates we have to remember that they started small and building on that solid foundation have expanded to their current service - two A380s daily!

I also don't blame BHX management, i am sure that they gave Primera Air every bit of help they could, even before their plans were announced pubicly.

I have to come back to Primera Air itself, it appears to me that, for whatever reason (and there has to be a reason) it has handled this whole affair badly: it launched a raft of flights and then cancelled them months before the inaugural flight; it angered clients and potential clients by denying there were problems when they were contacted and they have not issued a public statement either apologising for the cancellations or explaining the reasons.

However, there is one area where i am critical, and that is in terms of BHX management. It is now over six months since CEO Paul Kehoe left and there has still not been an announcement as regards his successor. I am sure that if PK had been in place during this Primera Air fiasco, he would have engineered a balanced news feed that would have kept passengers 'in the loop'.

It is vital that a new CEO is appointed, and appointed very soon. And that person needs to be a strong personality who can step in and carry on the good work that has been achieved over the past seven - eight years - establishing BHX as an expanding and leading regional airport - with ambition!

 

[rollo]

Can only refer to my earlier post. No trust, no future and in all likelihood eventually no business, time will tell would love to be proven wrong.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

However, there is one area where i am critical, and that is in terms of BHX management. It is now over six months since CEO Paul Kehoe left and there has still not been an announcement as regards his successor. I am sure that if PK had been in place during this Primera Air fiasco, he would have engineered a balanced news feed that would have kept passengers 'in the loop'.

It is vital that a new CEO is appointed, and appointed very soon. And that person needs to be a strong personality who can step in and carry on the good work that has been achieved over the past seven - eight years - establishing BHX as an expanding and leading regional airport - with ambition!

BRS is in exactly the same boat. The previous CEO left four months ago having announced his intended departure several months before that and the airport is in the middle of a major pubic consultation regarding its new master plan for the next 30 years.

 

[IanFarquharson]

The New CEO has been appointed !

 

[Ray Finkle]

I really don't hold with the view that it is difficult to sustain transatlantic flights from BHX because it is squeezed in between London and Manchester. For a start, let's look at Emirates, they don't suffer from this same problem, the very same airport is still squeezed between London and Manchester and has shown remarkable growth.

Totally agree.

United ran successfully for two decades showing that it can be done but both north and south of our overlapping catchment areas we have multiple services from BA, AA, United, Delta, Virgin, TCX etc, all trusted, household names on both sides of the Atlantic. Primera have come in to an airport sandwiched between the two as a totally unknown entity and to get people to part with hundreds, or even thousands of pounds and put their travel plans into Primera's hands was always going to be a big ask.

Funnily enough they looked to start well with a good advertising campaign and the name was getting out there, I've had people totally uninterested in aviation mention them to me when talking about travel. I honestly thought that some low fares to get people interested, a bit of excellent customer service and a decent in flight product and they could have been on to a winner and quickly gained some repeat business.

In the blink of an eye all of that good work has been undone and they have lost the trust of the public that they so needed to get on side. Just look at the social media messages about how people 'will stick to BA' or 'I'll stay with Virgin in the future'! Those people will not be coming back to Primera and by default they become even more passengers now travelling away from Birmingham to use airports elsewhere. Mr Kehoe used to say how hard it was to change peoples habits, well this won't help one bit.

It's a total shambles.

Emirates are the perfect example. A good, reliable brand that people can trust and as a result they are booming.

 

[Ianbutty]

Primera are guilty of poor PR but also shockingly poor market research. Boston clearly did not work and they should have known that.

I really don't hold with the view that it is difficult to sustain transatlantic flights from BHX because it is squeezed in between London and Manchester. For a start, let's look at Emirates, they don't suffer from this same problem, the very same airport is still squeezed between London and Manchester and has shown remarkable growth.

But with Emirates we have to remember that they started small and building on that solid foundation have expanded to their current service - two A380s daily!

I also don't blame BHX management, i am sure that they gave Primera Air every bit of help they could, even before their plans were announced pubicly.

I have to come back to Primera Air itself, it appears to me that, for whatever reason (and there has to be a reason) it has handled this whole affair badly: it launched a raft of flights and then cancelled them months before the inaugural flight; it angered clients and potential clients by denying there were problems when they were contacted and they have not issued a public statement either apologising for the cancellations or explaining the reasons.

However, there is one area where i am critical, and that is in terms of BHX management. It is now over six months since CEO Paul Kehoe left and there has still not been an announcement as regards his successor. I am sure that if PK had been in place during this Primera Air fiasco, he would have engineered a balanced news feed that would have kept passengers 'in the loop'.

It is vital that a new CEO is appointed, and appointed very soon. And that person needs to be a strong personality who can step in and carry on the good work that has been achieved over the past seven - eight years - establishing BHX as an expanding and leading regional airport - with ambition!

The difference between TATL and Dubai is that one is principally business orientated and the other about connections. So Dubai is used by midlanders as a gateway to the world. Whereas NYC on particular is limited business and tourists where onward connections are leas important.

Plus TATL traffic has been the mainstay of UK long haul since Constellations and then 707s and has been captured by London and more recently Manchester for decades...hence geography plays a part. Until Glasgow successfully challenged the gateway status of some airports in the late 1980s then likes of BHX could not run non charter long haul.

In wish it was different but what this disastrous episode has demonstrated is that the region cannot sustain such routes. I would prefer this was because of late aircraft delivery. The muck up was Primeras market research. Pits.

 

[Brum X]

And what is going on with EWR, it is still showing x 4 weekly in MAY as the fares on the other days of the week are really high so it doesnt look like it is daily in May either. So if this is the case then it looks like another aircraft delay with the possibility of a BHX based A321 doing some flights from STN for a month ??????

 

[flymetothemoon]

And what is going on with EWR, it is still showing x 4 weekly in MAY as the fares on the other days of the week are really high so it doesnt look like it is daily in May either. So if this is the case then it looks like another aircraft delay with the possibility of a BHX based A321 doing some flights from STN for a month ??????

Yes, this is what's worrying me about my flights. Still no word from Primera though!!!

 

[Ray Finkle]

Yes, this is what's worrying me about my flights. Still no word from Primera though!!!

I have friends due to return from EWR one Tuesday in early June. At the moment they are blissfully unaware of the situation but I keep expecting them to tell me that their return flight has been cancelled.

I know that I'll get the blame as they were originally going to book BA from LHR but I kind of persuaded them to give the new service a chance

Another lost customer for Primera

 

[thunderchild]

I have friends due to return from EWR one Tuesday in early June. At the moment they are blissfully unaware of the situation but I keep expecting them to tell me that their return flight has been cancelled.

I know that I'll get the blame as they were originally going to book BA from LHR but I kind of persuaded them to give the new service a chance

Another lost customer for Primera

All in good faith though. I similarly bigged up the new Jet2 route to Pisa to the family for our upcoming holiday. Unfortunately Jet2 dropped the Tue flight which didn’t work for most of them so I’m afraid custom has been lost to BA and EZY from LHR and BRS.

 

[smithy108]

Confirmed on routesonline. Increased Stansted to Toronto route, from 24 August, get additional 2 flights per week so taking some of the capacity released

Primera Air Birmingham – Newark service changes from June 2018
Posted 5 February 2018 07:30

Primera Air in recent update adjusted operational frequency for its planned Birmingham – Newark route. Set to commence as daily flight from 18MAY18, the airline will adjust operational frequency to 4 weekly from 23JUN18.

This route is operated by A321neo.

PF051 BHX1745 – 2100EWR 321 x246
PF052 EWR2230 – 1030+1BHX 321 x246

 

[Brum X]

So does this finally confirm that Flymetothemoon can travel on his original flight ???? I really hope so.

 

[Aviador]

Whatever the outcome here it's 'plane' to see (pun intended) that many potential new customers will have lost confidence in the airline which is a shame after their initial punchy PR advertising the routes. They have a hill to climb to regain the confidence of a lot of people in the Midlands and beyond.

 

[Brum X]

Whatever the outcome here it's 'plane' to see (pun intended) that many potential new customers will have lost confidence in the airline which is a shame after their initial punchy PR advertising the routes. They have a hill to climb to regain the confidence of a lot of people in the Midlands and beyond.

And maybe somebody needs to tell them that the fares indicate they are x 4 weekly from May, not June so again if this flight is daily from the 18th May they are losing lots of bookings. However maybe that is there intention so that they can make the retreat from BHX in october and blame BHX for not supporting its routes.

 

[nwoody2001]

Do you know any specifics Brum X or are you just cynically speculating?! Who needs Manc formers to stir the sh*t when or own forumers are speaking like this!?

 

[Matt995]

as Brum X has mentioned, if you visit the Primera website and try and book a flight to New York, here is the current prices :-

View attachment 7505

So it suggests the Sat/Tue and Thu flights prices are triple the price of the other days, which suggest Primera don't want you to book flights on these days, because the flights arn't going to operate, so as I read it, New York is never going to be daily, but will be four times a week, never daily at all between 18th May and 23rd June, so Primera are still not being truthful with us.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Before Boston was cut the fares went from £200 one way up to £700 one way, obviously to prevent booking.

The same thing happened on the Tue, Thur and Sat New York flights and they have also subsequently been cut. Looking at the fares now throughout May and June the Tue, Thur and Sat flights are £703 one way whereas the others are between £140 and £180.

I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that those days will be cut in time.

EDIT: Matt beat me to it

 

[nwoody2001]

I'm referring to the following reference...

"However maybe that is there intention so that they can make the retreat from BHX in october and blame BHX for not supporting its routes."

 

[Brum X]

Do you know any specifics Brum X or are you just cynically speculating?! Who needs Manc formers to stir the sh*t when or own forumers are speaking like this!?

Im sorry woody but you dont need to bring the Manc forumers into this, it is just me cynically speculating and i have my reasons for thinking like this. Lets leave it there shall we.