Primera Air

[Ray Finkle]

Local news is all well and good. National news is what needs to be pinpointed. If that's too far fetched then go outside the West Midlands area. aim at Southwest England, Northwest London, north Midlands. Get the papers there to report it...

For a long time I've thought that this is something BHX should be doing, not just for this new airline but for all of our long haul services. There are large parts of the Southwest, South and Mid Wales, Oxfordshire, Northants, the East Midlands and possibly even up as far as South Yorkshire which could be prime pickings for some long haul pax.

I wonder how many passengers south of our region are fed up of using the London airports but are blissfully unaware that there is an alternative roughly a similar distance away. I don't know if it's still available but Emirates Chauffeur Drive from Birmingham used to cover the Bristol postcode, I wonder if the average Bristolian was aware of that?

A few years ago there were adverts for BHX around Central London. I think it was more of a political statement rather than a genuine attempt for more passengers but you wonder how much advertising could have been done in the areas above for the same budget.

When it comes to flights to the Costa's then a few billboards around town will do the trick. Long haul needs to have the net cast wider and if the offering is to grow successfully they'll need to become more ambitious.

Getting back to Primera, I look forward to seeing their adverts appearing in the coming weeks/months

 

[58terminus]

its been on the local news and in all the local news papers from what I have seen..... which other press are you talking about?

.....Jesus Christ, its been little over 24 hours since the announcement and the announcement has not even finished yet! give them some time!

As David-itl says local news is not enough.In all the speculation over the last couple of weeks nobody hinted
that there would be 2 airports announced with overlapping catchment areas.
I presume local news in Essex carried the story but not living there i have no idea.just as people
living in Northamptonshire or Oxfordshire have no idea what the local news is reporting in the West Midlands.
If national press are reporting on Primera BHX cannot afford to be left out as mentions will be few and far between.
Hopefully somebody from BHX will be contacting The Times for an explanation and not via twitter.
I would hope Primera would be doing the same.

 

[Aviador]

Sorry, I was referring to copyright law rather than forum rules.

Kevin

In the interest of clearing things up the copyright remains with the author but the forum Terms of Use allow for some limited reuse.

More details can be found here:
http://www.forums4airports.com/help/terms

 

[richard winterbourn]

58 Terminus, i cannot explain what happened as regards the report in the Financial Times only mentioning STN. But having more than 50 years experience as a newspaper journalist i can hazard a guess

Firstly i find it difficult to believe that Primera Air would themselves issue a press release and only mention STN. For them, there would be nothing to gain from seeking coverage in local papers in the South East. Any release put out by them would be aimed at the national media ie national newspapers, TV and travel type publications.

I think it is more likely that a journalist working on the Financial Times heard of STN getting transatlantic flights and built his report on that. He was probably totally oblivious of the fact that the same airline was also majoring on BHX as well.

In addition to that view please remember that newspapers these days just do not have the number of reporters that they once had; in the days of yore many would have employed journalists who specialised in subjects like aviation and would have written a far more balanced story.

It is more likely that Primera Air hasn't yet addressed its strategy on press and PR as, remember, these flights don't begin until next May. I am positive we will be hearing a lot more and detailed news from the airline before too long. And that is when we hope for balanced coverage.

 

[JENNYJET]

New Chairman, New CEO to follow but BHX needs a Competant Press Officer. Someone to pester those myopic travel agents of those new routes before they follow United and American to the exit doorway.

I hope Washington is chosen as we need a Capital City route but do not give up on Norwegian opening LAX with their Dreamliner. However a good news event to celebrate.

 

[nwoody2001]

Well with regard to advertising, with social media being key in today's world, let's have a straw pole ....

...how many people have shared either the BHX/Primera press release or a news article about the new routes on their twitter/Facebook accounts?!?

 

[JENNYJET]

I never use Social Media due to personal abuse against myself. My disabilities and other matters forced me off such domains. I prefer platforms I am prepared to pay for.

 

[58terminus]

i cannot explain what happened as regards the report in the Financial Times only mentioning STN. But having more than 50 years experience as a newspaper journalist i can hazard a guess

I would imagine that with that experience you must despair at the lazy journalism prevalent today.
I guess any of us on this forum could have composed the same article with a bit of help from Google.No need
to actually talk to anybody.
My point is BHX must react to this lazy journalism.Complain and ask Primera to complain.
When/if the travel sections pick it up make sure they are not excluded again.We all seem to agree it could be a hard sell so start off on the front foot.
I guess for Primera all publicity is good publicity.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Well with regard to advertising, with social media being key in today's world, let's have a straw pole ....

...how many people have shared either the BHX/Primera press release or a news article about the new routes on their twitter/Social Media accounts?!?

I did

Then again I rarely use social media so I'd be very surprised if anyone saw it

 

[Positively_Brum]

Well with regard to advertising, with social media being key in today's world, let's have a straw pole ....

...how many people have shared either the BHX/Primera press release or a news article about the new routes on their twitter/Social Media accounts?!?

Hi all. A quick hello to say we run a twitter account supporting the positive side of Birmingham including all airport related matters and we have already tweeted and re-tweeted the positive news about BHX and Primera.

We will be supporting and promoting this route along with all present and future routes. If you want to find us on twitter we are @Positively_Brum.

A great forum by the way and hopefully we can contribute in some small way to the future success of BHX.

Many thanks.........Adam

 

[Brum X]

Hi all. A quick hello to say we run a twitter account supporting the positive side of Birmingham including all airport related matters and we have already tweeted and re-tweeted the positive news about BHX and Primera.

We will be supporting and promoting this route along with all present and future routes. If you want to find us on twitter we are @Positively_Brum.

A great forum by the way and hopefully we can contribute in some small way to the future success of BHX.

Many thanks.........Adam

Awesome stuff

 

[Ray Finkle]

Many thanks Adam, as said above, great stuff

I look forward to reading more of your posts

 

[Kevin Farnell]

I never use Social Media.

Me neither! I don't even have a smart phone.
Back when I was aged about ten, we went on holiday to Scotland. After a longish drive we found ourselves at a very isolated idyllic spot. I can remember my late Mother saying (I can't quote exactly, but this is pretty close) 'isn't this wonderful. No one knows where we are, we are totally free from everyday life and any troubles can wait until later'.
That struck a deep chord with me. The feeling of freedom was wonderful.
Why would anyone want to carry around a device which lets you be hassled at any location and any time of day?
People ask me 'how do you cope?' my reply is always 'very peacefully!'.

Kevin

 

[Coathanger16]

Why would anyone want to carry around a device which lets you be hassled at any location and any time of day?

Because, and this is coming from a young person, people crave attention. They want people to know where they are and what they are doing, as if to prove that their life is decent or even better than others.

 

[Coathanger16]

Do we know whether the 2 other routes that will be announced at the end of the summer will also be operated from Stansted and Paris?

As it stands currently, each base will need 2 aircraft. That accounts for 6 of the 8 A321NEOs Primera has on order. If these 2 other routes are only going to be operated from BHX, it stands a good chance that Primera will be focusing on BHX being their main long haul base, so what are the chances of the final 2 A321NEOs also being based at BHX?

As for news, and in particular local news, I was slightly bothered by my local paper yesterday. A few pages in, there was a sizable article about the loss of United from BHX, but there was no mention of Primera's flights. The Primera announcement was made on Thursday, but this was Fridays paper. As I understand it, final version of the paper is chosen on Tuesday, meaning that any news between Tuesday and Friday isn't reported until the following week. Hopefully Primera will feature in next weeks issue!

 

[User002]

The plan was ...

EWR PF051/PF052 BHX16:40d-BHX09:30a Daily 18.05.18-27.10.18
BOS PF053/PF054 BHX16:20d-BHX08:25a Mo/Wed/Fri/Su 21.06.18-27.10.18
YYZ PF055/PF056 BHX 15:15d-BHX08:25a Tu/Th/Sa 21.06.18-27.10.18

 

[TM3]

I got some ads for this on Facebook this week.

I think as the website is stating $99 fares (no mention of $300 to come back) to London, Birmingham and Paris their main focus is selling to Americans.

In light of this maybe running flights from BHX is a bit of an opportunistic move by the airline to capitalise on United leaving, as I can't really see Birmingham having the same appeal to American tourists as London or Paris.

As the YYZ route didn't materialise maybe it was 50/50 between running from Stansted to Birmingham and they are hedging their bets and sharing an aircraft.

I think they'll find some demand but IMO for the market they are going for which is really tourists/weekend breakers etc and they aren't going to get the regular flyers/business travelers who used United. It might have more appeal to have low frequency to a number of different destinations which is really the low cost model and what Thomas Cook are doing at MAN. But if they are looking at selling to Americans maybe they are looking at it the other ways round - multiple locations from NYC/BOS etc.

 

[nwoody2001]

According to the press release, all 3 bases will be having 2 additional routes added. All bases have capacity for a single 3x weekly route within their existing 2 based units but I suspect this is where the other 2 neos may come in!!!

The plan was ...

EWR PF051/PF052 BHX16:40d-BHX09:30a Daily 18.05.18-27.10.18
BOS PF053/PF054 BHX16:20d-BHX08:25a Mo/Tu/Fri/Su 21.06.18-27.10.18
YYZ PF055/PF056 BHX 15:15d-BHX08:25a Tu/Th/Sa 21.06.18-27.10.18

Interestingly, even with this schedule, there requires 3 a/c with all three routes being operated on Tuesdays?!? Happy to stand corrected though!

I got some ads for this on Social Media this week.

I think as the website is stating $99 fares (no mention of $300 to come back) to London, Birmingham and Paris their main focus is selling to Americans.

In light of this maybe running flights from BHX is a bit of an opportunistic move by the airline to capitalise on United leaving, as I can't really see Birmingham having the same appeal to American tourists as London or Paris.

As the YYZ route didn't materialise maybe it was 50/50 between running from Stansted to Birmingham and they are hedging their bets and sharing an aircraft.

I think they'll find some demand but IMO for the market they are going for which is really tourists/weekend breakers etc and they aren't going to get the regular flyers/business travelers who used United. It might have more appeal to have low frequency to a number of different destinations which is really the low cost model and what Thomas Cook are doing at MAN. But if they are looking at selling to Americans maybe they are looking at it the other ways round - multiple locations from NYC/BOS etc.

I wouldn't be soo fast to write-off business travellers. They are after all offering 2 class flights and pretty high-frequencies. I agree that tourism will likely be their prime market but if that were the case, they would be operating a Norwegian/max kinda operation.

However, daily frequencies to NYC is great for business as is 4x weekly to BOS

 

[Ray Finkle]

If they are planning to advertise heavily on the other side of the Atlantic it could be a great move, with the Pound against the Dollar it would surely increase yields at the point of sale?

I also think that if the advertising is done correctly there could be plenty of tourist demand. If it was me I'd come heavily from the Shakespeare angle, making a big point that BHX is only 30 mins from Stratford and US tourists can base themselves bang in the middle of Shakespeare country. I'd also promote the fact that the Cotswolds are easily accessible, as is Wales, Derbyshire and the City of Oxford. Although they will also be flying to London I'd definitely include the fact that a Birmingham/Midlands base makes a day, or overnight, trip to the capital very doable, I'd include Liverpool too with the Beatles connection.

Our region has plenty on offer to interest American tourists, it's just usually done on a day trip from London. This could be a golden opportunity to shout loud and make them aware that there is an alternative.

The New York Times has been very complimentary about Birmingham over the years, if I was Marketing Birmingham I'd be on to them asap

 

[Ray Finkle]

Interestingly, even with this schedule, there requires 3 a/c with all three routes being operated on Tuesdays?!? Happy to stand corrected though!

It's a typo as Boston doesn't operate on a Tue, it's Mon, Wed, Fri and Sun.

I've edited it now