Primera Air

[58terminus]

Unfortunately it looks like they are going to let down the very people the need to attract to get the services off the ground. People who take a chance on an unknown airline on a new route.There will also be a backlash from a travel media that had been largely positive .
The advertising campaign will have to repeated and that should be interesting.Sorry about last year lets try again.Not a great slogan.
This time yesterday i was looking forward to their operation but to be honest today i doubt we will see them at all.
Sorry to be so negative but i get the feeling other posters today think the same so i thought i'd say it.

 

[Brum X]

Unfortunately it looks like they are going to let down the very people the need to attract to get the services off the ground. People who take a chance on an unknown airline on a new route.There will also be a backlash from a travel media that had been largely positive .
The advertising campaign will have to repeated and that should be interesting.Sorry about last year lets try again.Not a great slogan.
This time yesterday i was looking forward to their operation but to be honest today i doubt we will see them at all.
Sorry to be so negative but i get the feeling other posters today think the same so i thought i'd say it.

But if it is Delivery delays, as Ray pointed out these things happen in the airline industry. Exactly the same thing happened with Norweigan Air Shuttle at EDI last summer whilst they were waiting for the 737max, delays after delays after delays.
Not that im saying this is ok, it isnt but if Airbus are having issues, what is Primera supposed to do ??

 

[justplanecrazy]

It’s a chicken and egg situation do you start selling seats first and risk this situation or do you receive the aircraft first and have it sitting around losing you money? Surely airbus should have plans in place for this kind of situation do primera lease some aircraft and airbus cover the bill? Or do airbus have some 330s they can lend primera for the time being?

 

[Ray Finkle]

It's an unfortunate situation but in the grand scheme of things is a three month delay in receiving the second aircraft really a major issue? Obviously it's an inconvenience for those who are already booked but long term it's probably better to cancel now and rebook than to hold on to false hope only to let passengers down last minute.

Aircraft delivery delays happen, even the mighty Qatar are not immune, and anyone following the NEO programme will be well aware of the issues. What we wouldn't want is Primera rushing in to this and suffering the same type of cancellations and delays that Norwegian did.

We still (hopefully) have a based aircraft arriving in May to operate New York and Toronto and unless anything changes Boston and a second aircraft will now be joining in September, a few months ago any of us would have snapped that right up.

Seeing as Boston is delayed maybe there is scope to bring Toronto forward to May when EWR starts otherwise we'll have an aircraft idle three days per week for a month?

At the moment we don't know if this is something beyond Primera's control, so until the details come out lets give them a chance

 

[Ianbutty]

I agree Ray. Better this than poor sales or the wobbles.

I cannot believe that this is entirely Primera Air's fault, although if the delivery to service commencement times were very tight you can point some of the blame in their direction. But no airline wants a craft doing nothing after completion for too long. It is the length of delay which is worrying. A few days or a couple of weeks, fine. Either someone screwed up big time with the order (I..e did not put it in on time) or the programme team at Airbus have gone AWOL or the supply chain has faultered. As a new aircraft were there delays with its testing before sign off?

But we are where we are and better this than "sorry folks. It ain't gonna work at BHX"

 

[hay677]

Either Primera have been completely honest about their intentions, or they are using the classic scattergun technique of announcing a whole host of bases and destinations long before they even have the aircraft, allowing the early customers to do their marketing research for them, before quietly concentrating on those which look most promising and saying to the rest "due to insufficient interest........."

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Has Primera yet made any public announcement about what appears to be a changed situation? If not, isn't it yet another example of the poor communication that exists so often between airlines/airports and their passengers/potential passengers?

Why can't organisations, not just in the aviation industry, be 'up front' and honest about matters that affect their customers?

 

[rollo]

Primera have said diddly about what's going on so maybe we are barking up the wrong tree (unlikely ) personally if they are thinking of starting Boston in September can't see that working through the winter surely better to start again the following spring and seek compensation from Airbus subject to what contract they signed up for.

Presumably there's a lot of hard thinking it going on but its got the making of a real mess.

 

[Just Birmingham]

Is it possible they are retaining the bookings in order to ;

A) maximise cash flow even if they know full well they are not operating the route.

B) ship passengers via Stansted?

 

[Jerry]

Is it possible they are retaining the bookings in order to ;

A) maximise cash flow even if they know full well they are not operating the route.

B) ship passengers via Stansted?

They will probably offer that option.

 

[Brum X]

Question to Primera Air via social media.

Q: Hi Primera Air, what is happening with your schedule from BHX. I was looking at flights to Boston but the fares are really high, like £699 rtn. Is this correct ? I was looking at July 2018

A:
Hello,
We already sent this information to the responsible department, so they should check what is an issue.
Please check those flight again after few days, hopefully it already will be fixed

Yes i know it is social media and the person who wrote it probably knows little more than what we do. Lets just hope Primera Air dont do an Icelandair on us, thats exactly what they said and 2 days after they were gone. However it could also be an Emirates A380 situation where we all got worried that the 3rd airbridge was a waste of money (I remember it well) and 2 days after it was back.

It will be interesting to see what happens with this.

 

[route66]

Is the current possible issue, shortage of aircraft, affecting Stansted and Paris in addition to BHX?

 

[Brum X]

Is the current possible issue, shortage of aircraft, affecting Stansted and Paris in addition to BHX?

STN doesnt look as if it is effected. Boston is available and New York Newark is Daily. Well thats what the fares would suggest but what do i know.

 

[route66]

So has BHX drawn the short straw when it comes to aircraft allocation? If seat take up is high an airport will utilise an aircraft?

 

[Brum X]

So has BHX drawn the short straw when it comes to aircraft allocation? If seat take up is high an airport will utilise an aircraft?

It appears to be the case if the current schedule stays the same.

 

[Aceshigh]

There are more people in the know on here re Birmingham than me, but there seems to be a contradiction if seats are available on the primera site but not on any other booking engine.

Is that allowed?

The BHX experts here seem to think Boston won't start until Sep so why are Primera still selling seats ?

 

[Matt995]

My concern with Primera is are they financially sound? They are a relatively small unknown airline, their current fleet consists of 2 B737-700's and 6 B737-800's, all are 2nd hand old aircraft, and all are leased, not owned. Are the new A321's & 737 Maxs going to be bought or leased? Maybe they are trying to expand too quickly and aggressively too soon, and have now realised they cant afford to do this? Only time will tell, but how many airlines have we seen fail before the flights have got off the ground? are they the next Monarch? I do wish them luck and hope they do know what they are doing and are successful, but I hope Birmingham Airport isn't putting all their eggs into one basket with Primera, because they worry me at the moment.

 

[nbdm]

I do wish them luck and hope they do know what they are doing and are successful, but I hope Birmingham Airport isn't putting all their eggs into one basket with Primera, because they worry me at the moment.

I agree and wish them luck.

The cynic in me thinks they announced the sun routes to Spain to financially prop up any issues with the transatlantic routes (maybe they knew it was coming but didn't want to put out a bad message)
If the BHX routes do go sour for whatever reason (not enough demand, aircraft issues) and people have already booked I imagine they will push people down to Stansted or offer a refund.
It's possible Stansted was selling better (being 'London' helps, even if it is miles away!) and they decided to keep that route 'normal' through all this at BHX's expense.

I don't really follow US routes much but why would they launch Boston AND New York when the two are very close to each other. Is there enough demand to sustain both if the aircraft issues are resolved?

 

[Jerry]

Are the new A321's & 737 Maxs going to be bought or leased?

I believe they are leasing them from AerCap. To be fair to them they have been around for quite as an airline and have transatlantic experience previously and i'd have thought they would have done a full risk assessment before they went into this.

 

[Jerry]

I don't really follow US routes much but why would they launch Boston AND New York when the two are very close to each other. Is there enough demand to sustain both if the aircraft issues are resolved?

Boston and New York are distance wise 215 miles apart. With Boston it may be that their was some sort of research that suggested it would do well, the city itself is a nice place to visit so i'm told along with the potential of inbound tourism. Also they've launched Boston from the other cities as well i believe so they may have had a certain amount of slots they needed or wanted to use.