TUI Airways

[TheLocalYokel]

Crikey that's bad and no doubt BRS short runway will be blamed for the incident.

Some are already muttering about this with someone from Wales suggesting on the Dried Plum that all TOM long-haul flights should be transferred to CWL.

I'm not qualified to comment generally or on this specific incident and I doubt that the punter on the DP is either (he doesn't seem to be an aviation professional), although I read about heavy landings at airports with runways much longer than Bristol's.

I live about seven miles from the airport and on Sunday morning here it was tipping it down accompanied by strong winds - anyone who looked at the Ryder Cup tv pictures on Sunday morning would get the idea.

It seems the weather was similar at Lulsgate.

An airline pilot once told me that BRS's exposed position on top of a 600 foot hill means that cross winds are usually far more of a problem than the runway itself.

It may be that the nightmare scenario of heavy rain and near limits crosswinds has returned to haunt the airport - it was this combination of weather that lasted over several days that led to the runway closure during resurfacing a few years ago.

Every now and then an incident occurs that makes people ask themselves again why the city council did not relocate to Filton in the 1950s when they closed the old Whitchurch airport - they reportedly had the chance. It's not far fetched to imagine a BHX-size airport now if Filton had been chosen.

It's a beautiful day here today with clear blue sky and very little if any wind.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Damaged TOM B767 at BRS

Further to the above, the soothsayers on the DP have already decided the cause of the incident was the bad weather that is particularly troublesome at BRS in combination with its high, short and undulating runway.

It seems that BRS is a perpetual serious accident waiting to happen.

Some of these people describe themselves as airline pilots but don't appear to need to await the result of any enquiry.

Poor old LBA has been dragged in as well as an example of a fellow airport that ought not to be around either.

Addendum

There is now a suggestion that this airframe suffered serious damage following a hard landing ten years ago.

I wandered out to BRS this afternoon. The 767 was parked at the far end of the western apron, over half a mile from the A38 (my vantage point) but it was not possible to see it clearly even with binoculars.

It's still painted in First Choice colours, so if it is to be scrapped (there seem to be mixed views amongst the 'experts') they won't have wasted money on painting it Thomson blue.

Engineers were at the scene with a 'cherry-picker' type lift and one was examining the roof.

 

[Aviador]

Like you I am not qualified to comment in any great detail on this but I guess the bottom line is that had the weather been too bad for a safe landing the captain should have or could have diverted to another airfield. It is possible that the aircraft suffered wind-sheer as the aircraft touched down which is my theory. The best thing we can do now is wait and see what the enquiry make of it.

 

[alphagolf]

Cape Verde

From Bristol Airport website:

Thomson adds Bristol - Boa Vista to winter holiday programme

Holiday giant Thomson has announced that flights to West African hotspot, Cape Verde, will be available next winter from Bristol Airport.

From November 2011 to April 2012 Thomson Airways will operate a flight every Tuesday to Boa Vista, the island republic's most popular resort.

The Cape Verde islands are located in the Atlantic, over 500 miles off the West African coast. Described as the 'new Caribbean', Cape Verde combines Portuguese and African influences and enjoys a warm climate with winter temperatures in the mid-twenties.

Boa Vista is renowned for its white sandy beaches and, although it is the mose developed of the island group, it remains relatively untouched by tourism. An added bonus is that Cape Verde is in the same time zone as the UK, minimising jet lag from the seven hour flight.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The Gambia Experience weekly flight to the Gambia (Banjul) this winter was supposed to double drop at Cape Verde.

However, when the tour operator axed their flights from both BRS and STN this winter (except for the Christmas period?) allegedly because the carrier Hamburg International went out of business and they coudln't find a replacement carrier, Cape Verde went with it.

There has been a suggestion on another forum that the TOM flight next winter might be a joint one from Glasgow.

I remember some years ago when there were two weekly flights in winter to Banjul, the First Choice one (B 757) was a joint flight from GLA and BRS in one year at least.

It will be interesting to see whether this proves popular and whether it is a replacement for one of the weekly Egyptian flights, given that the recent events in that country might make the country less popular for tourists, at least in the next year or two.

I imagine the aircraft will be a B 757.

 

[Aviador]

I hope the route is a success and they decide to offer more regional departures. I don't know why but I have always wanted to go there.

 

[alphagolf]

Looking at the Thomson Airways schedule for flights to Boa Vista, the Bristol flight is the only one on a Tuesday from the UK, therefore it looks very much like a stand alone flight!

Lets hope there is sufficient demand to fill a 757 on a weekly basis!

 

[Aviador]

Image: tour-smart.co.uk

Image: static.guim.co.uk

They shouldn't have any problem filling seat I wouldn't think.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Thomson programme from BRS summer 2011

I had a count up recently of the programme for 2011 with all flights operated by the two based B 757s.

Monday

Menorca
Dalaman
Naples
Bodrum

Tuesday

Palma
Pula
Sharm el Sheikh
Zante

Wednesday

Fuerteventura
Ibiza
Paphos
Rhodes

Thursday

Palma
Kefalinnia
Heraklion
Dalaman

Friday

Tenerife
Menorca
Corfu
Antalya

Saturday

Alicante
Verona
Palma
Reus
Dalaman
Ibiza

Sunday

Palma
Malaga
Arrecife
Larnaca

That's a total of 30.

In addition, non-based TOM aircraft operate weekly to Salzburg and Naples (both B 738) and to Cancun and Sanford (both B 767).

The overall total of 34 is a couple down on summer 2010.

The fact that easyJet or Ryanair (sometimes both) fly to Menorca, Dalaman, Bodrum, Palma, Fuerteventura, Ibiza, Paphos, Tenerife, Corfu, Heraklion, Alicante, Reus, Malaga and Arrecife shows the extent to which the low-cost airlines have infiltrated what was once solely charter markets.

 

[alphagolf]

In addition to Thomas Cook adding a flight to Palma on a Monday operated on a W pattern with a B757, Thomson Airways have also added a Monday flight to Palma, TOM6190 @ 2230 returning as TOM6191 @ 0415 on Tuesday morning. This additonal flight is operating until the 12th September!

Now with the addtional flights from easyjet, Thomas Cook and Thomson Airways into September, we will hopefully see some good pax stats going forward!

alphagolf

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Cape Verde

Postby alphagolf » Wed Feb 16, 2011 8:56 pm
Looking at the Thomson Airways schedule for flights to Boa Vista, the Bristol flight is the only one on a Tuesday from the UK, therefore it looks very much like a stand alone flight!

Lets hope there is sufficient demand to fill a 757 on a weekly basis!

It looks as though there isn't, alphagolf.

The flight seems to have been withdrawn from the Thomson winter destination list and I can find no mention of it now on the BRS website.

I think it may have been withdrawn some time ago.

 

[big g]

Cape Verde

Postby alphagolf » Wed Feb 16, 2011 8:56 pm
Looking at the Thomson Airways schedule for flights to Boa Vista, the Bristol flight is the only one on a Tuesday from the UK, therefore it looks very much like a stand alone flight!

Lets hope there is sufficient demand to fill a 757 on a weekly basis!

It looks as though there isn't, alphagolf.

The flight seems to have been withdrawn from the Thomson winter destination list and I can find no mention of it now on the BRS website.

I think it may have been withdrawn some time ago.

Correct, the flight was withdrawn around July and they decided to fly from BHX instead, Why i have no idea!

It will be LGW,MAN,BHX & GLA that the route will operate from to BVC, shame but i guess overtime and as tourism increases BRS will have the route added. The above routes work in a W pattern but I'm not sure of the order.

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

Correct, the flight was withdrawn around July and they decided to fly from BHX instead, Why i have no idea!

It will be LGW,MAN,BHX & GLA that the route will operate from to BVC, shame but i guess overtime and as tourism increases BRS will have the route added. The above routes work in a W pattern but I'm not sure of the order.

This is the winter thomson timetable, i'm not too sure what you mean a W pattern? THis is because if you look every a/c will head back base it came from. What concerns me is the actual hours, it takes a full 13-14 hours alone, that's excluding the report time. So do crew (including cabin) night stop and head back to UK next day to BHX, EMA, MAN or LGW?

Manchester - 0945 - 1510 - Monday
Manchester - 1620 - 2330 - Monday
Manchester- 0935 - 1500 - Thursday
Manchester - 1610 - 2320 - Thursday

Birmingham - 0900 - 1415 - Tuesday
Birmingham - 1525 - 2225 - Tuesday

East Mids - 0915 - 1500 - Friday
East Mids - 1610 - 2325 - Friday

Gatwick - 0955 - 1510 - Wenesday
Gatwick - 1620 - 2310 - Wenesday

 

[tleeds]

I think this is why Cape Verde is preferred by the airlines throughout the winter as opposed to summer, as it practically takes a whole day for the aircraft to complete the sectors.
I'm not sure what the limit is for flight-crew. I would've thought that 13-14+hours is far too much and so I should think that crews must stay overnight continuously.

Like you said Nicholas1992, if a W Pattern were to be used, I think they would temporarily base an aircraft out there, just like what Thomson are doing this winter with some Tenerife flights to; Leeds/Bradford, Durham Tees Valley and Norwich. That way they could possibly operate 2 flights a week from a certain airport, whether it be; MAN, BHX, GLA or LGW.

The fact that it was pulled from Bristol was for operational issues and crewing most likely.

 

[big g]

This is the winter thomson timetable, i'm not too sure what you mean a W pattern? THis is because if you look every a/c will head back base it came from. What concerns me is the actual hours, it takes a full 13-14 hours alone, that's excluding the report time. So do crew (including cabin) night stop and head back to UK next day to BHX, EMA, MAN or LGW?

Manchester - 0945 - 1510 - Monday
Manchester - 1620 - 2330 - Monday
Manchester- 0935 - 1500 - Thursday
Manchester - 1610 - 2320 - Thursday

Birmingham - 0900 - 1415 - Tuesday
Birmingham - 1525 - 2225 - Tuesday

East Mids - 0915 - 1500 - Friday
East Mids - 1610 - 2325 - Friday

Gatwick - 0955 - 1510 - Wenesday
Gatwick - 1620 - 2310 - Wenesday

Talking to some crew they do night stop so the outbound MAN crew will operate the inbound BHX O/B BHX-LGW O/B LGW-MAN O/B MAN-EMA and the EMA crew will get a weekend stop and operate the inbound MAN, so the A/C will return to its home base but with out of base crew.

It looks like they have dropped GLA for the winter.

With regards to the W Pattern i have that wrong, if it did operate the A/c would say go MAN-BVC-GLA-BVC-MAN so would be away from base for 1 day. TOM and TCX do it a lot but on shorter sectors.

I can't see why there would be performance issues from BRS as they did have a direct NY EWR (752) service but do have a direct SFB (763) so a 752 could easily reach BVC, i would put it down to either crewing or lack off seats sold, but from BVC the runway is short and with a head wind will need a fuel stop on the return.

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

Thomson programme from BRS summer 2011

I had a count up recently of the programme for 2011 with all flights operated by the two based B 757s.

Monday

Menorca
Dalaman
Naples
Bodrum

Tuesday

Palma
Pula
Sharm el Sheikh
Zante

Wednesday

Fuerteventura
Ibiza
Paphos
Rhodes

Thursday

Palma
Kefalinnia
Heraklion
Dalaman

Friday

Tenerife
Menorca
Corfu
Antalya

Saturday

Alicante
Verona
Palma
Reus
Dalaman
Ibiza

Sunday

Palma
Malaga
Arrecife
Larnaca

That's a total of 30.

In addition, non-based TOM aircraft operate weekly to Salzburg and Naples (both B 738) and to Cancun and Sanford (both B 767).

The overall total of 34 is a couple down on summer 2010.

Monday
Menorca
Napels
Palma
Bodrum
Dalaman

Tuesday
Alicante
Palma
Sharm El Shiekh
Zante

Wenesday
Fuerteventura
Ibiza
Paphos
Rhodes

Thursday
Heraklion
Kefalonia
Palma

Friday
Corfu
Napels (W)
Palma
Tenerife
Antalya

Saturday
Gran Caneria
Ibiza
Palma
Reus
Dalaman

Sunday
Lanzarote
Larnaca
Malaga
Edfidha

Got bored, so did this. Since LBA'S TOM timetable is One lousey W pattern from CFU.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Salzburg

It looks as though there will be no summer weekly charter to Salzburg in 2012.

Although it appeared in the early edition brochures of the TUI Group it's no longer in the Crystal brochure I obtained today. It's not showing on Thomson Lakes & Mountains website nor on Inghams website.

This is a great shame and something of a surprise.

BRS-SZG has been a staple summer charter constituent from BRS for two decades. My wife and I have used the link regularly for summer holidays.

In recent years Thomson have operated the route on Saturdays using a non-based B 737-800 for the TUI companies Thomson Lakes & Mountains and Crystal, as well as for Inghams.

Until a couple of years ago the route was operated 2 x weekly (Wed and Sat) from the third week in May till late September.

There was a period earlier this century when there was a third weekly rotation on Sundays in peak summer by European Aviation's noisy B 737-200s.

We sometimes flew out on Saturdays and back on Wednesdays or vice versa for a longer break than a week.

We've used all sorts of carriers over the years: Monarch B 757s (several times); Airworld A 320; Aero Lloyd A 321; British European Bae 146 (during the transition period from Jersey European to Flybe); XL B 738 (a couple of times); Thomson B 733.

Others carriers that we didn't use include Air UK Leisure, Air 2000, Tyrolean (before re-branding as Austrian Arrows), Azzurria, Flybe (Q 400), KLM (F 100) and SN Brussels (ARJ).

I checked the loads for the full summer 2011 months and the load factors were into the 90s per cent, nearly 97 per cent in August. Ironically, BHX-SZG which is being retained had near identical loads to BRS-SZG in summer 2011.

Unfortunately for the summer visitors, easyJet flies to Salzburg and Innsbruck from Bristol in winter only.

The one crumb of comfort for Bristol punters is that Inghams appear to have switched their Innsbruck route from Exeter to Bristol this coming summer using Austrian Arrows (there is no availability from EXT on Inghams' website but there is from BRS).

We used Austrian Arrows from Bristol to Innsbruck in summer 2007 and found them to be a superb airline then.

The Innsbruck summer charter route has a peculiar history. At one time it was operated from BRS for part of the summer, then switched to EXT for the remainder. It then operated EXT for a few whole summers before being operated from both airports simultaneously for a year or two, finally being put back solely to EXT in 2008.

The timing this summer as shown on Inghams' website is not very social - depart Innsbruck 0730 for the return leg which means getting up at stupid o'clock in the resort.

We were looking to go to Austria this summer. Not sure we're keen on that sort of an early start though.

 

[superking]

summer 14
thomson announced 3 new routes for s 14.
kgs kva and rak.now if my memory is correct then aircraft based in brs are kept busy with not many gaps.
will this mean another aircraft part based or w patterns.
if neither then some route will be dropped to accomadate these new routes time will tell as its still early days to be thinking much about s 14.source is thomson website with a few other routes announced at other airports.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

summer 14
thomson announced 3 new routes for s 14.
kgs kva and rak.now if my memory is correct then aircraft based in brs are kept busy with not many gaps.
will this mean another aircraft part based or w patterns.
if neither then some route will be dropped to accomadate these new routes time will tell as its still early days to be thinking much about s 14.source is thomson website with a few other routes announced at other airports.

In peak summer the two based 757s appear to be pretty busy with few if any gaps, as you point out.

I suppose we shall have to wait to see if these routes are additional or whether other routes will be dropped or reduced in frequency. BRS sees some TOM W patterns in summer and winter so that could be increased or a third party carrier brought in as is to happen this summer with Verona being operated by Mistral Air instead of TOM.

Kavala was operated in summer 2006 by (I think) XL for Kosmar. It was due to operate again in summer 2007 but was pulled.

Kos, to the best of my knowledge, has not been operated from BRS by Thomson or Tui before. Until 2007 First Choice operated the route, along with Thomas Cook and the XL Group giving three rotations each week that summer and those immediately preceding 2007. When FC merged with Thomson their service was dropped leaving TCX and XL (replaced by Viking in summer 2010 after XL had ceased to trade). Since summer 2011 there has been only the single TCX weekly rotation.

Marrakesh was operated by Ryanair from 2009 until 2011 then axed. Summer loads were high (in the 90s per cent load factor in the main summer months) but the returns obviously did not satisfy Ryanair.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Summer 2014

Further to the previous post, it's being reported on some aviation web sites that the Thomson programme for summer 2014 will require three based aircraft at BRS.

I haven't checked but on the assumption that this is so it would involve additional seats even if the 2 x 757s currently based are replaced by 3 x 738s, provided of course the three aircraft are fully utilised.

It also seems that the Florida and Mexico (Cancun) charters that have operated from BRS for several recent summers (and will commence next month for summer 2013) may be axed in summer 2014. They are not currently bookable though Sanford and Cancun are bookable from a number of other 'TOM' airports next summer.

This would be a particular disappointment for the airport as the Thomson MD, Chris Browne, announced at the time of the 787's debut at Farnborough in July 2010 that BRS would be one of the early group of airports to operate the 787 and there were hints that more 'exotic' routes would follow.