TUI Airways

[TheLocalYokel]

The UK boss of Qatar Airways was certainly quoted in an article a few months ago saying that they are looking to operate from the South West.

I wonder if air bridges might have to await long haul scheduled although I suppose it depends on the agreement between airport and any airline operating long haul whether charter or scheduled.

 

[alphagolf]

Thomson Flights

On the Thomson Flights website the "Where we fly" section over 5 hours flight time is showing the following routes:-

BRS - BGI
BRS - CUN
BRS - SFB

On the flip side it is not showing:

BRS - SID

So not sure if this is still work in progress but it maybe the route is not paying from BRS.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Looking at the CAA stats 2064 used the SID route (Sal, Cape Verde) in January (average load 206, load factor 88%) and 1626 in February (203, 87%).

This is based on 233 seats on the TOM 757 which is what Seat Guru shows.

Obviously we don't know the yield but the load factors don't seem bad for a new route.

 

[big g]

All TOM 757's are a 221 config, they changed when they added the extra legroom seats. The seat guru map is out of date.

 

[Seasider]

Even better load factor - 93% and 92% respectively.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Boeing 787

Regarding recent posts about a Thomson Boeing 787 visiting BRS, the airport's Mayfly for next week has now been published and shows a Thomson Boeing 787 arriving from Manchester at 1110 on Tuesday 19 April and leaving for Stansted at 2115 the same day, although I understand that the arrival time may have been changed slightly.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Tuesday 19 April

Having been prompted by a post on another website I've just checked next week's Mayfly again and the B788 originally shown is now shown as a B757. It's still shown as arriving from MAN at 1110 and departing to STN at 2115.

It doesn't appear to go anywhere during this time. Very odd!

 

[Marko1]

The official Twitter feed confirms a Dreamliner visit tomorrow

 

[superking]

yes showing on mayfly as a 788 tuesday

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Tomorrow's Mayfly whilst showing a TOM B 788 arrival from MAN at 1110 is still showing the departure at 2115 to STN as a B 757. However, there seems no doubt that BRS will host a 787 tomorrow.

It appears that TOM and BRS want to keep this very low key until the official announcement is made tomorrow. I expect that the local press and local radio/tv have been given embargoed press releases as both airline and airport will want maximum local publicity once they make a public announcement.

Even a Bristol Airport Spotters website with close links to BRS has only a cryptic message about having cameras at the ready tomorrow with no further information as to why. Yet the same website is arranging a big 'meet' of spotters in May for the arrival of the first WOW aircraft.

It will be a shame if some spotters and others who might have liked to have seen the first 787 land at BRS are unaware until it's too late to get to the airport.

I can remember the crowds that turned out for such events as the first Continental flight to Newark, the first 757 at BRS (Monarch to Malaga in the early 1980s) and even an El Al 767 to Tel Aviv in the mid 1980s in connection with a BBC Radio Bristol-organised trip to Israel. I understand that BBC radio stations are no longer allowed to organise such trips.

 

[Jono577]

Due to work I will not be able to make it today! tried to rearrange but to no avail, so if any of you do get a good spot it would be good to see any of the photos you manage to get and any reports etc.

 

[big g]

All should get a good view of her when she's parked up for the day.

 

[ezy_brs]

I've got a sneaky feeling that Barbados will also be on the list from Bristol longhaul, as well as the return of Florida and Mexico, looking at the Thomson website

 

[Ray Finkle]

Conformation (not that it is needed) of the 787 flights to Florida and Mexico. It also mentions three new routes to Catania, Chania and Girona.

Excellent news for Bristol


Thomson first Dreamliner flights from Bristol on sale this month

 

[ljm104]

Fantastic news for Bristol!

We may also finally find out what the 787 is capable of from Bristol's runway. I wonder if a stop in Manchester will be required or if the 787 can get there non-stop

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Indeed, ljm104.

I managed to get out to BRS this morning and went to the area of Winters Lane at the western end of the field where the spotters gather. There were about 40-50 cars, far more than normal for a weekday morning, with groups of aficionados with cameras. G-TUIB came in from the west and performed two overhead passes before going off to the east then returning shortly afterwards to land on runway 27 more or less on time at 1110.

It used the full length parallel taxiway to reach its stand on the western apron. So any doubts about this taxiway for this type of aircraft seem to have been removed. The airport master plan spoke of the necessity of a turning circle.

Like you I'm not sure that Cancun will be non-stop - I've not read anywhere today that it will be or won't. Florida was non-stop in the last few years of the previous service with 767s. If not, as my alter ego said elsewhere, the economic dynamic of using BRS must be considerable as presumably the CWL runway could allow non-stop operations.

The local news media coverage was low key. It wasn't even mentioned on the main BBC 30-minute early evening local news bulletin. Its local ITV competitor did better with shots of the aircraft landing and an interview with a Thomson representative and the BRS CEO. Inevitably (why does tv always seem to do this?) the world's foremost aviation guru (as seems the case with tv companies), one Simon Calder, was given due reverence in a 'down the line' interview.

To say he was negative about the service and BRS is understating it. He began by telling his audience that the likes of East Midlands and Glasgow have had similar services for a while and Bristol was only playing 'catch-up'. Anyway they are only leisure routes and Bristol could not hope to 'join the big boys' until it got its NYC route back and one to the ME or Turkey for the onward connections in those areas.

He emphasised that BRS is a short haul airport with the obvious but unstated implication that this is all it could really hope to be.

He felt that BRS was not growing as fast as some competitor airports (without saying what these were). Given that BRS has grown its passenger numbers every year since 2010, and is the only top 10 UK airport to have done so, it's a job to take him seriously.

What this will do is show airlines that a 787 can operate from BRS and might be a huge factor in tempting someone like Qatar.

My alter ego suggested elsewhere that today's news might have a bearing if APD is devolved to Wales. Thomson can’t know the government’s intentions so they must have decided that if the tax is devolved they can live with a more favourable APD regime in Wales or they can’t and will switch the flights to CWL in a year or two.

If the latter were to occur it would give the BRS owners primary evidence that the more favourable tax conditions had caused market distortion and affected competition and might be significant if they decided to challenge APD devolution in the European Court of Justice. That’s assuming the UK doesn’t vote to leave the EU in which case the UK government could adopt, if it wished, a more imaginative method of mitigating the effects in England of APD devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as it would no longer be bound by EU competition rules or EU state aid rules which must meet the ‘Azores criteria’.

Addendum (2124 hours 19 April 2016)

It's a beautiful clear and still evening here in the Bristol area and I've just seen 'Alfie' (G-TUIB) overflying my house about seven miles to the east of BRS. I watched her lights climbing away to the north-east en route to Stansted, followed immediately by Wizz to Katowice and easyJet to Edinburgh.

 

[User001]

That Simon Calder does my shed in.

How he gets so much airtime is beyond me. When it comes to aviation I have more knowledge in my right toe than he has.

 

[alphagolf]

Indeed, ljm104.

I managed to get out to BRS this morning and went to the area of Winters Lane at the western end of the field where the spotters gather. There were about 40-50 cars, far more than normal for a weekday morning, with groups of aficionados with cameras. G-TUIB came in from the west and performed two overhead passes before going off to the east then returning shortly afterwards to land on runway 27 more or less on time at 1110.

It used the full length parallel taxiway to reach its stand on the western apron. So any doubts about this taxiway for this type of aircraft seem to have been removed. The airport master plan spoke of the necessity of a turning circle.

Like you I'm not sure that Cancun will be non-stop - I've not read anywhere today that it will be or won't. Florida was non-stop in the last few years of the previous service with 767s. If not, as my alter ego said elsewhere, the economic dynamic of using BRS must be considerable as presumably the CWL runway could allow non-stop operations.

The local news media coverage was low key. It wasn't even mentioned on the main BBC 30-minute early evening local news bulletin. Its local ITV competitor did better with shots of the aircraft landing and an interview with a Thomson representative and the BRS CEO. Inevitably (why does tv always seem to do this?) the world's foremost aviation guru (as seems the case with tv companies), one Simon Calder, was given due reverence in a 'down the line' interview.

Having just watched the ITV Westcountry News report for the above, the pilot of the B787 clearly stated that it would great that it would be able to fly direct to Cancun from Bristol. So I think there is no doubt that the B787 has the ability to complete the trip, but also interesting that the CEO of the airport suggested this could just be the start of the Bristol Long Haul route portfolio over the next couple years.

Indeed, ljm104.

I managed to get out to BRS this morning and went to the area of Winters Lane at the western end of the field where the spotters gather. There were about 40-50 cars, far more than normal for a weekday morning, with groups of aficionados with cameras. G-TUIB came in from the west and performed two overhead passes before going off to the east then returning shortly afterwards to land on runway 27 more or less on time at 1110.

It used the full length parallel taxiway to reach its stand on the western apron. So any doubts about this taxiway for this type of aircraft seem to have been removed. The airport master plan spoke of the necessity of a turning circle.

Like you I'm not sure that Cancun will be non-stop - I've not read anywhere today that it will be or won't. Florida was non-stop in the last few years of the previous service with 767s. If not, as my alter ego said elsewhere, the economic dynamic of using BRS must be considerable as presumably the CWL runway could allow non-stop operations.

The local news media coverage was low key. It wasn't even mentioned on the main BBC 30-minute early evening local news bulletin. Its local ITV competitor did better with shots of the aircraft landing and an interview with a Thomson representative and the BRS CEO. Inevitably (why does tv always seem to do this?) the world's foremost aviation guru (as seems the case with tv companies), one Simon Calder, was given due reverence in a 'down the line' interview.

To say he was negative about the service and BRS is understating it. He began by telling his audience that the likes of East Midlands and Glasgow have had similar services for a while and Bristol was only playing 'catch-up'. Anyway they are only leisure routes and Bristol could not hope to 'join the big boys' until it got its NYC route back and one to the ME or Turkey for the onward connections in those areas.

He emphasised that BRS is a short haul airport with the obvious but unstated implication that this is all it could really hope to be.

He felt that BRS was not growing as fast as some competitor airports (without saying what these were). Given that BRS has grown its passenger numbers every year since 2010, and is the only top 10 UK airport to have done so, it's a job to take him seriously.

What this will do is show airlines that a 787 can operate from BRS and might be a huge factor in tempting someone like Qatar.

My alter ego suggested elsewhere that today's news might have a bearing if APD is devolved to Wales. Thomson can’t know the government’s intentions so they must have decided that if the tax is devolved they can live with a more favourable APD regime in Wales or they can’t and will switch the flights to CWL in a year or two.

If the latter were to occur it would give the BRS owners primary evidence that the more favourable tax conditions had caused market distortion and affected competition and might be significant if they decided to challenge APD devolution in the European Court of Justice. That’s assuming the UK doesn’t vote to leave the EU in which case the UK government could adopt, if it wished, a more imaginative method of mitigating the effects in England of APD devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as it would no longer be bound by EU competition rules or EU state aid rules which must meet the ‘Azores criteria’.

Addendum (2124 hours 19 April 2016)

It's a beautiful clear and still evening here in the Bristol area and I've just seen 'Alfie' (G-TUIB) overflying my house about seven miles to the east of BRS. I watched her lights climbing away to the north-east en route to Stansted, followed immediately by Wizz to Katowice and easyJet to Edinburgh.

Having just watched the ITV Westcountry News report for the above, the pilot of the B787 clearly stated that it would great that it would be able to fly direct to Cancun from Bristol. So I think there is no doubt that the B787 has the ability to complete the trip, but also interesting that the CEO of the airport suggested this could just be the start of Bristol airports long haul route portfolio over the next couple years.

 

[big g]

Talking with the pilot today on the aircraft and others in the know, the 787 will be capable of 10hr flights from BRS, so CUN will be direct even with poor weather conditions.

Watching her leave tonight I was amazed at how quiet it was, I know it had no payload but still a lot quieter than the 767.

 

[Marko1]

It certainly was a very successful day for the airport and a very good advertisement for the fact the airport can definitely handle the Dreamliner. Let's hope Qatar or etihad are watching because I really think the chances have significantly increased that one day a Middle East route will become a reality. Well done to all those who made this chance come about. Just one thing that makes me wonder - with the increases in frequency on various routes plus 3 new routes is there a potential for a 4th aircraft to be based ??