TheLocalYokel

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It's been discussed elsewhere on this forum that ASW has been using subbed aircraft on occasions in recent times across at least part of its network.

I happened to check the BRS apron website a few minutes ago and saw a Scot Airways Dornier 328, G-BZOG, was parked on stand 8 operating the evening MAN-BRS-PLH, alongside ASW's Dash 8-300, G-WOWC, on the LBA-BRS-NQY.
 
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Almost from the start subbed aircraft have been a regular ASW occurrence, certainly at Bristol. Air Wales ATR42s were regular visitors standing in for a Dash 8-300 when that Welsh airline was in existence. When people asked it was always said the replacement was due to planned maintenance of one of the Dash aircraft.

I suspect that ASW's route network (it has grown considerably this summer with additional flights to London airports from the far South West) now means there is no slack whatever in aircraft utilisation.

Therefore planned maintenace of the airline's own aircraft and the inevitable tech problems that affect every airline mean that the only way to avoid cancellations is to use aircraft from other airlines.

There is talk of yet more ASW expansion so we might expect additional aircraft to its fleet. Even this might not do away with the subbing of course.
 
I just hope that AirSouthwest can maintain their growth without any silly antics by other airlines trying to take on the same routes. This happened at Blackpool where Manx2 has been taken on by Flybe on the Isle of Man route. Silly really because there is clearly only enough passengers to support one of the services.
 
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ASW are still short of aircraft - presumably the Dash 8-300 that made a precautionary landing at LBA last week is still out of service.

Eastern J41s seem to be regular subs at the moment which might suggest some loads are fairly light.

Friday 12 June saw J41, G-MAJU on the evening MAN-BRS-PLH and this evening G-MAJY operated the LBA-BRS-NQY: per BRS apron website.
 
I think they hold around 29 passengers. Sad I know, but I'm sure I recognise those registrations as either previously based or is based at LBA Eastern equipment.
 
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Eastern Jetstream 41, G-MAJL, operating ASW LBA-BRS-PLH this evening.

It is currently parked on stand 11 at BRS alongside ASW Dash 8-300, G-WOWE, on stand 10, operating MAN-BRS-NQY - the usual arrangements at BRS 4 x daily to allow easy transfer of passengers.

Details from BRS 'live' apron website page.
 
Ah MAJ !! as previously mentioned, it was based at Leeds for many years. I think it was part of the British Regional Airlines fleet before becoming Eastern Airways a few years ago. They're a good little workhorse but they're so noisy.
 
Aviador said:
Ah MAJ !! as previously mentioned, it was based at Leeds for many years. I think it was part of the British Regional Airlines fleet before becoming Eastern Airways a few years ago. Their a good little workhorse but they're so noisy.

You wanna try marshalling one onto stand without any ear defenders, thats noisy!!
 
From the second week in February Eastern appears to be rationalising some of its routes following its purchase of Air Southwest.

From the timetables of ASW and Eastern the morning PLH-BRS-LBA-BRS-PLH will be replaced by a southbound ABZ-LBA-BRS-PLH (a Dash-8-300 operation) working opposite a northbound PLH-BRS-LBA-ABZ (a Dash 8-300 operation). The same will apply in the evening.

The current morning and evening Eastern ABZ-BRS-ABZ (an Eastern Jetstream operation) will be incorporated into the new diagram. The lunchtime ABZ-BRS-ABZ will remain a non-stop Jetstream in both directions.

Currently it doesn't appear possible to book from Plymouth to Aberdeen or vice versa and the ASW website still shows PLH-BRS-LBA (and reverse) as an Air Southwest route whilst the Eastern website shows the ABZ-LBA-BRS portion as an Eastern route.
 
Eastern is continuing its rationalisation of the Air Southwest network and from May the BRS-MAN route will cease.

The peculiar one-way BRS-JER will also go at that time - perhaps Blue Islands knew something when they announced BRS-JER this week. So it will be Flybe and Blue Islands slugging it out on BRS-JER in future.

BRS-LBA will remain at 2 x daily but passengers from both PLH and NQY to LBA via BRS will have only one service each weekday in each direction instead of two now that the chance to swap aircraft at BRS will cease.

MAN will still be served from NQY and PLH with a once a day rotation operating calling at both NQY and PLH.

No real surprise that BRS-MAN is to cease.

Passenger numbers have been falling for the past few years. When the route started there were few if any direct rail services between Bristol and Manchester - it usually entailed a change of train in the Midlands. Now Cross Country runs hourly and takes around three hours. Air might be a bit quicker but not much taking into account getting to airports and checking in and security, plus the rail gives more flexibility with its many more train option over aircraft each day.
 
Bad News:

Looks like Bristol may have just lost its direct flights to Newquay, Plymouth, Aberdeen & Leeds by Air Southwest as its just been announced that they are been shut down by Eastern Airways on September 30th 2011.

At a guess i think the Bristol-Leeds-Aberdeen service maybe taken over by Eastern Airways but i guess we will just have to wait and see.

Souce: http://www.airsouthwest.com/news/shownews.php?ne_id=308

Air Southwest to cease operations at Plymouth and Newquay

Air Southwest has taken a decision to cease all its Plymouth services from September 14. The Newquay flights have been reviewed at length, but are not viable on their own without the association with Plymouth. As a consequence, Newquay routes to Glasgow, Guernsey, Jersey and Manchester will also end on the same date.

Newquay services to Aberdeen, Bristol, Cork, Dublin and Leeds Bradford will end on September 30, which regrettably will be the last day of Air Southwest branded flights.

Air Southwest was planning to operate while Plymouth Airport remained open, however, despite our original hopes, Air Southwest forward bookings are significantly lower than required and the level of demand is not financially viable.

All passengers booked to fly after these dates will be fully refunded.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused, and thank you for supporting Air Southwest.
 
A poster on the LBA forum suggests the Bristol - Leeds Bradford route will continue under the Eastern Airways banner.
 
BRS-ABZ was originally an Eastern route at 3 x daily.

When Eastern absorbed Air Southwest into their schedules 2 of the 3 daily rotations operated via LBA as part of the former LBA-BRS-PLH/NQY route. The third Eastern rotation has continued to operate non-stop between BRS and ABZ, though not every day ( 3 weekdays each week from memory).

I shall be surprised if BRS-ABZ ceases and expect it to continue either as at present with 2 rotations via LBA and the third direct, or perhaps the direct rotation which is a lunchtime/afternoon service might be axed.
 
I can't see them ceasing the BRS-LBA-ABZ route as the loads are decent. But it will be a shame to see ASW go :sad:
 
Good news. Air Southwest Pilots & Cabin crew jobs are going to be kept on by Eastern Airways along with the last 3x Dash 8-300's in the fleet G-WOWA, B & E which are all owned aircraft.

When the Air Southwest band has been shut down the 3x aircraft and crews will either have the option to be based at Bristol or Aberdeen Airports as from October 2nd, 2011.

Looks like all the backroom staff currently at plymouth wont be offered jobs or transfers to Eastern's Headquaters at Humberside Airport afteral
 
Good news. Air Southwest Pilots & Cabin crew jobs are going to be kept on by Eastern Airways along with the last 3x Dash 8-300's in the fleet G-WOWA, B & E which are all owned aircraft.

When the Air Southwest band has been shut down the 3x aircraft and crews will either have the option to be based at Bristol or Aberdeen Airports as from October 2nd, 2011.
Has this been announced officially?

The Eastern booking website has shown flights in each direction between BRS and ABZ morning and evening with one stop - presumably LBA - for a little while, on test dates in October (the rest of the summer after Air Southwest ceases to operate) and in November, the start of the winter period. The equipment is a Dash 8-300. The non-stop early afternoon ABZ-BRS-ABZ operated by an Eastern Jetstream also continues into the winter on selected days each week.

The BRS-LBA section was always bookable of course as an Air Southwest flight in that airline's booking engine even though the same aircraft operated onto ABZ in the Eastern booking section. This always seemed complicated to me and likely to confuse some passengers. Why didn't they show BRS-LBA-ABZ as being bookable in both the ASW and Eastern booking engines? I suppose it was to do with route licences.

The flight timings for the Dash 8s suggest strongly that at least one aircraft will be based at BRS and another at ABZ, as at present in the latter case. It remains to be seen what will happen to the third aircraft.

lbaspotter's information means that crews will be based at BRS as well as an aircraft. ASW used to base an aircraft at BRS around 2006 when they had a BRS-NWI route and a third (afternoon) rotation between BRS and LBA.
 
Good to hear Eastern might be basing at Bristol airport. Hopefully this will lead to future expansion from the airport.

As for the Dash 8 aircraft, as much as it will be nice to see the aircraft painted up in Eastern Airways livery, it will be a shame to see the Air Southwest livery disappear. I can feel a day out with the camera coming on.
 
One or two rumours have been circulating about an Eastern base at Bristol involving the Dash 8.

I'm not sure what work the aircraft will be found though.

As the Eastern timetable stands for October onwards one aircraft will leave BRS at 0730 and arrive ABZ 1005, presumably stopping at LBA en route - the Eastern booking engine merely shows an en route stop at this stage (or it did when I last looked on Wednesday evening) but realistically it can't be anywhere other than LBA.

Another will leave ABZ at 0715 and arrive BRS via LBA at 1005.

The next work for it will be to leave BRS at 1700 to arrive ABZ via LBA at 1955 passing en route the southbound ABZ (departing 1700) to arrive BRS via LBA at 1945.

This means one Dash 8 will be on the ground at BRS from 1005 until 1700 and the other from 1945 until 0730 the following day. It's not a high utilisation of aircraft and I can't think of any other routes from BRS that the aircraft might be used on during the day.

A daily Norwich rotation was tried by ASW five or six years ago but loads were poor.

Ryanair tried Derry from BRS but it didn't last long. They certainly found loads that would have filled a Dash 8 and more but given Eastern's higher fares policy and its lack of public recognition compared to Ryanair it's doubtful in my view that a Derry route would be viable.

Durham Tees Valley would be up against easyJet on BRS-NCL and anyway Eastern tried BRS-MME several years ago and dropped it after one season if my memory serves me well.

Manchester has been dropped recently so that's not likely to return, especially now the rail connection is so much improved.

Perhaps Eastern will venture to the near continent if they don't want to park up at BRS all day long. Dinard was a Ryanair route once though the same pricing and lack of recognition I mentioned with Derry might apply equally. Eastern currently flies from Southampton to Dijon which is certainly further from Bristol than is Dinard.
 

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