Leeds Bradford - General Thread

[airforced]

I agree. The legislation on accessibility requires organisations to make what are termed 'reasonable adjustments' to assist people with disabilities where required. That applies not only to wheelchairs but to the building itself. It is all about what is 'reasonable'. I think the offer of the chair is reasonable. Surely the gripe should be with the airline for forgetting to load his own wheelchair on board the aircraft and leaving it behind?

I initially felt very sorry for this guy but now I just feel soory for him because his airline, for whatever reason. didn't load his chair so that it was available for him back at LTN. The spectre of him shuffling through the terminal on his backside was a stunt that conveniently benefited from having a camera rolling at the time! We get to know this now although apparently the incident was in August. He is now claiming something or other from the airport. Really. They had no control over his chair not being transported and offered him the assistance as per the regs as I understand it.

I wonder how he got from the aircraft into the terminal? The whole episode, as it is being told to us, pongs a bit. Cynical - moi?

 

[Severn]

On the TUI thread there was talk of next year not looking so rosy given the end of the Summer TUI base. I thought I'd compare a week in peak-summer 18 to the planned same week in summer 19.

Current peak-Summer 2019 vs 2018 :

RYR: Reduction of 2x flights per week
(Loss of 2x weekly TSF route / PSA and LIG reduce from 3x to 2x weekly / FAO and PMI gain 1x weekly flight to 6x and 7x weekly respectively). Still 3x based aircraft - same as 2018

TCX: Reduction of 2x flights per week
(AYT and DLM operated 2x weekly with TCX aircraft in 2018.
In 2019, Freebird will operate 1x weekly flights to AYT and DLM).

TUI: Loss of base. Reduction of 10x flights per week and a loss of 7 routes.
(2018 had 1x based aircraft operating 14x weekly flights plus Albastar operating to PMI on Sundays.
2019 will have no based aircraft and currently only 1x RHO, 1x CFU, 2x PMI along with Neos operating 1x weekly Verona).

EXS: Increase of 16x flights per week and addition of 3 new routes.
(2018 had 186x weekly flights over 46 routes.
2019 currently showing 202x weekly flights over 49x routes.
- Loss of 2x weekly SXF
- Reduction of flights to IBZ from 10x to 9x weekly.
- New routes KRK, BOJ (2x weekly) and ADB, CHQ (1x weekly)
- Increase of flights to EGC, SPU, FAO, ZTH, FUE, MAH (extra 1x weekly), PMI (extra 2x weekly), ALC (extra 5x weekly)

 

[lbaspotter]

Ryanair
Limoges = was only 2x weekly THU & SUN this summer 2018. No change for summer 2019

Thomas Cook
Tunisia-Enfidha new route 1x weekly for summer 2019 operated by Nouvelair Tunisie
Palma = 1x weekly operated by Air Europa no change.

 

[louis_walton]

Very excited for Heathers report back from the consultative committee meeting to see what the management have to say about this, they do always say for something to get better it has to get worse first...

 

[a300boy]

Based on the past very little of substance comes out of these meetings !
At least White Heather has a chance to ask some questions though.
We must all be disappointed with the present situation I just wonder if this other operation which we may or may not see has upset Tui.

 

[Severn]

Ryanair
Limoges = was only 2x weekly THU & SUN this summer 2018. No change for summer 2019

Limoges operated 2x weekly from APR to end of JUN and also SEP to end of OCT.
It increased to 3x weekly during JUL and AUG 2018

 

[a300boy]

At least The Yorkshire Post won’t be able to give Lba bad press any more if the news today is accurate.
Sad for all their staff of course but It has always been a thorn in the side for the airport.

 

[Tarn Spotter]

At least The Yorkshire Post won’t be able to give Lba bad press any more if the news today is accurate.
Sad for all their staff of course but It has always been a thorn in the side for the airport.

The Yorkshire Post will continue as will many of the other titles. THe reason for administation is to get rid of the debt of the company, they put YP up for sale a month ago, but the offers received made it clear to management that they would be unable to pay off the £220m debt that becomes repayable next year.
This to me is the route or similar that FLYBE needs to take to shed its debt burden, whether it could under CAA financial rules, is what I am unsure about.

 

[White Heather]

The guy sat next to me yesterday was from S.Yorkshire so I asked why LBA and not EMA to which he replied LBA is easy to get too, for him it was straight up the A1 and turn off and through Harewood plus I really like the airport he said...aprox 50min journey for him but his number choice of course was Donny but its either TUi which he really dislike or nothing and no decent destinations this time if year.

LBA easy to get to? Surely not! Listen to some and it is a nightmare to get to, even from parts of Leeds, with the M62 and M60 to MAN apparently quicker and preferable. That certainly isn't my view and after LBA, I would opt for DSA, NCL or EMA rather than MAN.

 

[Finger66]

So I have been wondering what to post and where today, so decided on taking overall stock of things via the General Thread:
Flybe - their situation has clearly worsened in the last few days. If the worst does happen then totally agree that someone will op to Belfast, whether BHD or BFS but NQY and DUS will probably be lost.
Eastern - already on their knees with no res staff so how do they survive if BE go under
TUI - proved once again they are not committed to LBA
Thomas Cook - cut backs from 2018
Aurigny - season length reduction
New routes and new base announcements - yet another week passes and no news
So where do we take any positives from the above negativity:
Jet2 - continue to be LBA's saviours
KLM - could there still be an upgrade to 737-700 in the offing
BA - are at least maintaining their token offering
Ryanair - just about equal capacity but very much reliance on safe routes
Flybe - there will be other airports hit far harder than LBA if a demise happens but that is clutching at positive straws
So even Mr Positive here is suffering a serious doom and gloom attack

 

[White Heather]

Is Aurigny a season long reduction? I thought we had 3 x ATR72s this summer and next year was the same? As for Ryanair, I don't agree that they are reliant on safe routes. I wouldn't put the likes of Riga, Vilnius, Gdansk as 'safe' in the same way as the bucket and spade routes are. However, I would agree there is real scope for expansion if they had a will to do it. Ryanair have made some very negative noises regarding Brexit though, so I would have been very surprised indeed if they opted to do anything new and untested from little ol LBA until the outcome of that debacle is clearer.

 

[Tarn Spotter]

Ryanair have made some very negative noises regarding Brexit though, so I would have been very surprised indeed if they opted to do anything new and untested from little ol LBA until the outcome of that debacle is clearer.

It was a very subdued MOL at Septembers AGM.
Not only had we lost our labour case in the european court, labour disputes had now sprung up all over europe, something MOL had promised the last two AGM's could be managed.
Add the pilots rosta issue, having to amend the baggage policy, we have a company where the management is failing to manage.
The organisation MOL fully backed has bitten him badly, to such an extend that it was viewed his insistence on short term contract extension, the action of a man looking to walk away with dignity. The boards verbal advise to shareholders that interviews for his role would commence, only supports this view.
LBA and other issues all in the pending tray, but due to management issues, not brexit.

 

[Finger66]

Is Aurigny a season long reduction? I thought we had 3 x ATR72s this summer and next year was the same? As for Ryanair, I don't agree that they are reliant on safe routes. I wouldn't put the likes of Riga, Vilnius, Gdansk as 'safe' in the same way as the bucket and spade routes are. However, I would agree there is real scope for expansion if they had a will to do it. Ryanair have made some very negative noises regarding Brexit though, so I would have been very surprised indeed if they opted to do anything new and untested from little ol LBA until the outcome of that debacle is clearer.

I maybe mistaken but I think the GR GCI service, whilst 3 weekly, ran from April to October and is why 2019 is a reduction. My point with Ryanair on safe routes was adding an extra frequency to the likes of PMI to fill the gaps in the schedule where other routes have been cut.

 

[lbaspotter]

I maybe mistaken but I think the GR GCI service, whilst 3 weekly, ran from April to October and is why 2019 is a reduction.

Its not a reduction. As Aurigny's GCI-LBA service ran 3x weekly from May 25th to September 29th 2018.

 

[Finger66]

Thanks for clarification and clearly my mistake

 

[Seasider]

I didn't want to post in the TUI and not sure whether it is Jet2 either so if the mods want to move me that's OK.

On Tuesday this week, Jet2 had 3 flights, today, it is 1. This will be the situation (except Xmas/New Year) until the middle of February when flights will gradually start increasing. There are many reasons for this but if your "major" airline cuts back to this level for 10 weeks then pax numbers are bound to plummet. Ryanair manage to keep a consistent number of flights each day but they have a more varied destination list. Holidaymakers in the winter are not as plentiful therefore not as many flights required.

I am not criticising Jet2 (I am one of their biggest fans) because I prefer them to cut back the number of flights when demand is less so that they remain profitable and in business.

Hopefully I will get away with this not being in the Nostalgia thread. When I first developed an interest in civil aviation, in the late 60's, the winter timetable consisted of 4 flights on Saturday and 2 flights on Sunday.

 

[a300boy]

We welcome opinions !
That’s what a chat forum is for and I would love to see more Jet 2 flights in the winter.
I assume they don’t share my vision. It has to be said they do the same at many of their other bases.

 

[KARFA]

Isn’t the reduction in LS flights simply because more of their routes are holiday routes which have a significantly lower demand during winter? FR in comparison seem to focus more on the non-holiday routes so demand doesn’t reduce as much.

At the end of the day no airline is a charity so FR are running flights because they can fill them - and they usually do a good job of it. LS are reducing flights because the demand for their routes isn’t there over winter.

 

[KARFA]

Have you actually seen RYN winter schedule from LBA ......all throughout winter.

Faro
Tenerife
Alicante
Gran Canaria
Malaga

And those are off the top of my head!

Yes it’s here https://forums4airports.com/threads/234/post-151361

 

[a300boy]

To be fair Jet 2 could have had all the winter destination Ryanair serve now as in the early days Ryanair parked aircraft up at Lba just like Jet 2 do now but let’s not give them a hard time.