Archive Eastern Airways from Leeds Bradford Airport

[jason1-11]

Bad news from Eastern Airways could be next after reading stuff on another forum..

I'm lead to believe there maybe significant schedule changes in the not too distant future. Let's hope the Leeds schedule remains intact.

 

[transitman]

lba spotter so what's the bad news about eastern or what's the name of the other forum you've seen it on

 

[Aviador]

Rumours on the other site were suggesting things are not so good for Eastern Airways. At this stage it looks like the airline is doing lots of restructuring hopefully nothing more.

 

[whoshotjimmi]

They wouldn't be the first airline to add a number of Embraer jets to then have financial difficulties if, indeed, that were the case. Ludicrous and totally unexpected announcements such as opening routes to Rodez probably don't help. It suggests that those at the top aren't necessarily making the right decisions for the business.

The core business is what is going to make it money. The core business in Eastern's case is oil and providing a high level of service to business clientele. Recently , Eastern have been making a lot of noise about slashing their fares and are obviously trying to generate more custom from leisure passengers. This either means that the oil business is not currently working for them or they want to change their model. My understanding is that, with the lower price of the pound, North Sea Oil is currently more popular which would suggest that oil business traffic should be increasing rather than decreasing.

The BHX-NCL route was lost precisely because the route didn't fit that particular model and the price wasn't low enough to compete with a regular, albeit slow, rail service. Currently, they have high service, high frequency routes at lower prices that are being (at times) significantly undercut by many similar routes operated by other airlines. Then there was the purchase and merger of Air Southwest for what reason exactly? I know this was a few years ago now but, instead of using the opportunity to expand and consolidate their business, they facilitated a total withdrawal from the South West of England which also caused the closure of Plymouth Airport. One of Eastern's big rivals on the sort of traffic they pursue (oil, business and small charter), BMI Regional, has seen large growth in Bristol - so much so that it now actually looks like a thriving airline again after so much went before.

If Eastern are allegedly facing any problems, it is not because of something that happened last week. It has been years in the making and the raft of snap announcements and changes being made seem a little along the Flybe lines of desperation and talk about niche! The only more niche route than Leeds - Rodez was Billund - Humberside and even the Billion Euro Siemens Wind Energy business couldn't keep that going.

I teach Maths, among other things and one of the things I try to get across to my students is that if the answer looks stupid, it probably is stupid. You'd hope that any issues they have will not affect LBA as I don't see airlines such as BMI or Flybe queueing up to take on such routes.

N.B. (off topic) Whilst researching this, I noticed that Flybe has managed to get rights into Heathrow! How in God's Earth did this happen??

 

[Aviador]

I can't really add anything to that. Very sensibly put.

Off topic: I believe Easyjet has also secured some Heathrow slots!

 

[whoshotjimmi]

I can't really add anything to that. Very sensibly put.

Off topic: I believe Easyjet has also secured some Heathrow slots!

Is the world still spinning???

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I'm not sure that easyJet has secured any LHR slots. They want to - at an expanded LHR.

http://www.standard.co.uk/business/easyjet-aims-to-cash-in-on-heathrows-third-runway-a3379156.html

 

[Aviador]

Thanks. I thought I'd read somewhere that they had secured flights.

 

[a300boy]

Based on what some of the people who work for Eastern Air post in other forums it has been an unhappy place to be for a long time !

 

[tleeds]

They've lost a lot of custom over the past few years. It doesn't help when the staff are just as bad sometimes. It's been known at LBA that the captain has delayed the flight for his own personal reasons. The airline also will very happily cancel a flight whenever they feel like it, so I'm not surprised a lot of the regulars have decided to give up with them! They're an awful airline to deal with sometimes!

 

[whoshotjimmi]

And yet still somehow managed to run Flybe off the routes twice. Says everything really.

 

[lbaspotter]

And yet still somehow managed to run Flybe off the routes twice. Says everything really.

Crazy to think how Eastern Airways have run Flybe of both the Aberdeen and Southampton routes two times now what with its better business friendly timed service but comes with higher fare prices.
Think where Flybe have gone wrong was not basing aircraft at LBA, instead they have always operated it from the other end.

Same can be said with the Leeds - Exeter service they operated. For some reason they went double daily to MAN and it sucked the life out of the LBA route.
Ok we had Air Southwest back then who took up the slack by adding further increases to Bristol/Newquay/Plymouth. It was such a crying shame the way Eastern Airways bought Air Southwest and then shut the entire operation down so quickly. LBA lost all its connections to the South West of the country until just 6 months ago, when Flybe opened its PSO service to Newquay.

Flybe have had better success LBA. After bmi british midland dropped the Heathrow route they operated a London Gatwick route, this time around the LGW based crew and aircraft were night stopping at LBA. The service was only dropped after Gatwick's owners started to force airlines using props out by charging higher landing fees. Same can be said after they picked up the Belfast City route after Capital Airlines went bust all them years ago!

 

[a300boy]

The staff problem may be a kick back to a company that treats them badly ! but still poor from a customers perspective.

 

[Cruzeiro do Sul]

On the subject of the closure of businesses, it should be borne in mind that the owner of the unprofitable company is not always the direct instigator of the liquidation.
There is a corporate finance technique whereby the holding company injects cash into a loss-making subsidiary and sells it as a going concern. The purchaser has the unpleasant task of closing down the business and hopes that there will be sufficient remaining cash to earn a 'fee' for all the trouble.

 

[a300boy]

I hope this does not become necessary for the sake of all the staff !

 

[David_itl]

N.B. (off topic) Whilst researching this, I noticed that Flybe has managed to get rights into Heathrow! How in God's Earth did this happen??

They are the remedy slots from when BA bought bmi which VS operated as Little Red who then made Big Red so pulled the airline. Got to operate the routes for 6 IATA seasons (3 years) to actually gain title to them.

 

[Finger66]

You will have read my post on the LBA General thread regarding new routes so won't repeat that on here too. I really hope nothing happens to T3. They are a great airline for the business traveller and are always very accommodating and helpful. It is also very unsettling for staff when adverse publicity starts to surface. So some good news for Eastern is that one of their routes, sadly not from LBA though, has seen significant growth in 2017. So much so that they are looking at a frequency increase. The route in question is a diagonal one across the UK and supports part of my post in the LBA General thread because the equivalent overland journey must be a nightmare. The other problem Eastern have got is their major reliance on ABZ which is suffering massively due to the cutbacks in the North Sea oil industry. They need to start redeploying on to other routes, perhaps as again mentioned in my LBA General Thread post. Does anyone know exactly how their pax figures hold up from LBA? Their a/c sit about too much at weekends. Yes I realise there isn't the business demand there, especially on a Saturday as well a Sunday morning, but take that leaf out of BACF's book and get on those shorter leisure routes that the fleet can cover. Aircraft utilisation potentially means more profit if the right routes are operated.

 

[a300boy]

`It would seem they would have crewing shortages to cover weekend flights.
As they seem to find it difficult to recruit and keep staff a rethink of how they can solve this problem would be a start.
Never liked to see aircraft on the ground for long periods !
It happened to me at Dan-Air when we lost the winter ski flights to Air 2000 as the B757 had bigger holds and could carry the passengers ski equipment better than our B727.
We ended up only flying once or twice a month with the inevitable sale of the airline two years later due to winter financial losses.

 

[leedslad]

Must say I've looked at eastern for leisure flights a few times for a Scottish break or over to Norway but the pricing has always been extortionate...

 

[Cruzeiro do Sul]

The Rodez to Orly service is a Public Service Obligation route, so it should be profitable for Eastern. The introduction of a route from the U.K. to Rodez could well be a way of earning revenue from positioning flights.
The E170 is sometimes employed to Orly, so there may be scope for a route from Humberside to Rodez!