Bristol: EasyJet Route News & Base Updates

[TheLocalYokel]

Isle of Man

Just looked at the seat selector to find that Sunday's BRS-IOM is showing only 13 available seats.

The route continues at 4 x weekly for part of the winter including the whole of November but other days in the near future seem very light on seats taken.

Is something significant happening on the Isle of Man early next week?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Basel and Vienna

These routes that commenced last week seem to have made a slow start if the seat selector is any sort of guide.

November is never a good month to launch a new route and I wondered if 4 x weekly for Basel was a bit optimistic. The established GVA showed 'sold out' for the next three outbound journeys from today which demonstrates that there are plenty of people wanting to fly to Switzerland from the West Country even in November.

I was surprised at the choice of Basel over Zurich as easyJet's second Swiss destination from BRS. Even Helvetic, an airline little known in this corner of the UK, were getting average monthly loads over 60 at their inflated prices (compared with easyJet's typical fares) to Zurich.

Perhaps Basel gives easyJet a much better deal than Zurich which would help with the maths for the route.

I thought that Vienna might have started a bit more strongly than appears to be the case, especially as it's only 2 x weekly and Ryanair were carrying monthly load factors in the 90s% to Bratislava which many used to reach Vienna and yet Ryanair axed that route.

Plenty of time for the word to get around though.

 

[superking]

Re: easyJet birthday

easyjets birthday today.its 20 years since it operated its first revenue flight.
the first revenue flight was luton to glasgow.
how they have changed in many ways as general aviation.
happy birthdy easyjet.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Additional based aircraft for summer 2016

easyJet confirms that there will be 13 aircraft based at BRS next summer. This is one more than in 2015 which was one more than in 2014. From the reading of the press announcement on the BRS web page ('From summer 2016 there will be up to 13 easyJet aircraft based at the airport') it appears it will probably be for the peak season as seemed likely when the peak summer timetable was published.

No mention of further routes although that may come if the 13th aircraft is to be fully utilised. There aren't too many rotations operated into BRS by non-based aircraft so it's not as if the additional based Airbus could take over those to fill its time.

[textarea]easyJet to add 13th aircraft to its Bristol operations

easyJet, Bristol’s largest and Europe’s leading airline, has today announced that it will be adding an additional aircraft to its Bristol operations from next year.

From summer 2016 there will be up to 13 easyJet aircraft based at the airport to cater for extra demand from its passengers across the South West and Wales, enabling the airline to fly to even more destinations from the airport.

The announcement comes following easyJet’s full year results which were issued earlier today announcing the airline had delivered record profits and returns for the 12 months ended 30 September 2015.

Earlier this month the airline also celebrated the start of two of its new routes from Bristol Airport to Basel in Switzerland and Vienna in Austria. The new routes were Bristol Airport’s first ever scheduled services to the two destinations and are expected to carry around 78,000 passengers annually. Passengers on easyJet’s inaugural flights to Basel and Vienna on 6 November were welcomed at the gate with an impressive cake to mark the event before jetting off to start their breaks.

In 2015 alone the airline has started, or announced the start dates of, an impressive 12 new destinations, meaning its customers in the South-West can now choose from 58 destinations in total. As well as its Basel and Vienna inaugurals earlier this month, easyJet’s first flights to Bilbao, Catania, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Lanzarote, Porto and Zante also took off. Another three have been announced for 2016: Dubrovnik, Nantes and Venice.

Ali Gayward, easyJet’s UK Commercial Manager, said:
“2015 has been an impressive year for easyJet in Bristol and our customers in the South West now have an incredible 58 destinations to choose from. As such we are putting a 13th aircraft into our Bristol operations to accommodate for the extra routes we have put on sale and the extra demand. We’re looking forward to welcoming more of our customers onboard in the future.”

Shaun Browne, Aviation Director, Bristol Airport said:
“We are delighted with the continued expansion of easyJet and the additional Airbus aircraft based at Bristol Airport. Not only does this expansion bring additional routes to the region but the growth supports job creation for both the Airport and the thriving aerospace industry in the city.”[/textarea]

Press release at http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/about-u ... easyjet-13

 

[Marko1]

Fantastic news indeed. Perhaps we may see a few new routes plus more frequencies too

 

[Marko1]

Catania back on sale for next summer

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Keflavik

According to the below linked report easyJet will return to the BRS-KEF route next October for the winter 16/17 after dropping it from next April. The rationale seems to be that last winter's passenger numbers rose considerably whereas the summer was basically flat. Incidentally, the 13,000 passengers said to have travelled the route this year between January and August is just half the figure that the CAA shows. If it was only 13,000 the route would have been down significantly on the previous year which the report has already said it wasn't.

Whether easyJet will re-assess their position now that WOW has appeared remains to be seen. This winter they are operating mainly 3 x weekly which at that rate next winter taken with WOW would mean 6 x weekly across both airlines. This seems a lot of seats even with the transatlantic connection.

http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/natur ... nter_only/

 

[alphagolf]

Not sure if I have missed something here but the easyJet booking engine shows Kittila in Finland commencing on the 9th December 2015, operating until 21st February 2016.

Flights operate Wednesday and Sunday:-

Wednesdays 9th & 16th December Only Dep 0630

Sundays 13th & 20 December Only Dep 0630 & 0710

Sunday 27th December through to Sunday 21st February 2016 Only Dep 0630

ALL FLIGHTS ARE SHOWING AS SOLD OUT.........

However the flights are being operated on behalf of Inghams, which incidentally the flights are available to book as part of a package on the Inghams website.

Can't say I had noticed Kittila in the list of destinations in the booking engine before so maybe easyJet are considering releasing seats if Inghams are not filling each flight...............who knows!

 

[Aviador]

It's usually a Santa flight destination, not sure why it would run until 21 February unless it's sold as a northern lights flight after Christmas?

 

[alphagolf]

It's usually a Santa flight destination, not sure why it would run until 21 February unless it's sold as a northern lights flight after Christmas?

I believe it is also a winter Ski destination, if my memory is correct there was a winter ski series that I think operated in the winter 2011/2012 season, flights were by Thomas Cook.

 

[superking]

It's usually a Santa flight destination, not sure why it would run until 21 February unless it's sold as a northern lights flight after Christmas?

I believe it is also a winter Ski destination, if my memory is correct there was a winter ski series that I think operated in the winter 2011/2012 season, flights were by Thomas Cook.

you are right in what you are saying alphagolf.it only operated for 1 season. im sure in saying the loads were ok.
i think that was at the time tc cut a lot of routes every where,as they were in a little financal problems at that time.
strange it didnt come back as a ski route,just a santa flight.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It's usually a Santa flight destination, not sure why it would run until 21 February unless it's sold as a northern lights flight after Christmas?

I believe it is also a winter Ski destination, if my memory is correct there was a winter ski series that I think operated in the winter 2011/2012 season, flights were by Thomas Cook.

You're right about Kittila being a ski destination as well as a Santa route from BRS. Thomas Cook operated it as a ski route for several winters into March, the last time being winter 11/12. In December 2013 and December 2014 TOM operated to Kittila on a Santa route presumably for its own tour company.

In December 2013 easyJet operated several flights to Ivalo from BRS, again presumably as Santa flights. I suspect this may have been for a tour company or companies.

Looking at this winter's published day trips and mini breaks for December there are ten Kittila departures shown, three for Inghams and seven for Thomson, although the airline is not shown and the Inghams departures are all on dates when Thomson operate so they may share an aircraft

Transun also has two Kittila departures on 31 January and 7 February. Maybe they are taking seats with easyJet too.

There are five Enontekio departures shown for Transun and Canterbury, three Ivalo for Santa's Lapland and one Rovineimi for Thomas Cook.

It's interesting how the various Lapland Santa destinations have varied down the years. Until about three years ago Rovaneimi was the most popular from BRS but last year there were no flights there. Kittila was the most popular with over 3,000 passengers followed by Enontekio with nearly 1,700 and Ivalo with nearly 1,200.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

you are right in what you are saying alphagolf.it only operated for 1 season. im sure in saying the loads were ok.
i think that was at the time tc cut a lot of routes every where,as they were in a little financal problems at that time.
strange it didnt come back as a ski route,just a santa flight.

I submitted my previous post before I read superking's post. I agree with the sentiments about Thomas Cook pulling back on some of their previous activities when they were going through a difficult period financially.

They operated ski flights at BRS for many years but stopped after the 11/12 season - one of their routes was Salzburg operated against Thomson and easyJet. In 12/13 and 13/14 Thomas Cook didn't even take seats with other operators but last winter they returned with a Geneva weekly ski flight with their own aircraft for their own tour company. Seemed a brave choice to return with given that TOM also operated weekly to GVA and easyJet operated over 20 weekly ski flights to that airport.

I don't know what will be the full ski charter programme this winter. I always wait until the season starts as early published programmes don't always turn into reality. The winter scheduled ski programme with easyJet seems as busy as ever in terms of the number of flights.

 

[ezy_brs]

Morning All! I can confirm that The Kitilla Flight is indeed sold as a charter for Inghams, as Santa flights to Lapland, and is continuing on for Northern Lights flights into february. Easyjet have 'sold out' the aircraft to protect the seats for Inghams customers only, however on previous years easyJet have done the Santa flights there has not been 1 spare seat! So to protect the flight for inghams easyjet don't release any seats for general sale. The reason it appears on the website as a destination is so that customers can track the flight through easyJet's 'Flight Tracker' app to check on the status of the flight. In my eyes it is a shame they don't release seats for general sale but that I suppose they make their money straight from Inghams!

 

[Marko1]

Some extra flights are starting to be introduced with the 13 th aircraft . Madrid goes daily , nice has an extra Sunday flight and the Saturday flight to Glasgow is reintroduced. Lots of gaps tho

 

[BRSregular]

Some additional Bordeaux flights too which thankfully saves me having to fly back into Stansted next June!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Welcome BRSregular.

Good to read your first post and we look forward to seeing more in the future.

Whilst on the subject of easyJet at BRS this linked report describes the results of an enquiry into an incident last May when the crew of an easyJet GLA-BRS on approach to runway 27 lost situational awareness resulting in their being too close to the top of a hill leading to a go-around after which the aircraft landed safely.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Crew-lost- ... story.html

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Kittila

Further to the recent discussion about easyJet to Kittila from BRS, I note from the BRS departures/arrivals pages that today there were two departures - EZY 6301 and EZY 6303 at 0630 and 0710 hours respectively.

Furthermore, there were two Thomson departures to Kittila (both B 757 according to Mayfly) at 0645 and 0710 hours respectively.

 

[kraktoa]

Ezy plane landing at Bristol lost situational awareness and came too low over Dundry hills. Landing aborted and under investigation. Apparently all landing checks not completed. Happened last week. Came within 500 m of Dundry hills. Yikees...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/trave ... ourse.html

 

[TheLocalYokel]

November 2015 CAA stats for this winter's new routes

These are the numbers for the routes I can ascertain, ie those that don't compete with another airline.

Basel 2612 passengers, average load 72.5, load factor 46.5%

Vienna 1679 passengers, average load 93.3, load factor 59.8%

Isle of Man 2320 passengers, average load 64.4, load factor 41.3%

Gibraltar 2525 passengers, average load 140.3, load factor 90%

Porto 2501 passengers, average load 156.3*

* this was supposed to be 2 x weekly on a A319 (like the others in this list). Either there was an additional rotation slipped in somewhere or some of the flights in November used a 320 because clearly the average load is higher than the 156-seat A319. Whatever, the reason the loads look good on this one.

Isle of Man was a surprise at 4 x weekly for the summer let alone the winter and is being reduced next year.

Basel at 4 x weekly was also slightly surprising to some at 4 x weekly from the start but the loads are still very disappointing. It drops to 2 x weekly for January (not sure if this was planned from the beginning) before returning to 4 x weekly in February.

Vienna is also not brilliant but may improve over time.