easyJet

[Jerry]

Why is it that thegoverment casts such a close and critical eye on Railway timetables and not the airlines?

Northern Rail has been in the news for months now because their new time tables caused such hardship to people. There should be a similar focus on the airline industry and their cancellations.

It has got to the stage where it has become a serious issue.

Because the government are essentially responsible for the railways, the likes of Northern Rail are franchises. Airports aren't the same and most airports are privately owned and aren't considered vital for many people's day to day commute's.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

What is a proper airline these days? They all offer the same type of service and pricing structure. If you look on social media on posts concerning Cardiff many don't consider Flybe a 'proper' airline but Easyjet and Ryanair are. Even airlines like KLM are now offering different types of fares, there aren't many full service airlines about anymore.

Not my description which is why I placed the word proper in quotations marks. I was reporting the comments of others. Those people seem to have got it into their head that 'budget airlines', which is how the news media often still refer to them, are somehow inferior in every way to well-known airlines that to them have been around for aeons.

We know that on short haul especially the service and facilities provided by, say, BA now varies little from that offered by the 'budget airlines'.

 

[superking]

And people still think budget airlines cut corners,pilot training and cabin staff training. Also some people think budget airlines cut down on maintenance. Try to convince people that weather it be budget air lines or full fare airlines they all have to go by the rule book.

 

[superking]

I see the A320 neo G UZHA is still based here. Its been here for a few weeks now and am wondering how its operating out of BRS.I also read that some of the neo aircrafts has had tail problems and they went back to airbus for repairs. It could not have been any thing too serious or all the neo aircrafts would have been taken out of service.

 

[Jerry]

Something to do with rudder control i believe.

 

[Marko1]

I note that easyJet is to return to Warsaw this winter together with expanding Routes to Budapest . I wonder whether brs may see these return at some point

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I note that easyJet is to return to Warsaw this winter together with expanding Routes to Budapest . I wonder whether brs may see these return at some point

Interesting thought. easyJet would be turning the tables on Ryanair who have started to come on to easyJet non-sun routes at BRS.

Warsaw Chopin operated only for a year (2008) but was withdrawn with a comment from the airline at the time that Chopin charges had increased. The recession was really beginning to bite then too although, generally speaking, BRS rode it out far better than most UK regional airports. Wizz later competed with Ryanair (Wizz to Chopin and Ryanair to Modlin) but later withdrew. They had no adverse effect on Ryanair's extremely high load factors and Wizz's were very high too for the most part. Presumably the yield was not to their liking or there might have been better prospects elsewhere.

I don't know why easyJet axed Budapest in 2006 after just two years. Since Ryanair took it on several years ago year-round loads have been extremely high. Budapest is one of just 13 routes axed by easyJet at BRS since they opened their base in the very early 'noughties' and three have since been reinstated with some of the others now operated by other airlines.

 

[kraktoa]

i have always wondered how the low cost carriers like RyanAir and Ezy with about 600 aircraft between them manage the aircraft maintenance when they have such limited maintenence space and hangars in the UK.

I know the aircraft are quite new and wont need much in terms of work, but they are flying all the time and clocking up the miles.

At Bristol all i see is ground staff at night going over the crafts with a torch and emptying cans of oil into various holes (yeah thats how much i know about these things) but surely they would need a robust maintenance department for such large fleets.

EZY recently opened a hangar in Gatwick but that has space for just 2 planes. How do they manage?

 

[Jerry]

i have always wondered how the low cost carriers like RyanAir and Ezy with about 600 aircraft between them manage the aircraft maintenance when they have such limited maintenence space and hangars in the UK.

I know the aircraft are quite new and wont need much in terms of work, but they are flying all the time and clocking up the miles.

At Bristol all i see is ground staff at night going over the crafts with a torch and emptying cans of oil into various holes (yeah thats how much i know about these things) but surely they would need a robust maintenance department for such large fleets.

EZY recently opened a hangar in Gatwick but that has space for just 2 planes. How do they manage?

I think they subcontract a lot of the heavy maintenance out to companies like Cardiff Aviation and a lot of it is done in the winter when they are quieter.

 

[Severn]

Given easyJet’s young fleet, most aircraft don’t require regular maintenance, and therefore a lot can be done over winter periods. The maintence that is done at BRS overnight is line maintence and is purely to ensure all the bases aircraft are ready for the next days flying.

The airline operates two base maintenance hangars in the UK: at London Gatwick and London Luton airports. EasyJets two-bay maintenance hangar at Gatwick takes two aircraft each night and is to keep up the large fleet of over 50 based aircraft there.

From articles I’ve read, EasyJet also uses Lufthansa’s maintenance services in Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Milan and Sofia

In June last year they started a big contract with a company in Malta and a lot of work is sent there and Sofia.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

easyJet A320s

Are all the 320s now 186-seats? The reason I ask is that whenever I check the easyJet seat selector from BRS they only ever show the 180-seat plan.

 

[Marko1]

I note that easyJet has added more frequency increases over the Xmas/new year period to paphos, Naples, Catania , Lisbon , Porto and Berlin. There is also 2 flights to both edi and gla on the Saturday before Xmas and the sixth sat service to Geneva reappears during February.

 

[mathers_wales_uk]

In recent years EasyJet had some maintenance performed in Cardiff Aviation. I can't remember off the top of my head how many actually went there however I believe they were not 100% happy.

Within a few months of the last visit a huge contract was signed for their Maintenance to be performed at Lufthansa Technic.

Things have since turned around with the Cardiff Aviation management so hopefully they can hopefully have a 2nd bite at EasyJet.

easyJet have two aircraft on standby one at Luton and one at Milan MXP to transport spares/engineers across their network.

 

[Jerry]

In recent years EasyJet had some maintenance performed in Cardiff Aviation. I can't remember off the top of my head how many actually went there however I believe they were not 100% happy.

I read somewhere that it was down to the lack of ILS at St Athan and the restricted opening times i believe.

 

[mathers_wales_uk]

I read somewhere that it was down to the lack of ILS at St Athan and the restricted opening times i believe.

I read it was down to aircraft not being released on time from maintenance amongst other things. I think the icing on the cake was the ILS issues.

 

[Jerry]

Just booked my first flight with Easyjet! Edinburgh to Bristol on the 4th October. Will be the first time i've used BRS in about 27 years since i was a child and my parents took me and my sister to Jersey to get us used to flying for our longer flight to Miami with Virgin! One way flight cost £44.25 including £3.99 for seat selection.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Just booked my first flight with Easyjet! Edinburgh to Bristol on the 4th October. Will be the first time i've used BRS in about 27 years since i was a child and my parents took me and my sister to Jersey to get us used to flying for our longer flight to Miami with Virgin! One way flight cost £44.25 including £3.99 for seat selection.

Jerry, I take it you are on the 1730 from EDI from the easyJet fare prices for that day that shows £40.26 basic fare for that flight. The 0840 EDI-BRS is £32.18 basic fare, the 1900 £34.20 and the 2055 £32.18. If you'd booked an outbound BRS-EDI as well, either for 4 October or for a previous day the fares on the EDI-BRS sector would have been £24.69, £32.76, £26.70 and £24.68 respectively.

There are further reductions per person whether on a return or one-way if two people book, a bit more off if three book, and a few pence more off if four people book.

Out of interest I tried a test booking with Ryanair. I used the 4 October for BRS-DUB and BRS-DUB-BRS. The fare on each of the three flights that day was the same on BRS-DUB whether I booked a single sector or a return (two sectors) and whether I booked for one person or more than one.

I've known that easyJet drops sector prices slightly when more than one person books, but I hadn't realised a sector was cheaper if you booked an outbound as well. I wasn't sure about Ryanair. It seems they don't alter sector fares for a 'return' or for more than one person on a booking. I don't know about Flybe.

 

[Jerry]

Jerry, I take it you are on the 1730 from EDI from the easyJet fare prices for that day that shows £40.26 basic fare for that flight. The 0840 EDI-BRS is £32.18 basic fare, the 1900 £34.20 and the 2055 £32.18. If you'd booked an outbound BRS-EDI as well, either for 4 October or for a previous day the fares on the EDI-BRS sector would have been £24.69, £32.76, £26.70 and £24.68 respectively.

Yep that is my flight! I'm doing a spotting day trip at EDI and that was the earliest return to the area. I didn't want it to be an uber long day. I thought about flying up with EZY but i'd probably have to get up at 3 am to make sure i get to BRS with plenty of time as i generally don't like to have to rush through airports. Flying at 7 from CWL means that i don't have to get up till 4 am and it means i get to do a trip report about Flybe as well as one about EZY as well and i've never flown with them and are curious as to what they are like even on a short hop like this. I will definitely fly with Ryanair one day but it probably won't be till 2019.

Easyjets pricing did seem more dynamic than Flybe's i'm guessing it's down to a more advanced pricing software than Flybe's. The price i got with Flybe was a limited offer one, so many seats at this price available offer and was the same price when i had the idea last week and did some research on it and the Easyjet prices were dearer than when i booked today. I also looked at other airports MAN, BHX and LHR using the train and this is definitely the cheapest option and with the travelling time to MAN i'd probably have to overnight.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Yep that is my flight! I'm doing a spotting day trip at EDI and that was the earliest return to the area. I didn't want it to be an uber long day. I thought about flying up with EZY but i'd probably have to get up at 3 am to make sure i get to BRS with plenty of time as i generally don't like to have to rush through airports. Flying at 7 from CWL means that i don't have to get up till 4 am and it means i get to do a trip report about Flybe as well as one about EZY as well and i've never flown with them and are curious as to what they are like even on a short hop like this. I will definitely fly with Ryanair one day but it probably won't be till 2019.

Easyjets pricing did seem more dynamic than Flybe's i'm guessing it's down to a more advanced pricing software than Flybe's. The price i got with Flybe was a limited offer one, so many seats at this price available offer and was the same price when i had the idea last week and did some research on it and the Easyjet prices were dearer than when i booked today. I also looked at other airports MAN, BHX and LHR using the train and this is definitely the cheapest option and with the travelling time to MAN i'd probably have to overnight.

I wasn't suggesting that you might have used easyJet both ways. I was really thinking aloud in that I'd learned something (the lower sector prices if you book both at the same time than if you just book one sector) that I'd not known before idly doing some test bookings today, despite having flown easyJet numerous times over the past 15 years or so. I suppose I've never had occasion to book one sector - it's always been there and back - so hadn't realised there was a difference in price. I wondered if others might have been unaware too.

Sounds like a good day out. Until we decided that getting up at stupid o'clock was no longer for us my wife and I would often fly day trips with easyJet from BRS to EDi, to GLA and to NCL (now next to impossible with NCL because of the unhelpful flight times). In fact, the first two or three to EDI and GLA were with Go before easyJet bought them. I remember the first fare was £15 each per sector but APD wasn't so vicious then, and it was at 2001/2 pound values. Despite inflation, I think it's still possible to find 'return' fares at under £50 if you book far enough in advance which at today's pound values is probably not much more than £30 was 15 years ago.

 

[Jerry]

Sounds like a good day out. Until we decided that getting up at stupid o'clock was no longer for us my wife and I would often fly day trips with easyJet from BRS to EDi, to GLA and to NCL (now next to impossible with NCL because of the unhelpful flight times). In fact, the first two or three to EDI and GLA were with Go before easyJet bought them.

One thing I did notice on the Easyjet website when I had the flight option page open was that it was suggesting maybe reminding the customer that they also flew from Glasgow and Newcastle to Bristol that was something I noticed as I've not seen that on other airlines website's.