easyJet

[TheLocalYokel]

Travelled to Glasgow yesterday morning on the first northbound of the day (dep BRS 0710) and returned from Glasgow on the last southbound of the day (dep GLA 2115).

I've used this route a number of times over the past six or seven years (originally with Go) and would say the aircraft were as lightly loaded as at any time in the past, in my personal experience.

I estimate the northbound had around 100 passengers and the southbound had 83 (overheard one of the cabin staff mention the load to a colleague).

The final EZY southbound of the day to Gatwick was loading at the same time as ours, in the rather quaint shed that GLA seems to allocate easyJet departures, and there were hardly any more passengers on that than on the Bristol.

I am not a registration collector but did check our aircraft as they were amongst the older easyJet 319s: northbound G-EZIA (delivered March 05); southbound G-EZIT (delivered August 05). My reason for doing so was to check the interior condition and have to say both weren't at all bad. Seats seemed fine (at least ours did) and the inside of the aircraft didn't have the going-to-tat look.

Flights were fine - both left late but landed more or less on time - easy's generous timetabling I guess, but most if not all airlines seem to do this.

 

[Aviador]

Thanks for posting your trip report Local Yokel. By your account it seems that all in all the Easyjet experience is a reasonably good one.

Around 80 to 100 passengers on a domestic flight sounds like a good figure although both the early morning and last in the evening flights are often the busiest. How many flights does Easyjet operate each day to Glasgow? If they operate a further one or two flights during the day those flights may well be operating with substantially lower passenger numbers.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

3 x daily Mon to Fri, single daily Sat and double daily Sun between BRS and GLA.

May saw 18,600 passengers on the route, average load 119, almost identical to May 2008. However it's a far cry from three or four years ago when BACx/BACon competed with easyJet and the route saw monthly totals of 26,000 to 29,000 passengers.

I shall be interested in seeing June's figure.

Glad I didn't go today. The aircraft that operates the last north/south GLA operates from BRS to/from CDG immediately before. It is over four hours late and estimating a return at Bristol well after 2300, and the evening AF is two hours late so perhaps there is a problem in France.

Give easyJet their due though. All eleven BRS-based 319s were operating this evening with the first back around 2200. The have co-opted one of the 'early arrivals' back at base and are sending it to GLA but even so it will not reach Scotland until well after midnight and is showing an ETA at BRS of 0200.

Addendum

The Gatwick flight I referred to from GLA was in fact the Stansted.

 

[Aviador]

[textarea]Job cuts loom at Bristol airport

JOBS at Bristol International Airport are under threat after easyJet announced the area has a 'surplus' of workers.

The low cost airline is scrapping 20 per cent of its flights from London's Luton Airport and pulling out of East Midlands Airport in Derbyshire altogether, causing a knock on effect for Bristol.

Aircraft from both these hubs will now be moved to European bases.

This change means that about 40 easyJet pilots and cabin crew based at Bristol, Belfast, Stansted and Newcastle could lose their jobs.

A spokesman for the airline, Samantha Day, said: "The economic climate has changed and people don't move on in their jobs as much as they used to so this has naturally causes a surplus of staff.

"Bristol airport is one of the areas that has more crew and we are looking at cutting back on this.

"A 90-day consultation is now taking place and at the earliest, a decision could be made in December."

The airline has confirmed there will not be a cut in flights or aircraft carriers.

Shaun Browne, aviation director at BIA said: "We have an excellent working relationship with easyJet and have worked hard to build the UK's largest easyJet base outside London.

"The announcement regarding East Midlands and Luton is unlikely to impact the Bristol operation and we look forward to growing the easyJet base at Bristol over the long-term.

Source[/textarea]

The prospect of future growth from the airline at Bristol looks slim now.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I remember saying in a couple of message boards some time ago that Ryanair's expansion at BRS would have an adverse effect on easyJet. It's happened at other UK regional airports where Ryanair has begun to grow in the face of an established easyJet base.

Other local press reports say easyJet will continue to base ten aircraft at BRS. Well, if that is the case for the whole year it will be a reduction.

In summer 08 and 09 there were eleven and in peak summer 08 and 09 there were twelve.

Ten is the winter figure or has been over the past two winters.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Bristol to get its first easyJet A320

Perhaps easyJet has decided to come out fighting against Ryanair.

The Big Orange announced today that they will base their first 180-seat A320 at BRS from spring 2010 and use it to fly to Paphos (4 x weekly) and Tenerife South (3 x weekly) which are new easyJet routes from Bristol.

Interesting in as much as Ryanair currently flies from Bristol and some other UK bases to Tenerife (and other Canary routes) and there has been much speculation that they would continue into the summer.

If they do I suspect that Tenerife will be an overkill next summer from Bristol.

Paphos is interesting because until a couple of years ago there were around ten charter flights each week in summer from Bristol to Cyprus ( Paphos and Larnaca in total) but these had reduced to about six last summer.

The airport CEO said at the last consultative committee meeting in October that new routes would be announced in the near future, specifically mentioning Greece and Turkey. Apart from Izmir Turkey is pretty well covered and multi frequency at that, but it would be good to see the return of some of the more obscure Greek islands that used to be flown until a few years ago - Santorini, Volos and Chania (the 'other' airport on Crete) to name but three although Skiathos is back for summer 2010.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Three more new easyJet routes will commence on 16/17 July 2010:

Bodrum 3 x weekly
Dalaman 3 x weekly
Heraklion 2 x weekly

I don't know whether this will mean a second A 320 at the airport. The recently announced routes to Tenerife and Paphos will be operated by a 320 and the timetable means one 320 couldn't operate all five new routes.

 

[Aviador]

It would appear that way with 8 flights each taking up at least 9 hours of the day. Otherwise one short sector to say france or spain followed by one run to each of the above destinations.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Three new EasyJet routes ready for take-off from Bristol

Budget airline easyJet has announced three new routes from Bristol International Airport.

It will start thrice-weekly flights to Dalaman and Bodrum in Turkey from July 16 and 17. Fares will start from £30.99 to Bodrum, and £42.99 to Dalaman one way. From July 17, easyJet will fly twice-weekly to Heraklion in Crete, with fares starting from £20.99 one way.

The new services bring the total number of routes by easyJet from Bristol to 44, strengthening its position as the largest carrier there.

Rival Ryanair is the second largest carrier, with 39 destinations from Bristol.

An easyJet spokesman said: "EasyJet has gone from strength to strength at Bristol throughout 2009, and has carried over 21 million passengers since our launch at the airport in 2001.

"We're committed to expansion across the UK regions, particularly at Bristol, and estimate that we will carry over three million passengers from Bristol in 2010.

"Not only are we going to be operating even more routes in 2010, but we're making a multimillion-pound investment in new aircraft, which are designed and partly manufactured locally.

"The latest addition to our fleet is an Airbus A320 aircraft. They seat 180 and give us the ability to fly longer distances, which means easyJet can offer short haul European destinations and also medium-haul routes."[/textarea]

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/new ... ticle.html

Somewhat ingenuous comments from the airline because as things stand at the moment summer 2010 will see a reduction of one based aircraft to eleven compared with the previous two summers.

These new routes have been in the easyJet web system since before Christmas yet they are only officially 'unveiled' today.

 

[Aviador]

These new routes have been in the easyJet web system since before Christmas yet they are only officially 'unveiled' today.

Yes I thought you'd already mentioned the new routes on here when I read the story on the web earlier. Is that classed as a scoop? leasantry:

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I had booked to fly from Bristol to Milan on 29th March. After a 2 hour delay we were then given a gate no to go to after a further delay of 30 mins then told the flight was cancelled - escorted to our baggage and then told to leave the airport and go on line to book flights via the internet. We were then informed that there was no management at the airport to deal with our request for help. My understanding was that the flight was cancelled due to the lack of flying hours remaining for the pilot - there were a lot of Italians on this flight who had nowhere to go and they were treated the same.

http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/easy.htm

This extract from a well known trip report site if true, and I have no reason to doubt it, is what really gets my goat with airlines.

Passengers should at least be afforded the courtesy of a proper explanation and just because easyJet flights are handled by another company on behalf of the airline (Menzies at Bristol) does not mean there is no managerial presence of the contracted company at the airport.

There is a similar report of an incident with easyJet at Gatwick on the same day - it's immediately above the Bristol-Milan report.

 

[Aviador]

The procedure to handle passengers seems to have been carried out so far as I can tell in this instance. It's never easy to break the bad news to passengers and more often than not the handling agent wont even be informed of the reason for the cancellation unless it's related to the individual airport's operation such as bad weather or runway closure etc.

The procedure of taking the passengers to the boarding gate before announcing a flight cancellation seems to be normal. The alternative way of informing the passengers would be to announce the flight cancellation over the loud speaker, then you get a stampede of passengers towards the handling agent. This method more often than not turns nasty and often requires a Police presence.

With regards to management intervention, most handling agents tend to just have a shift supervisor who is usually just an experienced passenger agent. They would generally be unable to commit much more information to the passenger other than what they have already been told by the passenger agent. The actual management of most handling contracts tend to work office hours 9-5 and so wont always be available throughout a 24 hour operation. Most airlines will give a pre written letter giving the passengers the official line.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I have no reason to think that the airline and handling agents's procedures were not correctly followed on the day.

My beef is that the airline should have more customer-friendly procedures in place so that someone in authority from the airline or handling agent can explain to the discomfited travellers what went wrong, issue an apology and give a proper explanation as to how recompense can be achieved.

I'm not having a go at easyJet per se. Other airlines, including some alleged full-service ones, treat their customers in an equally offhand way.

It may be an age thing where oldies like me remember yestyeryear when airlines looked after their passengers, even economy class ones, with genuine interest and courtesy.

Sadly, such treatment is becoming less and less common these days.

I suppose today's generation of travellers grow up in the current often cavalier customer-'service' environment and regard is as the norm believing they have to accept it because there is no alternative which is probably true. Still doesn't make it right though in my opinion.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

A320 arrives

Bristol's first based easyJet A320 is due to start work next week according to the Mayfly.

It begins on Wednesday 14 April with a morning Malaga rotation and an afternoon/evening Paphos.

Thursday is also Malaga in the morning but Funchal in the afternoon/evening.

Friday sees a trip to Tenerife and back in the morning/early afternoon and a Corfu rotation in late afternoon/evening.

Saturday hosts a morning Faro and an afternoon/evening Paphos.

Sunday has a morning Alicante and an afternoon/evening Paphos.

Although the following week is to be published it would appear that Monday will serve Paphos and a shorter trip to the Mediterranean and Tuesday Tenerife and another trip to the Med.

This will mean that Corfu, Funchal, Tenerife, Alicante, Malaga and Faro will be served by a 319 and a 320 each week depending on the day whilst only Paphos @ 4 x weekly has a 320 on every rotation.

 

[Aviador]

My beef is that the airline should have more customer-friendly procedures in place so that someone in authority from the airline or handling agent can explain to the discomfited travellers what went wrong, issue an apology and give a proper explanation as to how recompense can be achieved.

I guess the problem arises when something is said that shouldn't be said and the airline then receives a barrage of complaints and compensation claims. Usually at best, so far as airlines such as Thomas Cook, Thomson Airways and Jet2, the airline usually releases a 'very carefully derived' letter of apology or explanation which usually avoid specific details.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

easyJet's first Bristol-based A320 arrived today and is scheduled for its first revenue-earning work from the airport tomorrow - morning to/from Malaga and afternoon/evening to/from Paphos on easyJet's inaugural rotation on this route.

A local BRS website shows some splendid pics of G-EZTP arriving to a traditional airport fire brigade welcome.

I remember a similar welcome given to Continental's first 757 arrival in May 2005 - I have some video shots of that.

I hope the easyJet A320s have a longer life at BRS than CO's 757s.

 

[Aviador]

I'm sure the bucket and spade flights will keep the A320 very occupied through the summer and I'm sure Easyjet will find something for them to do during the winter months, such as the Canary runs.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The teatime Newcastle rotation and the evening Belfast International rotation (operated respectively by NCL and BFS-based aircraft) were both cancelled today.

There is a lot of chat on the Dried Plum about easyJet having crewing problems and leasing aircraft from other airlines at some bases with cancellations at BFS in recent days highlighted.

A year or two ago the airline cut a significant number of flightdeck and cabin staff at several UK bases. Perhaps that decision is coming home to roost.

Going back further, around 2005 or 2006, the airline was in awful difficulties and axed numerous flights one summer because of crew shortages. In fact, the cancellations were pre-planned weeks in advance and I had four sectors cancelled with about two weeks' notice.

Now they seem to be cancelling on the hoof which is far worse for the poor old passenger.

 

[Aviador]

I thought the European Passenger Charter made it harder for airlines to cancel flights without a reasonable alternative. It's poor going from Easyjet if they are lowering their standards to the levels one would normally expect from airlines such as Ryanair.

 

[alphagolf]

Does anyone know if easyjet are planning any new routes after the latest ones: Dalaman, Bodrum, Heraklion start in July?