Bristol: EasyJet Route News & Base Updates

[TheLocalYokel]

New Route

Bristol seems to have begun to benefit from the 'host of new destinations from our UK bases' promised by easyJet last week for next summer.

Naples will be flown 3 x weekly (Tue, Thurs, Sat) next year from 12 May until 1 September.

Anything is welcome, of course, but TOM already flies 2 x weekly (Mon and Fri) to Naples throughout the summer, or they do this year and have flown at least once a week in summer to Naples from BRS for around 20 years.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Berlin Brandenburg Airport

easyJet flights are now on sale from BRS to Berlin Brandenburg from Sunday 3 June 2012.

The schedule remains at 6 x weekly for most of the summer as was the case with Berlin Schoenfeld, and still is for that matter next summer until 1 June when that airport site becomes part of the new Brandenburg airport.

What price that the airline/airport spin doctors will announce this as a new route as they did last year when easyJet switched its longstanding BRS flights from Rome Ciampino to Rome Fiumicino. :shok:

 

[big g]

I have noticed the past few mornings that Easy Jet have only had 10 based aircraft, so not sure where the 11th has gone?

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

I have noticed the past few mornings that Easy Jet have only had 10 based aircraft, so not sure where the 11th has gone?

End of the summer season doubt they'll need it.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I have noticed the past few mornings that Easy Jet have only had 10 based aircraft, so not sure where the 11th has gone?

As nicholas says, the eleventh aircraft has left the base now the summer is over.

Since 2008 the complement of based aircraft has been ten with an eleventh operating in peak summer (usually mid-July till mid-September. This summer the eleventh aircraft came later but stayed later (end July till end September).

The one that has gone should be the second A320.

The winter should see a base of nine 319s and one 320.

Summer 2012's timetable suggests that there will be eleven aircraft based for a much longer period, probably from early May or even earlier.

The highest number of easyJet aircraft based at BRS so far was summer 2008 with 11, with a 12th in peak summer that year, but then they were all 319s.

The calendar year of 2008 was BRS's best ever for passenger numbers overall with over 6.2 million.

 

[big g]

easyJet have their 200th A320 G-EZUI flying out of BRS at the moment, it's not to some tastes but it's nice to see one with a different livery from the norm!

 

[Aviador]

easyJet have their 200th A320 G-EZUI flying out of BRS at the moment, it's not to some tastes but it's nice to see one with a different livery from the norm!

Any pictures available?

 

[alphagolf]

Pictures are available on Bristol Airports Flickr page, follow link at bottom of Bristol Airport home page!

alphagolf

 

[Aviador]

Pictures are available on Bristol Airports Flickr page, follow link at bottom of Bristol Airport home page!

alphagolf

Thanks alphaholf :good:

 

[TheLocalYokel]

New route - Copenhagen

easyJet will commence a 4 x weekly service (M, W, F, Sun) to Copenhagen from 29 October 2012 which will be year-round.

This was a popular route when easyJet operated it in 2003 and 2004 - it was discontinued when the Danish government imposed a substantial tax per passenger which also saw other easyJet routes to the Danish capital axed or reduced in frequency.

It's an excellent addition to the BRS route network as Scandinavia is one of the areas not covered and is one of the airport's targets.

 

[Aviador]

Great news. I hope it works well for them.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Summer 2012

Checking next week's Mayfly shows eleven based aircraft required including two A320s.

In fact, this coming Friday shows two 320s operating but this week there is only a need for ten based aircraft on that day.

Good news having eleven for the entire summer instead of peak summer as has been the case for the past couple of years.

I wonder if the 'traditional' additional based aircraft for peak summer will still operate this year which will give 12 based aircraft last seen in summer 2008, though then they were all A319s.

For example next Monday (14 May) the early morning departures are:

6:00 EZY 6039 Palma A319
6:05 EZY 6071 Alicante A319
6:15 EZY 6011 Murcia EA32
6:30 EZY 423 Edinburgh A319
6:30 EZY 566 Newcastle A319
6:45 EZY 6161 Amsterdam A319
7:00 EZY 6005 Faro A319
7:00 EZY 6113 Nice A319
7:00 EZY 443 Belfast Int A319
7:10 EZY 401 Glasgow A319
8:25 EZY 6271 Dalaman EA32

In addition NCL-based EZY 565 arrives from Newcastle at 0815 (A319) and the aircraft then operates to Malaga at 0840 as EZY 6051 and returns to NCL from AGP.

At the same time EZY 566 which left BRS for NCL at 0630 then operates from NCL to AGP before returning from AGP to BRS arriving 1430.

This triangular working also occurred last summer.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Further to the previous post, it looks as though easyJet is seriously considering expansion at BRS.

[textarea]Airline boss hints at long-haul destinations from Bristol


People using Bristol Airport may soon have the chance to travel further afield, according to one of easyJet's most senior executives.

The airline released its financial figures for the last six months yesterday.

And Paul Simmons, easyJet's UK director, said that Bristol played a major role in the success of the last year. He added that the airline is considering more routes to far-flung destinations.[/textarea]

Full report at http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Airline- ... story.html

Paul Simmons went on to say that, "Bristol is one of our strongest and oldest operations and we remain very committed to the airport and to the region."

He added that the airline has recently introduced a new A320 Airbus and "are increasing the size of aircraft based at Bristol which means we can look at longer haul destinations."

Currently easyJet's longest Bristol routes are Bodrum, Corfu, Heraklion, Paphos, Dalaman, Fuerteventura and Tenerife, though some are seasonal.

Looking at easyJet's current network other longer haul routes not served from BRS are Amman, Larnaca, Istanbul, Hurghada, Luxor and Sharm el Sheikh.

Amman is highly unlikely so too is Larnaca given that Paphos is currently served. Istanbul is an outside bet - it's one of the BRS primary target routes - and one (or more) of the Egyptian routes is a possibility.

Currently BRS has a weekly TOM charter to Sharm and two in winter. Before the Arab Spring it had up to five weekly charters to Sharm in winter. Luxor was pulled by TOM halfway through the previous winter agian following the Arab Spring. Hurghada has featured as a winter charter too in the past.

Mr Simmons said that "Bristol is a strong base" and they had been looking at ways of improving their share of the business market there. He went on, "We have been involved in a close dialogue with several of the major employers in the city in sectors such as financial services and aviation. It is always important for us to be in close communication with our customers. The Bristol market is performing very well for us and the airport is a good operation which offers a good product."

Some business-type routes currently operated by easyJet but not from BRS that might be worth a look are:

Cologne/Bonn, Dortmund, Hamburg, Porto, Seville, Milan, Venice and Zurich.

Hamburg was tried by easyJet about seven years ago and loads were not great - not a disaster and of course yields are never made public.

Porto is one of Bristol's twin cities and Ryanair operated there until last year. Loads were high enough to suggest that easyJet would have little trouble in seeing very good load factors but again the yield might not be.

The same can be said about Seville, a summer route from Ryanair from BRS until this year, and there is the Airbus connection there.

Venice Marco Polo was an exceedingly popular daily year-round easyJet route from BRS for six years until 2009. The axing of its caused more reaction in the local press than the closure of any other easyJet route from the airport, before or since. easyJet conceded the outstanding loads but the cost of flying into Marco Polo was apparently prohibitive. Maybe they will look again.

Ryanair currently flies 3 x weekly to Treviso.

easyJet operated daily year-round to Milan Malpensa for three years until 2010. They were up against Ryanair's daily Bergamo then. easyJet axed their route first after which Ryanair reduced to, eventually, 3 x weekly (the current figure).

Perhaps it's worth another easyJet look.

Zurich might be just out of BRS's reach on an Airbus. Historically it was operated by a 50-seat BA franchise and more recently (and currently) three times a week by Helvetic using an 85-seat F100 (premium seats at the front) double dropping with Cardiff. Loads are poor, though thus far BRS sees about twice the CWL loads.

Naples commences tomorrow at 3 x weekly. TOM has retained its 2 x weekly summer charter to Naples so it will be interesting to see how this pans out.

 

[Aviador]

Could this be a new venture for Easyjet? I know he doesn't actually mention destinations as such but is he's refering to places like Sharm el Sheikh as being "long haul"? He talks about the use of larger aircraft allowing the "long haul" flights, again, the A320 unless he's referring to a new type will not be able to offer "long haul" operations from the UK?

 

[airbusengineer]

Is there anywhere that we can get a list of the Easyjet triangular working routes for the Bristol based aircraft? As 'TheLocalYokel' listed EZY 566 in advance.

Thanks.

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

As far as i know;

BRS Based; BRS-NCL-AGP-BRS
NCL Based; NCL-BRS-AGP-NCL.

Flight departure & arrival times are about the same from/to Bristol, and from/to Malaga.

 

[airbusengineer]

Any idea about any of the other easyJet flights from Bristol? I guess that most of them will be working on the triangular method, unless of course they are on their range limits for any destination.

Thanks again

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

Re Long Haul.

I would think they were more suggesting the fact basing more A320 there to operate what i see as "medium" haul sectors such as Dalaman, Paphos, Tenerife.

Looking at both Bristol Destination list offered by various airlines, and Easyjets destinations there are a few i would think Easy could make work very well.

Sharm El Sheikh would be the first on that very list, just for the simple fact that it makes sense to grow something which over the year has had a reduction in flights it used to offer. In my eyes i don't see why they offer it from MAN, LGW and not BRS. The way i see how EZY work, is that LGW & MAN are priority followed by LTN, BRS, NCL.

What about Tel Aviv? Could that work as a route twice weekly perhaps even three weekly? It's something thats currently not offered by any airline at BRS. I know they have LTN-TLV flight and are soon to start the MAN-TLV flight with LS offering a 757 capacity.

I think that EZY could also do with some expansion into the greek markets that they offer at other airports but not at BRS, such as Rhodes, Mykonos (has this route ever being offered out of Bristol), Kos, Zante (both these are offered by both TCX & TOM so why not EZY).

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Is there anywhere that we can get a list of the Easyjet triangular working routes for the Bristol based aircraft? As 'TheLocalYokel' listed EZY 566 in advance.

I think the Bristol-Newcastle-Malaga triangle is the only one at the moment. In recent years Belfast International and Edinburgh have also featured in triangular routes with Bristol with Geneva also involved at one time.

Re Long Haul.

I would think they were more suggesting the fact basing more A320 there to operate what i see as "medium" haul sectors such as Dalaman, Paphos, Tenerife.

Looking at both Bristol Destination list offered by various airlines, and Easyjets destinations there are a few i would think Easy could make work very well.

Sharm El Sheikh would be the first on that very list, just for the simple fact that it makes sense to grow something which over the year has had a reduction in flights it used to offer. In my eyes i don't see why they offer it from MAN, LGW and not BRS. The way i see how EZY work, is that LGW & MAN are priority followed by LTN, BRS, NCL.

What about Tel Aviv? Could that work as a route twice weekly perhaps even three weekly? It's something thats currently not offered by any airline at BRS. I know they have LTN-TLV flight and are soon to start the MAN-TLV flight with LS offering a 757 capacity.

I think that EZY could also do with some expansion into the greek markets that they offer at other airports but not at BRS, such as Rhodes, Mykonos (has this route ever being offered out of Bristol), Kos, Zante (both these are offered by both TCX & TOM so why not EZY).

Not sure about Tel Aviv - there is not a huge Jewish community in the West Country.

This summer there are weekly summer charters to Greek territory at Kefalonia, Kos, Zante, Rhodes, Corfu and Heraklion, with the last two also offered by easyJet. Skiathos will re-start later this month - it's a route that comes and goes over the years.

In the past Chania, Volos, Santorini and Halkidiki have featured as summer charter routes with the last named pulled this summer by TOM after many years of summer operation. I'm pretty certain that Mykonos has never been a regular charter route and I can't remember it as a one-off either.

There is good reason to believe that Ryanair was going to operate to Rhodes, Chania and Kos this summer, but in the end nothing came of it.

I believe that Sharm el Sheikh is a likely contender for easyJet. The expression 'longer haul' was used by the easyJet spokesman which I took to mean such places as Egypt, Greece and Turkey rather than further afield.

 

[alphagolf]

Next Week Mayfly has been published and it shows easyJet operating 3 x A320 everday, so easyJet based aircraft next week are:

3 x A320
8 x A319

Quite a capacity increase compared to last year, I can see where the increase in passengers are being generated from a reduction in movements!

All good news for Bristol, just need some announcements of new routes/airlines with the Thomas Cook reductions for Summer '13.

alphagolf