Bristol: EasyJet Route News & Base Updates

[TheLocalYokel]

The New Routes

easyJet began routes to Isle of Man, Bilbao, Gibraltar, Porto, Lanzarote, Zante and Catania this spring.

May was the first full month for all but Zante and Catania which both began during the month. easyJet competes with Ryanair to Lanzarote so its own passenger figures cannot be ascertained.

As to the others (all on the 156-seat A 319):

Isle of Man (4 x weekly) 2545 passengers, average load 71, load factor 45%

Bilbao (2 x weekly) 2166, 120, 77%

Gibraltar (3 x weekly) 3468, 133, 85%

Porto (3 x weekly) 3958, 141, 90%

The Isle of Man is improving. An average monthly load of 71 is nearly twice as many as any previous carrier has managed. On 4 June I posted:

May's stats will be interesting. I'd like to think that the load factor for the month might have risen to between 40% and 50%.

The load factor is exactly half way between 40% and 50%.

I'd noticed that the seat selector on the Bilbao route often had quite a few seats left almost up to departure time and, in truth, I'm pleasantly surprised at the average load. I was expecting somewhere around 110.

As expected Gibraltar and Porto were well supported.

Overall, it's not a bad start at all.

 

[juliet-fox-9]

Easyjet is always a vital piece in a European airport's puzzle and that is one heck of a good offering you guys have at BRS.
Orange is not my favourite colour but who cares if you have so many good routes? Maybe the routes team at my airport (BHX) didn't like orange, and that's why they didn't go for EZY's offer, leaving BHX today with the grand total of Belfast, winter routes Geneva and Grenoble, and...um, that's it really.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Easyjet is always a vital piece in a European airport's puzzle and that is one heck of a good offering you guys have at BRS.
Orange is not my favourite colour but who cares if you have so many good routes? Maybe the routes team at my airport (BHX) didn't like orange, and that's why they didn't go for EZY's offer, leaving BHX today with the grand total of Belfast, winter routes Geneva and Grenoble, and...um, that's it really.

easyJet first came to BRS when they took over Go, which was originally BA's low cost airline.

BRS had become Go's second base (after Stansted) in 2001 when it was chosen following a Europe-wide search. Barbara Cassani (Go's CEO and a great loss to the industry in my opinion when she elected to follow other paths after leaving Go) gave the reasons for the decision to choose BRS when she wrote a book Go An Airline Adventure.

In 2003 easyJet took over the Go base at BRS and it's been onwards and upwards pretty well ever since, although the recession did put a brake on things for a year or two. There are currently 53 routes, although some are seasonal. Ryanair has 27, again with some being seasonal.

The snag with being so reliant on one airline (easyJet carries about half of BRS's passenger numbers) is that if it all turns to rats' poo the airport would have a major problem. The relationship between the airport and easyJet seems to be good with an agreement signed last year for five more years of expansion with the new routes last year (Keflavik and Marrakech) and the seven new ones this year part of this plan.

 

[juliet-fox-9]

Did BHX not have any Go operations and that's why EZY never established themselves there?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Did BHX not have any Go operations and that's why EZY never established themselves there?

Go never operated to BHX. All the Go flights went from and to their bases at STN and BRS and obviously BHX would have been too short a journey to be viable. Go finished with 27 aircraft (B 737-300s) which were absorbed into easyJet. Go's livery featured about five different pastel colours on the engine cowlings and underbelly so that one aircraft might be in purple and another in green. They all had individual logos painted on the side of the fuselage featuring the word Go: Go Now and Away We Go were two that I remember.

The early 'noughties' saw the low cost market develop at a frantic pace around the UK and in parts of Europe. easyJet and Ryanair were expanding quickly and new entrants such as bmi baby, Jet 2 and Buzz (part of the KLM Group) were appearing.

BHX had MyTravelLite, the low cost element of MyTravel Airways, part of the MyTravel Group. Go then easyJet did have a base at East Midlands for a while.

MyTravelLite had four A 320s and was BHX orientated. After about three years it was integrated with MyTravel Airways which subsequently became part of Thomas Cook.

 

[conns757]

Two more very good ones - Year rounders !

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Thanks conns. Excellent news.

Vienna (VIE) 2 x weekly on Mondays and Fridays

Basle (BSL) 4 x weekly on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays

Both to commence in November.

easyJet is certainly coming up with the goods it promised a year or two ago. That will make 56 routes, some seasonal, but it's pleasing to see so many of the new routes announced over the past year being year-round.

 

[conns757]

And what is good ..... no flights from any other airports from airports South , West , East and North!!!!

 

[juliet-fox-9]

That is quite amazing, that Easyjet aren't expanding from any other UK airports? Seems they really like Bristol. And the good thing is, they almost never drop routes once they have started them (although Stansted seems to buck the trend with a few routes dropped of late).
How does the EZY base and route offering measure up against other UK airports? 56 routes sounds phenomenal and I can think of only LGW that might have more than that!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

That is quite amazing, that Easyjet aren't expanding from any other UK airports? Seems they really like Bristol. And the good thing is, they almost never drop routes once they have started them (although Stansted seems to buck the trend with a few routes dropped of late).
How does the EZY base and route offering measure up against other UK airports? 56 routes sounds phenomenal and I can think of only LGW that might have more than that!

It will actually be 55 routes from BRS - I counted both Rome airports originally but CIA was only used as a temporary alternative following the fire at FCO.

A count up of the easyJet UK bases shows the following route totals - again some are seasonal:

Gatwick 103
Bristol 55
Luton 52
Manchester 40
Edinburgh 34
Liverpool 30
Belfast Int 28
Stansted 25
Glasgow 19
Southend 16
Newcastle 15

As for easyJet at BRS, the airline has axed some routes since 2004, viz

Biarritz
Gdansk - now flown by Ryanair
Hamburg - now flown by bmi regional
Rijeka
Warsaw Chopin - Ryanair now flies to Warsaw Modlin
Venice Marco Polo - Ryanair now flies to Treviso
Valencia - now flown by Ryanair
Milan Malpensa - now flown by bmi regional with Ryanair flying to Bergamo
Bastia - now flown as a summer charter route for a holiday company by bmi regional

In addition easyJet axed BRS to Bilbao and Copenhagen in 2004 but both routes have been brought back within the past two years, BIO this year.

It's particularly good to see another Swiss route in Basle. easyJet has been very strong to Geneva in recent years and in that time the route (with some charter assistance in winter) has carried more passengers to GVA annually than any UK airport to GVA outside London (CAA stats).

Looking at next winter BRS-GVA doesn't seem to have been reduced to accommodate BSL with up to 21 easyJet rotations per week (five again on Sundays).

Helvetic tried BRS-Zurich for two or three years but although loads were improving the airline decided to axe it after last summer.

Vienna has never featured from BRS before, either as a scheduled route or as a regular charter. Ryanair flew to Bratislava (about 40 miles from Vienna over the border in Slovakia) for a number of years with very high load factors but axed this route last year.

Finally, there have been some new routes announced this week by easyJet not featuring BRS, viz

Luton and Manchester to Vienna; Belfast Int and Southend to Lanzarote; Glasgow to Milan Malpensa. New routes have also been announced this week from Amsterdam and Berlin (SXF) to non-UK destinations.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Easy seem to be a real success story at BRS and long may it continue :good:

Slightly off topic but I was speaking to a woman last week who, a couple of years ago, took her family to Disneyland Paris. She was on a tight budget at the time and although she lives close to BHX, Easyjet from BRS worked out to be considerably cheaper than anything at her local airport, so they booked. She absolutely raved about BRS. Clean, modern, efficient and much less hassle than other airports. She told me she's flown from there ever since and will continue to do so, even my best efforts couldn't convert her back to BHX 😉

It goes to show how one good experience can gain a customer for life yet one bad experience can lose one for life.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It goes to show how one good experience can gain a customer for life yet one bad experience can lose one for life.

It does although (as we discussed recently) the views of most Skytrax correspondents are far from complimentary, and not just towards BRS. It's not perfect (where is?) but I always find the airport easy to navigate and stress-free, although at times you have to be prepared to walk up to 400 metres along corridors without travellator assistance which doesn't appeal to some people even some of those who are perfectly fit and able.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I don't think anywhere fares well on those sort of websites.

One reviewer of BHX complained that the Emirates check in area is a considerable distance from security. I'm not sure if you are familiar with the BHX layout but, whilst the EK check in area is indeed at the far end of T1, it is still no more than a couple of minutes gentle stroll and an escalator/lift ride away. As for 400m, I quite like a walk after sitting on an aircraft for however many number of hours.

It seems that people generally do not go on to websites such as Skytrax to give compliments but as soon as the slightest thing goes wrong they can't wait to log in. I think the biggest endorsement is when customers continue to return and with pax numbers continuing to rise at BRS it must be doing something right.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man government website has released passenger figures for IOM in June. It says that over 3,000 passengers used the Bristol route.

This would equate to over 88 per flight (load factor of over 56%), compared with May's 71 per flight. However, June did receive a boost with the TT races.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Drunk passengers escorted off Bristol flight to Ibiza by police after being accused of abusing crew

This is the moment five men were escorted off a holiday jet by police accused of being drunk and abusive towards cabin crew.

It is thought the men became threatening towards staff after they announced that passengers on the late evening flight would only be allowed one alcoholic drink each.

It is claimed that the group then persisted to abuse members of the cabin crew for the duration of the two-and-a-half hour flight from Bristol to Ibiza.

Spanish police boarded the EasyJet flight on arrival at the Balearic island and escorted the men off the plane.[/textarea]

Full report at http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Drunk-pass ... story.html

What can be done with these ultra morons (with apologies to morons who usually behave better than this)?

Some people say avoid selling alcohol on aircraft completely but that's unfair to the majority of law-abiding, sensible passengers.

The airline tried to limit the number of drinks on this occasion with this result. I expect many of us have witnessed at first hand the boorish behaviour of certain passenger groups on aircraft. I know I have.

 

[juliet-fox-9]

There seems to have been a proliferation of these cases in recent weeks :s_sad

 

[kraktoa]

Flights until March 2016 released today.

Strangely cant book to Nice, bordeaux, la Rochelle, corfu.

Are EZY cutting down on winter schedules from BRS. I was sure Nice was all year destination.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Flights until March 2016 released today.

Strangely cant book to Nice, bordeaux, la Rochelle, corfu.

Are EZY cutting down on winter schedules from BRS. I was sure Nice was all year destination.

Bordeaux, La Rochelle and Corfu are summer-only routes.

It's certainly odd regarding Nice. Although it usually reduces to about 2/3 x weekly in winter it has usually operated year-round for many years.

As for cutting down on winter schedules, the opposite appeared to be the case with the majority of new routes introduced this year going year-round. At present IOM will be 4 x weekly this winter (3 x weekly in January) but no Nice. That does seem strange.

 

[alphagolf]

easyJet flight release to March 2016

NICE

Having looked at the easyJet booking engine it looks like there is a break in the Nice schedule.

Flights operate from now until 21st November 2015

Flights restart from 23rd February 2016 twice weekly on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

It would suggest that either loads/yield may not be good enough between the end of November and near to the end of February. Passengers figures having been dropping from the figures I have to hand in December from 2,788 in 2011 to 2559 in 2014, not a big drop but a gradual decline over the years. I don't have to hand the frequency over the previous winters so difficult to compare.

 

[alphagolf]

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man government website has released passenger figures for IOM in June. It says that over 3,000 passengers used the Bristol route.

This would equate to over 88 per flight (load factor of over 56%), compared with May's 71 per flight. However, June did receive a boost with the TT races.

Looking at the Seat selector for the flights to and from Isle of Man on Sunday 19th July there are as follows:-

BRS - IOM (110 Seats Selected) Load Factor 70%

IOM - BRS (79 Seats Selected) Load Factor 50%

If this continues we could see the highest passengers figures between BRS and IOM ever recorded.