The Future Of Core Air Links To The Island

[oldmanxfella]

Its very interesting to read the EVL stories in the papers, as it suggests that Ms Reynolds may be encouraging an open seas policy, after manifestly failing in all areas in managing an open skies policy. Jobs are already up in the air in the finance sector because of the failed flights fiasco, so how long will it take the penny to drop at Ports?

 

Does there have to be no food in M & S or Tescos, and food riots in the streets before IOMG realize that its a totally shit idea to not take control of the routes and manage the situation properly?

[asitis]

This is what the government were told in 2006 and what was dismissed in Tynwald as academia ! Sorry to bang on but it merely illustrates how these projects gain a momentum and then all listening to reason goes out the window leaving the taxpayer to pick up the pieces ! This is symptomatic of all our large projects driven by the advancement of civil servants and fuelled by consultants who wish to see the project go ahead.

 

 

The preceding chapter presented an analysis of the passenger throughput at Ronaldsway and its characteristics in terms of low operational capacity with large numbers of movements. In contrast the no frills airline model is focused around the principal objective of flying a high volume of passengers in order to maintain low fares at a profit. Ryanair (2007) and EasyJet (2007) state their operational load factors as 83% and 83.7% respectively. For this scenario EasyJet will be used, as the airline currently operates from Jersey (see Chapter 7) and therefore could potentially be attracted by the demographically similar Isle of Man market. Easyjet operate Airbus A319 aircraft with 156 seats, and therefore fill on average 131 seats per flight. With the current passenger volumes and load factors at Ronaldsway discussed earlier, it is clear that a significant decrease in aircraft movements would occur with the introduction of larger aircraft relying on economies of scale. In fact EasyJet could only operate 5,835 movements per annum compared with the current level of 29,742 if it were to capture 100 percent of the airports passengers in 2007. To put the scenario into a more assimilative form, this equates to just 1 return flight a day to 8 destinations. Whilst this scenario is not realistic in terms of the likely composition of future services, one can conclude that current passenger volumes are insufficient to support a low cost carrier without cannibalising most if not all of the existing operators. Furthermore a significant reduction in choice for the consumer would occur, with much greater travel restrictions.

[Lxxx]

What happened to the day return slots at London City? Can we not throw money at BA to utilise them again? A mid-day flight is neither use nor ornament.

[asitis]

I see that Manx Radio are carrying a report from the committee into open skies this morning.

[Lxxx]

Stable door. Horse. Bolted.

[ballaughbiker]

What happened to the day return slots at London City? Can we not throw money at BA to utilise them again? A mid-day flight is neither use nor ornament

I've heard the aircraft is now doing/going to do another route out of LCY. It probably goes there first, then does a return trip to the island. I know its obvious, but unless it's parked here overnight with its crew, its not possible to have an early/late, allowing a working day in London is it?

[Lxxx]

 

 

What happened to the day return slots at London City? Can we not throw money at BA to utilise them again? A mid-day flight is neither use nor ornament

I've heard the aircraft is now doing/going to do another route out of LCY. It probably goes there first, then does a return trip to the island. I know its obvious, but unless it's parked here overnight with its crew, its not possible to have an early/late, allowing a working day in London is it?

Same can be said for every airline. Therefore it looks like our red eye flights to London have gone for good.

[Karellen]

The BA SAAB plane now serves the LCY to Dusseldorf route. The plane that comes here at lunchtimes is an exceptionally comfortable Embraer jet.

[ballaughbiker]

I suppose the crew that likely lived here now have to live near LCY or DUS then? Whilst we obviously think first about the lack of service to us and our businesses, it must also impact pilots (and possibly cabin crew) and their families who have a sudden forced move to stay employed.

[Giggleberrys]

So after a years worth of deliberations and evidence it appears that the "open skies" policy is the way to go. Who'd have thought it.......

 

Committee recommends no change to open skies

[Tarne]

Wow... no change. Good to see the good Manx attitude of "Ahhh, She'll be right" there.

 

Though they say no change, but the way charging works at Ronaldsway could effectively make it closed skies.

 

No one is serving the route currently so charging £1 per departing passenger

Already one airline serving the route - £25 per departing passenger

 

But that's far too much like a workable idea.

[madmanxpilot]

So, the Open Skies Policy promotes a 'frequent and reliable air service' which satisfies the needs of both leisure and business travellers?

 

Two flighs a day to London - both in the middle of the day?.

[woolley]

The world doesn't revolve around the Isle of Man though does it? People are still bemoaning the introduction of low cost carriers with large planes. Does it not occur that if Easyjet had not been encouraged we would have no Gatwick flights at all from next March? Flybe would still have sold all their slots to Easy and they would be using them for other routes.

 

I reckon the control our government has of this situation is minimal. They can make noises to justify their existence, but apart from offering a bit of taxpayers' money as subsidy they are powerless. They could of course operate an airline like Aurigny. That'd be fun.

[asitis]

I think Woolley the point is that whilst the airport was spending est. 50 odd million on making itself large no one had their eye on what it was actually supposed to be for, the feeding frenzy of development has left us with services which don't really meet our needs particularly those of business. Had someone had their finger on the pulse maybe some of that massive sum of cash could have been used as some form of development fund ensuring that our vital links were maintained, instead we wished to play at being an "international hub" to quote the buzz phrase of the time FFS we can't even get to London when we need to !

[woolley]

I think Woolley the point is that whilst the airport was spending est. 50 odd million on making itself large no one had their eye on what it was actually supposed to be for, the feeding frenzy of development has left us with services which don't really meet our needs particularly those of business. Had someone had their finger on the pulse maybe some of that massive sum of cash could have been used as some form of development fund ensuring that our vital links were maintained, instead we wished to play at being an "international hub" to quote the buzz phrase of the time FFS we can't even get to London when we need to !

Take your point. I obviously agree about the wasted millions. How would we have spent that fund though?