Air Southwest to Close

[lookingforit35]

In the period after that it did get busier and bmibaby are only withdrawing from the Manchester - Newquay route becuase they are closing their Manchester base. They are keeping East Midlands - Newquay.

It's also worth pointing out that in the period between then and now BA also served Newquay from Gatwick for 18 months.

Agreed, although I recall it was rumoured that BA really only operated their 737 service for some odd reason - fleet or slot utilisation I think. The previous BA Dash 8-300 service (Brymon in BA colours, then BA itself when they purchased Brymon) was one I used but BA farmed it out to Air Southwest. Cant recall exactly why, but a struggle to make it pay seems likely.

Ah for the days of Brymon. Their cabin crew would take details of any passengers who needed a taxi on arrival at Plymouth or Newquay, and radio the details ahead. Brilliant service which was much appreciated.

 

[richw]

I noticed on Pirate FM a couple of days ago they annouced an Eastern Airways flight Manchester- Newquay was delayed by 90 mins. This to me suggests they are flying under that name rather than ASW now.

Also above mentioned was East Midlands Newquay with bmi baby still to continue. We have family to stay 5th sept- 12th sept, they are flying down, but train back as no newquay East midlands bookings available from 9th sept!

 

[WestCoast]

Flybe are launching Manchester - Newquay on the 30th October, the day bmibaby close the route. Four times a week it seems, operated with a Manchester based aircraft.

Mon/Thurs/Fri

Dep Newquay 1050 arr Manchester 1205

Dep Manchester 1230 arr Newquay 1340

Sunday

Dep Manchester 1440 arr Newquay 1550

Dep Newquay 1615 arr Manchester 1730

It was just a matter of time as I discussed earlier in the thread.

 

[starrymarkb]

Agreed, although I recall it was rumoured that BA really only operated their 737 service for some odd reason - fleet or slot utilisation I think. The previous BA Dash 8-300 service (Brymon in BA colours, then BA itself when they purchased Brymon) was one I used but BA farmed it out to Air Southwest. Cant recall exactly why, but a struggle to make it pay seems likely.

Ah for the days of Brymon. Their cabin crew would take details of any passengers who needed a taxi on arrival at Plymouth or Newquay, and radio the details ahead. Brilliant service which was much appreciated.

BA Pretty much gave up serving the regions. I beleive the only props left are SunAir's franchise in Denmark..

The SW routes went to Air South West (formed for the purpose of maintaining the airlink)
BA Connect was sold to Flybe in 2007
Loganair lost their BA franchise to the highlands and islands. Loganair now fly in Flybe Colours

I noticed on Pirate FM a couple of days ago they annouced an Eastern Airways flight Manchester- Newquay was delayed by 90 mins. This to me suggests they are flying under that name rather than ASW now.

Yes they are - ASW ceased operations on the 4th July (though flights are still marketed as ASW). They were showing with Eastern flight numbers when I went through Bristol in July (I wasn't flying ASW but their flights were on the screens).

On the last day at Plymouth the two ASW Dashs were doing VFR low approaches and go arounds. The aircraft refused to use the "Eastflight" callsign and used ASW's "Swallow" callsign. The Dambusters March was also heard over the frequency...

 

[WestCoast]

BA Pretty much gave up serving the regions. I beleive the only props left are SunAir's franchise in Denmark..

The SW routes went to Air South West (formed for the purpose of maintaining the airlink)
BA Connect was sold to Flybe in 2007
Loganair lost their BA franchise to the highlands and islands. Loganair now fly in Flybe Colours

Absolutely true, BA really couldn't care less about the UK regions. Seriously, continental European carriers care more about serving UK regional destinations from their hubs than BA does from London Airports.

The fact that Lufthansa Regional flies from Newquay in the Summer must say something (yes, there is a tourist market to be exploited) and the fact that KLM fly from many UK airports to Amsterdam. People prefer the "EuroHubs". Emirates can fill an Airbus A380 daily from Manchester to Dubai, again BA can't exploit this market.

I say to people, don't bother connecting with BA and Hellthrow (even T5 isn't as efficient as it could be), there are other options. I know BA have their reasons for not bothering with the regions, but to be honest I've never liked them as an airline, they are truly London Airways.

PS: British Airways operated by Sun Air of Scandinavia is a really strange franchise that makes very little sense.

 

[Midlandman]

I am told that the Sun Air route charges such high fares that only a very few passengers are requires to make it pay. (There are only a dozen or so passengers on it most days). As for Air Southwest, Eastern are operating their NQY-MAN flights with a mix of Air Southwest DAsh 8 airraft and their 'own' Jetstream 41s. This is causing some confusion as the normal handling agent for Eastern at MAN is not handling the ex-ASW flights. They are also still using Air Southwest call signs when talking to ATC (or at least ex-ASW crews are - Eastern ones do when they remember!)

 

[WestCoast]

I am told that the Sun Air route charges such high fares that only a very few passengers are requires to make it pay. (There are only a dozen or so passengers on it most days).

I am sure Sun Air are a stable business, but why do they want to pay a royalty fee for using the BA name? What's in it for them? I suppose there are connections and OneWorld but it seems that wouldn't apply on their intra-Scandinavia routes.

GB Airways and Loganair made sense to be BA franchises, but I am just wondering why Sun Air wants to be one.

EDIT: wiki says IAG (Iberia and BA) own Sun Air, is that right?

 

[richw]

GB Airways

Were bought out by easy jet about 4-5 years ago which suited me quite nicely. as it reduced their fares, and one of my regular destinations served by GB but not Easyjet, now i get easyjet fares rather than GB airway prices.

 

[WestCoast]

Were bought out by easy jet about 4-5 years ago which suited me quite nicely. as it reduced their fares, and one of my regular destinations served by GB but not Easyjet, now i get easyjet fares rather than GB airway prices.

I do know that, I am just saying being a BA franchise suited them at the time, before they were purchased by the easyMonster.

GB, when they still existed, opened bases in Manchester (and Bristol?), so major kudos to them! "BA" actually had a presence outside of London...

I wish easyJet had kept the old GB aircraft (they transferred them to BA after a while) in comfy BA configuration!

 

[richw]

I wish easyJet had kept the old GB aircraft (they transferred them to BA after a while) in comfy BA configuration!

Easy jet i believe still operate a few of the GB aircraft, The regular plane on the Gatwick-Heraklion route has been whenever i've flew an ex GB plane, and has still the most recent trip not in Easyjet liverys. It is far more comfortable than the easyjet planes i've flown elsewhere on.

Out of interest why was it a convenient franchise for GB/ BA?

 

[WestCoast]

Out of interest why was it a convenient franchise for GB/ BA?

It allowed GB to promote a 'classy and quality' image, while BA gained route coverage for leisure routes (e.g. UK to Spain).

In theory it was an ideal franchise, but the profit was questionable in later years.

 

[lookingforit35]

Easy jet i believe still operate a few of the GB aircraft, The regular plane on the Gatwick-Heraklion route has been whenever i've flew an ex GB plane, and has still the most recent trip not in Easyjet liverys. It is far more comfortable than the easyjet planes i've flown elsewhere on.

Out of interest why was it a convenient franchise for GB/ BA?

Sorry to break the bad news, but a quick look on planespotters http://www.planespotters.net/Airline/Easyjet shows they have now all gone. GB's aircraft all sported a registration TTO (for three twenty) or TTI (for three twenty one) which was a bit novel. Two of the 320s ended up with BAs mainline fleet out of Heathrow.

 

[starrymarkb]

They would have gone as they are not compatible with the EZY fleet. The GB fleet used IAE (Rolls Royce/Pratt) engines while Easyjet use CFM...