Archive Eastern Airways at Cardiff Airport

[superking]

After the Backbone CRJ, T3 are to use a Saab 2000 on CWL-NCL/ABZ for the vast part of October before reverting to the J41 for the foreseeable future.

Roumer on dried plum that flybe will dispose of the saab2000 and also dispose of the J41. As the poster says a quiet takeover of eastern,no time scale quoted.

 

[Jerry]

There was a rumour that Eastern were looking at ATR 42s as replacements for the Saabs and J41s.

 

[Severn]

A Saab 2000 registered HB-IYI operated by a Swiss company 'Darwin Airline' has arrived in ABZ to operate the ABZ-NCL-CWL route instead of the planned Backbone Aviation CRJ200. According to a member on the Dried Plum forum, it will operate for Eastern till the end of October, replacing the Jetstream that would normally operate the T3 4641/4032/4095/4648 schedules. This aircraft normally operates as Etihad Regional based in GVA and is painted in Etihad Regional colours.

 

[Jerry]

It'll be nice to see something different!

 

[Jerry]

On the Leeds forum it was mentioned on the Eastern Airways thread that their routes should be going on sale on Flybe's website soon. With them now a Flybe franchise partner it'll be curious to see if the prices for the Newcastle route come down and they start selling the Flybe product on the flight, it was mentioned by a caller on Jason Mohamed's show to Roger Lewis yesterday about the price of the CWL-NCL route compared to BRS-NCL and that it may be putting people off from using it.

 

[Jerry]

Eastern Airways flights to Newcastle, Aberdeen and Anglesey are all now on sale for winter 2017/18 on Flybe.com. Doesn't look like there is any flight times changes and the prices for NCL and ABZ are as expensive as ever! Thought the VLY prices look pretty tempting for a weekend away in North Wales!

 

[Jerry]

Nice upgrade for today on the Newcastle flight. Instead of the usual 29 seat J41 it was Easterns brand new 72 seat ATR 72 600 G-IACY.

 

[Foxlimayankee]

Hopefully will be a permanent thing. It's ABZ based I believe.
It's amazing how an Airline with a fleet just over 35 in total has 6 different types of aircraft in the fleet.

 

[Jerry]

I think it'll just be a one off probably as i believe it usually operates Aberdeen to Scatsa for an oil contract.
Would be nice though if they upgraded the route to 50 seaters and brought the prices down a bit. I'm looking at travelling to Newcastle for Easter and it's either use Easyjet at Bristol because their the cheapest option or if i'm going to spend £200 on a flight (which i'm probably not) use KLM via Amsterdam and earn myself some Flying Blue miles at the same time.

 

[Jerry]

On the other forum a poster has said that he had heard Eastern Airways will be cutting half their fleet so if this happens then fingers crossed CWL won't be effected apart from maybe bigger aircraft on the Newcastle flights.

 

[Jerry]

This evenings Newcastle rotation was operated by G-IACY, Eastern Airways new ATR 72 600, nice little upgrade for the passengers.

 

[Sean123]

I often think that maybe newcastle is one route that could sustain a larger aircraft than what eastern provide , could flybe try a daily rotation ? Mind thats not to knock eastern who have been around for years !

 

[Jerry]

Flybe used to operate it before but pulled out citing costs, i have a feeling it would be different now.
Considering NCL is already double daily if they did take it over from Eastern then it would be a good base for a 4th based aircraft though would be a big jump in seats Flybe would have Easterns customers already there and appeal to others. I read the Eastern Airways thread on the other forum a lot and it was posted recently that Eastern are getting rid of their scheduling staff and handing it over to Flybe. A poster there believes eventually they'll pass over their scheduled routes to Flybe and go to being a charter/ACMI airline and just operate on behalf of Flybe. Whether that posters forecast will be correct only the future will tell.

 

[Jerry]

On the other forum i saw a post saying that Eastern Airways will phase out their J41 fleet as BAE will be withdrawing engineering support for them. Considering that the J41 is Easterns main aircraft at CWL i wonder how it'll effect the Anglesey and Newcastle routes?

 

[superking]

If it forces Eastern to get rid of the J41 due to maintanence issues I would think some one out there would take the work on. If they have to replace them I'm sure they would find some thing in the same pax range.

 

[Jerry]

I suppose they could look at the ATR 42, that would be the right size for them. On the other forum there doesn't seem to be much positivity about their future!

 

[TheLocalYokel]

On the other forum i saw a post saying that Eastern Airways will phase out their J41 fleet as BAE will be withdrawing engineering support for them. Considering that the J41 is Easterns main aircraft at CWL i wonder how it'll effect the Anglesey and Newcastle routes?

Is the PSO route still restricted in the number of seats that can be sold each day?

 

[Jerry]

Is the PSO route still restricted in the number of seats that can be sold each day?

Yep 19 each way. Due to APD and i'm told the departure area at VLY. Definitely a route i need to take!

 

[Jerry]

The Welsh Government has had a bid turned down to expand the number of seats available on the Cardiff to Anglesey route. The Welsh Government had hoped that security rules would be relaxed so larger planes could be used but the request has been denied. The CAA and DfT have stated that it is a security issue not a safety issue and are particularly about the way that security arrangements at the airport and on board the plane as well. The Welsh Government hasn't given up on a derogation in the future or making an investment to make the airport more compliant with national airport security standards.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-44359077

 

[Jerry]

The early NCL rotation gets cancelled a fair bit,the afternoon gets cancelled as well but not quite as often. What is the reason or don't we know.It does not make the NCL service very reliable. It makes you wonder how many pax going over to BRS to get the Easy jet flight to NCL.

Eastern do seem to reliability issues of late. With them operating the route i can't see them growing it. Ideally Flybe would take it over and use the route as a basis to base a 4th aircraft but going from 11 weekly J41s to probably 12 weekly E175s is a big jump in capacity.

Passengers going to use the Easyjet service aren't going to use Eastern as their prices are to high. They are after different types of passengers as airlines.