Eastern Airways

[TheLocalYokel]

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.

easyJet's crazy (from a passenger's perspective) scheduling between Bristol and Newcastle isn't a lot of help to local passengers let alone those from further afield. This summer the only morning departures are on Mondays and Fridays at 0700 and on Saturdays at 0835. In the winter it gets worse with the only morning departure on Mondays at 0800. Yet on some days easyJet has three rotations all in the afternoon or evening. It's been like this for several years.

 

[Bcn_boy]

Flybe would be better off taking up the route.

 

[Jerry]

Flybe would be better off taking up the route.

I think it depends on whether Eastern would be willing to give up the route which would naturally depend on how much money it earns for them. Although we do see the odd 50 seater on the route now and then they have generally kept it as the J41.

 

[Jerry]

Eastern Airways schedule has been released for early Summer 2019.
Anglesey is 10 weekly Monday to Friday
CWL-VLY 08.35-09.25 VLY-CWL 09.55-10.45
CWL-VLY 17.10-18.00 VLY-CWL 18.30-19.20
Newcastle is 10 weekly
Monday to Thursday
NCL-CWL 07.55-09.20 CWL-NCL 09.50-11.15
NCL-CWL 18.00-19.30 CWL-NCL 19.55-21.20
Friday
NCL-CWL 17.05-18.30 CWL-NCL 19.00-20.25
Sunday
NCL-CWL 17.35-18.55 CWL-NCL 19.25-20.45
Aberdeen is 5 weekly via Newcastle
Monday to Thursday
CWL-ABZ 09.50-12.50 ABZ-CWL 16.30-19.30
Sunday
CWL-ABZ 19.25-22.20 ABZ-CWL 16.00-18.55

 

[Jerry]

It looks like this mornings Newcastle isn't operating.

 

[Jerry]

I'm not 100% sure but it looks like the Anglesey flight this morning flew up to VLY but didn't land and came straight back.

 

[geoff]

Newcastle rotation cancelled again this morning, People in the business community must be getting really fed up with their unreliability.

 

[Jerry]

Are the business community using it though? Especially in August. One of the problems with the route is that the prices are so high it puts a lot of people off from using it. It's cheaper to use the EDI flight and catch the train down or just use EZY at BRS.

 

[geoff]

I see your point Jerry, I suppose it's a question of use it or lose it, although Flybe could have another go at it with lower fares;

 

[Bcn_boy]

Flybe would be best placed to take over the route. Better fares, more reliable and can offer travellers from the north east connections to its mini hub at CWL.

 

[Jerry]

Problem is that Flybe and Eastern are now Franchise partners so i can't see them taking it off them completely. If Flybe base a 4th aircraft would Eastern be willing to say give up the evening rotation and just operate the morning one which continues on to Aberdeen?

 

[Jerry]

According to a poster on the dried fruit Eastern only had 1 working J41 on Monday so maybe the cancellations are down to lack of aircraft. They've also lost contracts with BA because of reliability issues.

 

[Jerry]

Just a quick look at the stats for Easterns NCL route for the last 6 months.
January 1298 +38% (there was a charter with 172 passengers, so possibly a diversion?)
February 1014 +3%
March 1087 -21%
April 1032 -6%
May 1127 -17%
June 1163 -12%
Since March the route has been in minus and has had no growth unlike many of the other domestic routes.

 

[Matthew Davies]

Hi Jerry.
I believe the route works well for Eastern. Its a shame that they cant get a bigger aircraft that could ease the fare price. There is a market for it for both ABZ and NCL. Whether they will turn to PSO routes is another matter.Apart from logan air, Flybe would be the most obvious choice to develop the route.

 

[Jerry]

Hi Jerry.
I believe the route works well for Eastern. Its a shame that they cant get a bigger aircraft that could ease the fare price. There is a market for it for both ABZ and NCL. Whether they will turn to PSO routes is another matter.Apart from logan air, Flybe would be the most obvious choice to develop the route.

I've always wondered if Eastern have a contract that helps the route. They do seem happy to keep the route as a J41 but hopefully as they get less in the fleet they might replace it with a bigger aircarft. They have just recently lost some contracts with BA Cityflyer so it'll be interesting to see where those aircraft go in the future. Considering the flight is already operating from CWL i'd be surprised if it ends up as a PSO.

 

[Finger66]

The bigger concern is likely to be Eastern as a whole!

 

[superking]

I've always wondered if Eastern have a contract that helps the route. They do seem happy to keep the route as a J41 but hopefully as they get less in the fleet they might replace it with a bigger aircarft. They have just recently lost some contracts with BA Cityflyer so it'll be interesting to see where those aircraft go in the future. Considering the flight is already operating from CWL i'd be surprised if it ends up as a PSO.

On the dried plum there was talk the 2 E170 going to Australia to work. Nothing about which airline.

 

[Jerry]

On the dried plum there was talk the 2 E170 going to Australia to work. Nothing about which airline.

I wonder if Bristow serve mines or oil rigs in Australia?

 

[Jerry]

It looks like Cardiff has lost it's ABZ connection via Newcastle as it no longer appears on the drop down and it also looks possible that Newcastle itself may well be cut. Only the morning flight is available for 4 days a week (Monday to Thursday) with no evening flights at all up until 19th November and from then on the flights come up as full or not enough seats until the 20th December from which there are no flights onsale at all and this includes summer 19 as well.
Anglesey is unaffected.

 

[superking]

It might be the best thing that the NCL/ABZ route pulled.With regular flights cancelled it gives other airlines no confidence in operating routes or potential routes from CWL.Perhaps Flybe can do something as they use both airports from other destinations.