Eastern Airways

[Aviador]

Eastern may well end up on routes such as Bristol - Leeds using their own fleet.

I sincerely hope not. :nea:

 

[White Heather]

I wouldn't mind Eastern doing BRS - LBA if they used their Saab and maintained Air South West fares - otherwise they will end up with half empty Jetstream 41's and effectively a retrogade step for a route that has some potential.

 

[WYIA]

time will tell, i think the saab through option would probably be something they try. But what a carry on, glorified bus. start stop start stop.

We know this, we know Air Southwest doesnt make money, they are not that cheap, the dash8 is not really a good fit for the eastern fleet & we know how eastern work.

We could say goodbye to afew routes through this or they may try make it work. Very strange business format easter, never know which direction they will go

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Air Southwest is very much a bus service type of operation. Their LGW flights from the far South West take in Plymouth and Newquay and their provincial routes from those airports to the north are, with one or two exceptions, more like the old Associated Motorways set-up (sort of forerunner of National Express for those on this forum not old enough to remember AM - probably everyone except me) where coach stations at places such as Cheltenham became a mass changeover point from one coach to another for in-transit passengers.

Currently two of Air Southwest's aircraft park next to each other four times a day at Bristol Airport so that passengers emanating from PLH or NQY who wish to go to MAN or LBA, or vice versa, switch from one Dash to the other. The same applies in the reverse direction.

At the moment we have an Eastern Saab 2000 arriving at BRS from ABZ via LBA each evening, that is not allowed to carry passengers between the latter two airports, a couple of hours ahead of the revenue-earning Air Southwest LBA-BRS.

I can't see this continuing for too long.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

From the second week in February Eastern appears to be rationalising some of its routes following its purchase of Air Southwest.

From the timetables of ASW and Eastern the morning PLH-BRS-LBA-BRS-PLH will be replaced by a southbound ABZ-LBA-BRS-PLH (a Dash-8-300 operation) working opposite a northbound PLH-BRS-LBA-ABZ (a Dash 8-300 operation). The same will apply in the evening.

The current morning and evening Eastern ABZ-BRS-ABZ (an Eastern Jetstream operation) will be incorporated into the new diagram. The lunchtime ABZ-BRS-ABZ will remain a non-stop Jetstream in both directions.

Currently it doesn't appear possible to book from Plymouth to Aberdeen or vice versa and the ASW website still shows PLH-BRS-LBA (and reverse) as an Air Southwest route whilst the Eastern website shows the ABZ-LBA-BRS portion as an Eastern route.

 

[lbaspotter]

Here is how the planned operation between Air Southwest and Eastern Airways will work out

MONDAY TO FRIDAYS
BRS 07:30 LBA 08:35 T34502 DH8 Commences from Newquay as WOW482
LBA 08:55 ABZ 10:05 T34502 DH8
ABZ 17:00 LBA 18:10 T34507 DH8
LBA 18:35 BRS 19:45 T34507 DH8 Continues to Newquay as WOW487

ABZ 07:10 LBA 08:20 T34501 DH8
LBA 09:00 BRS 10:05 T34501 DH8 Continues to Newquay as WOW483
BRS 17:05 LBA 18:10 T34508 DH8 Commences from Plymouth as WOW486
LBA 18:45 ABZ 19:55 T34508 DH8

MME 06:30 LBA 06:55 T34700 J41
LBA 07:10 SOU 08:20 T34700 J41
SOU 08:50 LBA 09:55 T34701 J41
LBA 10:05 MME 10:30 T34701 J41

MME 16:55 LBA 17:20 T34706 J41
LBA 17:40 SOU 18:50 T34706 J41
SOU 19:20 LBA 20:30 T34707 J41
LBA 20:40 MME 21:05 T34707 J41

SATURDAYS
NQY 07:25 LBA 09:20 WOW480 DH8 Operates via Plymouth
LBA 09:45 PLY 11:45 WOW481 DH8 Operates via Newquay

SUNDAYS
ABZ 15:55 LBA 16:55 T34503 S2000
LBA 17:20 BRS 18:25 T34503 S2000
BRS 18:35 LBA 19:40 T34504 S2000
LBA 19:45 ABZ 20:45 T34504 S2000

 

[lbaspotter]

Hi

Just found out why there is an Eastern Airways, BAe Jetstream currently parked up at LBA. By all acounts the aircraft in question G-MAJD is now awaiting inspection after a having a heavy landing on arrival from Teeside last Friday evening.

At a guess, this most have something to do with the bad winds we had last friday!

 

[lbaspotter]

Hi

I see Eastern Airways are now using another off Air Southwest's Dash 8-300's now on the 2x daily Teeside-Leeds-Southampton-Leeds-Teeside route.

Dose anyone know if this is a perment upgrade from the normal BAe Jetstream 41? If so its good news after all they have only just upgraded the Aberdeen route as well.

 

[lbaspotter]

Hi

Eastern Airways have reverted to using a BAe Jetstream 41 on the Teeside-Leeds-Southampton-Leeds-Teeside twice daily service as of yesterday.

Flights for the past few weeks have been operated by the spare Air Southwest Dash 8-300

 

[Bigman]

I am surprised they have a spare with WOWD already having left the fleet. Talking of the fleet, they don't half have a mix now with J41, DH8/3, SB2000 and ERJ135. The J41s in particular are getting a bit long in the tooth now. I wonder if they might look at sourcing new aircraft from a single manufacturer at some point in the future. I personally would see a mix of DH8/Q200, Q300 and Q400 as a good choice as this would cater for anything from 35 seats to 78 seats. This would mean type commonality across the board, which would be better for rostering etc.

I would welcome your thoughts guys and gals.

 

[lbaspotter]

It looks to me that Eastern Airways are slowly getting rid of the Air Southwest Dash 8's

As both G-WOWC & D have now officially been withdrawn from service. G-WOWD is currently out to tender for lease out as far as I understand which just leaves 3 left in use. Which includes G-WOWA, B, E in service operating the last of the reminding Air southwest routes from Newquay/Plymouth to Cork, Dublin, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Aberdeen, Glasgow & Jersey.

Me thinks Eastern Airways could also change over these last reminding services to the Saab 2000 or Jetstream 41's sooner rather than later...

 

[White Heather]

Bigman I tend to agree with you about the Eastern fleet, which seems very diversified. I would have thought that they need to work towards a fleet from a common manufacturer, and the Dash 8's would seem a good option, although I guess it will depend on their business model. Q400's might be a bit big for the routes Eastern traditionally serve.

 

[lbaspotter]

Eastern Airways are shutting down Air Southwest as of September 30th 2011.

Don't know what they have planned for LBA's services to Bristol and Aberdeen as these routes are operated by the ex Air Southwest Dash 8's but it looks like links to Newquay and Plymouth will be stopped.

 

[lbaspotter]

Had it confirmed today that Eastern Airways will be taking over and operating the Bristol-Leeds-Aberdeen service from October 2nd 2011.

Flights should be bookable on the Eastern Airways website shortly. The service will continue to be operated by the Dash 8-300's,

 

[White Heather]

Thanks LBAspotter. I understood that they are going to get rid of the Dash 8 300's, so on that basis would I be right in assuming that at best, the Dash's get some new Eastern Airways titles and will not be re-painted in Eastern's full livery?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The Eastern booking website has shown flights in each direction between BRS and ABZ morning and evening with one stop - presumably LBA - for a little while, on test dates in October (the rest of the summer after Air Southwest ceases to operate) and in November, the start of the winter period. The equipment is a Dash 8-300. The non-stop early afternoon ABZ-BRS-ABZ operated by an Eastern Jetstream also continues into the winter on selected days each week.

The BRS-LBA section was always bookable of course as an Air Southwest flight in that airline's booking engine even though the same aircraft operated onto ABZ in the Eastern booking section. This always seemed complicated to me and likely to confuse some passengers. Why didn't they show BRS-LBA-ABZ as being bookable in both the ASW and Eastern booking engines? I suppose it was to do with route licences.

 

[lbaspotter]

Just heard but its not confirmed yet that Eastern Airways are dropping the 2x daily weekday Durham Tees Valley-Leeds/Bradford-Southampton service from the end of this month.

Flights are no longer bookable on there website there after. So looks like flybe.com have won the long running battle with there 3x daily services from both Leeds/Bradford and Newcastle to Southampton.

 

[Bigman]

I don't think I will be losing any sleep over this one. Yet another blow for MME though.

 

[ls27]

Yes you're right Bigman. According to the UK Airport News site, it may close if things don't buck up. Passengers down to less than 200,000 now.

 

[empire]

Eastern will add a 3rd weekdaily BRS-LBA-ABZ from Oct 3rd with Q300 equipment.