Leeds Bradford: TUI Airways Flights, New Routes & Schedule Updates

[HX3]

Pegasus would be a good addition, but like lbaspotter said I also doubt it would happen. I suppose we will have to see this as a period of consolidation for routes and hope for more in the near future.
On a separate note - Lykke til, Norge, i kveld. Heia Norge! Good luck to Norway tonight - go Norway 🇳🇴😀

 

[LsS27]

hvis de spiller bra nok kanskje

 

[HX3]

Ja, kanskje det. Vikinger kan drømme. As you say Ls27 maybe if they play well enough. Vikings can dream 🇳🇴

 

[LsS27]

Remember that the people in Yorkshire have plenty of Viking bloods too!!

 

[HX3]

Very true LsS27, many place names in Yorkshire have Old Norse roots, and lots of people will have an element of Norse DNA. We were the original boat people 😜

 

[Finger66]

There's Norway are England not winning tonight. Well here's hoping anyway. Think it's a close one to call tbh

 

[YorkshireLad]

I am looking at flights from Leeds to Vienna next May. Out Sunday teatime and back Friday 22:00. E190 both ways.

Was this supposed to be in the KLM thread?

 

[LBAYORKIE]

Was this supposed to be in the KLM thread?

Now moved.

 

[oldendays]

Can anyone please explain the concept that TUI is apparently unable to compete with Jet2 at Leeds Bradford, hence the limited TUI offering from LBA? I'm not doubting the existence of the idea or that is
what was once said. But I've never understood it and I'm not sure I believe it. After all, both companies have extensive programmes from many British airports...but LBA is the exception. Mysterious.

 

[YorkshireLad]

Can anyone please explain the concept that TUI is apparently unable to compete with Jet2 at Leeds Bradford, hence the limited TUI offering from LBA? I'm not doubting the existence of the idea or that is
what was once said. But I've never understood it and I'm not sure I believe it. After all, both companies have extensive programmes from many British airports...but LBA is the exception. Mysterious.

There will be many factors but the way I see it is: Jet2 threw everything at LBA back in the early 2010s when their holiday arm was expanding. TUI didn't, focusing on DSA. Look how that turned out, Jet2 now has immense consumer and business power over LBA and West Yorkshire, TUI has a market they failed to seize and, as I believe easyJet may now be learning, requires a lot of investment to actually compete in due to the immense frequencies. Not to say TUI can't do it, I for one believe they can compete more easily than easyJet, they just won't

That said, I can think of at least 4 members off the top of my head who will have more of use and depth to say than I, so take this as strictly my opinion

 

[Statto]

LBA is an exception because the Jet2 operation is huge relative to the size of the airport. Jet2 from LBA is broadly similar to Jet2’s operation from BHX and STN, meaning its massive for an airport handling 4.5m in total. That inevitably makes it hard for someone like TUI to compete as they are targeting the same market. If they offer a good product, at a good price, then no reason why they can’t compete, but to offer that they will need to commit to base and offer a decent range and that needs night-flying slots, stands etc and 3 or 4 spare aircraft to put into the base. They probably think, why bother.

 

[White Heather]

The last time TUi based at LBA, it was a somewhat half hearted effort with all flights operated by Canadian partner Sunwing. According to LBA, it was , by some margin, their weakest base in terms of bookings, not helped by Sunwing's abysmal reliability and resultant poor publicity. They axed the base and sent our one based 737 to ABZ. It sort of summed up TUi at LBA in a nutshell. No real commitment and no real effort to make a real success of it. At the time, of course, they still had their happy base at DSA.

The problem now, of course, is that even if a new TUi business plan included an LBA base in an effort to grab some of the Jet2 customers, there isn't the night movement capacity available with current limits being used almost to capacity by what we already have. The airport have indicated their intentions to submit a planning application, which if successful, would remove that barrier, but for now, it's hard to aee any airline, including the orange one, signing a contract to base aircraft here. The terminal capacity remains an issue until completed, but the night movement slots limits are an even bigger issue that effectively restrict the number of based aircraft.

TUi could, of course, use other carriers and indeed, they have used several, including Ryanair, Sun Express and Freebird, but even that has proved troublesome, at least as far as flights to Turkey are concerned. Now, there are none!

So, much as I doubt TUi will ever put up much of a challenge at LBA we will have to wait and see what happens when, or if, LBA succeeds in updating its archaic night movement limits. By then, I suspect the final wheel will have fallen off the DSA2 bandwagon and TUi will have to just pay lip service to the Yorkshire market, or, give it a real go at LBA.

 

[Silvercity]

The last time TUi based at LBA, it was a somewhat half hearted effort with all flights operated by Canadian partner Sunwing. According to LBA, it was , by some margin, their weakest base in terms of bookings, not helped by Sunwing's abysmal reliability and resultant poor publicity. They axed the base and sent our one based 737 to ABZ. It sort of summed up TUi at LBA in a nutshell. No real commitment and no real effort to make a real success of it. At the time, of course, they still had their happy base at DSA.

The problem now, of course, is that even if a new TUi business plan included an LBA base in an effort to grab some of the Jet2 customers, there isn't the night movement capacity available with current limits being used almost to capacity by what we already have. The airport have indicated their intentions to submit a planning application, which if successful, would remove that barrier, but for now, it's hard to aee any airline, including the orange one, signing a contract to base aircraft here. The terminal capacity remains an issue until completed, but the night movement slots limits are an even bigger issue that effectively restrict the number of based aircraft.

TUi could, of course, use other carriers and indeed, they have used several, including Ryanair, Sun Express and Freebird, but even that has proved troublesome, at least as far as flights to Turkey are concerned. Now, there are none!

So, much as I doubt TUi will ever put up much of a challenge at LBA we will have to wait and see what happens when, or if, LBA succeeds in updating its archaic night movement limits. By then, I suspect the final wheel will have fallen off the DSA2 bandwagon and TUi will have to just pay lip service to the Yorkshire market, or, give it a real go at LBA.

The experience that LPL had with Tui is much the same. They had a small operation using their own aircraft, in fact I have a feeling it did a W pattern with LBA. Anyway the flights were booked out, so you would think they would be happy with that. Apparently not, and they disappeared in their own right. They are still offering LPL departures but all on Easyjets aircraft now . I think Tui appear something from the past when you basically had your 1 or 2 week charter package, their flight onlys are very expensive. That's ok if you like that, but many people like the freedom and flexibility of the LoCos these days. Tui seem to do ok at places like Norwich , Exeter and Cardiff where they dont have much competition from Ryanair/ Easyjet/Jet2. I suppose the very big airports like Gatwick they can hold their own because of the passenger volumes.

 

[gulftraveller]

It seems UK passengers are moving back to the package holiday concept: Jet2 and EasyJet are operating in some bases almost entirely for their holiday arms.

What I find very strange is that UK passengers just stick with traditional destinations in Europe. If you look at continental Europe, Germany, Italy, Poland, Czechia for example, they have many exotic destinations. Yet in UK long haul holidays - e.g. India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Zanzibar etc. have not expanded. Is that because of a lack of interest from travellers or caution by the holiday companies?

 

[LBAYORKIE]

The last time TUi based at LBA, it was a somewhat half hearted effort with all flights operated by Canadian partner Sunwing. According to LBA, it was , by some margin, their weakest base in terms of bookings, not helped by Sunwing's abysmal reliability and resultant poor publicity. They axed the base and sent our one based 737 to ABZ. It sort of summed up TUi at LBA in a nutshell. No real commitment and no real effort to make a real success of it. At the time, of course, they still had their happy base at DSA.

The problem now, of course, is that even if a new TUi business plan included an LBA base in an effort to grab some of the Jet2 customers, there isn't the night movement capacity available with current limits being used almost to capacity by what we already have. The airport have indicated their intentions to submit a planning application, which if successful, would remove that barrier, but for now, it's hard to aee any airline, including the orange one, signing a contract to base aircraft here. The terminal capacity remains an issue until completed, but the night movement slots limits are an even bigger issue that effectively restrict the number of based aircraft.

TUi could, of course, use other carriers and indeed, they have used several, including Ryanair, Sun Express and Freebird, but even that has proved troublesome, at least as far as flights to Turkey are concerned. Now, there are none!

So, much as I doubt TUi will ever put up much of a challenge at LBA we will have to wait and see what happens when, or if, LBA succeeds in updating its archaic night movement limits. By then, I suspect the final wheel will have fallen off the DSA2 bandwagon and TUi will have to just pay lip service to the Yorkshire market, or, give it a real go at LBA.

We also need stands to park any new 'based' aircraft on.

 

[Statto]

We also need stands to park any new 'based' aircraft on.

True . But based aircraft rarely just turn up out of the blue . It often involves a legal contract between the airport and the airline that commits to x passengers over y years. The airport would have more than enough notice to build what’s needed.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

True . But based aircraft rarely just turn up out of the blue . It often involves a legal contract between the airport and the airline that commits to x passengers over y years. The airport would have more than enough notice to build what’s needed.

Im not so sure there would be enough time.

 

[Aviador]

Im not so sure there would be enough time.

Not that there is anything even happening right now but are all the stands currently being used including the two new stands?

 

[oldendays]

Thankyou all. It essentially seems that TUI missed their opportunity several years ago and now the company isn't willing to give Leeds Bradford another try, even if there was a solid chance of success. It's hard to imagine Jet2 having that sort of attitude; if so, would they be based at Bristol, Birmingham and Gatwick, for example?

There's less chance of DSA getting anywhere than there is of TUI upping their game round here!

Speaking of stands, I've noticed a significant increase in 'push and parks' this summer over last, and 2024. I've been off the airfield for some time so I don't know the reasons.

 

[Statto]

Im not so sure there would be enough time.

Why not ?