2012 flights to Languedoc ...

[peter]

Norwegian - http://www.norwegian.com - is the biggest low cost operator in Scandinavia carrying 13+m passengers in 2010 on 87 routes. Starting in 1993 offering Norwegian domestic flights they have expanded to include Scandinavian, and now European destinations. They also have announced the start-up of long-haul operations in 2012 using Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft. The launch routes will be from the Scandinavian capitals to New York and Bangkok.

They don't fly into LR, but will have services into Barcelona for 2012 including flights from Dublin, Gatwick and Paris Orly.

The mainly summer flights into Barcelona for 2012 be from Aalborg , Ålesund , Alta , Amsterdam , Antalya , Bardufoss , Bergen , Berlin-Schönefeld , Billund , Bodø , Copenhagen , Dublin , Geneva , Gothenburg-Landvetter , Gran Canaria , Harstad/Narvik , Haugesund , Helsinki , Kristiansand , London-Gatwick , Lulea , Malaga , Malmo , Molde , Nice , Oslo-Gardermoen , Oulu , Paris-Orly , Prague , Rome-Fiumicino , Rovaniemi , Stavanger , Stockholm-Arlanda , Tromsø , Trondheim , Turku , Umea , Vilnius , Warsaw.


Peter

[peter]

easyJet and Europcar, the car rental leader in Europe, announce the extension of their exclusive partnership until September 2014.

I'm not sure how this impacts http://www.easycar.com . When I tried to book easycar, I was supplied with a local independent rental company Toyota.

[peter]

I've had a note that someone has experienced "There is no page headers for the 2012 flights, it defaults to the main forum heading"

I haven't been able to reproduce this. Is anyone else having problems ?



Peter

[serge]

Works fine for me.

[alex hampshire]

And me.

[peter]

31 October 2011
Ryanair is dangling carrots in front of Boeing, Airbus and their Russian / Chinese competition.

"Michael O'Leary says he is in the market to buy up to 300 new aircraft to boost passenger numbers to between 120 million and 130 million over the next decade. This would make Ryanair one of the world's biggest airlines, swelling its fleet to more than 500 planes."

Boeing and Airbus have held out against the low prices Ryanair want to pay because they have a backlog of orders for the latest 737 MAX and A320neo. However Boeing is running behind with the airbus and currently has 700 provisional orders compared to the 1450 firm and provisional orders held by Airbus.

Part of the Ryanair philosophy is that they believe some airlines will fail, aircraft prices will have to come down and the cash rich Ryanair will step in ......... at a price.

360 Airbus orders and 100 Boeing orders ( totalling US$40+bn ) were from American Airlines. AMR, AA's parent company, filed for bankruptcy yesterday. The future of the AA aircraft orders is in some doubt and a rapid decision is unlikely.

Michael O'Leary has been spotted listening to a hands free phone and rubbing his hands together in the Boeing car park .... allegedly !

More ; http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/ ... NU20111130

[peter]

Flybe are currently announcing their summer routes :

Birmingham - Perpignan will fly 26-5-2012 to 9-9-2012 on Sundays
Enfin, pour Perpignan, seul un vol sera opéré tout l’été, le dimanche. Il décollera de Birmingham à 14h50 pour se poser à 18h10 dans les Pyrénées Orientales d’où il repartira à 18h35 (arrivée à 20h05).

Exeter - Avignon will start 7-4-2012 on Saturdays and Wednesdays
Le 7 avril verra ensuite Flybe lancer deux vols par semaine entre Exeter et Avignon à bord du même appareil, avec départ le mercredi à 7h10 (arrivée 10h20) et le samedi à 16h40 (arrivée 19h50) les retours décollant respectivement à 10h45 (arrivée 12h05) et 20h15 (arrivée 21h35).

More details will be announced at todays Beziers press conference.




Flybe is committed to expansion, particularly in France, and has recently secured funding of $500 million for 20 new Embraer E175 regional jet aircraft scheduled for delivery between November and July. The Embraer E175 seats approx 85 passengers (subject to seat pitch) and uses 2× GE CF34-8E turbofan engines to provide a cruising speed of 890 km/h and standard range of 3300 kms.

Flybe is hoping to gain European routes that will be rationalised if BMI is acquired by IAG (formerly BA + Iberia).


More : http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-201 ... 05216.html

[peter]

Snippets from todays FlyBe Beziers press conference -

Flybe will add a third weekly flight from Southampton to Beziers running 25-5-2012 to 28-9-2012

2011 will achieve nearly 6000 passengers with a load factor of 70+% generating €1.9m into the local economy
2012 objectives are nearly 10,000 passengers (+73%)

UK economy very difficult and FlyBe are looking to grow the business by acquisition. The Finnair acquisition - http://www.anna.aero/2011/07/05/finnair-flybe-partnership-enters-battle-of-the-baltics - will not generate direct flights to France, but may offer some connections through UK hubs.


Beziers airport expects 195,000 passengers in 2011 and are projecting 225,000 in 2012.

[peter]

Local flight talk :

FlyBe have announced Avignon - Exeter for next summer. Haven't seen the announcements for Avignon to Southampton and Birmingham but both are bookable via the website.

There is talk of a new FlyBe service Avignon - Brussels but it is not yet on their website.

Seems Beziers airport may have a new route up their sleeves. Keep an eye on Ryanair announcements.

Beziers airport expects 195,000 passengers in 2011 and are projecting 225,000 in 2012. The increase will be generated by the additional Flybe flight (4000) and the new Ryanair - Manchester service (+/- 7000). The arithmetic suggests that the additional 19,000 must be contributed by increased loading factors. It could also mask another route?



Peter

[catalanglais]

Larger Icelandic volcano near eruption ?

Experts are warning that an eruption could be imminent at an even more powerful Icelandic volcano than the one that paralysed air traffic last year.

Looks like this may be coming to a head, as it were.

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16122186

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15995845

[Sandra]

The only trouble with Man/Beziers is the landing and take off times. The car hire desks are closed.

I saw the management team of the airport on saturday at Chateau Cassan and they have confirmed that the car hire desks will be open for the manchester flight.

I also had the opportunity of meeting Peter for the first time after 7 years of emails and phone calls, and it was my rochdale accent that gave me away !

[alex hampshire]

Our thoughts are with you Sandra.

[serge]

[peter]

Ryanair announce 4 new summer routes from Prestwick for 2012 including Barcelona.

More : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-g ... t-15987134

[peter]

The ongoing Saga of Reus & Girona v Ryanair

Ryanair and the Generalitat of Catalonia have reached a tentative agreement for the Irish low-cost company to receive about €8 million each year for the next five years (€40 million total) in exchange for continuing to operate at the airports of Girona and Reus, reports in the Catalan media said.

Specifically, the airline is committed to maintain three million passengers a year in Girona and a half million in Reus.

Both figures are far from over the seven million passengers carried by Ryanair in 2009, before there was a change of strategy in Catalonia that has given priority to its operation at the airport of El Prat in Barcelona.

The draft agreement, however, will only be ratified if Aena (the public company that owns both facilities) agrees not to raise rates at these two airports, because otherwise “the draft agreements will be cancelled”.

The tentative agreement comes just 15 days after Ryanair operated its last flight from Reus airport. The Irish low cost carrier, in the last year, cancelled 39 flights from Girona airport, which during the last decade has been its main base of operations in Spain.

http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp? ... mid=136480

[catalanglais]

That's interesting.

I was under the impression that the Generalitat tried to negotiate from the eleven agreed by the previous administration, down to eight million and MOL threw his dummy out of the pram and withdrew from both airports.

If the deal is, indeed, eight million, it looks like he may have backed down???

[peter]

Air France are due to announce their low cost flight routes from Nice, Marseille and Toulouse.



Low cost 2012 routes from Marseille are :

Agadir New  Jet4you
Barcelone From 25 mars 2012  Vueling
Brest-Bretagne Year round  Ryanair
Bristol From 23/06/2012  easyJet
Bruxelles-Charleroi Year round  Ryanair
Casablanca Year round  Jet4you
Cologne From 27 mars 2012  Germanwings
Copenhague From 30 juin 2012  Norwegian
Eindhoven Year round  Ryanair
Fès Year round  Ryanair
Istanbul Year round  Pegasus Airlines
Lille Year round  Ryanair
Londres-Gatwick Year round  easyJet
Londres-Stansted Year round  Ryanair
Madrid Year round  Ryanair
Malte La Valette Year round  Ryanair
Marrakech Year round  Ryanair
Marrakech New  Jet4you
Milan-Bergame New  Ryanair
Nantes-Atlantique Year round  Ryanair
Porto Year round  Ryanair
Rome-Ciampino New  Ryanair
Séville Year round  Ryanair


Peter

[peter]

Early news regarding Air France low cost route proposals from Marseille :

Air France have announced that only the price is low. Prices will start at €50 and they will not charge extra for seat selection, baggage, booking, etc. The reduced prices will be supported by a 25% improvement in productivity and 15% reduction in overall costs.

New routes starting March 2012 are Athens, Basle, Beirut, Biarritz, Brest, Casablanca, Copenhagen, Dusseldorf, Eindhoven, Istanbul, Milan Malpensa, Moscow, Mulhouse, Prague.

More : http://www.20minutes.fr/ledirect/756653 ... ix-reduits

Including some existing routes, and longer routes at higher prices, the full list of low cost flights for 2012 is :


Alger 81 €
Athènes 81 €
Barcelone 51 €
Biarritz 51 €
Bordeaux 51 €
Brest 51 €
Casablanca 81 €
Copenhague 81 €
Dusseldorf 51 €
Eindhoven 51 €
Hambourg 51 €
Istanbul 81 €
Lille 51 €
Lyon 51 €
Milan 51 €
Moscou 111 €
Mulhouse 51 €
Nantes 51 €
Paris 51 €
Prague 51 €
Rennes 51 €
Rome 51 €
Strasbourg 51 €
Toulouse 51 €
Tunis 81 €
Venise 51 €

The long term plan is to eventually have the same low cost business model in Toulouse, Nice and Bordeaux.

Interestingly, they haven't dared to compete with the existing low cost offers to UK.

Peter

[peter]

Ryanair open new base at Billund

Billund, already a major destination for Ryanair, will now become a base housing 2 aircraft from March 2012.

Existing routes to Alghero, Alicante, Barcelona, Edinburgh, Faro, London, Malaga, Malta, Milan, Palma, Pisa, Rome, Tenerife, Trapani will be supplemented by new routes to Carcassonne, Corfu, Krakow, Venice and Zadar.


Peter

[peter]

I also had the opportunity of meeting Peter for the first time after 7 years of emails and phone calls, and it was my rochdale accent that gave me away !

By coincidence we met again at a function today.

So 2nd time in 7 years and also 2nd time in 3 days !

Peter

[peter]

Just noticed that there will be a Ryanair Barcelona-East Midlands flight starting summer 2012


Peter

[Sandra]

glad you got home safe! i look forward to reading your notes as I didn't take any !

[peter]

Someone made a few : http://www.lindependant.fr/2011/12/06/f ... ,92382.php

Peter

[peter]

More Air France low cost flights ...

Air France plans to fly to 16 new destinations from Toulouse as of April, as it creates another hub in Toulouse to fend off airlines including EasyJet Plc in its home market.

The new routes will more than double to 28 the number of cities served from the second French regional base that the carrier has set up this year. Air France established a hub in the Mediterranean city of Marseille in October and will add six routes in Nice in the southeast in April.

“The idea is to add the best practices of low-cost carriers, with the full services of Air France and attractive fares,” a spokesman said at a press briefing in Toulouse.

Cost-Cut Plans

Air France will outline cost-cutting measures in January in advance of a larger-scale strategy announcement planned for May or June, said CEO de Juniac.The so-called transformation plan will include refurbishment of business-class cabins in the airline’s Boeing Co. 777-model fleet, de Juniac said. Eliminating jobs will be the “last thing” Air France will do to achieve savings, he said.

The new hubs are part of a program to restore medium-haul, point-to-point routes’ profitability by the end of 2013, he said. Those services include flights from Paris Orly as well as French airports outside the capital city.

The airline will assign 10 Airbus SAS A320-series planes to Toulouse and expects eventually to have a workforce of 350 people there, with 120 pilots and the remainder cabin attendants. The planes will be able to fly 11 hours and 30 minutes a day on average, compared with the eight hours and 15 minutes that they were used when based in Paris.

Destinations

New routes served from Toulouse will include Athens, Brussels, Geneva and Hamburg, Malta, Malaga, Seville, Naples, Venice, Istanbul, Tunis, Casablanca and Marrakesh.

Nice’s six additional destinations will be Athens, Istanbul, Naples, Tel Aviv, Venice and Barcelona.

EasyJet is already planning a counter-move against Air France’s domestic expansion, with plans unveiled in October to open bases in Toulouse and Nice. EasyJet will place two Airbus A319 narrow-body airplanes at each location for next year’s summer season, expanding its fleet in France to 24 aircraft.

[peter]

The previously reported battle for BMI is now under way.



BA want the Heathrow slots - so do Virgin - and both are involved with ongoing discussions.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mark ... l?ITO=1490

BA would probably have to release some routes under the monopoly rules, and other airlines are keeping a close eye on developments.

Virgin have little spare money, but they have been experts in fund raising in the past. They are hoping that Lufthansa will not be prepared to wait for the long drawn out monopoly commission enquiry that BA would attract.