Post by expressflight on Dec 26, 2011 9:01:17 GMT
Time for my thoughts on what 2012 will bring for SEN.
2011 turned out much as anticipated with no new routes being commenced beyond the Aer Arann WAT & GWY and the start-ups treading water all year trying to obtain finance. The additional Aer Arann routes to near-Europe came so close to happening in the Autumn but the airline couldn't justify the additional investment and instead has retrenched somewhat, including the suspension (more likely permament closure) of all its GWY routes. The big news was, of course, that easyJet will commence a serious network of routes in April 2012 with three SEN-based A319s, subject to the runway extension being in service by that date.
On the assumption that the latter will happen by the first week in March, what can we expect in 2012? It seems a strong possibility that Jet2 will commence twice weekly B733 sole use charters for Ford to CGN and CRA in early January, with Germania perhaps taking over the route in Spring using A319s. It still seems rather vague as to whether this would then become a scheduled service, but that would seem a possibility. The start-up JOIN is still in the process of obtaining finance and there could be news on this within a week or so in which case I can see a network perhaps including Caen, Liege, Groningen, Munster/Osnabruck and Manchester being launched in April or May. Other than that there don't seem to be any other scheduled routes in the offing as these would need to be announced in early January for a Spring launch, although the odd surprise cannot be ruled out. Charter services are a more likely contender with Newmarket Holidays testing the water with a one-off Italian holidays package in June and others to perhaps follow. The Olympics in August will no doubt generate some charter flights plus a good quantity of bizjet movements during that period.
All in all a little disappointing that more operators aren't lined up to commence services in the Spring, but a combination of wanting to be certain that the infrastructure will all be in place and the cost of launching new services at a time of economic turmoil both conspire to produce the current situation. Will JOIN get off the ground? I still think it will be very difficult to obtain sufficient finance but who knows.
We must now keep our fingers crossed that the runway extension is indeed commissioned in early March as any delay to that happening will cause real setbacks in the regeneration of SEN in 2012. There certainly is the definite prospect that 2012 will be a landmark year in the history of SEN and that it will provide a firm base on which to build in the years ahead.
2011 turned out much as anticipated with no new routes being commenced beyond the Aer Arann WAT & GWY and the start-ups treading water all year trying to obtain finance. The additional Aer Arann routes to near-Europe came so close to happening in the Autumn but the airline couldn't justify the additional investment and instead has retrenched somewhat, including the suspension (more likely permament closure) of all its GWY routes. The big news was, of course, that easyJet will commence a serious network of routes in April 2012 with three SEN-based A319s, subject to the runway extension being in service by that date.
On the assumption that the latter will happen by the first week in March, what can we expect in 2012? It seems a strong possibility that Jet2 will commence twice weekly B733 sole use charters for Ford to CGN and CRA in early January, with Germania perhaps taking over the route in Spring using A319s. It still seems rather vague as to whether this would then become a scheduled service, but that would seem a possibility. The start-up JOIN is still in the process of obtaining finance and there could be news on this within a week or so in which case I can see a network perhaps including Caen, Liege, Groningen, Munster/Osnabruck and Manchester being launched in April or May. Other than that there don't seem to be any other scheduled routes in the offing as these would need to be announced in early January for a Spring launch, although the odd surprise cannot be ruled out. Charter services are a more likely contender with Newmarket Holidays testing the water with a one-off Italian holidays package in June and others to perhaps follow. The Olympics in August will no doubt generate some charter flights plus a good quantity of bizjet movements during that period.
All in all a little disappointing that more operators aren't lined up to commence services in the Spring, but a combination of wanting to be certain that the infrastructure will all be in place and the cost of launching new services at a time of economic turmoil both conspire to produce the current situation. Will JOIN get off the ground? I still think it will be very difficult to obtain sufficient finance but who knows.
We must now keep our fingers crossed that the runway extension is indeed commissioned in early March as any delay to that happening will cause real setbacks in the regeneration of SEN in 2012. There certainly is the definite prospect that 2012 will be a landmark year in the history of SEN and that it will provide a firm base on which to build in the years ahead.
