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Post by mrmoose on Aug 24, 2013 17:43:13 GMT
If you ignore the summer holiday 8am departure, then we have an 11.15 departure every Saturday from May - September, that goes to either Alicante or Palma. This could quite easily fly in from somewhere, perhaps Malaga, Faro, or anywhere else on Mainland Europe, then W out, as this years flights do. This would make more sense than a UK based operation from the flight times. Whatever is happening, I think we are only getting half the picture at the minute.
Humberside airport travel have advertised these flights now on their facebook page, but so far - I have not seen any packages at all using these flights. Perhaps JetXtra are going it alone?
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Post by kirmingtonuser on Aug 25, 2013 18:59:05 GMT
On 7th August, Humberside Airport Travel (HAT) sent out an advertising e-mail with a £99 fare sale of August seats to Alicante, Palma and Venice. They were sold directly by HAT with no mention of other branding. On 24th August, HAT released an e-mail advertising the Jetxtra.com flights to Tenerife and summer arrangements for Alicante and Palma in 2014. The implication in the wording is that the new Jetxtra flights are no longer shared. In the Grimsby Telegraph article on 23rd August, Paul Litten stated 'This year's Western Mediterranean destinations have been an area of popular demand, but we have been surprised that other tour operators havn't also grabbed the opportunity.' He then invited support for the new flights and referred to 'other opportunities going forward.' Can we deduce from this that HUY would prefer tour operators to come in and arrange the flights, but if this doesn't happen, they are quite happy to carry out new (or, more correctly, revived) route development themselves, using HAT.
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Post by Humberside on Aug 25, 2013 20:40:32 GMT
I suspect that is the case. I doubt the airport wants to be underwritting flights - and in the process taking on the financial risk - but will do if necessary
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Post by mrmoose on Aug 26, 2013 8:43:29 GMT
Re Alicante, the load factors are quite low. However, if you try and book on JetXtra's website, for more than 7-8 passengers, flights start coming up as not available on many dates. At the same time - HAT seem to be constantly offering discounted Benidorm Holidays. Perhaps ALC sells much better as a flight only, for people with second homes etc, and therefore JetXtra can take that on themselves selling directly and get reasonable loads most of the summer, but Majorca is more a package holiday type destination, and flight only sales are not high enough for JetXtra to offer except at the peak summer season?
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Post by kirmingtonuser on Aug 26, 2013 20:43:45 GMT
The above points are well made and they also underline the fact that it is HAT and Jetextra who have been actively selling in order to fill the seats. By comparison, Low-Cost seem to have been looking for higher margins and it is interesting to note that they have so far not been mentioned in the promotional material for 2014. Another possible reason for Jetxtra's caution over Palma is that there could be more capacity announcements in the pipeline. Thomas Cook have not announced their plans yet. In addition, if Volotea were to continue to be employed at HUY, each route would involve an additional service to and from Palma. (As it unlikely that HAT would develop routes to Nantes, Venice or Palermo).
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Post by kirmingtonuser on Sept 1, 2013 11:50:39 GMT
If any revived routes underwritten by HAT are likely to result in 25% of the capacity being unsold, they could consider other methods of filling the seats. One possibility would be to use the marketing and public relations budget to distribute tickets to registered charities within a two hour radius of HUY. Tickets would be used for raffle prizes and would be in singles or pairs. Additional seats could be purchased by winners at attractive prices in order that they could make up larger travelling parties. Even if this did not generate additional sales, it would make the airport more widely known in such places as Leicester, Peterborough and Middlesborough. This is the sort of catchment area from where it is hoped some of the SAS passengers will originate.
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Post by flyer on Sept 13, 2013 11:57:55 GMT
Interesting - www.flythomascook.com drop-down menu for 2014 showing flights to Cancun and Goa from HUY connecting through Manchester or Gatwick. Nothing shows on a search though. A mistake or work in progress??? This option has been announced by Thomas Cook for some airports with Flybe routes providing the feeder flight but no mention of Humberside.
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Post by jw29 on Sept 13, 2013 14:45:52 GMT
RE the Cancun and Goa flights, it says they are with TCX's sister airline Condor.
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Post by mrmoose on Sept 13, 2013 16:29:05 GMT
For those not aware of the new flybe/TCX feeder services, details are here www.travelmole.com/news_feature.php?news_id=2007997®ion=2Only Manchester has been mentioned previously as a hub, and I cannot imagine a HUY-MAN service working out. As far as I was aware the services are really taking some seats on existing Flybe routes out of MAN. HUY-Gatwick is more likely, as it has the potential for some none-TCX traffic too but last I heard Flybe were pulling out of Gatwick, so I think this may be a mistake, but really hope its not! The Condor link is also a strange one. TCX and condor are all part of the same "family" of companies, but as far as I know are not active in the UK side of the business, and see no reason why they would be - Would be a very unusual set up if true!
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Post by Humberside on Sept 13, 2013 17:11:54 GMT
It seems bizarre to me. Try and book on flythomascook and you are redirected to Condor. And Condor aren't offering HUY-Cancun/Goa. I had thought maybe they are offering AMS-Cancun/Goa, with HUY-AMS on KLM but no MME/MSE-Cancun available makes me think not. I'm not sure if Thomas Cook Airlines Scandiavia offer Cancun and Goa through CPH? But even if they did the connecting times through CPH would probably be hours
More likely a mistake IMO
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Post by airbus330 on Sept 13, 2013 21:00:16 GMT
Thomas Cook Airlines UK, Scandavia and Condor now operate as one company, a group airline, all with separate brands and identify.
Condor are operating many short haul flights as charters under DE flight numbers from Manchester next summer.
They also now operate as code share on many TCX (MT) long haul flights out of Manchester. This allows them to be booked via GDS and as a scheduled product. Essentially this also allows the through checking with baggage ect from flybe.
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Post by airbus330 on Sept 13, 2013 21:02:26 GMT
Also Flexibletrips gives the S14 Majorca Jetxtra flights Volotea flight numbers. Wonder if this is actually going to be the operating airline or are we in for a change.
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Post by mrmoose on Sept 14, 2013 8:38:54 GMT
All the flights, including the 8am departure during the school holidays, are showing as Volotea. This does confirm that we have 2 Volotea aircraft working out of HUY on Saturdays during the school holidays in Summer 14, one of which appears to be based, and the other appears to follow a W pattern in from somewhere else - Hopefully as another new destination rather than a positioning trip from a Volotea base.
1 = ? > HUY (11.15 DEP) > ALC/PLM > HUY > ? (Operates Alicante May-Jul and Sept, to Palma Jul/Aug) 2 = HUY (08.00) > ALC > HUY (Summer Holidays only)
Based on what is known so far, I am expecting some growth from jetXtra next year. If the existing rotation was just simply over to a saturday, then It would operate a similar pattern to this year, and there would be no need for a second plane.
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Post by mrmoose on Sept 23, 2013 20:09:59 GMT
Humberside airport have published a handy guide, showing all the confirmed flights so far for Summer 14. No new information that I can see, but summarises the programme on sale. www.humbersideairport.com/media/85239/destination_guide_1314_hat.pdfAccording to the information given - Newmarket Holidays are involved in the Summer Majorca service by JetXtra. Nothing on their website, so I suspect its an error. Still no sign of the missing TCX Palma flights either - Think it was about this time last year the flights were confirmed, so hopefully there will be some good news on that front soon.
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Post by markeyd on Sept 25, 2013 11:47:34 GMT
Just spoke to my friends at Thomas Cook Res and planning and they still say nothing on sale for Palma next year , seem to think everything has now been released on sale and updated now and they also said there has been some cuts at some smaller UK airports for next year due to contracting ?
fingers crossed of course but leaving it a bit late now , if Thomas Cook do cancel Palma then i would imagine that Jet Xtra and others may now increase there Palma service for all summer
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