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Post by Humberside on Feb 6, 2013 20:20:26 GMT
Even with Easyjet flying to AMS, KLM would be a significant 'get' for SEN. KLM offering a whole lot more than just AMS through their hub. Plus it's a 'big name' airline, and helps diversify the range of airlines serving SEN. EZY seem committed to SEN, but it's not a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket and be too reliant on one particular airline if at all possible
I can't see any possible Cambridge service having a huge impact of KLM's chances of serving SEN. I don't imagine there would be much catchment overlap for a route like KLM to AMS
What should be watched is the future of Cityjet - it's through Cityjet that KLM serve LCY. If Cityjet goes it's separate way from AF/KLM, what do KLM do. Try and return to LCY themselves? Use alternates instead such as SEN. Or not replace the capacity at all?
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Post by expressflight on Feb 7, 2013 8:52:24 GMT
I really cannot see any of the parties involved thinking it a good idea to have EZY and KLM competing on SEN-AMS. KLM also seem to want to offer at least 3 x daily and that would add a lot more capacity than could be absorbed by pax routing through AMS on KLM.
The Cityjet situation is certainly interesting and hopefully its sale by AF/KLM might be completed by the summer.
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Post by devonian on Feb 7, 2013 9:21:24 GMT
Let's hope the Cityjet situation works out for the benefit of SEN. As well as some first tier destinations such as Copenhagen and Frankfurt there are so many second tier destinations that could be successfully served from SEN, such as Oslo, Hamburg, Strasbourg, Cologne, and what might be termed third-tier destinations such as Billund (or Aarhus), Munster, Caen, Bergen, Metz-Nancy, Montpellier. Maybe EZY will try these in future years but I'd have thought slightly smaller equipment would be needed for most of them and flyBE (or Aer Arann???) could make a success of them.
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Post by tagron on Feb 7, 2013 10:59:18 GMT
Allegedly Cityjet has been a serious loss maker for years, with only the seemingly bottomless pockets of Air France/KLM keeping them afloat. The losses have been quoted at c.£50 million p.a. Any purchaser will need to take drastic action to stem these losses, and so ultimately will Air France/KLM if they fail to sell Cityjet.
Speculatively, this might result in a number of routes being axed, and some of these might just work better from SEN with its lower airport charges and shorter flight times to some European destinations. But it would need an operator willing and able to take them on in what is a crowded marketplace. Or perhaps they could sell the F50 operation (the former VLM) as a separate unit.
The only recent Cityjet route to close was Eindhoven. It seems that EIN slots are hard to come by and they handed over or sold their slots to Transavia. A further disincentive to any potential replacement operator on that route must be Ryanair's twice daily EIN-STN service.
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Post by Humberside on Feb 7, 2013 20:10:44 GMT
I really cannot see any of the parties involved thinking it a good idea to have EZY and KLM competing on SEN-AMS. KLM also seem to want to offer at least 3 x daily and that would add a lot more capacity than could be absorbed by pax routing through AMS on KLM. MSE-AMS will be 2xDaily and I think there are some other KLM Cityhopper routes with the same frequency (Linkoping?) FWIW IIRC HUY-AMS is something like 80/90% transfer passengers. Local demand is pretty minimal. Different market conditions in the South East obviously, but if KLM wherever to start SEN, they might not be serving very many 'local' SEN-AMS passengers at all
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Post by expressflight on Feb 8, 2013 8:51:50 GMT
It obviously would be good to see KLM at SEN but I haven't heard any whispers of it being on the agenda. Interesting about the potentially very high percentage of transfer passengers though.
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Post by pug on Feb 8, 2013 9:56:06 GMT
I think its pointless at this time trying to second guess what KLM are looking to do, however a few points which may be of interest.
I believe KLM like to operate the 'short hops' into airports on the East Coast. In the case of HUY they can drop out of the airways over the Wash and straight into HUY, a considerable fuel saving over even flying into LBA I'm told. May partly explain the rational for MSE.
It is true, these services are not intended for use by point to point o&d passengers. The vast majority are connecting onto the extensive network available at Schipol. Certainly, they offer a better alternative to driving to LHR since BA dont operate into LHR from most of the regions these days. I'm booked on HUY-AMS a few times this year, far more conveniant than travelling to LHR and even MAN for certain EU destinations! So if KLM were to look at SEN it would be with a view to attracting connecting business passengers, easyjet would probably not factor too much.
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Post by EGMCfollower on Mar 2, 2013 11:46:41 GMT
I believe that the airport is in discussions with SkyWork Airlines but whether anything will happen is another question. Would be a nice small carrier for SEN to get onboard.
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Post by devonian on Mar 2, 2013 13:33:16 GMT
Agreed. SkyWork would be ideal for the second and third tier routes which SEN needs to develop.
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Post by expressflight on Mar 3, 2013 9:17:33 GMT
I haven't heard of any serious negotiations but there's no reason to believe it might not be true. It would certainly be the litmus test of SEN's credentials as a LON arrival point for business travellers. I just wonder how much cheaper than LCY would SEN actually be though: it would need to be a lot to gain the business I reckon.
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Post by expressflight on Mar 19, 2013 9:39:22 GMT
Looking ahead at easyJet's programme for this summer, it looks currently as if there will be 96 weekly departures in July/August. That should result in perhaps 30 movements on some days carrying around 4,000 pax.
The individual routes frequencies are: ALC 10 x weekly BCN 10 x weekly FAO 8 x weekly IBZ 3 x weekly PMI 5 x weekly AGP 7 x weekly AMS 11 x weekly BFS 7 x weekly SXF 7 x weekly EDI 6 x weekly JER 6 x weekly KRK 6 x weekly NQY 6 x weekly VCE 4 x weekly
It will be interesting to see if there are any changes to these frequencies over the next couple of months.
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Post by devonian on Mar 19, 2013 11:24:01 GMT
Securing Easyjet has been such a great coup for SEN. It would be great to see some other airlines adding schedules though. "All eggs" and "basket" come to mind.....
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Post by fatmed on Mar 19, 2013 11:48:14 GMT
Looking at prices for FAO I'm surprised they did not push this route to x 10 pw like ALC? Would be interesting to see how Thomson get on this summer and see if they try an extended programme in 2014, Are Tom own jets able to utilise the SEN runway or will they always have to charter other AC to fly from here? All looks healthy for now thou but would be nice to see other colours on the apron. Are stobarts still pushing for Aer Arran to increase routes with any of the new planes they have on order?
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Post by EGMCfollower on Mar 19, 2013 16:17:45 GMT
I do hope we hear some new airline announcements this year ahead of when the fully extended terminal becomes operational. I am surprised that a new airport like SEN with so much to offer has made very little use of the Routes.online website so far, which other airports seem to have a lot of success on . It will be interesting to see who replaces Mr. Rayner, and what they do differently and can bring to the airport. Anyway this year is still looking to be pretty good by all accounts.
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Post by expressflight on Mar 20, 2013 9:30:51 GMT
SEN will be at Routes Europe in May, with the replacement for Jonny Rayner being announced in a couple of weeks time.
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