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Post by expressflight on Oct 27, 2016 7:13:53 GMT
The Stobart Group half-year results issued this morning state that they have signed a Heads of Agreement with Cityjet to operate up to four aircraft from SEN wef April 2017 to serve up to 18 destinations. These routes are expected to generate up to 600,000 pax per annum.
They also say that negotiations are progressing with Cityjet which may lead to a change in ownership of Stobart Air; in other words the long awaited take-over by Cityjet of Stobart Air.
It does seem that the Cityjet SEN ops deal is, technically at least, separate from the anticipated take-over and that Stobart Group will be providing support for these new routes, as stated in the results issued this morning.
The rumours of recent weeks have suggested that Cityjet will base 2 x RJ85 and 2 x SU95 aircraft at SEN but today's results say simply "up to four aircraft". I must say the mention of "up to 18 destinations" has surprised me as I had anticipated fewer with 14 rotations per day and some destinations being served double-daily (at least).
Nothing seems to be yet cast in stone regarding these new routes and aircraft to be based at SEN but in any event they will need to get the routes on sale fairly soon to maximise their successful launch next April.
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Post by devonian on Oct 27, 2016 9:01:17 GMT
Great news indeed. Let's hope they select the routes well. I would hope to see some leisure destinations such as Malta (surely.....?), Corfu, Montpellier for example, some Scandinavian destinations such as Copenhagen, Bergen and Oslo, some Eastern European destinations such as Krakow, Prague and Budapest and some Euro city destinations such as Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Vienna, Antwerp, Milan. Within the British Isles surely Edinburgh and Dublin are worth another shot. There are several destinations in France which Ryanair have abandoned recently - might be worth picking up some of those. Whio would havbe thought SEN-Rennes would have been so successful?
Whichever choices are made, it is going to be a fascinating 2017......
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Post by aurigny72 on Oct 27, 2016 12:32:17 GMT
Fantastic news for SEN at last, surely they wont operate all 18 destinations from the start i wouldnt have thought. All those rumours that i was told a few months ago seems to have been spot on, however as expressflight says Stobart/Cityjet need to get the negotiations completed very soon to get these routes on sale and a advertising campaign underway asap.
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Post by expressflight on Oct 27, 2016 13:04:37 GMT
I wonder if Cityjet might set up an engineering presence at SEN - maybe one bay of the old ATC Lasham hangar?
They certainly need to get seats on sale within the next month I would say. I know that Andrew Tinkler said in an interview today that "talks with Cityjet are at an early stage ...." but that could have been just to avert awkward questions about the details of the deal. Certainly the takeover talks with Cityjet have been going on for months so I doubt the "stage" that the talks on a SEN Cityjet operation have reached are really only "early". To actually organise routes to 18 destinations generally takes a long time involving detailed negotiations with the airports concerned for one thing.
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Post by Humberside on Oct 27, 2016 17:12:07 GMT
ADMIN NOTE - I've given this significant and welcome development for Southend it's own thread as I expect it will be generating a lot of discussion over the days, weeks, months and hopefully years ahead
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Post by expressflight on Nov 2, 2016 10:56:13 GMT
Cityjet on their f/b page are now recruiting flight deck and cabin crews for their "London-Southend base" on both RJ85 and SU95 types.
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Post by EGMCfollower on Nov 3, 2016 15:16:10 GMT
NTE and FLR both not bookable from LCY towards the end of March on wards. Possible routes transferring to SEN?
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Post by expressflight on Nov 3, 2016 16:05:35 GMT
I think that is quite likely.
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Post by mikkie4 on Nov 3, 2016 16:56:06 GMT
haven't cityjet been flying the Florence flight for B.A and using their planes?
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Post by EGMCfollower on Nov 3, 2016 17:11:08 GMT
I don't think so. As far as i'm aware BA operate the route themselves (with their own planes) independently from CityJet.
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Post by mikkie4 on Nov 3, 2016 17:29:27 GMT
must be the regular DIVERTS from LCY on a SATURDAY due to delayed arrival at LCY cos its closed that im getting mixed up with
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Post by EGMCfollower on Nov 3, 2016 21:38:17 GMT
I hope that with the online timetable change for FLR and NTE that maybe they can announce these routes from SEN, otherwise customers on these routes will start to book elsewhere. They need to get a move on!
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Post by aurigny72 on Nov 3, 2016 22:01:12 GMT
Yes they do need to get a move on, with up to 18 routes to advertise and put on sale, if they are still intending to start all these services by April, they must get there act together very soon.
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Post by EGMCfollower on Nov 4, 2016 12:55:25 GMT
On the other hand it would be cheaper just to do one big launch event with all the routes advertised and put on sale (however many they choose to put on sale initially).
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Post by EGMCfollower on Nov 4, 2016 21:14:39 GMT
Paris-Orly now unavailable from LCY after April...
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