Sacre Bleu mon dieu!!

[richardtaylor]

Rumours of a Dijon base for T3 with a couple of routes & a based JS41.

Q'uest que ce?

[Humberside]

Unless they are PSO routes a French base would surprise me. I would have thought Scandinavia would be the best place for Eastern to do their long awaited European expansion, considering they already serve Norway and thus services could maybe link into the current network

[pug]

They have hinted at French expansion in the past if im not mistaken... Scandinavia would be the obvious at the moment due to retrenchement to the fairly sturdy oil and gas support. I certainly wouldnt rule out niche expansion in other parts of the EU.

[Humberside]

PPrune post says they are PSO routes

This translated article says the operation will be a separate subisdary and flights to expand to Nantes, Nice and England in 2010
translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.bourgognedeveloppement.com/L-aeroport-regional-prend-son&ei=RX2pSbf1A9eitgeb9vDkDw&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=9&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dl%2527aeroport%2Bde%2Bdijon%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

[expressflight]

That's a very interesting development but Eastern are being very cagey about it at present. When I was in contact with them mid week on another matter, I mentioned the Dijon story and they said that they had no immediate plans for new French routes and that anything I had heard elsewhere was pure speculation. Perhaps there are some final details to be tied up before an announcement is made.

[richardtaylor]

"Pure speculation" usually means something's cooking in the kitchen!!

[Humberside]

This story has re-emerged

Original - www.dijonscope.com/004935-aeroport-dijon-longvic-nantes-et-nice-en-ligne-de-mire

Translation from freetranslation.com

The big return. Monday March 28 2010, the European commission gave his downhill one to the file Eastern Airways, name of the airline company that should establish itself on the dijon-longvic tarmac in the months to come. Uniform flights bound for Bordeaux and Toulouse while awaiting those towards Provide and Nice...

The airport deploys its wings 8 years ago again, in 2002, 33,000 passengers borrowed the only line dijon-londres. In 2005, 10,000 persons could boast themselves to have crossed the threshold of an airport, of which a lot saw in his weak attendance the announced soubresauts of a death. Nevertheless, last rebondissement in date, the green light of the European commission for the assistance of the body of the local groups to the start of the aerial lines dijon-bordeaux and dijon-toulouse. Spinning of disappointment in disappointment with the abortion of the engaged procedures with city-jet notably, would the airport have found, with the establishment of the English firm, a new rhythm of cruise?

For John françois Damongeot, director of the installation to the Room of Commerce and Industry of Dijon, no doubt: this signature is the consecration of several years of work: "Nevertheless, no billbook again is known." Already established to Angers, the company, created in 1997, will install therefore soon a second bases to Dijon to exploit previously two uniform lines: Dijon-bordeaux and dijon-toulouse. Thus, the airport will welcome two airplanes of type BAE Jetstream 41, fleeting devices of 29 seats also being able to welcome about twenty persons, crew and personal sailing formed for the occasion.

Towards a double rotation daily "altogether, detail John françois Damongeot, the four partners that are the CCI, the region Burgundy, the General Counsel of Côte-d'Or and the Big Dijon invested 2.5 million Euros on 3 years and the company close to 10 million Euros". A project that returns in the framework of the operation "Renaissance" and that should see, a year after the placement in service of these two first lines, the liaison opening, there so uniform, between Provide and Nice. A sketch already well specifies but likely to evolve, notably at the level of the tarification.

Thus, the exploitation outline prefigures a double frequency daily 5 days on 7 and a round-trip ticket during the weekend: "We can thus envision a first take-off to the surroundings of 7h/7h30 of Dijon for a return in environment of morning and a second towards 16h30/17h for a return before 21H. In the end, that is to say in a little more of a year, the 4 lines will be exploited with as first target, a clientele "business", even if modest households or families could be concerned during the weekends notably: "The gate tarifaire foresees a tariff of 150€ for the tariff leisure to 350/400 Euros for a round trip one".

This advance is nevertheless far to do unanimity. The president of the region, François Patriat, that must meet in the next days the CEO of the company, Richard Lake, congratulates itself for "these new lines [that] will profit to the attractivité of the body of the Burgundy". For his part, the left Forehead, again more than the Greens, denounces the granting of these subsidies to the measure profit "antisocial and anti-ecological, in the name of a conception productiviste of the development". In the absence of battle of the rail, the knights of the sky are beautiful and well return in Burgundy...

[expressflight]

....... just a pity it isn't a freetranslation into English

[Humberside]

www.newspress.fr/Communique_FR_228809_700.aspx
Talks about flights starting 23rd August from Dijon to Bordeaux and Toulouse with Nantes and Nice to follow next year. Though a bit confused about the reference to 10th May

[Humberside]

Finally happenning - see www.easternairways.fr (site being kept very separate from easternairways.com)

Dijon-Bordeaux starts September 20th, Dijon-Toulouse September 27th. Both 2xMon-Fri, 1xSun, with the Friday morning service being a triangle Dijon-Toulouse-Bordeaux-Dijon

[Humberside]

Official press release
www.easternairways.com/latest-news/eastern-airways-to-launch-domestic-french-flights.html