@SeanM1997

British Airways are reported to have axed plans to revive short haul operations at London Gatwick Airport, with all short haul flights removed from sale (excluding daily flights to Glasgow and Manchester). With the second largest carrier at Gatwick significantly reducing operations, which airlines could be interested in buying slot s and expand or add a presence at the UK's second busiest airport? London Gatwick has been hit hard during the COVID-19 pandemic. Norwegian Air and Virgin Atlantic have already closed its bases at the airport, whilst many long haul carriers have moved operations to Heathrow - including Air China, Cathay Pacific, China Eastern, Emirates and Rwandair. Whilst some of these airlines are forecast to return in Summer 2022, it is unclear to what extent they will return or if they would remain at Heathrow (if they can obtain long term slots). All this means there will be a great number of available slots at London Gatwick for new and incumbent airlines to base a...

A process to contract year-round flights under a Public Service Obligation has relaunched by Cornwall Council. The new obligation is open for bids until 7 September 2021 to operate for year round flights for four years, commencing on 31 October 2021. Earlier in the year, the process to contract year round flights between Newquay and London was unsucessful and has meant the number of flights between Newquay and London has dropped from 28 weekly in 2019 to 8 weekly in 2021 (5 weekly from Heathrow with British Airways and 3 weekly from Gatwick with easyJet). Furthermore, the 8 weekly flights are only proposed to operate for summer 2021 and not for the winter process. Without a Public Service Obligation (PSO) in place, the Cornish airport may end up without a link to London this winter. Cornwall Airport Newquay has seen a number of new airlines and routes in Summer 2021 including BA CityFlyer, easyJet and Loganair launching domestic flights to the airport, allowing the airport to benefit f...

17 June 2021 easyJet have loaded 12 new domestic routes for Summer 2021, serving 16 airports across the United Kingdom. As noted in my previous article ( easyJet expands UK domestic - where next? (seanm1997.blogspot.com) ), even before the collapse of Flybe in March 2021, easyJet has been the number 1 domestic carrier by seats in the UK - connecting major airports including London Gatwick, Manchester, Edinburgh and B elfast International, and has recently grown its UK domestic operation. easyJet have long served one key market in the UK domestic market - connecting major cities and conurbations. Belfast (International) has been key to this. Being on a separate island to Great Britain has allowed easyJet to grow its Belfast operation in recent years and with the collapse of Flybe, easyJet became the largest domestic carrier from the Northern Ireland capital. In 2019, the airline launched Manchester - Jersey and in 2020 launched Edinburgh - Birmingham and Glasgow - Birmingham, whilst in ...

London Southend was once the UK's fastest growing airports and in 2019 saw over 2 million passengers for the first time in its history. However, in March 2020, COVID hit and caused turmoil across the aviation sector, but one airport suffered more than any other in the UK - London Southend. In 2008, Stobart Group bought the airport for £21 million and initially extended the runway by 300m to allow the airport to handle Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft. In 2011, an on site railway station opened with direct trains to London and Stratford. Additionally, the airport announced a 10-year deal with easyJet, with the airline basing three A319 aircraft and in 2018 and offering over 70 weekly flights from the airport. In 2014, Stobart Air announced a franchise deal with Flybe to see two aircraft based at the airport with a third added in 2017 to serve domestic and European routes. In 2018, easyJet added a fourth aircraft, before Ryanair announced a new base at London Southend, being the t...

Last week, I wrote an article about Belfast City since the collapse of Flybe:  Has Flybe's collapse allowed Belfast City to prosper? (seanm1997.blogspot.com) .  This time, I am looking at Southampton. On 5 March 2020, Flybe ceased operations, leading to many routes across the United Kingdom being cut. At Southampton, Flybe had 94% of total seats and 91% of movements with a total of 631,192 scheduled departure seats. Southampton was forecast to be Flybe's second largest airport in terms of departures and fourth largest cities in terms of seats. The loss for Southampton was probably the greatest of all airports that Flybe served, yet this loss gave Southampton an opportunity to be less reliant on one carrier and to spread its operations across many. First came Loganair - adding flights from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle followed by Eastern Airways announcing flights to Manchester, Belfast City and Dublin. Blue Islands then announced a new base in Southampton, with flights to ...

Even before the collapse of Flybe in March 2021, easyJet has been the number 1 domestic carrier by seats in the UK - connecting major airports including London Gatwick, Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast International, and has recently grown its UK domestic operation. easyJet have long served one key market in the UK domestic market - connecting major cities and conurbations. Belfast (International) has been key to this. Being on a separate island to Great Britain has allowed easyJet to grow its Belfast operation in recent years and with the collapse of Flybe, easyJet became the largest domestic carrier from the Northern Ireland capital. In 2019, the airline launched Manchester - Jersey and in 2020 launched Edinburgh - Birmingham and Glasgow - Birmingham. In 2021 the airline re-introduced previously cut routes including London Gatwick - Aberdeen and Edinburgh - Jersey and has added new routes to Bournemouth (from Belfast and Edinburgh), Inverness (Belfast) and Newquay (Glasgow, London G...