Category Archives: Airlines

Coventry Airport restarts freight, how about passenger flights?

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Coventry Airport has restarted freight flights, and still has stated ambitions to relaunch passenger flights.

Flightmapping MD Mark Avery was on BBC CWR, discussing the future of the airport.

One possible airline which might be interested in Coventry flights is Jet2, which has slowly been marching south from its well established network of bases in the north (including Scotland and Northern Ireland).

Another speculation would be that easyJet might be interested in starting flights from either Birmingham or Coventry, and that it would be seeking to squeeze the best deal out of whichever airport was most receptive to its demands.

Birmingham Airport might have spare capacity, but it already has a good offering from no-frills airlines, ranging from the bargain basement low cost flights offered by Ryanair, through to mid-market low cost airlines like bmibaby and Monarch, topped off by Flybe, who offer a strong network of domestic routes from Birmingham, together with some flights to key European business and leisure destinations.

  • So, is it time for Coventry to see a return of passenger flights?
  • If so, which airline would be most likely to operate them?

Ryanair to flush away toilets and gain 6 seats

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Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has confirmed plans to get rid of two of the three toilets which are fitted as ‘bog’ standard on its Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

What Ryanair Toilets will look like if they go down to one per plane

On the surface of it, this seems like a clever idea – on Ryanair’s shortest routes, like its London to Dublin hops, it is very rare to see all toilets used at the same time. This move will send out the message that Ryanair are even more keen to be seen as a company which operates buses with wings, rather than full service aircraft, so this will encourage people to use the toilets inside the airport terminals.

The move is subject to certification from Boeing.

Of course, this move will cause concern for people with medical conditions that make them need to use the toilet more – at least with two toilets, there should be one free if the other is occupied, but cutting back to one could make things difficult.

The promise is that these changes will only be applied on aicraft which operate the very shortest routes, but it is worth remembering that Ryanair have a single fleet policy, meaning that any aircraft could be use to operate any route at any time, including longer flights down to destinations like the Canary Islands or Greece.

I wouldn’t want to be caught short on one of those flights.

Liverpool to Belfast – Flybe yield to Easyjet

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So Flybe have said that they are pulling out of their Liverpool to Belfast flights, and have come out with the predictable line about high taxes being the reason for the route being axes.

Now even though we agree with Flybe on this issue, it should be perfectly clear that the axing of this route is a simple case of them yielding to fierce competition from a larger rival. Now larger isn’t just about the size (and therefore the marketing clout) of the airline – easyJet were able to operate larger aircraft on this route at much higher frequencies. Flybe can often still compete against airlines that use larger aircraft, as they can offer better timings and higher frequencies, but on the Belfast – Liverpool route, they were only doing 3 flights each day, compared to 7 daily flights from easyJet.

Easyjet use Belfast International Airport, whereas Flybe use Belfast City, but even if this is more convenient for access to and from the centre of Belfast, Easyjet make up for this by offering a better frequency. Easyjet also have a much more natural customer base at both ends of this route, whereas Flybe have always struggled at airports like Liverpool and Bristol.

 

Heathwick is just plane thick!

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So it looks like the government wants to take a closer look at a £5 billion high-speed train link between Heathrow and Gatwick, dubbed ‘Heathwick’. Whilst this might have some use for people who already have to transfer between the airports, it would be totally pointless as a way of making some kind of joint ‘superhub’ for flight connections.

There is one simple reason for this – there just isn’t enough spare capacity at either airport to justify building a link between them.

Another problem would be that even if such a link might take a nominal 15 minutes between the two airport sites, it still would have to make multiple stops to pick up passengers at the three different terminal areas in the Heathrow site, and then make two drop-offs to cover the North and South terminals at Gatwick.

British Airways will no doubt be looking at the proposal with some moderate interest, as they are the largest hub airline at Heathrow, but they also have a sizeable network of routes from Gatwick, with passengers currently having to transfer between the two airports by bus. However, BA would still be much keener to see a third runway at Heathrow, even if that has been dismissed by the government.

Oddly enough, the £5 billion price tag is in the same ballpark as the (then) £6.9 billion Rugby Airport proposal, which would have delivered a three-runway facility halfway between Rugby and Coventry. Widely ridiculed at the time for being a white elephant no airline is interested in, it could have fast connections to London via the proposed high speed two rail line.

Even though there are a number of technical problems with the Rugby site, it is starting to look remarkably good value, when compared to anything coming from the current government, which, when it comes to transport policy, is remarkably lacking in sensible ideas.

We need Slowjet, not Fastjet

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Plans by easyJet founder Sir Stelios to launch a new airline,  tentatively called Fastjet, a have not surprisingly drawn much derision from within the airline industry. At this stage, we do not know how serious he is, nor do we know exactly what form this airline will take, but we certainly do know that there is little appetite amongst consumers for yet another low-cost European airline.

Some speculators have suggested that this might be low-cost with a twist — for example by either buying BMI itself, or its Heathrow slots, and offering a low-cost service between traditional premium airports. Others think that Stelios might have a go at the low-cost long-haul, or even the low-cost premium long-haul market. Neither of these two options would be a challenge to the easyJet business model, whereas a new low-cost airline, even if using premium airports, would certainly be a direct challenge to easyJet, in a market that is already saturated and unsettled.

Who needs Fastjet? The name brings associations with the latest British Airways advert, which draws nostalgically on their operation of Concorde, and reminds us that the crowded European skies and congested, security obsessed airports are making air travel slower, not faster. So would Stelios’ new airline, in whatever form it takes, really speed the whole game up? We very much doubt it.

Two years ago, then easyJet boss Andrew Harrison came up with a much more interesting proposal, the easyJet eco-jet, which was the concept for a new aircraft to be delivered around 2020, which when combined with other changes to European air traffic control, could deliver emission savings of up to 50% per passenger mile travelled. This at the time had many revolutionary features, and whilst not technically a jet, as it would use to rear mounted propellers, it would represent a step change in the airline industry. Cruising speeds would be around 10 to 15% slower than the typical jet aircraft used by the low-cost airlines, enough to take advantage of the efficiency savings rear mounted propellers will offer, but not so much a difference as to put people off from using it.

We’ve been through the low-cost revolution, and there is little that Stelios is likely to be able to deliver to develop this further, certainly in terms of European flights. We are still crying out for further developments in the environment revolution. Some people say that the term environmentally friendly flights is an oxymoron, but we have always begged to differ. Now is as good a time as any to bring forward the slow jet.

Is Ryanair cash passport a rip-off?

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Passengers wanting to avoid the extortionate card handling fees charged by Ryanair will now have to use Ryanair’s own Cash passport from 1 November onwards. This further restricts the payment options for people who don’t want to pay these fees, as up until this date, any prepaid MasterCard was acceptable. So how does the Ryanair Cash passport compare with other cards? Many people have been quick to criticise the outrageously high foreign usage fees (5.75%) this card has, or the £2.50 monthly inactivity fee, but both of these are easily avoidable. Consumer group Which has also dismissed this card, saying that they would rather wait for the day when the government bans airlines from charging extra fees for paying by debit card. That might be something many consumers would welcome, but until (and if) it happens, people will still want to find out the best way of paying for their flights.

To start using the card, passengers must transfer at least £150 in funds, and pay a £6 card activation free, which is refunded in Ryanair travel vouchers (no further fee for using these). The Ryanair Cash passport is managed by Access prepaid worldwide, a subsidiary of Mastercard.

Passengers book flights in the normal way, but unlike all other payment methods, they will not incur any handling fees for flights booked using this card. The card can be topped up online using a UK debit card, and there is no fee for this, and unlike some other prepaid cards, there is also no monthly usage fee, providing the card is used at least once every six months.

Usage

After first of April 2012, transactions using Ryanair’s Cash passport in the UK will attract a fee of 50p. A non-usage fee of £2.50 will be applied if the card is not active for a period of six months, much to the consternation of many Internet commentators. However, these comments are misguided. Many prepaid MasterCards have a monthly usage fee, which applies whether you use the card or not. All you have to do to avoid any ongoing fees were the Ryanair Cash passport is just make sure you use the card in the UK at least once every six months. That sounds reasonable to us.

Foreign transactions

Again, much of the criticism at the Ryanair Cash passport has been because it attracts a whopping 5.75% transaction fee for any usage abroad. Sure, this is outrageously expensive, but the whole point of having this card is to avoid Ryanair’s extortionate card handling fees, not to get the best rates on using your card abroad — something which is also highly unlikely that your bank will offer anyway. The Ryanair Cash passport is denominated in Sterling, not in euros, so, like Sterling travellers cheques, it makes little sense to expect to use this abroad anyway, as there are plenty of much better value cards available which are denominated in euros, so you know exactly where you stand in terms of costs.

Are there are other ways of avoiding Ryanair’s extortionate card handling charges?

Ryanair vouchers

Don’t be fooled into thinking that the Ryanair voucher is one of them. Firstly, you will have to pay a £5 administration fee to buy the voucher, which is only £1 less than the usual card fee. Vouchers can only be used once, so if you’re booking flights which cost less than the value of the voucher, you will lose the difference. If your flights cost more than the voucher value, then you will have to pay the difference, and unsurprisingly this difference will then attract the very handling fees you are trying to avoid. So in that respect, the voucher is lose-lose.

The vouchers can only be used by the named beneficiary, so that they are much less flexible than a prepaid MasterCard which can be used to book flights for anyone. However, there is one potential advantage of paying by voucher, and that is that a handling fee is only levied once for the cost of the voucher, whereas Ryanair’s credit card booking fees are levied on each individual flight sector, so a couple making a return trip will have to pay four times. This theoretically makes the vouchers a better way of paying than a credit or debit card, but you would still have to predict the exact cost that your Ryanair flights are going to come to in order to make the vouchers worthwhile, and this can be extremely tricky as the yield management system used by Ryanair and all other low-cost airlines means that prices can rise and fall at a moments notice. Why go to all this trouble, and still pay a handling fee, when you can avoid a handling fee using Ryanair’s Cash passport?

Of course, we’d hate to live in a world where every single corporation dictated the rules of how you pay them, but luckily very few companies behave like Ryanair. As long as Ryanair’s business model makes it possible to explore all kinds of unique corners of Europe at a cost which is often many times cheaper than their rivals, then this hassle is something that will be worth tolerating.

What about the Ryanair credit card?

The Ryanair credit card, managed by Santander bank, promises to reward users with up to 5 return flight vouchers during the first year. Users must still pay all applicable taxes fees and charges for the flight they wish to take, and unlike Ryanair vouchers, payers by Ryanair credit card will still attract a handling fee of six pounds per person per flight sector, which is no different to payment by any other card.

So why bother with a Ryanair credit card? The terms and conditions clearly state that these free flights will only available on selected routes, and that there will also be many blackout periods when the free flights will not be available. Considering how many times Ryanair launches special offers, we think that these free flights are of little use, so you might as well just to check for the latest special offers like any other passenger.

From the way we see it, the Ryanair credit card is merely an extension of the Ryanair moneymaking machine, and little benefit to consumers. On the other hand, the Ryanair cash passports let’s Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary paint himself as being the one in the temple, throwing over the tables of the money-changing rip-off banks, who he says are the route cause of his airline charging such high payment fees. Yet the much despised British banks still let you trade with them on your terms – take none of their add-on services and don’t go overdrawn, and they are still free to use. Ryanair meanwhile will continue to dictate the terms on which you do business with it, because for the time being at least, it still can.

Update 6th Oct – the card application page is now live. Note that the card is offered by Raphaels Bank, not Access Worldwide.

New York flights tax has been cut, but the imbalance still exists.

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It looks like Continental Airlines have been successful in their lobbying over the extortionate taxes charged on their New York flights from Belfast International Airport. Yet, when looked at from any other perspective, this is a very strange intervention from the chancellor. Why pick out this one route, and why offer only partial devolution of air passenger duty to the Northern Ireland assembly?

Surely other regional airports, particularly in Edinburgh and Glasgow, which also have long haul flights, and are under a devolved government, will now start asking for exemptions. Should long haul flights be the top priority, considering that APD is still marketed as an environmental tax, and that these are the flights which cause the highest levels of pollution?

For us, the biggest imbalance still exists on domestic flights, and this is at its greatest in Northern Ireland, where alternative train services are not available. Just how important are New York flights from the Belfast economy? Surely the most important link is with London – yes these flights are taxed in both directions, even if at a lower rate. Business users can still absorb the cost. A family of four considering flights to Spain or flights to Exeter for a holiday in Devon are going to think twice about being taxed twice for the domestic holiday. This is what really shoots the British tourist economy in the foot.