11 replies to this topic

[howard]

With the majority of the airlines of the UK reporting an increase of between 1-14% growth in passenger numbers, is there room for another airline in the UK?

[Ioh]

There has always been room. there's plenty of gaps, im thinking less, what airline is next to come, but rather which is the next to go.

[howard]

But is there room for an airline to operate profitably?

[Daleman]

Difficulty is finding usable slots at airports people want to use. A quick look at routeshop or routes-online shows lots of airports offering lots of routes which they want filling. Added difficulty is having very deep pockets to start as suppliers want paying up front due to failure rates of new start ups. Revenue streams take time to build up. All you then have to do is not be too successful as Easyjet/Ryanair/Jet2 etc are constantly on the lookout for profit and can swamp you out of business. Be interesting to see how the relaunched BMI do now they have begun to build their network.

[Concagh98]

What there's room for (IMO) is an airline offering intercontinental services from airports like Manchester and Glasgow. BA used to have a big hubs out of Manchester and Birmingham but I have no idea what happened to them.

[Ioh]

They focused all there ops to london, very flag carrier like serving one city isnt it thanks BA good job.

[Daleman]

Air France are now doing the same and shutting all hubs bar Paris.

[Ioh]

aviation is crippling

[howard]

What there's room for (IMO) is an airline offering intercontinental services from airports like Manchester and Glasgow. BA used to have a big hubs out of Manchester and Birmingham but I have no idea what happened to them.

Low cost, short and long haul, focused on the business market.

[M4matthew]

There is room for another UK airline - but it can't just be the 'same-old-same-old' if it ever wants to break even.

 

U2 has been the most successful British airline of the last decade, so following their lead is probably the best course of action. Interestingly we don't have long-haul LCC travel here in the UK, I expect FR and U2 are looking anxiously at Norweigan to see how they get on with their £150 OSL-JFK return fares (it will quite easily make them either the richest or poorest airline in Europe depending on the quality of their accounting).

 

British Airways has seen record profits over the past couple of years, thanks to the growth in premium long-haul travel, so it will be interesting to see whether that could be tapped into by a new carrier. SilverJet never managed it, so all eyes now turn to Skymark when they launch NRT-LHR in 2014.

[howard]

I was thinking more like virgin America style customer service, but with only 2 classes: Economy and premium. Going short haul and possibly lo g haul

[Northern]

There is the demand for in my opinion, up to 3 new airlines, airports such as NCL, MAN, GLA, EDI, BLK?,LBA/EMA,HUY are ridiculously under served.. That's my view