Mutley Posted August 31, 2008 Share Posted August 31, 2008 I'm off to London for a gig in November and was telling some friends today about it. One of them asks how much my flights to Gatwick were and I said I hadn't booked yet but I'll probably go via London City as it's not far from where I need to be. He laughed and said I'd be lucky as VLM will be long gone from the IOM by then. Normally I'd take a comment like that with a pinch of salt but he works with VLM at the airport and is not known among our group of friends for idle gossip. Anyone got any information to back this up or preferably nix it? It'd be a damn shame to lose the City connection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GD4ELI Posted August 31, 2008 Share Posted August 31, 2008 It'd be a damn shame to lose the City connection. Too right it would - unless Manx2.com were to take over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTF Posted August 31, 2008 Share Posted August 31, 2008 we shall see, a certain female person denied that euromanx were in trouble and leaving, and the next day they were gone!! so anything 'official' is likely to be a load of bollox. perhaps i should apply for grazing rights as there may be no planes soon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asitis Posted August 31, 2008 Share Posted August 31, 2008 The only thing going up and down our new 50 million pound runway ( give or take 20 or 30 ) will be tumbleweed soon !! The financial crisis will not miss the IOM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hboy Posted August 31, 2008 Share Posted August 31, 2008 Look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLM_Airlines - doesn't look like VLM are going bust but they could obviously decide to pull out of the IOM. Certainly I doubt they are going bust I don't think anyone has suggested that, but as I said the route would appear not to fit in with their other connections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GD4ELI Posted August 31, 2008 Share Posted August 31, 2008 Look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLM_Airlines - doesn't look like VLM are going bust but they could obviously decide to pull out of the IOM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willstain Posted August 31, 2008 Share Posted August 31, 2008 Look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLM_Airlines - doesn't look like VLM are going bust but they could obviously decide to pull out of the IOM. Certainly I doubt they are going bust I don't think anyone has suggested that, but as I said the route would appear not to fit in with their other connections. VLM is owned by KLM/AIr France, so there's no chance of them going bust, they're listing flights for the winter and their load factors on the IOM route have been going up. The route really needs to be double daily and I would have thought that eventually KLM/AF would stick a smaller aircraft on it from another of their subsiduries ie Scot Air and give the route a decent chance by going twice daily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mutley Posted August 31, 2008 Author Share Posted August 31, 2008 Just to clarify - it wasn't mentioned to me that they were going bust but that they were going to pull the route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
x-in-man Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 Just completed 4 flights with VLM. I must say they were brill! flight out was packed, onward from city was packed, back from holland was packed - the flight from city back home was almost full. It must be a money spinner for them. The VLM planes out numbered anybody else on the stands at City. Fast, tidy, polite, no baggage lost in transfer .. and you get a sweet to suck on take off. Cannot remember last time I had a sweet to suck when flying from IOM. Next time Im going anywhere - Im flying VLM to City and Amsterdam - and getting onward flights from there. Amsterdam is clean, tidy, vast, quick - great links by road, rail and onward planes. Return flights for 2 were well under £300 - take off and land in Holland in 2 hours, 30 mins into Amsterdam - its cheaper than getting the boat to England for a long weekend away! Try it as an alternative to anywhere soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mutley Posted September 1, 2008 Author Share Posted September 1, 2008 x-in-man - That's why I hope they keep the route open! They're the best of a bad bunch flying from here at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomTucker Posted September 3, 2008 Share Posted September 3, 2008 It'd be a damn shame to lose the City connection. Too right it would - unless Manx2.com were to take over. problem is tho London City Airport is over crowded and any flight operating into there has to be worthwhile for the airport. most aircraft and pilots need to be modified/trained especially for the steep approach angle for example. the take off is also a problem as with a heavy plane you need a lot of power to get airborne (more so in summer as hot air provides less lift). the ideal customer for LCY is a full jet of 80-100 passengers generally going to / from Geneva. Milan, Amsterdam etc as its these types of passengers the airport was designed for. IOM doesnt really suit the bill as we cant drive the volume of passengers and none of our airlines are able to operate in there. FlyBE cant and have no interest as their 2 types of plane are either too big or cant take off full. Manx2 planes are too small to be interesting to the airport, VLM are really our only hope unless another airline starts up or shows interest and really theres no chance of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manshimajin Posted September 4, 2008 Share Posted September 4, 2008 Just saw these passenger figures from the Airport - VLM minus 20.6% on July 2007/July 2008 comparison with under a 2% share of total passengers. Hope FlyBe have planes that need the runway extension as they seem to be dominating the share of passengers using the aiport now.. Passenger Figures July 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah 01 Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 A 21% fall in numbers on a route that you now have a monopoly on? The VLM schedule was only ever to facilitate 'parking fees' savings in London but it did enough to deprive Euromanx of 50-60 passengers per day albeit on provision of a superior in-flight service. But timings aside, either VLM is not at all interested in the route or it has been extremely inept at not realising that it could actually make a load of money on it. The take-over of VLM by Air France/KLM/Cityjet has dragged on and on; perhaps the outcome of that is being awaited before any decisions are made. In any event, the Govt should be doing everything feasible to get a decent service to LCY back on the schedules. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomTucker Posted September 8, 2008 Share Posted September 8, 2008 A 21% fall in numbers on a route that you now have a monopoly on? The VLM schedule was only ever to facilitate 'parking fees' savings in London but it did enough to deprive Euromanx of 50-60 passengers per day albeit on provision of a superior in-flight service. But timings aside, either VLM is not at all interested in the route or it has been extremely inept at not realising that it could actually make a load of money on it. The take-over of VLM by Air France/KLM/Cityjet has dragged on and on; perhaps the outcome of that is being awaited before any decisions are made. In any event, the Govt should be doing everything feasible to get a decent service to LCY back on the schedules. VLM out - Monday Nov 3rd return - Tuesday Nov 4th £499.45 ! thats the reason for decrease in passenger numbers i would imagine, numbers might be down but yields will be good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spermann Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 according to their press release in this weeks paper they are keeping the route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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