Aer Arran

[lfc84]

From Energy FM:

"Aer Arran has announced that it will commence a new daily service to Manchester on the 24th November.

 

The Irish airline will operate 3 return flights a day using a 50 seater aircraft.

 

It recently announced an Isle of Man to Liverpool service ,and also serves the Dublin route.

 

The Manchester route experienced a growth of 41 percent in August according to the latest figures,an increase of over 4,000 passengers.It is currently served by both Euromanx and BA Citiexpress."

 

That is going to put alot of pressure on BA and Euromanx........

 

In other news form the airline you can get a return IOM-Liverpool for £45 during October, and form ~November 24th they increase their frequency of service to Liverpool to 7 flights per day.

[Utah 01]

Leaving aside the merits or otherwise of BA and Euromanx this latest move by Aer Arran should set alarm bells ringing in the Manx Government. Its supposed 'open skies' policy was a major contribution to the withdrawal of BA from the Island and another operator is simply not needed to satisfy the Island's airlift requirements. Arran will contribute nothing to the Island economy; at least BA and Euromanx provide employment for many hundreds of Islanders which will be jeopardised by Arran muscling in on the Island's air routes. History has proven that there is no room for 2 operators on the Liverpool route and Manchester will never support three. The government really needs to get real and take some action on this. Call it protection of Manx long term interests.

[The Godfather of Manx House]

Leaving aside the merits or otherwise of BA and Euromanx this latest move by Aer Arran should set alarm bells ringing in the Manx Government. Its supposed 'open skies' policy was a major contribution to the withdrawal of BA from the Island and another operator is simply not needed to satisfy the Island's airlift requirements. Arran will contribute nothing to the Island economy; at least BA and Euromanx provide employment for many hundreds of Islanders which will be jeopardised by Arran muscling in on the Island's air routes. History has proven that there is no room for 2 operators on the Liverpool route and Manchester will never support three. The government really needs to get real and take some action on this. Call it protection of Manx long term interests.

 

...you are joking, right ????

 

I assume Euromanx wanting £ 300 for trips to London and BA charging me £ 170 for a SINGLE from Manchester on Friday last when there were TEN empty seats is a "Manx long term interest" ?

 

You're a troll and I claim my £ 170 back...

 

...GOMH*...

[Utah 01]

No, I'm not joking. If you look beyond whether or not you personally will pay £29 or £290 for a return fare to Manchester the economic reality of what I have written is fact. Competition is to be welcomed and I have no problem with that but there is a line to be drawn between healthy competition and economic warfare. The casualties from this battle will be Island residents employed by BA and Euromanx, not employees of Arran (if they were to be successful). And before you harp on about cost of flights, bear in mind that an aircraft has a fixed operating cost and if you, my friend, have paid £25 ofr your ticket, somebody on your flight HAS to pay £125.

[lfc84]

No, I'm not joking. If you look beyond whether or not you personally will pay £29 or £290 for a return fare to Manchester the economic reality of what I have written is fact. Competition is to be welcomed and I have no problem with that but there is a line to be drawn between healthy competition and economic warfare. The casualties from this battle will be Island residents employed by BA and Euromanx, not employees of Arran (if they were to be successful). And before you harp on about cost of flights, bear in mind that an aircraft has a fixed operating cost and if you, my friend, have paid £25 ofr your ticket, somebody on your flight HAS to pay £125.

 

the public will go with who ever is cheapest. if ba or emx cant offer a better fare than their competitor then they need to address how they run their business and costs / revenues. emx and ba are not bothered about how much or little they contribute to the economy. they will charge whatever they can get away with. they will emply as few people asd they can get away with.

[Grumble]

Hmmm...while I'd love to see £40 returns on ALL seats to Manchester, I'm enough of a realist to know it's not commercially viable long term. UNLESS one of the operators offers ALL seats for - say - £60 return and builds loyalty and increases traffic. I'd fly off more often, but as posted above, seat prices are a complete lottery. For every customer they woo with a cheap flight, there's another they lose by charging silly money.

[Mission]

I'd agree with that. No more silly fares either way, just a decent, value for money fare available at all times.

 

Now that's an airline I'd fly with.

[Utah 01]

Probably because your job won't be on the line.

 

And you can be selective about quoted fares:Euromanx IOM-LCY Day return, any day week beginning 11 Oct £195. I've just looked.

 

'Easy' have been coming every day since Donald Gelling was a lad; they also understand the economic realities of air transport - and that is filling aircraft, all day every day and its something which will never happen on the Island.

[spanna]

100% agree with you Utah 01.

 

How is the Manx Government protecting Manx jobs by encouraging this sort of thing.

Its ridiculous.

 

I dont think this Government has got a clue about businesses at all, are any of the MHKs ex-CEOs of a business?

 

An example of this was

when BA were wanting discussions with the Manx Gov a few years back, the Gov did F all apart from xxxx BA off and look what happened, BA cut hundreds of jobs over here.

 

I dont know the ins and outs of the Shoe Factory collapse but from what I read the Gov just said "yeah ah well manufacturing is an outdated business over here, never mind"!!

 

Unbelievable.

 

 

Ps. Easyjet would never come over here, they like to make money. The most an Iom route makes is about 50p!

[lfc84]

Probably because your job won't be on the line.

 

And you can be selective about quoted fares:Euromanx IOM-LCY Day return, any day week beginning 11 Oct £195. I've just looked.

 

'Easy' have been coming every day since Donald Gelling was a lad; they also understand the economic realities of air transport - and that is filling aircraft, all day every day and its something which will never happen on the Island.

 

firstly regarding the prices from IOM-LCY lets compare to JER-LGW.........using the same criteria: week beginning 10 Oct (Monday)....and we pick first flight from Jersey (0700 with Flybe) and last return (1900 with Flybe) - all inc taxes:

 

this was the first airline i checked. there may be others that are cheaper or even dearer...but it show the comparison........

 

Mon £97, Tues £97, Wed £97, Thurs £97, Fri £133. ALL DAY RETURN FARES & ALL CHEAPER.

 

On each of these dates Emx charge £195 for the day return.........

 

For the day returns BA charge (IOM-LGW): Mon £155, Tues £111, Wed £155, Thurs £125, Fri £156

 

For JER-LGW on the same dates with BA:

 

Mon £120, Tues £105, Wed £105, Thurs £105, Fri £105

 

so its clearly a rip off to travel on these flights.......even when u take the distances into account...IOM-LGW = 255 miles, JER-LCY/LGW = 187 miles

 

referring to your other points.......

 

once it isnt econmically viable the operator will put prices up or not operate the route. big deal.

 

if they choose to end their services on the route another will take over. big deal.

 

from the customer point of view its all about the cost of travelling.

 

easyjet abandoned LPL-LTN cos it wasnt making them enough money. its all about making money. so if the pax get the benefit of cheap flights while multiple operators slug it out on the same route then the pax dont care.

 

if someones job is on the line cos another operator comes along and offers cheaper fares then the person needs to have a word with their employer. if the employer cannot operate and offer competitive fares then they should abandon the route or assess their costs. if pax choose to travel with another operator because they have been let down by an operator or they feel they cannot trust an operator to run to schedule then, again, the customer will choose.

 

one of the benefits of AA and easy / ryan is that you can buy a single fare and it is truly single. with emx or ba when u buy a single it can be more than the return fare - this doesnt make sense and these airlines need to move forward and get into the times of modern air travel and the competitive environment in which they operate.

 

air travel has never been so cheap. there are more people travelling through IOM than ever before. that in itself creates and sustains jobs at the airport. flying with high cost carrier doesnt.

[Not the Comfy Chair]

Well researched lfc84!

 

Just a few thoughts.

 

Day return fares are normally aimed at the business community, especially Monday to Friday and to London. Fares for business travel are always higher than for leisure travel.

 

Airport charges. All airlines operating to Ronaldsway claim that it is a very expensive airport.

 

Euromanx are employing people for their "Head Office" functions on the Isle of Man. These will disappear if Euromanx go. The Head Offices for EasyJet and Aer Arran are not here, so if these airlines take over any routes, any additional "Head Office" jobs will be created somewhere else.

[spanna]

Your comparison between Jersey and IOM airports is pointless.

 

You cant compare two different airports as there are way too many variables.

 

Landings charges

Parkings charges

Handling charges

Security charges

The list goes on and on. The Isle of Man airports landing fee used to be one of the highest in the British Isles, near Heathrows price! If thats still the same then theres your difference.

Not even counting that Flybe is a low cost airline where you have to pay for food.

 

If you want to make a fair comparison of prices you need to compare two same style Airlines doing the same route.

[lfc84]

Ok, lets look specifically at the charges:

 

using 10 Oct for the fares (charges remain the same):

 

JER-LGW BA fare £77 Taxes, Fees, Charges: £43

JER-LCY Flybe fare £60.54 Taxes, Fees, Charges: £36.90

IOM-LGW BA fare £112 Taxes, Fees, Charges £43.10

IOM-LCY EMX fare £165 Taxes, Fees, Charges £30

 

So the "variables" or in other words taxes are the same for BA when they fly from IOM or JER to LGW. Its the fare for the pax that is different.

 

Its plain to see that its the fare which is causing the problems for IOM travel rather than the airport charges.

 

Regarding food and drink and having to pay for it on board Flybe - well that is the choice of the customer and in any case would be about £5 for a sandwich and drink. I believe that EMX now charge for drinks / food anyway on LCY.

[spanna]

Sorry to be pedantic but those charges dont include the normal Landing,handling,parking fees. Those fees are part of an airlines costs so form part of the ticket price.

 

Those "extra" charges that are on top of a ticket price appeared after 9/11 and include the costs for extra insurance, security etc. (Also seen some airlines now include the Fuel surcharge into this extra charge.)

 

Just wait for this daft EU ruling on taxing Airlines to pay for aid for Africa!!

Then there will be more charges to pay.

 

Not sure if the EU is going to tax Ferries as well so that money can also pay for some unrelated world issue.

[Karellen]

What a money spinner the airport is for the government. £10 tax on each departure, 75,000 departures each month, £9M each year in tax. Add to that the advertising, concessions, extortionate parking charges from the (always full) car park and I wouldnt be surprised if the government isn't taking over £10M a year from the airport.