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Post by evertongary on Apr 29, 2014 16:53:57 GMT 1
Thats what I was thinking, they have announced a new route from Humberside, not exactly the best but no base there either I don't think, I am sure there is demand that Thomson/FC can take advantage of. I'm not an expert but just seems odd that the likes of Jet2, Thomson, First Choice, Monarch etc all stay away from LPL
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Post by baldyman26 on Apr 29, 2014 17:25:59 GMT 1
First Choice / Thomson have announced 29 new routes from regional airports from next year, they are quoted as saying it is a part of their strategy to boost regional departures but they seem to have ignored Liverpool, even Humberside have a new route from them. Not sure why we do not seem to be getting anywhere with introducing new charter airlines Some time ago, I became involved in this in a professional capacity when I was doing some work for a handling agent. For obvious reasons, I don't want to go into detail, nor do I want to appear mysterious, but suffice it to say that Thomson were not happy about some of the facilities at LPL. When you consider that Thomson continues to run a base operation out of DSA, an airport which is almost dead on its feet, and also from Humberside, which is about the same distance from DSA as MAN is from LPL, it perhaps gives some idea of just how strongly they feel. What facilities do they need, an airport is an airport. In my opinion they simply don't see the benefits of bussing crews etc in for a small number of flights when they already have the numbers going through Manchester. I may be wrong but on the face of it that's how it seems. We've all said before, Liverpool has all the facilities an airport needs (apart from maintenance I suppose) The same could be said about Jet2, Monarch etc. All the crew bases, maintenance etc are already established at Manchester, they probably don't feel financially and operationally, Liverpool is viable.
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Post by evertongary on Apr 29, 2014 18:03:38 GMT 1
I bet there are many flight crew that are based at Man but actually live closer to LPL
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Post by ronturner on Apr 30, 2014 6:42:19 GMT 1
Great pity that Liverpool is not o the list again. Reasons may be related to maintenance or crew roistering, but equally it could be that Easy jet and Ryanair, the only eggs in a smaller basket, already have most of the holiday destinations served from Liverpool. The impetus now, with Easyjet, to build a holiday company around them will not help in attracting new operators into the holiday market.
There may well be other reasons we do not know of, as has been already hinted.
According to my crystal ball, this is what is likely to happen:-
A new operator will arrive at Liverpool, and this will be called something like "Direction Holidays". They might even use clapped out 757's with a fancy paint job, on lease from another outfit. They will prosper out of Liverpool for a few years, until they are absorbed by one of the main players. They will continue the programme for a year, until the need to make economies causes them to consolidate their flights at another place. On the whole, the citizens of Liverpool and Merseyside will not be too concerned about having to go elsewhere.
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Post by baldyman26 on Apr 30, 2014 13:05:04 GMT 1
Personally, I think it's our big 2 stopping other operators, all or most of the destinations that could potentially be served from Liverpool are sewn up by them, I'm not complaining though, we do need them.. If this was not the case, we would almost certainly have some sort of tour operator working out of Liverpool. If a Tour operator was to come in, would EZY and RYR start an aggressive marketing / pricing campaign to try to force them out.. This could be the very reason the major tour companies won't touch Liverpool with a barge pole, they almost certainly won't win, and basing 1 aircraft at Liverpool will probably cost them rather than make them.
It's up to Liverpool to convince them otherwise.
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vinnym
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Post by vinnym on May 1, 2014 7:20:00 GMT 1
Personally, I think it's our big 2 stopping other operators, all or most of the destinations that could potentially be served from Liverpool are sewn up by them, I'm not complaining though, we do need them.. If this was not the case, we would almost certainly have some sort of tour operator working out of Liverpool. If a Tour operator was to come in, would EZY and RYR start an aggressive marketing / pricing campaign to try to force them out.. This could be the very reason the major tour companies won't touch Liverpool with a barge pole, they almost certainly won't win, and basing 1 aircraft at Liverpool will probably cost them rather than make them. It's up to Liverpool to convince them otherwise. These are the same two operators that have slowly but surely been cutting capacity at LPL and transferring most of it up the road to the other place.
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Post by baldyman26 on May 1, 2014 8:59:14 GMT 1
As I said EZY and RYR market aggressively, and target routes.. If Manchester didn't work out for them, they have an established base at Liverpool to fall back on. I am only presuming here, but I think it's probably a lot easier for the likes of EZY and RYR to open a new base, or to move aircraft around than it is with Thomson / Thomas cook - (they don't have brochures to consider !!) If Liverpool was such an attractive option, we would have a steady stream of Holiday makers departing on charter flights, instead, both Easy jet and Ryanair do pretty well to the major sun destinations, so why would a charter company, with an established base 30 or so miles and minutes away, spend the money, or indeed cut back at other bases to try to over throw an established low cost market. Having flown on Thomson in recent years, their charter flights have really gone down the pan and offer nothing in the way of comfort, in fact with Easyjet (not flown with RYR) you get more leg room, more convenient (and on time) flights, and a better buy on board offering. So if I am looking at a holiday to say Majorca, then Easyjet is my first port of call purely because the flight is a more pleasurable experience, and often cheaper.
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Post by ferryman on May 1, 2014 11:33:28 GMT 1
other airports have easy jet and ryanair and still have other charter companies operating so why not lpool
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Post by tonyspeke on May 1, 2014 13:05:47 GMT 1
I understand that the big two charter operators have contracts with Manchester that they will operate so many flights from that airport and this probably includes other airports in the group. These contracts last through 2015. A lot of work is needed by the airport and perhaps local travel agents to inform these two companies that people in our area do want to fly from our local airport and for these companies to operate from Liverpool in 2016. It would of course help if other tour operators used Liverpool, so people could vote with their feet.
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Post by LPL on May 1, 2014 13:19:13 GMT 1
Travel agents are not savvy enough to look for alternatives from Liverpool and those who do will not get commission from EZY or FR.
Result is that they, the pax, are not booked through LPL.
Not sure how you break through this.
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Post by sfp on May 1, 2014 15:00:22 GMT 1
Several major Independent Travel Operators do use the Liverpool scheduled services and can offer full packages including bonding. Several national operators advertise their offers in various papers etc albeit often only using a limited number of Liverpool flights but they do exist. The few remaining independent Travel Agents in the Liverpool area can access a number of operators and put together pakages to meet travellers requirements. Ryanair and easyJet also offer holiday packages through various partner arrangements. This month sees a new arrangement with a TUI company offering holidays as the partner to easyJet (not sure if that applies to all airports and all destinations)see: corporate.easyjet.com/media/latest-news/news-year-2014/10-03-2014-en.aspx?sc_lang=enIf all these avenues were being utilised it would demonstrate customer demand both to existing operators as well as possibly encouraging others to consider Liverpool. Appreciate that TUI (Thomson) and Thos Cook are selling their own services through other airports but if customers were nagging for Liverpool operations I feel sure it would be considered for limited services, maybe utilising 'W' patterns from their existing bases.
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Post by LPL on May 1, 2014 18:09:29 GMT 1
I wanted to use a well known independant Liverpool travel agent to transfer a group of 8 people to/from LPL. The price was twice the cost of the one that was eventually used, that has put me off even asking for a quote in future.
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steh
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Post by steh on May 4, 2014 14:24:34 GMT 1
With both Liverpool and Everton guaranteed 3 home and 3 away European games before Christmas, we should see quite a number of charters coming through the airport in the autumn. Most I'd guess will be inbound as English fans tend to look to do their own arrangements, while the European characteristic is for a more organised trip.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2014 9:02:16 GMT 1
I think your only going to attract a small operator such as JetXtra at the moment, that's not such a bad thing, they can be more niche, they use BA Cityflyer from HUY, which would be a nice aircraft and not too large,plus passengers will pay a bit more for a more comfortable flight/better service. Being a smaller operator EZY/FR wont show much interest in them, which is good, they could quietly develop without attracting too much attention.
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vinnym
Junior Member
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Post by vinnym on Jun 5, 2014 17:21:34 GMT 1
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