Flybe: Exeter - Bergerac

Exeter (EXT) to Bergerac (EGC) in the Dordogne is a new route that flyBe (BE) will be launching from next spring. The airline will link the two cities up to three times weekly from 26 March 2012, using its 78-seater Bombardier Dash-8 Q400 aircraft.

flyBe Q400 at Manston, UK

The flight is yet another of flyBe's flights to the French hinterlands that are based mainly on UK traffic to sunny climes, that also form a mainstay of some of Ryanair's summer routes too. Anyway, the traffic on this route will be almost entirely leisure, consisting mostly of second-home owners and your average Devon and Cornwall holidaymakers. The flights allow extended weekend trips but aren't best timed for weekend-only breaks. In reality, however, this route is probably not one that has many passengers travelling on weekend breaks. That last statement was based entirely on my opinion.

1..4.../ BE3793/ EXT08.15-10.55EGC/ BE3794/ EGC11.20-12.00EXT

.....6./ BE3793/ EXT12.25-15.05EGC/ BE3794/ EGC20.20-21.00EXT

While it is true to say that flyBe will not have any direct competition on the route, flights to Bergerac are already widely available in the UK, in the south from London Gatwick and Southampton with flyBe and from Stansted and Bristol airports with Ryanair. flyBe will by no means be alone in the market.

Exeter (EXT) vers Bergerac (EGC) est une ligne de la compagnie flyBe qui sera lancée à partir du 26 mars 2012 avec un appareil Bombardier Dash-8 Q400 de 78 places, avec initialement deux rotations par semaine, ce qui deviedra en mai trois rotations hebdomadaires. flyBe vise surtout le marché de loisirs britannique du sud-ouest, mais deux autres compagnies volent déjà vers d'autres destinations en Grande-Bretagne.

British Airways: London Gatwick-Nice

London Gatwick (LGW) to Nice (NCE) is a new route that is shortly to be reintroduced by British Airways (BA), which currently provides service to Nice from both London Heathrow (LHR) and London City (LCY). From 25 March 2012, the route will be operated three times daily with a mix of short-haul Airbus and Boeing Aircraft, such as the Boeing 737-400 and the Airbus A319.

British Airways will be aiming this route largely at leisure passengers, as     their two other routes from Heathrow and London City will most likely absorb most of the business traffic. A clue that the flights a more leisure oriented is the schedule, with the same number of flights operating on weekdays and at the weekend. The flights are frequent, permitting day trips to Nice or London Gatwick and any other length of trip besides.

1234567/ BA2622/ LGW07.40-10.40NCE/ BA2623/ NCE11.25-12.25LGW

1234567/ BA2624/ LGW13.05-16.05NCE/ BA2625/ NCE16.50-17.50LGW

1234567/ BA2626/ LGW19.20-22.20NCE/ BA2621/ NCE07.05-08.05LGW

It is clear that this is an offensive move against easyJet (U2), who are British Airways' only direct competitor on the route. At the time this route will launch next March, the orange low-cost airline will have 22 weekly flights to Nice, only one more than BA, with 21. However, when we consider all London airports, BA will be ahead overall, with 77 weekly flights, compared to easyJet's 43 (LGW, LTN and STN), which reaches 50 during the peak summer months. BMI comes a paltry third with 7 weekly flights, between Heathrow and Nice. 
Londres Gatwick (LGW) vers Nice (NCE) est une nouvelle ligne de la compagnie British Airways (BA), qui débutera le 25 mars prochain avec 3 vols quotidiens, effectués avec des avions court-courriers tels que l'Airbus A319 et le Boeing 737-400. Surtout destinée aux passagers loisirs, British Airways aura un concurrent majeur direct sur la ligne, easyJet (U2), qui détient le monopole depuis plusieurs années. British Airways vole aussi vers Nice depuis Heathrow et Londres City.

A British Airways A319 taxiing at Geneva

Vueling: Barcelona-Marseille

Barcelona (BCN) to Marseille (MRS) is another of the endless routes that Vueling (VY) will be throwing at France next March, hoping a few will stick. The jury is out on this one though. From 25 March 2012, the Spanish low-cost airline will be launching a four-times-weekly route between the second-largest cities of both France and Spain with its standard of fairly-cramped-but-not-horrendous 180-seater Airbus A320 aircraft.

Vueling's flights are usually aimed at the leisure market, or sometimes also at business passengers on routes where its parent company Iberia (IB) does not operate. In this case, traffic is most likely to be leisure-oriented, including passengers visiting friends and family. With the current schedules, weekend breaks in either city are quite feasible.

1.3.5.7/ VY1508/ BCN11.00-12.05MRS/ VY1509/ MRS12.45-13.40BCN

Out of Vueling's new routes, this route faces quite possibly the most competition, as two other Spanish airlines also operate the route. Air Nostrum operates the 50-seater CRJ-200 aircraft for Iberia on its five-times-weekly route to Marseille, while Spanair operates a wide variety of aircraft on this route, which it serves four times weekly. Marseille (MRS) vers Barcelone (BCN) est une nouvelle ligne qui sera lance par Vueling (VY) lors de sa prochaine expansion en France, le 25 mars 2012. La ligne sera effectuée quatre fois par semaine en appareil Airbus A320. Les passagers devraient être en bonne partie des voyageurs loisirs. Les concurrents sur la ligne sont Iberia et Spanair, qui volent 5 et 4 fois par semaine respectivement.

easyJet: Lisbon-Bordeaux

Lisbon (LIS) to Bordeaux (BOD) is a new route to be launched by easyJet (U2/EZY) as part of its new base in Lisbon. The new route will be launched on 18 April 2012 and will most likely be operated with Airbus A319 aircraft, which are equipped with 156 seats.

If airlines seem to be opening a lot of bases at the moment around Europe, it's just because easyJet and Ryanair (FR) seem to be trying to outdo each other. After a latency period of a few months, Ryanair recently opened a base in Manchester (MAN), with new ones planned to open in Wroclaw (WRO) and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden (FKB) in time for the summer. easyJet has similarly announced new bases in Lisbon (although this was announced more than a year ago), Toulouse (TLS) and Nice (NCE), no doubt in order to compete more closely with Vueling (VY), another low-cost airline which has been edging its way into the French regional market and has had an aircraft based in Toulouse since summer 2011, and Air France (AF), which plans to open regional bases in these cities in the coming year.

The flight has quite a scope to attract business passengers. Although the flight is not very frequent at four weekly rotations, easyJet has been known to tempt business passengers and has a few enticing benefits. Mainly cost though. Not much else. The flight will probably suit leisure and VFR (Visits to Friends and Relatives) passengers much more, as the schedule permits weekend breaks.

1.3.5.7/ EZY7637/ LIS07.05-09.55BOD/ EZY7638/ BOD10.25-11.15LIS

The competition is twofold: both Air France (AF) and TAP (TP) operate the route. Well not really. Neither operate the route on their own behalf. Air France leaves it to its subsidiary Régional to operate the route with their 50-seater Embraer ERJ 145 aircraft, while TAP leaves it to its subsidiary PGA/Portugalia to operate the route with their 50-seater Embraer ERJ 145 aircraft, which probably becomes very confusing.

Lisbonne (LIS) à Bordeaux (BOD) est une nouvelle ligne qui sera proposée à partir du 18 avril prochain par easyJet (U2/EZY) depuis sa nouvelle base à Lisbonne. Les vols seront effectués quatre fois par semaine avec un appareil de type Airbus A319 de 156 sièges. Les vols easyJet attirent de plus en plus de passagers affaires, donc il est possible que ces vols seront au détriment des compagnies (Air France et TAP) déjà installées sur la ligne dont les vols sont conçus surtout pour attirer des passagers de ce type. Tout de même, avec des horaires utiles pour un séjour en weekend, ces vols attireront sûrement des passagers loisirs. De plus que les vols sont beaucoup moins chers que la concurrence jusque-là.

An eayJet Airbus A319 taxis to the runway at Geneva

Ryanair: Paris Beauvais – Wroclaw

Paris Beauvais (BVA) to Wroclaw (WRO) is a new route to be launched by Ryanair (FR) at the beginning of the summer timetable on 29 March 2012. The route will be operated 3 times weekly with Ryanair's Boeing 737-800 aircraft, equipped with 189 seats.
The new route is a part of Ryanair's new base in Wroclaw which will be set up next spring.
This flight is probably not primarily aimed at business travellers, not only due to the fact that Ryanair is not an airline geared towards the needs of business travellers, but moreover because the schedule is not really very helpful either. The flights are not particularly frequent and are more geared towards passengers travelling for leisure or to visit friends and relatives.

.2.4.6./ FR8934/ WRO14.20-16.30BVA/ FR8935/ BVA16.55-19.05WRO

It is unusual for Ryanair to launch a route in direct competition with another carrier, because Ryanair often operates marginal routes which other carriers might struggle to make economically viable, from out-of-the-way airports which few carriers serve. However, Ryanair will be in direct competition with Wizz Air (W6), the Eastern European low-fares carrier, rival to Ryanair. Routes tend not to support two low-fares carriers, especially those such as these which have very similar business models, so it will be interesting to see the outcome of this market pressure.
Paris Beauvais (BVA) vers Wroclaw (WRO) en Pologne est une nouvelle ligne qui sera lancée par la compagnie Ryanair (FR) dès le 29 mars prochain. Les vols seront effectués trois fois par semaine avec un appareil Boeing 737-800 de 189 places. Une des nouveautés engendrés par la mise en place d'une base à Wroclaw, cette ligne répond plus aux besoins des voyageurs loisirs, mais est déjà effectuée par la compagnie Wizz Air (W6).

Vueling: Nantes-Rome

Nantes (NTE) to Rome Fiumicino (FCO) is a new route to be launched by Vueling (VY) as part of its massive route expansion into France from 25 March 2012, to be operated three times weekly with an Airbus A320 aircraft.

While some might liken Vueling's decisions to random spurts of madness, this route does have an economic basis. Nantes airport serves a large area of north-western France that does not have scheduled flights to Rome; however many nearby airports have charter flights to Italy, demonstrating that the demand is there.

.2.4..7/ VY2982/ NTE11.40-13.40FCO/ VY2983/ FCO14.25-16.40NTE

Incidentally, tourist traffic and VFR traffic (Visits to Friends and Relatives) should form a substantial part of the market. However, since no other carrier operates flights from Nantes to Rome, the route has the potential to attract some business traffic too.

Nantes (NTE) vers Rome Fiumicino (FCO) par Vueling (VY) est ue nouvelle ligne qui sera lancée par la compagnie lors de son expansion en France en mars prochain. La route sera opérée 3 fois par semaine dès le 25 mars 2011 avec un appareil Airbus A320. La ligne n'a aucun concurrent, et desservir primordialement le marché touristique.


 

Ryanair: Rome Ciampino – Marseille

Marseille (MRS) to Rome Ciampino (CIA) is one of the new routes from Ciampino Airport in Rome that Ryanair (FR) has launched with the beginning of the winter season. The route is operated three-times weekly with, as ever, Ryanair's single type of aircraft, the Boeing 737-800 with 189 seats. 

This is one of the routes that Ryanair used to operate wen it had a base in Marseille. Although it was abandoned last year due to disagreements on taxes with the French government, Ryanair maintains a large presence in Marseille's MP² low cost terminal. Summer flights are operated to Cagliari in Italy, in addition to the recently launched flights to Milan Bergamo.

.2.4.../ FR9795/ CIA09.45-11.15MRS/ FR9796/ MRS11.40-13.10CIA

.....6./ FR9795/ CIA11.55-13.25MRS/ FR9796/ MRS13.50-15.20CIA

These flights will probably attract mostly tourists, due to the fact that they are not really very well-timed for business trips and Air France operates this route at higher frequency from its new Marseille base, with flights are to Rome Fiumicino, Rome's larger airport.
Marseille (MRS) vers Rome Fiumicino (FCO), une nouvelle ligne Ryanair (FR) qui vient d'être inaugurée, sera effectuée trois fois par semaine en Boeing 737-800 de 189 places. C'est une des lignes que Ryanair opérait lorsqu'elle avait toujours une base opérationnelle à Marseille. La ligne cible surtout le trafic loisirs entre ces deux villes, les vols Air France étant mieux optimisés pour les voyageurs affaires.

Vueling: Barcelona-Brest

There is no real competition, as the nearest airport offering services to Barcelona is Nantes (NTE), located some 3 hours' driving time away.
Barcelona (BCN) to Brest (BES) by Vueling (VY) is a route that deserves more than just a little celebration. To be started on 25 March 2012, the route will be operated twice weekly with Vueling's 180-seater A320 aircraft.

When it comes to French airports, Brest is in a bit of a special place. Its geographic location near the end of a peninsula, serving much of the population of Western Brittany, means that it has few competing airports. The few that are located nearby, such as Morlaix (MXN), Quimper (UIP), Lorient (LRT) and Saint-Brieuc (SBK) have very limited traffic. As a cultural centre for the region, the city of Brest has many attractions, as does the surrounding area. Historically, the region has strong cultural ties with the Basque region of Spain, the West of England and Wales.

It has also been the focus of many efforts from the local government (monetary, especially) aimed at increasing traffic to the airport which had previously been limited to domestic French routes. Ryanair as recently as last year flew to Dublin (DUB), London Luton (LTN) and Marseille (MRS), however only the Marseille service has been retained. The airport has, meanwhile, increased its charter offer considerably to bring it in line with other French regional airports.

This route deserves that little bit more celebration not only because it is a new destination from Brest, but it is also scheduled and with an airline that previously did not operate into the airport. It shows a great deal of effort on the part of the airport management, to attract a new carrier to a market that dis not up until now offer scheduled flights to holiday destinations. Rather, the only international destinations the airport offered up until now were primarily incoming services bring UK pasengers to Brittany, as are now on offer to Southampton (SOU), Birmingham (BHX) and Manchester (MAN) with Flybe.

The timetable is ideal for short breaks, but not necessarily optimised for weekend breaks. Vueling will likely be relying heavily on leisure traffic towards Barcelona, but there is no reason that the route should not generate some traffic towards Brest as well. While not quite located in the right part of Spain, Barcelona probably also houses a small ethnic Breton population.

...4.../ VY8620/ BCN19.50-21.30BES/ VY8620/ BES22.05-23.45BCN

......7/ VY8620/ BCN08.00-09.40BES/ VY8621/ BES10.10-11.50BCN

There is no real competition, as the nearest airport offering services to Barcelona is Nantes (NTE), located some 3 hours’ driving time away.

Barcelone (BCN) vers Brest (BES) est une nouvelle ligne qui vient d'être mis en ligne par Vueling (VY), la low-cost espagnole. Le premier vol au départ de l'aéroport brestois vers Barcelone aura lieu le 25 mars 2012, avec un appareil A320 à 180 sièges de la compagnie.

Les horaires rendent les vols idéaux pour des courts séjours, mais ne sont pas optimisées pour un aller-retour en weekend. Avec une fréquence de deux vols hebdomadaires, Vueling n'espère pas forcément accueillir des voyageurs affaires, et devrait plutôt se reposer sur une clientèle loisirs, éventuellement lié aux liens historiques vers la région basque, bien que située un peu vers l'ouest.

La ligne n'affronte aucun concurrent particulier, l'aéroport le plus proche connecté à celui de Barcelone est Nantes (NTE), situé à environ 3 heures de route.

http://www.brest.aeroport.fr/fr/news/communique-20111028.html

Ryanair: Bordeaux – Rome Ciampino

Bordeaux (BOD) to Rome Ciampino (CIA) is a new route offered by Ryanair (FR) since 30 October 2011, to be operated with the company's 189-seater Boeing 737-800 aircraft on a four-times-weekly basis.

Ryanair already operate a small number of routes from Bordeaux Airport's low-cost terminal 'Billi' and Rome Ciampino will be the sixth destination Ryanair serves from the airport, the second destination in Italy after Bologna.

The flights could potentially be of use to business travellers, however on the whole the route will likely attract leisure passengers in much higher numbers. The schedule enables a variety of trip lengths.

1...5../ FR7188/ CIA09.45-11.35BOD/ FR7189/ BOD12.00-13.50CIA

..3...7/ FR7188/ CIA16.20-18.05BOD/ FR7189/ BOD18.30-20.20CIA

Ryanair's main competition on the route will be Air France's route to Rome Fiumicino, with daily flights operated by Regional. easyJet also operate flights to Milan Malpensa from Bordeaux.

Ryanair vient d'inaugurer une ligne entre Bordeaux (BOD) et Rome Ciamipino (CIA). La ligne est desservie quatre fois par semaine depuis le 30 octobre dernier en Boeing 737-800 de 189 places.

La ligne pourrait attirer une partie du marché affaires vers Rome, mais une ligne vers l'autre aéroport à Rome, celui de Fiumicino, par Air France/Régional est opérée 7 fois par semaine, plus adapté à la clientèle affaires. La ligne devrait cependant attirer un bon nombre de voyageurs loisirs des deux côtés de la ligne. Les horaires des vols permettent des séjours de durées variables.

Vueling: Nantes - Venice

Nantes (NTE) to Venice (VCE) is a route to be launched by Vueling (VY), announced as part of Vueling's huge route expansion into France. The Spanish low-cost carrier aims to operate this service three times weekly with 180-seater Airbus A320 aircraft from 27 March 2012.

Vueling currently operates to Barcelona from Nantes, but it plans to open 3 new routes from Nantes next March. The route to Venice, perhaps the most questionable of the three in terms of viability, is not operated regularly by any other airline at the moment, although XL Airways France occasionally operates charter flights on the route. It will be presumably be aimed at the leisure market, as the timetable is somewhat incompatible with business schedules. That is not to say that business passengers will be deterred if the flights are convenient.

.2.4.6./ VY2981/ VCE17.20-19.20NTE/ VY2980/ NTE19.55-21.45VCE

Venice currently has flights to many of the major French cities, with Paris, Lyon (both by Air France and easyJet), Marseille (by Air Corsica), Nice (by Darwin Airlines) and Toulouse (by Vueling) also being served. However, from Nantes, the only Italian destination served is Milan Malpensa, by Régional.
Nantes (NTE) vers Venise (VCE) est une nouvelle ligne qui sera opérée par Vueling (VY) dès le 27 mars 2012. Destinée surtout aux voyageurs loisirs, cette ligne n'a aucune concurrence régulière, mis à part quelques vols de la compagnie XL Airways France.

Ryanair: Marseille – Milan Bergamo

Marseille (MRS) to Milan Bergamo (BGY) is a new route that was launched by Ryanair (FR) on 30 October 2011. It is flown 10 times weekly (very frequently for a Ryanair route, especially a new one) with the standard 189-seater Ryanair Boeing 737-800 equipment. Bergamo airport is situated about an hour's drive outside of Milan.

The route links the second-largest cities of France and Italy, separated by 400km (250mi) of quite mountainous terrain. The trip can take up to five and a half hours by car. The route has a decent leisure and business potential, and the schedules take full advantage of this. Unusually well-timed for Ryanair flights, the scheduling permits day returns on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and a choice of flights which would be handy for weekend breaks. 

1.3.56./ FR6061/ BGY07.00-08.10MRS/ FR6062/ MRS08.35-09.45BGY

.2.4..7/ FR6061/ BGY14.10-15.20MRS/ FR6062/ MRS22.45-23.55BGY

1....../ FR6063/ BGY19.20-20.30MRS/ FR6064/ MRS20.55-22.05BGY

..3..../ FR6063/ BGY19.40-20.50MRS/ FR6064/ MRS21.15-22.25BGY

....5../ FR6063/ BGY20.55-22.05MRS/ FR6064/ MRS22.30-23.40BGY

Historically, the route has not seen a great deal of traffic. The route to Milan Malpensa (MXP), Milan's main airport has been continuously served for almost a decade by the almost-completely-unheard-of airline Twinjet (T7), which despite its name operates only tiny 19-seater Beech 1900D aircraft on a variety of marginal French routes. It has 9 flights a week (double-daily Monday to Thursday, one on Friday) but the pricing makes the flights only really suitable to business travellers.

A couple of years ago, Baboo (F7) started flights on the same route, with a double daily frequency on a triangle route from Geneva (GVA-MRS-MXP-GVA in the mornings, the opposite direction in the evenings)with considerably larger 74-seater Dash 8-Q400 aircraft. However, the route did not last more than a couple of seasons.
Now, Ryanair will also face competition from the recently launched Air France flights, which also operate directly into Malpensa airport. Originally scheduled to be operated with mainline Air France aircraft (therefore much larger aircraft), for an undisclosed reason (probably lack of demand because of Ryanair competition) the flights have been downgraded to the much smaller 46-seater ATR 42 aircraft of Airlinair, which link the two cities twelve times a week.


Marseille (MRS) vers Milan Bergame (BGY) est une nouvelle ligne de la compagnie à bas coûts Ryanair (FR), qui a été lancé le 30 octobre 2011. La ligne est effectuée avec un appareil Boeing 737-800 de 189 places, à raison de 10 vols hebdomadaires.

Ce vol reliera les deuxièmes villes de la France et l'Italie, qui sont distants de 400km. Les horaires de vols permettent un retour dans la journée les lundis, mercredis et vendredis, et un ample choix de vols pour partir un weekend.

La concurrence sur cette ligne vole sur l'aéroport de Malpensa (MXP), plus proche de Milan que celui de Bergame ; des vols sont proposés par Twinjet, 9 fois par semaine et par Air France, une nouveauté récente qui relie les deux villes douze fois par semaine.

Passengers boarding a Ryanair Boeing 737-800

Swiss: Geneva-Nice

Geneva (GVA) to Nice (NCE) by Swiss (LX) is a new route that the Swiss national airline will be launching on 10 February 2012 to be operated with 136-seater Airbus A320 aircraft. This new twice-daily route will mark the company's tenth based aircraft at Geneva, which will enable increases in frequency of flights to other destinations from Geneva, such as Madrid and Moscow Domodedovo.

Despite the fact that the two cities are only 300km (185 mi) apart, poor land connections due to the Alps as a physical barrier mean that passenger numbers on this route are quite high (311,940 passengers in 2010⁽¹⁾), so the Swiss flights should be able to find their niche. No other legacy carrier serves this route, however, easyJet Switzerland (DS) flies up to three times daily in the winter and up to four times daily in the summer, and Darwin (F7), formerly Baboo, flies two-to-four times weekly year-round, but with smaller aircraft. Swiss' intervention on this route may well put Darwin, the smaller, less well-known airline, at a disadvantage and leave it with no choice but to abandon the route, as has previously happened in similar circumstances with destinations such as Prague and Athens when they were operated by Baboo.

1234567/ LX520/ GVA09.00-10.00NCE/ LX521/ NCE10.35-11.35GVA

1234567/ LX528/ GVA17.35-18.35NCE/ LX529/ NCE19.15-20.15GVA

The Geneva-Nice route sees a fairly large amount of both business and leisure passengers overall, with a slight penchant towards leisure for the summer months. Nice will also be Swiss' first French destination from its Geneva base; due to the configuration of Geneva Airport, flights to France depart from a separate area.
Genève (GVA) vers Nice (NCE) est une nouvelle ligne de Swiss (LX) au départ de sa base à Genève, dont le premier départ aura lieu le 10 février 2012. Le vol sera effectué 2 fois par jour en Airbus A320 de 136 places.

Genève et Nice ne sont qu'à 300km l'un de l'autre mais la chaînes des Alpes est une barrière naturelle rendant le trafic aérien entre ces deux villes très rentable avec un nombre élevé de passagers affaires et loisirs. Swiss aura easyJet Switzerland (DS) et Baboo (F7) en tant que concurrents.

  http://www.gva.ch/fr/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-437/1150_read-9555/

⁽¹⁾http://issuu.com/gva-airport/docs/ra2010fr

Swiss Aircraft at Geneva Airport

Darwin Airline Q400 at Nice boarding for a flight to Geneva.