Archive Eastern Airways at Cardiff Airport

[geoff]

With CWL being the third section of the Orly route, it is continuously being delayed, and has been cancelled on several occasions of late, as mentioned above Eastern would have been better off flying double daily from the different three airports. but I don't think they had enough planes to do so, at the time they started this route.

 

[Jerry]

The marketing has been non existent so I'm surprised the airport hasn't contributed to that.
Wasn't the lead in time for the start quite short anyway?

I've seen the odd social media post advertising it but that's about it and yep the lead time was quite short.

With CWL being the third section of the Orly route, it is continuously being delayed, and has been cancelled on several occasions of late, as mentioned above Eastern would have been better off flying double daily from the different three airports. but I don't think they had enough planes to do so, at the time they started this route.

I have seen comments on social media saying that they've been struggling with the schedule. Lots of moving crew around via taxi too and from Southampton and even Newquay.
As far as the prices being high as well I wonder if that's a combination of 2 airlines selling the route on the same aircraft and one of them being Eastern. Of course we also don't know what their charges are at Orly as well.

 

[Pontyboy]

With the above logistics mentioned, were Eastern really in a great position to start Orly at three airports? They’ve bitten off more than they can chew. Why not do East Midlands on a daily/double daily and start off well rather than stretching the crew and plane far too thinly and upping the costs of operating. I think people don’t think about PR damage - especially with CWL being a political football. Paris was a very well performing route in the past so it really is odd why management didn’t see this as a negative by allowing eastern to operate in the manner they are now. Before this, you’d think Paris had a shot at a decent carrier coming back to CWL to operate daily, with management having the pax figures to support their claim, but after this (and the dire pax figures) carriers will just look at latest stats and think there is no market.

 

[Finger66]

Exactly my earlier point - start double daily from 1 airport and expand from there. Bad press/pax numbers will stick unfortunately. Here at LBA we suffer similarly. Huge untapped market but mainline Euro routes fail due to bad schedules and then no one interested. So my friends in South Wales, us Yorkies here ya!!

 

[geoff]

Poster on the Southampton page of Pprune, has stated that the Southampton route is now operated by a different ATR72, to the Eastern ATR72 used on the EMA/CWL legs of the service to ORY. This should make the timings on the CWL leg much more reliable.

 

[geoff]

Mentioned on the other forum, that the CWL-ORY is now bookable on the main Air France website, and that Orly arrivals and departures are shown with an Air France flight number in addition to the Eastern Airways flight number.

 

[Jerry]

Eastern offering free child places on the Paris Orly route

https://twitter.com/x/status/1687408055921602560

 

[Jerry]

So a bit good news, Eastern Airways have put Paris Orly is onsale for winter 2023/23. The route is suspended between 9/1/24 and 14/2/24.

 

[geoff]

That's nice to hear, the Rugby World cup should also do their figures some good.

 

[Finger66]

Are ITA still using T3 for their LCY-LIN route? They have just announced all flights cancelled between 21Oct23 and 02Nov23 so just wondered if anyone knew the actual reason for the cancellations?

 

[Jerry]

Are ITA still using T3 for their LCY-LIN route? They have just announced all flights cancelled between 21Oct23 and 02Nov23 so just wondered if anyone knew the actual reason for the cancellations?

No idea. Cardiff to Paris is still onsale so it doesn't appear to effect that route.

 

[Finger66]

Could of course be anything from crew shortage, seriously tech aircraft and that's if ITA are still using Eastern for that route

 

[MrFenner]

Air France announces plans to leave Paris-Orly

This is of course a long, long, long way off - however I do wonder how it fares for the T3/AF agreement?

I’m going to put it out there and say T3 won’t be on the route from CWL in 3 years time but if it does somehow cling on, this would work well for connex via Paris CDG.

Of course an earlier move would be ideal for the benefit and longevity of the route…

 

[Jerry]

Air France announces plans to leave Paris-Orly

This is of course a long, long, long way off - however I do wonder how it fares for the T3/AF agreement?

I’m going to put it out there and say T3 won’t be on the route from CWL in 3 years time but if it does somehow cling on, this would work well for connex via Paris CDG.

Of course an earlier move would be ideal for the benefit and longevity of the route…

I believe that the hope from Cardiff is that the route would eventually be transferred to CDG and be taken over by Air France.

 

[geoff]

Nice to see, an all jet service on the Orly route today, E170 in, E190 outbound.

 

[Jerry]

Nice to see, an all jet service on the Orly route today, E170 in, E190 outbound.

Good to see, would be nice to see the route go Embraer permanently and for flights for Summer 2024 to be released.

 

[Em0866]

That's all well and good, and I don't mean to be negative but if they can't fill an AT76 the route I don't know what they're thinking by putting a larger aircraft on it.

 

[Jerry]

That's all well and good, and I don't mean to be negative but if they can't fill an AT76 the route I don't know what they're thinking by putting a larger aircraft on it.

It's probably crewing or due to maintenance reasons. They usually use the Embraers for charters I believe.

 

[Jerry]

So a bit good news, Eastern Airways have put Paris Orly is onsale for winter 2023/23. The route is suspended between 9/1/24 and 14/2/24.

So apparently the suspension has changed now to begin on the 3/1/24.

 

[Samdorob]

I’ve noticed there still no summer CWL to ORY on sale. The same applies to EMA and SOU. The last day they’re on sale is March 30th which I feel they’re missing a big sales opportunity with the Easter school holidays running into the first week of April. Has anyone heard if there’s doubt these routes will continue given the less than ideal pax numbers?