Archive Monarch Airlines from Leeds Bradford Airport

[tleeds]

Does that really mean more routes for LBA, or more routes for Monarch at other airports I wonder...?!

If it means the latter, then I would say the jobs would be obviously created elsewhere..!!

I only have my fingers crossed that he was hinting at LBA!!

 

[lbaspotter]

Does that really mean more routes for LBA, or more routes for Monarch at other airports I wonder...?!

If it means the latter, then I would say the jobs would be obviously created elsewhere..!!

I only have my fingers crossed that he was hinting at LBA!!

TomLeeds If that quote was was in the mornings Yorkshire Post, I would question that statement myself as that paper covers the whole Yorkshire Region from North to South and from East to West.
But with it been only quoted in the Evening Post I would say its a hint on more expansion from Leeds. As you may find that Evening Post is mainly distributed around Leeds & West Yorkshire area only, As most other areas have there own local evening rags.

 

[Hendia330]

Seems like the terminal refurbishments are already having a positive effect!
The hint of more route announcements in the near future is excellent news! a bit of competition between multiple airlines can only be good for lba!

[ Post made via iPhone ]

 

[White Heather]

Well clearly this announcement, which wasn't exactly a well kept secret, has prompted an immediate reponse from Jet2 who (as pointed out already by lbia) have today also announced Grenoble from LBA, and like Monarch they are operating on Saturdays, although only once per week. So, either there is a lot of demand for this destination, or Jet2 have thrown their hat into the ring to offer some limited competition to Monarch who appear to have jumped in on a route that Jet2 were thinking about.

As for future announcements, I still think it could be that next summers Thomson flights are combined with Monarch scheduled passengers, operating very much as Jet2 do when they carry Thomas Cook pax or their own Jet2 Holidays passengers. That would instantly give LBA another 6 routes from Monarch next summer, and potentially more if they base here all week rather than moving the aircraft to Cork for the weekend.

As for the A321 and its brakes (note spelling!), we have had plenty of A321 operations from LBA in the past without regular diverts, including operations to far further afield, such as Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura. We also had A321's operating the Haaj Pilgrimage flights to Jeddah in 2010 - a French carrier I think. As has been said already, with a relatively low fuel load, the runway length should not be a problem unless there are other factors such as poor braking action due to slush or severe cross winds, and if those conditions apply the 757 would divert also.

One thing I have learned in my couple of years on this forum though, is that every time there is good news about LBA, the negativity appears almost immediately. Its back again today and I for one am just very pleased that not only have we got two new routes today, but one is operated by two airlines and there is a real likelihood that Monarch may be about to become a regular site at LBA. How many of us would have expected a few years ago that we would have a Jet2 and Ryanair base, plus both Monarch and Easyjet flying here too?

Its not that long either since some were criticising Bridgepoint for their decision to only refurbish the existing terminal and there were a lot of comments about how cheap and poor this would be, yet now its nearing completion, all the comments are good, and already we are seeing further route development.

In my view, today is an excellent day for LBA and worthy of a drink to celebrate. Cheers! :drinks:

 

[wawkrk]

I agree with Heathers comments.
I also know for certain of at least one A321 Cat3 landing at LBA.I seem to remember it was Airtours.

 

[Aviador]

I'd just like to point out that the voice of a couple of individuals is not the voice of Forums4airports! :diablo:

 

[airforced]

As for the A321 and its brakes (note spelling!),

Thanks for pointing that out Heather.

I was just about to have a pedantic moment too and point out that holidaymakers take "breaks" and aircraft use their "brakes". :diablo:

 

[User0001]

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co....gers_at_Leeds_Bradford_International_Airport/

Two airlines began a winter battle for passengers after revealing new routes for snow-seekers.

Hours after Monarch announced a major new deal with Leeds-Bradford International Airport, starting with ski flights to Grenoble in France, Jet2.com, which is already based at Yeadon, revealed it is also introducing journeys to the alpine city.

The Monarch flights to Grenoble begin on Saturday, December 15, the same day as Jet2.com commence flights to the same city.

The news came as Monarch’s deal with the airport was hailed after months of negotiations between the firms. Initially, the airline, which flies almost 90 routes from four other airports across the UK, will start with their ‘ski flights’ to Grenoble and Munich in Germany in December, but has promised a wider range and some new routes to tourist hotspots next summer.

Monarch’s managing director Kevin George said Leeds-Bradford was becoming a “very good regional airport” to fly from and his firm will set up an operational base at the site.

“The launch of scheduled flights from LBA is an exciting move for the airline as it also coincides with the introduction of our first programme of ski flights,” he said.

“We see this as the first step of a long relationship with Leeds-Bradford and in the coming weeks will be the announcement of plans for Summer 2013 which will include Leeds-Bradford. Monarch is all about flying to leisure destinations, like the Mediterranean and the Canaries and they are the kinds of destinations we will be covering.”

Leeds-Bradford’s chief executive John Parkin said Monarch would hold a different position in the market place to other airlines currently operating out of the airport.

“Monarch have been going for many years and they are hugely respected,” he said.

“We had to make and make it very well to attract them.”

Mr Parkin said the introduction of Monarch comes at a good time for the airport, which is undergoing an £11 million refurbishment, and could attract more passengers.

“It’s growth at exactly the time we’re building for growth,” he said.

“The sheer demand for air travel in this city region is huge and unsatisfied. There are still millions of people driving out of this region past this airport to get to others. If we provide quality and choice of services, we’ll have a customer-friendly combination.” Jet2.com’s chief commercial officer Steve Heapy said the Grenoble flights would go some way to proving his firm is Yorkshire’s “leading leisure airline”.

“This new route and fourth ski destination means we can provide unrivalled access to Europe’s finest ski resorts for people in the region,” he said. “Grenoble takes our total city, sun and ski destinations from LBA to 43, offering the region’s holidaymakers even more choice as well as further demonstrating our commitment to being Yorkshire’s leading leisure airline.”

 

[a300boy]

Looking at Flight Radar 24 last night Doncaster had a Monarch A321 doing circuits I did wonder if he might pop up the road and do a couple at lbia but no doubt our training restrictions and charges made it unattractive to do so.
Monarch are a Uk airline and as such will have various issues with Cat 2 and Cat 3 operations at Lbia due to landing distance and weight restrictions of the aircraft type they operate. As I have stated before what other airlines on foreign registrations have done in the past is irrelevant and I suspect that an Airbus A321 with an average load on board will be Cat 1 only when landing at Lbia just like the B757s of Jet 2 are, so operations during the winter may be a little troublesome. The fixes to increase the runway landing distances which some of our members have suggested may be possible but I suspect would be very expensive to carry out and may not be financially viable. In my opinion this will always limit our commercial growth but as stated the new marketing team must be congratulated for a very good job over the last couple of years.

 

[Hendia330]

So monarch plan to set up an operational base I assume this will result in the baseing of an aircraft or 2? I was under the impression from past posts monarch were reducing there fleet size So will one of there other bases be losing out?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

 

[lbaspotter]

So monarch plan to set up an operational base I assume this will result in the baseing of an aircraft or 2? I was under the impression from past posts monarch were reducing there fleet size So will one of there other bases be losing out?

[ Post made via iPhone ]

Yes Monarch are to start retiring some of there older aircraft over the next 2 to 3 years as follows. It is worth pointing out that they wont be short off aircraft over the next year or so. If all goes to plan.

To be withdrawn at the end of summer 2012
1x Airbus A320 = G-MPCD
1x Airbus A300 = G-MONR

(3x A320's are expected to join the fleet over the winter 2012/13 season as replacements)

To be withdrawn at the end of summer 2013
1x Airbus A300 = G-MONS

To be withdrawn at the end of summer 2014.
3x Boeing 757's = G-DAJB, G-MONJ & G-MONE
2x Airbus A300's = G-MAJS & G-OJMR

It is still not known what aircraft type will be replacing the Boeing 757's and Airbus A300's been withdrawn in either 2013 or 2014 as an order for new aircraft is expected to be announced later in the year. I understand that both the new Boeing 737-MAX and Airbus A320/321-NEO's are said to be under valuation by Monarch Airlines.

 

[lbia]

It's pretty interesting actually reading about Monarch, even though I have flown with them before I have never really paid much interest into their history. It will be very interesting to see how it all goes for them over the next 12 months. It appears they have been pretty much stagnant for the last five years, in fact they have seen some dramatic passenger figure drops. So they are clearly looking to expand into other areas, I have a concern that they will not find it economically viable to only have a part based operation however.

Look at easyJet at Doncaster, using Manchester and Liverpool crews for the based aircraft. They could not make that work and easyJet have a much lower cost base than Monarch, I do have a concern that should Monarch not recruit LBA based crew it will not work. Ferrying crew to and from Manchester for each and every flight will be very expensive and as we know with Thomson, if the crew or aircraft are required elsewhere... we get a divert.

I personally hope that Monarch do what Thomas Cook do, base a single aircraft and use Leeds crews and get rid of as many seats as possible to Thomson/Thomas Cook etc to reduce the risk. It has been mentioned that the aircraft is needed at Cork Friday-Sunday. I suspect Monarch will announce these holiday routes as their own - hence the "extra routes" but really have them supported principally by Thomson. Good PR for Thomson, good PR for Monarch - win win.

I certainly wish them all the best, the A321 issue is brought up over and over but there will be no problems on the Grenoble/Munch route. If it is an A321 based for summer though, it really will struggle with SSH and possibly with DLM/PFO dependant of weather conditions. I know we have had Onur Air operate A321's to Turkey before, it may not have been apparent but there were constant weight issues with them and lets put it this way, the less that is said about the last minute modifications made to the load sheet, the better! Looking at the timings of the summer flights, nice to see they are operating quite a laid back schedule with some good late morning departures.

 

[User0001]

Where has the 'part based' info come from. They have said they will be opening an operating base with Leeds crew from next summer and will make an announcement in a few weeks. Have they said this will only be on a part based basis - if so, why recruit Leeds based crew?

 

[Jordan-34092]

Where has the 'part based' info come from. They have said they will be opening an operating base with Leeds crew from next summer and will make an announcement in a few weeks. Have they said this will only be on a part based basis - if so, why recruit Leeds based crew?

They haven't i think people are presuming this is because of the aircraft going to Cork, but as far as i am aware that is regarding the Thomson lease of a Monarch Aircraft, not actual Monarch Operations.

Looks like i will be applying for them, any airline than Ryanair 😆

 

[Aviador]

Where has the 'part based' info come from. They have said they will be opening an operating base with Leeds crew from next summer and will make an announcement in a few weeks. Have they said this will only be on a part based basis - if so, why recruit Leeds based crew?

Excellent point LS16 and for that matter, who says they're going to be using an A321 anyway! :search:

 

[lbaspotter]

Where has the 'part based' info come from. They have said they will be opening an operating base with Leeds crew from next summer and will make an announcement in a few weeks. Have they said this will only be on a part based basis - if so, why recruit Leeds based crew?

Excellent point LS16 and for that matter, who says they're going to be using an A321 anyway! :search:

Aviador In answer to the A321's:
I can confirm that all Monarch's non-based winter flights from Leeds to both Grenoble and Munich are to be operated by Airbus A321's. That is according to the seating plans in the booking processes on both Monarch Airlines and Cosmos's website

in answer to the "Part Base" you only need to go back a week or so and read what LS16 posted after the new based Thomson's flights where revealed. I'll qoute his post from the message.

Posted by LS16 » Fri Apr 27, 2012 9:01 pm

The aircraft in question is generally chartered by TUI to operate from Cork Thurs to Sunday in summer. Changes elsewhere mean that for 2013 TUI need to guarantee to Monarch that they can commit to a full week. So they will charter it Mon - Thurs to operate from Leeds and Fri-Sun to operate from Cork.

This might be the reason why some people are getting confused I guess. But as was stated by Monarch's Managing director yesterday they do plan to base an aircraft and have they own Leeds based crews next summer operating an aircraft type that is still unknown.
So I guess we will just have to wait and see what they have planned for next summer 2013 and what seating plans appear on there websites when the new Leeds routes are launched and on sale in a few weeks time

 

[lbia]

Guys why the need to be so pedantic? LS16 you are the one that suggested it is likely to be a part based aircraft, shared with Cork! The press release states an "operational base" and that "jobs would be created, although no figures were given." Wouldn't you say easyJet and FlyBe consider Leeds as an operational base? They don't have any aircraft actually stationed here and no members of staff based here, apart from their Servisair contractors. "Jobs created" - it doesn't mention anything to do with Monarch jobs, and no where mentions Leeds based crews. Jobs would be airport jobs - such as Servisair.

As for the A321, as lbaspotter points out; the routes on sale so far are operating on the A321. Hence why there has been a discussion about it! My view is that it may be a based A321 or 757 hence why I opened a discussion about the A321 and Leeds. My view is that if the operations guys at Monarch have any sense they would base a 757 rather than A321. Again, all we have to work on at the moment is that the flights currently on sale are operated on A321's.

Going by the flights announced by Thomson, there is little room for further flights to be added to the schedule Monday-Thursday, looking at Monarch's scheduled operation, they offer flights at a fairly high frequency to the likes of Malaga, Alicante, Barcelona etc - as mentioned in the press release they state "Mediterranean and Canaries" so lets see what comes off. I would doubt the will enter the mainland spain market, this is well covered by Ryanair/Jet2/Thomas Cook already, would it be sensible to suggest that IF it is a fully based aircraft they could operate Tenerife on a Friday, Gran Canaria on a Saturday and Lanzarote on a Sunday?

Nothing has been announced as of yet, so all we have to go on at the moment is that LBA appears to be a part base. So the worst case we can expect, is the Thomson backed flights Monday-Thursday with Manchester operating crews and best case, we can expect a fully based aircraft with a few more Monarch scheduled routes added operated by Leeds crews. Until we get something in writing is in only fair to keep a balanced and open mind discussing BOTH options instead of shooting myself and other users down for keeping open a balanced discussion on the matter.

 

[Malaga]

Quoting from the Yorkshire Evening Post......"Mr George said that there would be further route announcements in the “next few weeks” and said that jobs would be created, although no figures were given." makes one wonder what possible routes may be in the pipeline.

If for example one looks at Monarch flights from Manchester, the destinations served from there that are not served from Leeds/Bradford are as follows:

Banjul
Cagliari
Friedrichshafen
Gibraltar
Goa
Kefalonia
Luxor
Mombasa
Preveza
Sanford
Skiathos
Volos

I don't think they would want to compete with the usual resorts such as Faro, Malaga, Alicante or the Canaries as there is now a lot of competition on these routes.....so what do you think to the above list?.....maybe not Goa, Sanford or Mombasa because of range issues.

Regards

Malaga

 

[tleeds]

If anything from the list were to be realistic, it would probably be; Gibraltar and the range of Greek routes that are not currently operated from LBA, that really would put; Jet2's, Thomas Cook's and Thomson's backs up!

To be honest anything could happen! I think they are a lot more likely to do the opposite to what you said Malaga, and go for a few extremely popular holiday destinations such as; Alicante, Palma, Malaga and Faro as they are big hitters and if the price is right, they'd easily steal customers away from Jet2 and possibly Ryanair, although the latter clientele will probably stick to FR!

We'll soon see...

 

[White Heather]

The most likely would be the two Greek islands I guess, Keffalonia and Sciathos, although whether they will do it is another matter - very much depends on the perceived demand and whether there is enough of it to operate from both MAN and LBA. Banjul would be good and we have had it before, but only due to Astreaus having a 737-700 and even then they operated via Bournemouth, so it was a split load. The rest - well there are a few we would all love, especially Orlando Sanford, but it would be a big surprise to get any. As I have said, it might be that Monarch announce the same routes that they are scheduled to operate for Thomsons, with split loads on - part TOM, and part MON/ZB scheduled pax.