Leeds Bradford: Aurigny Air Services Flights, New Routes & Schedule Updates

[lbaspotter]

Auringy increase its Leeds - Guernsey service from 2x to 5x weekly (MON, WED, FRI, SAT & SUN) commencing from this Sunday with the start of the summer 2017 schedule.

 

[lbaspotter]

Its compertition time! As Aurigny are celebrating the first anniversary of its Leeds/Bradford - Guernsey route and have announced its carried over 10,000 passengers during the first year of operation

http://www.aurignymagazine.com/leedsbradfordairport

 

[Aviador]

Its compensation time! As Aurigny are celebrating the first anniversary of its Leeds/Bradford - Guernsey route and have announced its carried over 10,000 passengers during the first year of operation

http://www.aurignymagazine.com/leedsbradfordairport

Typo as I am sure you meant competition and not compensation. A great achievement in any case so well done Aurigny!

 

[tleeds]

Good loads yesterday! 39+2 so nearly a full flight considering its School Half-Term too!

 

[lbaspotter]

Aurginy have made some more changes to the xmas scheduled flights programme. Orginally the was up to 6 flights planned to be operated between Leeds and Guernsey but now the is just 4. Also the 2x February 2018 Half Term flights have been culled.

So the will only be the 4x flights operating this winter 2017/18 schedule as follows,

Saturday 23/12/17
GR664 = GCI 15:40 – LBA 17:20 / GR665 = LBA 17:50 – GCI 19:30
Thursday 28/12/17
GR664 = GCI 12:00 – LBA 13:40 / GR665 = LBA 14:10 – GCI 15:50
Saturday 30/12/17
GR664 = GCI 15:40 – LBA 17:20 / GR665 = LBA 17:50 – GCI 19:30
Tuesday 02/01/18
GR664 = GCI 07:30 – LBA 09:10 / GR665 = LBA 09:40 – GCI 11:15

On another note the could be some big changes set to come about for next summer 2018 schedule. The airline has confirmed it's the axing the Guernsey - London City route which is operated by the same ATR42 aircraft that also operates the Leeds route. Its also on about getting rid of the said aircraft.
Good news is that they have confirmed to me via social media that the will continue to operate the Leeds/Bradford - Guernsey route but will be using a ATR72 instead, and that the Summer 2018 scheduled will be finalised in the next few weeks.

 

[White Heather]

LBA management confirmed at today's LBA Consultative Committee meeting that for Summer 2018, Aurigny will be reducing their frequency on the Guernsey route from the current 5 flights per week down to 3 flights per week, but that all flights will operate on larger ATR72 equipment. Flights will operate late May to October. This equates to a peak reduction in capacity of circa 10%, although the later start will clearly have an impact too compared to this year.

 

[Tarn Spotter]

Whilst visitor number are up by nearly 10%, yet the increase in visitors arriving by sea is up 11%, air numbers are flatlining, this reduction will not help this situation.

 

[ChurchFenton]

I suppose it depends on whether this year's 5 x weekly summer schedule had quite a few spare seats on certain days. A 3 x weekly next summer more timed to peak days might focus demand on the larger ATR72, so numbers using the service may hold up ok.

I suspect summer seasonal Guernsey is probably a more natural fit for the route, with 3 x weekly still ahead of what the route used to be served during much of the 80's & 90's, before it suffered its long absence.

 

[airforced]

I must admit that I always thought that a 5 x weekly service was overkill. I imagine that the 3 x weekly service will do just as well in terms of total numbers.

 

[Seasider]

Going back to the 70's GCI was weekend only except for wed in Jul/Aug.

 

[lbaspotter]

Good news arrived in my email inbox this morning. Aurginy's summer 2018 scheduled flights from Leeds/Bradford - Guernsey go on sale tomorrow.

View attachment 6272

 

[lbaspotter]

Aurginy’s Guernsey - Leeds/Bradford summer 2018 flights are now on sale. As has been previously mentioned on here, the service will operate a shorter season due to the airline restructuring its business which has seen it axe the London City service and get rid of the ATR42 aircraft that had been mainly used to operate these 2 services over the past couple of years.
Good news for LBA is that a regular service recommences from Thursday, May 24th and will operate 3x weekly on Tuesday, Thursday & Saturdays running until Saturday, September 29th using the larger ATR72 aircraft.


Schedule to operate 24/05/18-29/09/18 as follows.

Tuesday, Thursday & Saturdays
AUR664 = GCI 12:00 – LBA 15:40 / AUR665 = LBA 14:00 – GCI 15:40

 

[ChurchFenton]

Hope this route continues to do well. Summer-only makes sense, if Jersey isn't a viable route in winter from LBA, then Guernsey certainly couldn't have been!

 

[Seasider]

Hope this route continues to do well. Summer-only makes sense, if Jersey isn't a viable route in winter from LBA, then Guernsey certainly couldn't have been!

Jersey was on a 150 seat plane where as GCI on a 50 seat plane. Jersey would be feasible in winter on a 50 seat plane, but who has them?

 

[oldendays]

Jersey was on a 150 seat plane where as GCI on a 50 seat plane. Jersey would be feasible in winter on a 50 seat plane, but who has them?

Aurigny has them. How about GCI-LBA-JER-LBA-GCI ?

 

[whoshotjimmi]

It's a shame Aurigny doesn't consider the possibility of going up against the anti-competition Flybe/Blue Islands franchise agreement, particularly considering their own anti-competitive codeshare agreement came to an end a few years ago. Flight prices between Jersey and Guernsey (a distance of 24 miles) went up 100% overnight when the new franchise began. Until then, Blue Islands and Flybe had been competing on the route and prices, though still comparatively high for such a short route, were much more reasonable. Now, during the week, prices start at £64.99 and passengers have a choice of these extraordinarily highly priced flights or an exceptionally poor ferry service.

Aurigny could do something like GCI - JER - GCI - LBA - GCI - JER - GCI - NWI - GCI - JER - GCI. I know it would require the services of an entire aircraft which is exceptionally unlikely but it would provide a better service for everyone involved (despite the slightly longer flight time to JER) and would likely be pretty full most of the time in summer - if it meant Jet2 and Loganair were scared off, of course. I think Loganair would jump immediately and I think Jet2 would undoubtedly consider whether they could justify a 737-800 to JER in the future. Like DUS, it could be a good jumping off point.

 

[ex_crew]

I agree it would be nice to see more of them , the do bring a little bit of " seaside fun " to
the airport .

I think there would also need to be a crew change on the route you suggested , I know cabin crew are restricted to the amount of sectors they can operate per day , regardless of the distance between each sector .

Logistically , it could make operations quite difficult and with added costs . It would probably mean night stopping a crew somewhere in the pattern .

Im presuming your suggestion is a " there and back " , in one day stopping at all destinations ?

 

[Seasider]

Aurigny has them. How about GCI-LBA-JER-LBA-GCI ?

I thought that they were getting rid of the ATR42, hence the ATR72 next summer.

 

[whoshotjimmi]

I agree it would be nice to see more of them , the do bring a little bit of " seaside fun " to
the airport .

I think there would also need to be a crew change on the route you suggested , I know cabin crew are restricted to the amount of sectors they can operate per day , regardless of the distance between each sector .

Logistically , it could make operations quite difficult and with added costs . It would probably mean night stopping a crew somewhere in the pattern .

Im presuming your suggestion is a " there and back " , in one day stopping at all destinations ?

Yeh. To be fair, I was thinking out loud as much as anything. I certainly wasn't sitting there thinking about all the details. I just thought it would be good to see a bit of competition on JER - GCI considering the diabolical tie up between Blue Islands and Flybe and their subsequent fleecing of the public. If that somehow benefitted LBA, I wouldn't be averse to it. It would create three return journeys between JER and GCI per day and that would probably bring the price back down to both a reasonable level whilst remaining sustainable. It would also improve connectivity to the likes of LBA with a daily service to both Jersey and Guernsey and perhaps another airport on the mainland that would benefit from a 3 or 4 weekly service. The likes of NWI, for example. I think the fact that 20,000 more passengers flew between DSA and JER than between LBA and JER last year shows that there is demand if the product is right. It might even suggest that twice daily to LBA two or three times a week could work.

If that was the case, based on a 26 week summer season, on a 72 seat aircraft, 10 times a week, there would be
37,440 seats available. Split that approximately 65% to 35% between JER and GCI respectively and that would mean 24,336 seats to JER and 13,104 to GCI. Lets say the average load factor is 75% and that would give summer season passenger figures of 18,252 to JER and 9,828 to GCI. I think that would be a very reasonable target. The only problems that would leave would be Jet2, who I think would disappear if someone else came along, the typically higher fares Aurigny seem to charge which might put some passengers off and how the GCI - JER portion would work including crewing. Maybe if there was a crewing issue, it could be routed something like this:

GCI - JER - GCI - LBA - JER - GCI - JER - LBA - GCI - JER - GCI

That way, two crews could work 5 sectors each that would take approximately 5 hours overall, would preclude any need to night stop a crew and would mean the aircraft is working between the islands at the perfect times. But is that number of sectors allowed? If so, we've just solved LBA to the Channel Islands AND resolved the Channel Islands Competition Watchdog (CICRA) investigation into the Blue Islands/Flybe deal! Bonza!

 

[lbaspotter]

Aurginy Airlines will be back operating a Leeds/Bradford - Guernsey service over the Xmas & New Years period operating 4x return flights using ATR72 equipment on the following days.

Dec 2017 = Sat 23rd, Thu 28th, Sat 30th & Jan 2018 = Tue 02nd