There’s planes parked up at small airports everywhere. Doncaster has several Wizz A320s, Southend has a couple of Titan A321s, Prestwick has most of Virgins A340s, Newquay has an Easy Jet A320neo (their first) and a South African A330. I went past ten back of Lito today and there were loads of orange A320s parked up.
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Aviation Discussion
- Thread starter trentside
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There’s planes parked up at small airports everywhere. Doncaster has several Wizz A320s, Southend has a couple of Titan A321s, Prestwick has most of Virgins A340s, Newquay has an Easy Jet A320neo (their first) and a South African A330. I went past ten back of Lito today and there were loads of orange A320s parked up.
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RailUK Forums
easyJet have released their winter schedule which I've been waiting for to book a flight to Munich, but can't find any from sby
German, Morrocan, Egyptian, Tunisian, Israeli and Jordanian will all be available later (April as originally scheduled(?)). Was all excited to get Munich booked for November, but not yet
German, Morrocan, Egyptian, Tunisian, Israeli and Jordanian will all be available later (April as originally scheduled(?)). Was all excited to get Munich booked for November, but not yet
markymark2000
On Moderation
Quite a wise move. At a time of such uncertainty, it will probably take people a while to start flying again at the same rate as they were post Coronavirus. By making people book now, they have guaranteed some of the passengers.. Combine that with keeping the cash flow moving, I would say it is a very wise.
Tetchytyke
Veteran Member
Doesn't look like they've released their domestic winter schedule, which is s shame. Was going to stock up for Christmas.
Agreed re wise move for cash flow - they must have raked in about £20m today. Although they have cost themselves about £10m by not yield managing the ski flights in the February half term alone. They could have set them at £99 each way rather than £29 and they’d still have all sold out today.
Question will inevitably be whether being able to advertise all flights as being £29 generates enough extra sales to offset that.
The question for me is that is it better to have (say) £20m in the bank today than £30m in 3 months time. The answer is very probably!
markymark2000
On Moderation
When you think, after the virus, there will be a fair bit of uncertainty and all the countries affected will slow down economically. It's better to get the bookings in now while people have just had their flights cancelled (so they have the refund money) rather than in a few months when people will have spent the money and may be suffering from redundancies etc.
Could it also work so that if they offer customer alternative flights rather than cancel them, easyjet don't have to refund people. IF the customer cancels or decides not to take the alternative or cancels prior to Easyjet contacting them, Easyjet keeps the money or offers only a part refund.
If this works for Easyjet (as I know some others travel companies have taken this stance), it might be a way for them to keep customers money and sell future tickets quite low to keep customers booking.
heart-of-wessex
Established Member
Am I missing something?
Media states that Trump has put travel bans from the states last week, yet still there's been United, BA, Virgin, Lufthansa, Delta etc etc in the skies, was expecting an empty skies week this week!
Media states that Trump has put travel bans from the states last week, yet still there's been United, BA, Virgin, Lufthansa, Delta etc etc in the skies, was expecting an empty skies week this week!
Elwyn
Member
Well Americans and foreign residents of the USA can still re-enter the US. Plus presumably Brits and other nationalities in the US who want to get back home are travelling in the other direction. So there's probably a limited number of passengers still travelling. I'd expect that to fizzle out though.
Also freight is still flying, and a lot of that is bellyhold freight on passenger aircraft. And, as previously mentioned, slot-limited airports in the EU all operate under a "use-it-or-lose-it" policy, and at slot-limited airports airlines really don't want to lose those slots. It's likely an exemption till the end of June will be issued soon, but till then there's an impetuous to keep operating something.
cactustwirly
Established Member
They are repatriation flights I believe, BA and Virgin are reducing their capacity by 80% this week
Crawley Ben
Member
Just been reported on Pirate FM Radio that Newquay Airport is suspending operations temporarily due to COVID-19.
The airport will remain open for use by the Air Ambulance, Coastguard & Military ops.
Ben
The airport will remain open for use by the Air Ambulance, Coastguard & Military ops.
Ben
telstarbox
Established Member
London City has also closed for the time being.
Butts
Veteran Member
Having to attend a Funeral in the West Midlands in a couple of weeks time I was looking to fly down on Easyjets new service from Edinburgh.
Suprised to find that the flights were all full for three days in a row including when I wanted to go.
Is this due to pent up demand since Flybe collapsed or are Easyjet "spacing out" passengers. Have they gone further than just cutting out the "piggy in the middle" seat occupancy?
Suprised to find that the flights were all full for three days in a row including when I wanted to go.
Is this due to pent up demand since Flybe collapsed or are Easyjet "spacing out" passengers. Have they gone further than just cutting out the "piggy in the middle" seat occupancy?
Butts
Veteran Member
Just as well I couldn't book as they have now grounded the entire Easyjet Fleet !!
WatcherZero
Established Member
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Actual freighter flights are reportedly up considerably due to the loss of belly hold freight on passenger services.
childwallblues
Established Member
Easyjet moved 8 aircraft from Belfast and one from Prestwick to Liverpool for storage last night.
Butts
Veteran Member
Heard BA were storing some of their Embraers at Norwich Airport - that would be surreal a BA Aircraft landing there.
Butts
Veteran Member
Are Royal Mail still using Titan ? - They are normally one of the biggest users of overnight freight in the UK.
From taking a drive up to the airport and FR24 I think there were at least 12 of them last week. Along with a Jet2 757, a Transavia 737, I think 6 BRA Avrojets and a handful of others.
A couple of pictures I took last week when they first starting turning up en masse and being parked by the fence.
Butts
Veteran Member
From taking a drive up to the airport and FR24 I think there were at least 12 of them last week. Along with a Jet2 757, a Transavia 737, I think 6 BRA Avrojets and a handful of others.
A couple of pictures I took last week when they first starting turning up en masse and being parked by the fence.
At least Norwich Airport will be earning a few bob in parking fees - wonder what the daily rate is ?
Are there any Flybe Aircraft still there ?
When I last was up there pre-lockdown there were at least two. In fact in the second picture the white tail is an ex-Flybe E190 and there was another next to it.
Butts
Veteran Member
What a time to go bust - the market for 2nd hand Aircraft must have crashed through the floor !!
I think there's a fair amount of lobbying from the airlines to the EU to allow the rules to be changed so that the airlines can keep customers' money when they cancel flights and offer a "voucher" in lieu of a refund.
Understandable when you consider their cash flow.
My advice to anyone, for what it's worth, who has a flight cancelled is to get on to the airlines and anticipate a long wait. I rang Jet2 last Saturday at 9am (when they opened) and only had to hold for 15 minutes. I politely declined the half-hearted effort to rebook my flight and got my refund processed instead. To be fair, the lady was polite and expressed the hope that I'd use them for flights in future, which is more likely because of her attitude. The fact that most airlines' Web sites only enable you to reschedule your flight and then require you to call them in order to get your refund is depressing but not unexpected. I am fortunate that I can generally boycott British Airways, Ryanair and Cross Country trains for my travels.
PS my cancelled Jet2 flight was for April 15th. and I gave up waiting for them to contact me, I had a single email from them saying that they would get to me in due course ....
I can understand that airlines are trying to hang on to as much as they can however from a customer point of view if you've paid money and they are no longer providing the service you have paid for then they should be refunding, no question. I think it's perfectly fine to offer a voucher but people should not be forced to accept it.
However what does seem stupid is to make it impossible to get a refund on their website (as BA are doing) and insisting you call. Then they complain that their call centre is really busy, running on reduced staff etc. That's hardly surprising if you're going to force everyone that wants a refund to call rather than be able to do it on the website.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
It would strike me that the best course of action would be to run a script to automatically generate a voucher for everyone, perhaps with a bit of an uplift in value to encourage people to keep it, then allow people to make contact online in some form to ask for that voucher to be refunded minus the uplift.
The problem I have is that all of the airline information I have seen is deliberately steering people towards accepting a rebooking or a voucher, and I have not seen any information from any of them clearly stating the legal position that a full refund is a requirement if the traveller wants it (for all cancelled flights originating in the EU). The wording is deliberately vague, and, as you say, the Web sites don't enable you to collect the refund to which you are entitled.
This is, essentially, a business which uses technology to extract money quickly from people in the first place, but won't use the same technology to return their money to them as the law mandates.
I am fortunate in that I will remember these actions and take action against the worst culprits in the future, but I fear that many future customers will have short memories, or are restricted by a semi-monopoly carrier at their local airport.
My mantra has always been to under-promise and over-deliver, and that a company's actions when things go wrong are what define it best. The airlines, collectively, have not scored well in my opinion in recent weeks.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Any company at the moment is going to need to ask if people will accept vouchers. If they have to refund their existence is in danger.
The railway is different because the Government has bankrolled them.
The railway is different because the Government has bankrolled them.
Of course, but they haven't done this well. Your earlier suggestion is a good one; if Jet2 had told me that I could be refunded my £765 or else had a voucher valid for a year with a value of 150% of that amount, for example, then I might have been tempted. Especially since I paid the £765 by credit card so have a potential route to getting my money back if Jet2 goes bust. And made it easy for me to make this choice through their Web site. Then they would have kept my money and hopefully contributed towards securing their future existence.
Sadly, it's clear that all the airlines are resorting to whatever tactics they can think of to hold on to money at all costs. I travelled with Thomas Cook in 2019, and Primera in 2018, both of which have gone bust since I used them. So it's a difficult business to run even in normal times.
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