What has happened to the Flybe Waterford-Birmingham route schedule??

amicuscormac

Hey all. I noticed that there seems to be a change in the schedule to the route. It only started in last few months, and was supposed to be a daily route. I tried last week to book for next month but the schedule seems to have been reduced to a M-W-F-S-S service. If you try and book for the winter months it is down to a M-W-F-Sunday service. I had a look at the timetable on the flybe website and it lists only Saturday and Sunday services, which would appear to be a mistake. Has anyone flown the route? Im guessing by the fact that it was reduced so quickly after starting that the numbers using the service was poor?

As an aside I flew Waterford-Southend last week. There were 27 and 20 passengers on respective legs- not great for summer.

Dublin Spotter

Daily was always to much for the route and BE tend to reduce UK/Ireland routes mid summer to fly to France. Remenber they are quiet short of aircraft after WW closure.

amicuscormac

thanks for that. I hadn't thought about the reduction in mid-summer flights. Daily was never going to be a runner though as you say. There is just not enough demand to support a daily service. As I said the Southend route doesn't seem to be ever doing that well either. I was speaking to one of the staff out there and he said it's hit and miss. Some days he said there might be forty on it, and others less than twenty. Southend is actually a nice airport to fly from but they should never have moved from Luton.

b757

amicuscormac wrote: »

thanks for that. I hadn't thought about the reduction in mid-summer flights. Daily was never going to be a runner though as you say. There is just not enough demand to support a daily service. As I said the Southend route doesn't seem to be ever doing that well either. I was speaking to one of the staff out there and he said it's hit and miss. Some days he said there might be forty on it, and others less than twenty. Southend is actually a nice airport to fly from but they should never have moved from Luton.

All the routes seem to be doing quite well at the moment. Lets hope Aer Lingus and Flybe keep going and maybe add some routes early for next year. EDI and AMS could be a possibility i reckon.

Regarding southend, that route has really picked up. I believe most of the passengers like southend due to how quickly they can get to central london.

All routes are gone daily now except BHX which is gone down to 5x weekly.

munchkin_utd

b757 wrote: »

All the routes seem to be doing quite well at the moment. Lets hope Aer Longus and Flybe keep going and maybe add some routes early for next year. EDI and AMS could be a possibility i reckon.

Regarding southend, that route has really picked up. I believe most of the passengers like southend due to how quickly they can get to central london.

All routes are gone daily now except BHX which is gone down to 5x weekly.

well it helps that now its being referred to as London Southend and marketed as having a direct rail connection to Liverpool st. on radio ads etc.

Till they started that, how many would know that it was ANYWHERE REMOTELY near London let alone as convenient as it appears to be.

Took them a while to cop on to their presumption that Irish people have an encyclopaedic knowledge of random English towns and their location relative to somewhere that you might actually want to travel to.

Similarily sounding Southport is aparantly 10 miles north of Liverpool, Southwell somewhere even further north near other towns that I never heard of before and Southsea, Southhall are somewhere else that I couldnt be bothered looking up - but their location is as much of a mystery. Either way. Good that they have copped on that flying to an unknown airport near an unknown town might need a litle explaination to make the route work.

amicuscormac

Well I think realistically the best we can hope for is the present routes remain in service. I do agree that the Southend has picked up but most people still choose Luton. I found the train station at Southend really handy but the journey time was still an hour into central London. At least at Luton you can be lucky and pick up direct trains to Kings Cross whereas the Southend trains appear to stop at many stops. I'm not knocking the service at all- it's really handy it;s just I think people don't know enough about Southend or where it is etc. It should have been marketed a whole lot better

Fratton Fred

I think Southend is still feeling its way and they do need to sort out the marketing.

I believe the train connects nicely with the jubilee line and dlr at canning town, so it is quite handy for canary wharf as well as the city.

b757

Also, is there any reason to why the winter flights to/from WAT are not bookable yet with Aer Fungus..

4 1/2 months before the winter schedules and nothing..

Marcusm

munchkin_utd wrote: »

Southhall are somewhere else that I couldnt be bothered looking up - but their location is as much of a mystery. Either way. Good that they have copped on that flying to an unknown airport near an unknown town might need a litle explaination to make the route work.

Southall is the location of probably the most well known UK airport, Heathrow!