Waterford Airport.

Max Powers

Good news.

PTH2009

Very good news but prob go the cheaper route and fly out from Dublin or Cork if I was flying to the UK but it's very conveinent too fly out from Waterford and back without the hassle of travelling too and from Dublin/Cork etc.

Hopefully it's works out for the company and best of luck to them

Deiseen

dzilla wrote: »

Deiseen wrote: »

Link? Any more info?

What more "info" do you want? I gave you the the 3 cities to be serviced/ the dates/ the airline and even the aircraft maker.

Jaysis, calm down. Price for one thing and possibly flight times. I did a search after your post and couldn't find anything but have found it all now.

Deiseen

PTH2009 wrote: »

Very good news but prob go the cheaper route and fly out from Dublin or Cork if I was flying to the UK but it's very conveinent too fly out from Waterford and back without the hassle of travelling too and from Dublin/Cork etc.

Hopefully it's works out for the company and best of luck to them

If you don't mind flying out of Dublin/Stanstead at 6am then there are some really cheap flights to be had but if you are flying out at normal times, then this is pretty great value.

JCX BXC

Any reason why this will be any better than all previous attempts?

Good luck to the airline, but luck won't cut it.

Deiseen

JCX BXC wrote: »

Any reason why this will be any better than all previous attempts?

Good luck to the airline, but luck won't cut it.

They are starting the flights due to the impending tourism explosion brought on from the Brits watching Redwater!
Flights have done well out of Waterford in the past, you cannot blame the airport for VLM going bust. 
People on here have said the load factors on the VLM flights were decent, keeping in mind that VLM flights were very expensive.

dzilla

The local aspect can help with the company being a local startup they will not be at the mercy of a foreign CEO cutting routes to balance the books or re-positioning aircraft elsewhere on more profitable routes which happened in the past.

However it will depend on the business acumen of the party behind it. If it isn't making money it will probably fizzle out.

sillysocks

Surely they could have had the websites operating before announcing. On mobile anyway the aersoutheast shows access forbidden for me, and even though the releases say bookings can also be done on flywaterford.com there's no mention on there of booking or even if the new flights unless you open the Twitter link 🙄

Deiseen

sillysocks wrote: »

Surely they could have had the websites operating before announcing. On mobile anyway the aersoutheast shows access forbidden for me, and even though the releases say bookings can also be done on flywaterford.com there's no mention on there of booking or even if the new flights unless you open the Twitter link 🙄

9am tomorrow they are saying

dzilla

sillysocks wrote: »

Surely they could have had the websites operating before announcing. On mobile anyway the aersoutheast shows access forbidden for me, and even though the releases say bookings can also be done on flywaterford.com there's no mention on there of booking or even if the new flights unless you open the Twitter link 🙄

Looks to me like the Munster Express broke the story too early. I would imagine Waterford Airport wanted to make the announcement tomorrow when the site was up and running, but once the Munster went live with it Waterford had to announce it

looksee

Good news!

CantGetNoSleep

Wonder if this crowd is that mentaller who used to post on here saying he would save the airport and make Waterford great again?

914

Good to hear more positive news for Waterford. Here's hoping the service is used and can grow.

Harry Palmr

Sadly this will probably manage 6 months and close in the slump of the new year. As long as the runway is fit for turbo-props and nothing more it's never really going to find a decent sized company to use it on an ongoing basis.

914

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Sadly this will probably manage 6 months and close in the slump of the new year. As long as the runway is fit for turbo-props and nothing more it's never really going to find a decent sized company to use it on an ongoing basis.

Hopefully it will last longer but your right about the runway, to become sustainable the airport needs to become more competitive and that will only happen with larger aircraft and bigger companies.

For the duration of these new flights serious pressure needs to be put on government to try and source funding to develop.

I'd say if this airline does not work it will be curtains.

Wanderer2010

Tried booking flights for after July 24th to Luton on southeastaer.com (as directed by Waterford airport) and I'm getting the dreaded 404. Anyone else have any luck with this?

looksee

You can book luton from tomorrow, other destinations shortly.

http://www.tipperarystar.ie/news/news/255754/breaking-new-uk-routes-announced-for-waterford-airport.html

fenfoz

Absolutely great news for the city. It's really refreshing to hear so much positive news coming out of Waterford. Onwards and upwards.

Cosmo Kramer

Sorry, but this has absolutely no chance of being successful.

It will get lots of positive PR spun at the beginning, we'll hear stories about how loads are good and the routes seem to be doing well and how the Luton flight was 'packed last Friday when I was on it'.

Then, at some point over the winter, the losses will build, the funding will dry up and the airline and the routes will disappear from the airport. Potentially for good this time.

Having said all that, credit needs to be given to the management down there for convincing so many airlines and investors that there's money to be made at Waterford. They've managed to convince Aer Arann, Stobart, Flybe, VLM and now these Slovenian lads trading as 'Aer Southeast' to give the place a go over the last 10 or so years. But surely the airport must be in the last chance saloon at this stage as far as scheduled passenger operations go.

MentalMario

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

Sorry, but this has absolutely no chance of being successful.

It will get lots of positive PR spun at the beginning, we'll hear stories about how loads are good and the routes seem to be doing well and how the Luton flight was 'packed last Friday when I was on it'.

Then, at some point over the winter, the losses will build, the funding will dry up and the airline and the routes will disappear from the airport. Potentially for good this time.

Having said all that, credit needs to be given to the management down there for convincing so many airlines and investors that there's money to be made at Waterford. They've managed to convince Aer Arann, Stobart, Flybe, VLM and now these Slovenian lads trading as 'Aer Southeast' to give the place a go over the last 10 or so years. But surely the airport must be in the last chance saloon at this stage as far as scheduled passenger operations go.

I'm trying my best not to agree but I kinda do. I can't see it lasting but I really hope I'm wrong, and will probably use the service 4 or 5 times per year for as long as it runs.

I would say the following though.

Weren't Flybe profitable, though? they just weren't as profitable as they could be elsewhere.

VLM's issues were outside Waterford.

Not sure about Stobart or Aer Arann. I suspect Aer Arann was due to their sale to Aer Lingus.

looksee

It may dry up, or it may not, but how does it help or make any difference to be gloomy about it now?

Cosmo Kramer

I suppose you could turn that around and ask what help or difference does it make to be overly positive about it at this point without any reason on which to base the positivity?

I'm not trying to be gloomy, just realistic. We're talking about what is basically a start up airline flying from an airport with no current scheduled services on routes that have had a high turnover of operators in recent years. It just looks like the longest of long shots to me.

Regarding previous operators, it's a common ploy, when routes are dropped, for airports to claim that their routes were profitable but that the airlines saw better opportunities elsewhere or had 'operational reasons' for dropping the route. It's almost always just spin though, airlines rarely pull profitable routes.

To take one of the examples mentioned above, Flybe have just posted a £20 million loss for their last year of trading. I'm fairly certain that, if they thought there was money to be made at Waterford, they'd still be there.

Deiseen

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

I suppose you could turn that around and ask what help or difference does it make to be overly positive about it at this point without any reason on which to base the positivity?

I'm not trying to be gloomy, just realistic. We're talking about what is basically a start up airline flying from an airport with no current scheduled services on routes that have had a high turnover of operators in recent years. It just looks like the longest of long shots to me.

Regarding previous operators, it's a common ploy, when routes are dropped, for airports to claim that their routes were profitable but that the airlines saw better opportunities elsewhere or had 'operational reasons' for dropping the route. It's almost always just spin though, airlines rarely pull profitable routes.

To take one of the examples mentioned above, Flybe have just posted a £20 million loss for their last year of trading. I'm fairly certain that, if they thought there was money to be made at Waterford, they'd still be there.

Maybe they should have stuck around so

man98

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

It's almost always just spin though, airlines rarely pull profitable routes.

To take one of the examples mentioned above, Flybe have just posted a £20 million loss for their last year of trading. I'm fairly certain that, if they thought there was money to be made at Waterford, they'd still be there.

The issue with the Birmingham - Waterford route was that they had planned to upgrade it to a jet (E175) but a couple of months afterward they decided to sell most of their jets to Republic (US airline) and had to make sweeping cuts to schedules. As an outlier of a route it was cut along a host of other destinations.
In the case of Aer Lingus Regional, they had to keep up to contractual agreements regarding passenger numbers and because there were no onward connections from WAT, and I won't even get into the hames of Southend.
Frankly I don't know whether or not this start up will succeed. However, arguing over its future before it even begins won't help. I want it to succeed and I will do my best to plug it, however the fact that it's out of my pay range might be a sign of things to come.
It's good news for Waterford and I sincerely hope that they'll manage a better publicity job this time.

JCX BXC

It won't cause the route to fail any worse than it likely will either so I don't see any harm in discussing it.

I am interested in why this brand new, unknown airline with no history of reliability or safety will do well and succeed when Stobart, Flybe, VLM (who left months before they became defunct) and others have failed.

I'd like to see it work, but I'm afraid the high prices, restrictive schedule and complete lack of awareness in the market will lead the losses to be very high in the beginning of the operation. If they have a large enough pool of funds, coupled with excellent marketing and sales teams, they may succeed, but that's a very big ask that very few companies can or do deliver on. Chances are imo it'll fold by march.

Deiseen

Website is still not working. Off to a bumpy start!

Squidvicious

JCX BXC wrote: »

It won't cause the route to fail any worse than it likely will either so I don't see any harm in discussing it.

I am interested in why this brand new, unknown airline with no history of reliability or safety will do well and succeed when Stobart, Flybe, VLM (who left months before they became defunct) and others have failed.

I'd like to see it work, but I'm afraid the high prices, restrictive schedule and complete lack of awareness in the market will lead the losses to be very high in the beginning of the operation. If they have a large enough pool of funds, coupled with excellent marketing and sales teams, they may succeed, but that's a very big ask that very few companies can or do deliver on. Chances are imo it'll fold by march.

The central question is whether the Waterford routes have ever been profitable. If not, this company has little chance of success. However, it is possible that the Waterford routes did make a profit but that Flybe, Aer Arann etc simply decided that more money could be made from their aircraft, landing rights from different airports etc. After all, if you're an airline flying to Luton from Cork, Dublin and Waterford, you really couldn't care less which of the three airports are used. If Cork/Luton is more profitable, why bother flying from Waterford? Why make a little in Waterford if you can make more in Cork? The obvious thing to do is to switch your flights to Cork. The fact that this airline is entirely based in Waterford will at least mean that they have to sink or swim in Waterford. They'll probably make more of an effort to market the flights too given that this is their sole base.

One thing which I think that the airport should do is allow free parking. For those of us living very close to Waterford, the benefits of flying from Waterford airport are obvious. However, that's not so clear if you're based in Kilkenny or Clonmel, say. Now, I know that Waterford's parking costs are cheaper than elsewhere but free parking is a much clearer and more attractive selling point than cheap parking. I know that the airport generates revenue from parking charges, but I think that free parking would be a really helpful selling point which might go some way to offset the higher ticket prices from flights.

Deiseen

Squidvicious wrote: »

JCX BXC wrote: »

It won't cause the route to fail any worse than it likely will either so I don't see any harm in discussing it.

I am interested in why this brand new, unknown airline with no history of reliability or safety will do well and succeed when Stobart, Flybe, VLM (who left months before they became defunct) and others have failed.

I'd like to see it work, but I'm afraid the high prices, restrictive schedule and complete lack of awareness in the market will lead the losses to be very high in the beginning of the operation. If they have a large enough pool of funds, coupled with excellent marketing and sales teams, they may succeed, but that's a very big ask that very few companies can or do deliver on. Chances are imo it'll fold by march.

The central question is whether the Waterford routes have ever been profitable. If not, this company has little chance of success. However, it is possible that the Waterford routes did make a profit but that Flybe, Aer Arann etc simply decided that more money could be made from their aircraft, landing rights from different airports etc. After all, if you're an airline flying to Luton from Cork, Dublin and Waterford, you really couldn't care less which of the three airports are used. If Cork/Luton is more profitable, why bother flying from Waterford? The fact that this airline is entirely based in Waterford will at least mean that they have to sink or swim in Waterford. They'll probably make more of an effort to market the flights too given that this is their sole base.

One thing which I think that the airport should do is allow free parking. For those of us living very close to Waterford, the benefits of flying from Waterford airport are obvious. However, that's not so clear if you're based in Kilkenny or Clonmel, say. Now, I know that Waterford's parking costs are cheaper than elsewhere but free parking is a much clearer and more attractive selling point than cheap parking. I know that the airport generates revenue from parking charges, but I think that free parking would be a really helpful selling point which might go some way to offset the higher ticket prices from flights.

You are bang on here. How hard would it also be to arrange a shuttle bus for when flights get in/out to bring people to/from the train/bus station? I'm sure there is a lad with a minibus somewhere who would be dying for the extra bit of work. This would be the difference between me taking a flight and not taking one if I was from Wex, Tipp or KK.

MentalMario

5kg carry-on allowance.

That certainly ain't amazing.

Although, in saying that, if prices are always under €100, you wouldn't mind paying the check in fee of €20.

Baby4

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