suggesting a flight to an airline

irishgeo

If I wanted to suggest a new flight to an airline how would I go about it?

Would they be likely to listen?

galait

No chance

mickdw

irishgeo wrote: »

If I wanted to suggest a new flight to an airline how would I go about it?

Would they be likely to listen?

Why do you think they should listen? Is it a massive untapped market?
I'm sure there are a number of things that must come together for a route to be introduced.

BonkeyDonker

irishgeo wrote: »

If I wanted to suggest a new flight to an airline how would I go about it?

Would they be likely to listen?

Lots of people with a lot more information than us lay people get paid alot of money to work out new routes for airlines - and even then they do not always get it right.

Out of curiosity what is your suggestion?

irishgeo

BonkeyDonker wrote: »

Lots of people with a lot more information than us lay people get paid alot of money to work out new routes for airlines - and even then they do not always get it right.

Out of curiosity what is your suggestion?

night time return flight from liverpool to knock for ryanair on a Saturday, the route is already in place and ryanair fly out at 9am and arrive in liverpool for 10am, i just want a return flight around 8/9pm

It would cover all the football fans from manchester and liverpool and i have met people from as far away as athlone on the flight.

of course it dependent on liverpool and manchester playing at home. but i am, sure the dublin flight from liverpool must suffer the same problem.

Jack1985

If you can prove demand and show some sort of support and preferably in thousands for the route then they'll listen but other than you'll get the standard ''we appreciate your comments and we will take them on board''..out the back window response...

Just remember it took a load of Cork representatives and members of the public in Cork and Belgium to get Aer Lingus to launch BRU which they did.

Tenger

irishgeo wrote: »

night time return flight from liverpool to knock for ryanair on a Saturday, the route is already in place and ryanair fly out at 9am and arrive in liverpool for 10am, i just want a return flight around 8/9pm

It would cover all the football fans from manchester and liverpool and i have met people from as far away as athlone on the flight.

of course it dependent on liverpool and manchester playing at home. but i am, sure the dublin flight from liverpool must suffer the same problem.

You have answered you own question. 1 per week flight from a small airport like NOC?
Highly dependent on seasonality and event traffic. No solid business/tourist connections that are not already covered by the existing route timetable.

In addition I believe FR work their aircraft hard in the day and carry out mtce at night, so would have to be very good business case to adjust their mtce schedule.

tricky D

It's even less feasible when you factor in the fact that Saturday's football fixtures can get bumped to Sunday afternoon or Monday evening for TV scheduling. This is already a bit of nightmare for Irish-based season ticket holders booking flights and hotels for Saturday fixtures which get moved a few weeks before a game.

irishgeo

i was just curious , i kinda guessed it would be impossible.

Locker10a

irishgeo wrote: »

i was just curious , i kinda guessed it would be impossible.

Also Knock dont open to flight at night! They only open 8am to 8pm or somthing like that!

LXFlyer

Saturday night is probably the quietest time of the week from an aviation point of view. Not really the best time to suggest.

Most people travel Friday pm or Sunday pm at weekends.

unattendedbag

How much would it cost to charter a plane (757 for example) to cater for these soccer fans?

I've always thought a direct ferry from Dublin to Liverpool taking foot passengers would make a killing for the matches.

Stovepipe

Airlines have dedicated departments who deal with route planning in this fashion, under the heading of yield management; ie, is it worth running a flight between x and y, and what will we get (yield) out of it, per seat, per skull? Some of the yield management is geared towards what travel agencies want, ie; a tour operator might want to buy 30,000 seats to Malaga, in January for June or a charter operator might want 10,000 seats in Dec/Jan for skiing holidays. It also depends on if there is a cargo market there. Some flights depend heavily on cargo revenue to assist in reducing running costs. It also depends on national holidays/school holidays/major sporting events and so on. It's actually a bit of a black art to make the most out of the available seats. Airlines will consider any route that will justify the set-up costs and show a good return.

regards
Stovepipe

highlydebased

Locker10a wrote: »

Also Knock dont open to flight at night! They only open 8am to 8pm or somthing like that!

According to NOTAMS Knock is open at the below times- add 1hr to the below times

MON 0655-1520
TUE 0700-1305
WED 0700-1555
THU 0650-1655
FRI 0655-1655
SAT 0755-1615
SUN 1025-1755

Jack1985

They ever done a 12hr shift out west... :eek:

L1011

I believe NOC will open later should an airline want them to but I suspect you'd be paying a LOT for it.

Football traffic is both hugely seasonal, affected each week by who's playing; and extremely results-driven - the number of Irish going to Manchester United games week in week out has collapsed over the last year. No airline is going to run a scheduled service for football; but if there's enough other traffic from LPL the football would help.

irishgeo

highlydebased wrote: »

According to NOTAMS Knock is open at the below times- add 1hr to the below times

MON 0655-1520
TUE 0700-1305
WED 0700-1555
THU 0650-1655
FRI 0655-1655
SAT 0755-1615
SUN 1025-1755

that buggers my plan up so, i guess the killer thing is who going to want to return from knock to liverpool at 10pm, not many and ryanair wont leave a plane on the ground at knock overnight.

i was just curious to be honest , i know it was pie in the sky stuff.

bikeman1

highlydebased wrote: »

According to NOTAMS Knock is open at the below times- add 1hr to the below times

MON 0655-1520
TUE 0700-1305
WED 0700-1555
THU 0650-1655
FRI 0655-1655
SAT 0755-1615
SUN 1025-1755

Handy job up in NOC!

highlydebased

They seem to only have a single staff shift I believe. Would cut down on costs one assumes. Kerry even has far longer opening hours- MON, WED 0500-1915 TUE, THU, SAT 0600-1915 FRI 0500-2100 SUN 0730-2030

BonkeyDonker

highlydebased wrote: »

They seem to only have a single staff shift I believe. Would cut down on costs one assumes. Kerry even has far longer opening hours- MON, WED 0500-1915 TUE, THU, SAT 0600-1915 FRI 0500-2100 SUN 0730-2030

Kerry has early and late PSO flights however, so it pays them to be open. Knock does not.

Locker10a

highlydebased wrote: »

They seem to only have a single staff shift I believe. Would cut down on costs one assumes. Kerry even has far longer opening hours- MON, WED 0500-1915 TUE, THU, SAT 0600-1915 FRI 0500-2100 SUN 0730-2030

Surely they would need a 24/7 security patrol at an airport? They must have someone at the airport 24/7

BonkeyDonker

Locker10a wrote: »

Surely they would need a 24/7 security patrol at an airport? They must have someone at the airport 24/7

they may have - but without ATC all the have is a drag strip

irishgeo

BonkeyDonker wrote: »

they may have - but without ATC all the have is a drag strip

i have this on good authority, a few years back the airport was closed due to an incident on the runway, the airport had taken delivery of a brand new fire engine and the fire engine was being taken on a test drive down the runway , an animal ran across the runway i think it was a fox and the fire engine driver swerved to avoid it and overturned the brand new fire engine, the runway was closed in order to allow the fire engine to be removed.


25k to charter a plane for 100 passengers from knock to liverpool

BonkeyDonker

irishgeo wrote: »

25k to charter a plane for 100 passengers from knock to liverpool

Return or one way?

irishgeo

BonkeyDonker wrote: »

Return or one way?

1 way

coylemj

Suggesting a new route to an airline is likely to encounter what the Americans called the 'Not Invented Here' syndrome.

Professional pride dictates that in a corporation or Govt. agency, an idea coming from outside must be resisted at all costs because 'we didn't think of it first'.

L1011

coylemj wrote: »

Suggesting a new route to an airline is likely to encounter what the Americans called the 'Not Invented Here' syndrome.

Professional pride dictates that in a corporation or Govt. agency, an idea coming from outside must be resisted at all costs because 'we didn't think of it first'.

In aviation, many routes are devised by airports and subsidies in either cash or services given to the first to operate them (for a period of time usually) so I don't think this'd be as much of an issue.

keith16

Anyone any idea why Ryanair dropped Dublin - Lublin as a route? I used to travel there a bit on business but now I'm back with AL to Warsaw

Stovepipe

Sometimes the airline won't have the right aircraft for the job. Sometimes only turboprops will fit into smaller airports and won't carry enough pax to make the route profitable. Sometimes, it pays an airline to use bigger airports, despite a long drive from the catchment area, to generate flights and revenue. As an example I've encountered, skiing flights to Bulgaria used to operate from Belfast to Sofia. Demand brought them to Dublin to fly to Sofia and Plovdiv and Varna and a lot more eastern European airlines have come to Dublin as a consequence of opening up of trade, population movement, cheap access to the east for holidays(Sunny Beach) and college (eg, veterinary college in Budapest). Airlines are having to reach out into newer markets to survive and a lot of current routes had small beginnings.

regards
Stovepipe

Stovepipe

Bleedin' Lubs!

keith16

Stovepipe wrote: »

Bleedin' Lubs!

I know, Lublin did confuse a lot of people tbh, even at the airport.

It was such a handy flight while it lasted, every time I was on it, it was always packed. But I guess maybe yields or Ryanairs new strategic decision to fly to more central / tourist destinations meant it was cut from the scedule.