Given the excellent figures achieved on the Amsterdam route during 2016 surely klm must be thinking of upgrading capacity or frequency on its brs route
 
Considering Air France will be re-entering smaller markets this year like Dublin (with AF 318s) and Newcastle (with HOP), could BRS be a good possibility to give SkyTeam more capacity out of the south west? With slots at AMS at a premium for expansion and Embraers running low on excess fleet, I think this could be a great option (as someone who doesn't follow BRS could anyone give me any insight)
 
I know from personal experience that having the Flybe return at 13.00 at CWL has given me lots more options to return from the US with the Air France codeshare. If HOP! or Air France do start from BRS then it would at least have to be a twice daily service which would provide 6 Skyteam flights a day and give BRS a boost connection wise. Only other option would be for KLM to start 737 flights from mainline but they would have to be 737 8s to give a significant boost.
 
Air France has been in and out of Bristol on a number of occasions in the past 25 years.
Considering Air France will be re-entering smaller markets this year like Dublin (with AF 318s) and Newcastle (with HOP), could BRS be a good possibility to give SkyTeam more capacity out of the south west? With slots at AMS at a premium for expansion and Embraers running low on excess fleet, I think this could be a great option (as someone who doesn't follow BRS could anyone give me any insight)
Air France has operated at times from BRS in various guises.

In the early/mid 1990s Brit Air operated Fokker F 28s on the BRS-Cdg route.

in the early years of this century Regional operated a 3 x daily E145 frequency to Cdg against a similar frequency on similar aircraft by BACx/Con.

After that finished there was a hiatus until Airlinair arrived on the scene operating 3 x daily ATR 42 aircraft to Cdg. This carried on for several years under the AF/KLM group banner against Cityhopper to AMS. Around 2013 a single daily E190 under the Hop brand replaced the ATRs but lasted about a year. In fact, ARJ85s of I think CityJet also had an input around this time. They may have appeared between the ATRs leaving and the E190 beginning.

Currently Cdg is served by a daily easyJet and 11 x weekly bmi regional - soon to be increased to 12 x weekly but of course they are only point to point.

AMS (28 x weekly KLM E190s, sometimes a 170 on one daily rotation in winter) coexists with 10/11 weekly easyJets, so there might be room for AF to return - their past record would suggest it's about time given their history of coming and going - although I tend to favour bigger KLM aircraft if they are available.

The AMS route has grown substantially in recent years with a total of over 400,000 passengers (across KLM and easyJet) being carried in 2016 which is a large number for a single route at an airport of BRS's size - nearly 5% of its overall passenger numbers last year.
 
I've often wondered how smaller airports with less passengers than Bristol can support Air France and larger KLM aircraft.. Lufthansa and or eurowings is another..
In the absence of long haul options, state carriers or their subsidies into hub airports, is maybe what Bristol needs to mix things up...
 
It would certainly be good if BRS could diversify more in terms of airlines but it's the easyJets (particularly at BRS) and Ryanairs that bring in the high volume of passengers needed to enable the airport to make its money.

The KLM loads are high with the 4 x weekly mainly E190 schedule throughout the year. Passenger numbers suggest there is scope for expansion either with larger aircraft or with additional rotations. The trouble is that even though an expanded service might be profitable there is also the possibility that the aircraft needed could make the airline more money elsewhere.

Passenger numbers on Paris Cdg are still not what they were nearly a decade ago when Air France was a competing airline. In 2008 BRS-CDG saw 199,000 passengers and in 2011 the figure was 184,000. When Air France dropped out the total became 120,000 in 2014. Since bmi regional joined easyJet on CDG numbers have gradually risen - 132,000 in 2015 and 139,000 in 2016 but it's still well short of the 2008 and 2011 totals.

This suggests there might be a case for Air France looking again (they may have done so) but as with KLM there might be riper fruits elsewhere.
 
Personally I think it would be far better for klm to expand the Amsterdam route rather than Air France return. One reason is it would force bmi regional off the route and given their past lack of commitment they could last a while then cut the route and leave a single daily route again. Let's have a 737 on at least 2 of the 4 daily flights to ams and let bmi develop its routes to fra and muc instead. Also let's get Swiss and sas back
 
I tend to agree with that as I said in a recent post.
 
I've often wondered how smaller airports with less passengers than Bristol can support Air France and larger KLM aircraft.. Lufthansa and or eurowings is another..
Using Newcastle as an example they are the only airlines on the routes so don't have to compete the likes of Easyjet. At Belfast they operate from different airports though Air France doesn't operate to Belfast and from airports like Cardiff and Exeter Air France just codeshare with Flybe. Personally I think KLM could do that a bit more like from Southampton which will have 5 Flybe flights and 2 KLM flights a day next summer.
 
I think, with KLM expanding in Inverness, Southampton definitely has the potential to serve a region that has been left behind with one good option: London.

However, in addition to this, expanding in Bristol is a great notion and I feel they are more likely to do this in BRS, rather than CWL (it has a lot of BE flights to CDG) and BRS is more accessible from the catchment area of the south west it caters for and surely with a bit more advertising of it's BRS connection could attract not only more origin and destination passengers but also connecting pax. I am not sure of the propensity the south-west region has to fly but this can also play a part - I believe it is quite high, hence why the low cost airlines are successful in Bristol, but more could be done to encourage travel through AMS and, as previously noted, Bristol doesn't have great access to major European hubs via their respective home airlines e.g. LH through FRA (BMI Regional does however give *A connections via BRU/FRA/MUC) One step to increase travel to Asia is QR via Doha, but this seems unsustainable in the current climate, but certainly potential in the future, but KLM should be taking great advantage of it's unique position in Bristol/Cardiff/Southampton and advertise more, increase flights, gain SkyTeam frequent flyers in the region and a wider knowledge of the route and greater reputation. This not only aids AF/KL now, but futureproofs it for a time when BRS will become a gateway to the southwest and gain other hub airline links - KL will stay strong and a committed candidate to Bristol. With the addition of frequent flyers, it is also possible some flyers will abstain from EasyJet's AMS link to fly with KLM - the fares aren't that much different and this could also provide a solid base for more expansion from BRS, whilst the two can lower fares on the route (without damaging yields) and EasyJet could attempt more adventurous destinations - giving Bristol the connectivity it deserves.

If no increases materialise for 2017, for 2018, I think it is certainly possible for KLM to operate some mainline aircraft into Bristol - Boeing 737-700s are the obvious progression, with the -800 making a more substantial change. The most popular flights from Manchester are the night stopper and earlier afternoon departure (KL1052 from Bristol, I believe) both operating with the Boeing 737-900 in summer. I would think these are the obvious flights to become 737/8 operated.
 
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Many thanks for that. It's interesting and useful to have the views of someone from outside the area.

To pick up on one point, BRS does have LH access through both FRA and MUC with bmi regional (3 x daily and 2 x daily respectively) via LH code share.

There is also the 3 x daily Brussels Airlines service (operated by bmir) to BRU and the 3 x daily EI regional (Stobart) service to DUB. So there is some hub connectivity in addition to AMS.

KLM is already extremely successful in capturing passengers at both BRS and CWL. It's really a case of how many more they can realistically attract whilst remaining profitable on the routes, and if they want to.

BRS is of course just over 100 miles from LHR (less than 90 minutes by road from parts of its catchment) and is the default long haul scheduled airport for many in the catchment, particularly business people. The BRS management accepts (in its masterplan) that scheduled long haul demand is limited, citing four possible routes (three in the USA and one ME).

The Bristol region is one of the most economically successful in the UK and it also has a large pool of well-off, often older people who underpin leisure flights. That was the main reason why Go chose BRS as its second base after STN, and there is a high propensity to fly. Furthermore, its location enables it to attract over one million passengers annually from both South Wales and Devon/Cornwall, which is over 25% of its passenger numbers, with Greater Bristol, aka West of England, providing a solid base with around 50%, a percentage that has changed little for many years even as passenger numbers have risen significantly (from 2 mppa to 7.6 mppa since 2000).

Speaking of easyJet, they have over 60 routes at BRS (some seasonal) and we've discussed a number of times on the BRS F4A threads which other routes might be tried. Looking at easyJet's schedule elsewhere there aren't that many obvious candidates.

The airport's abiding problem is its physical size. Surface connectivity is challenging too. If it continues to grow as it has done in the past 2-3 years the airport will also be approaching its planning consent cap of 10 mppa within a similar timescale.
 
Thank you for your kind comments. I thought I might need some corrections as obviously I am not an avid follower of BRS development. ;) You make excellent points about Easyjet and clearly they are extremely committed to BRS and that shold be celebrated, looking at the routes they do offer quite a lot, although there is room for some more adventurous excursions if they wished.
 
It looks like KLM will put on an extra Embraer 175 rotation on Saturday 3rd June and Sunday 4th June for the Champions league final in Cardiff. The other rotations are still Embraer 190s
Saturday AMS-BRS 08.10-08.30 BRS-AMS 09.00-11.20
Sunday AMS-BRS 10.00-10.20 BRS-AMS 10.50-13.10
 
That psychic connection again, Jerry. I was just typing a similar comment on the CWL KLM thread.
 
The tea time klm rotation from ams was in full skyteam livery.It looked very nice. Is this the first time that one has been in with this livery,or we had some before.?
 
The tea time klm rotation from ams was in full skyteam livery.It looked very nice. Is this the first time that one has been in with this livery,or we had some before.?

I'm not a great follower of liveries but I've certainly seen KLM E190s at BRS before now with liveries other than the usual KLM colours. I presumed they were the Skyteam colours that you mention.
 

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