Flightmapping > News > October 04 > Most Wanted New Flights
Most wanted new routes (discussion)
With all the recent announcements of new flight routes from the UK (there were over 60 new routes last month, and October is looking like being just as busy), where are the most glaring gaps in the market?
Liverpool and Bournemouth have been hotly tipped for new base announcements next week, and more information about these will be given as soon as it becomes available (and confirmed).
Below are a few possibilities for individual routes where there appears to be a clear gap in the market, together with the airlines most likely to serve the route.
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Birmingham to Berlin
The collapse of duo left several gaps in the market, but many have been filled, or were already filled in some way by other airlines, especially with British Airways adding three extra routes, and with the new Thomsonfly / HLX base in Coventry .
Flights from Birmingham to Berlin have not yet been replaced. British Airways were rumoured to be interested in this route, although they have not progressed this any further. HLX Express have announced flights to Germany from several UK airports, although this is this has not yet included Berlin . For a route to the German capital to seriously work, it would need to operate at least daily.
Flybe, with their 78-seat Q400s would be in an ideal position to operate this route, without having to take the risks associated with operating a 737, yet still having the marketing and branding to be able to fill the flights daily, at a sufficiently attractive fare to attract a mix of business and leisure passengers.
Another option might be for easyJet to serve their Berlin Schonefeld base from East Midlands , although they have been stagnant here for while.
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Manchester to Los Angeles
There is already a good range of direct daily flights from Manchester to the USA , providing your destination is in the East Coast region, or at least no further west than Chicago . The network has expanded this year with the launch of American Airlines flights to Boston and Miami . BMI are also launching three weekly flights from Manchester to Las Vegas on 1st November.
When comparing flights to the USA from Manchester with flights from London , Los Angeles is clearly the most popular destination not to currently offer a direct Manchester option.
Whilst the BMI flights to Las Vegas appear to already be very popular, especially as Vegas is a fantastic winter destination, they are supplementing Virgin Atlantic flights from Gatwick, which themselves only operate three times each week. By contrast, there are up to six direct daily flights from London Heathrow to Los Angeles , yet none from any other UK regional cities.
As one of the major base airlines at Los Angeles , and having already announced flights from Manchester to Boston and Miami this year, American Airlines would be the logical operator for flights from Manchester to Los Angeles , even if this route would be out of the range of the Boeing 757s they are using for their East Coast flights.
With their recent announcement of an intention to focus more on international, rather than US domestic flights, United, who are one of the five airlines offering direct flights from Heathrow to Los Angeles , might also be a possibility, although they could also look at offering flights from Manchester to their San Francisco hub.
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Newcastle to New York
This year has already seen Continental announce daily flights to New York from Edinburgh , Bristol , and most recently from Belfast . In addition, their flights from Birmingham to New York have doubled in frequency to operate twice daily. The new Edinburgh route has proven to be particularly successful, with reported occupancy levels of above 90% during the summer period.
The north-east is now the most populous region of the UK not to be served by direct flights to New York , and with the Bristol and Belfast routes announced so closely together, could we be due for a Newcastle announcement soon?
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Liverpool to London Heathrow
Flights from Liverpool to London city recently passed the 50,000 passenger milestone, an impressive feat since the start up in February. Whilst these routes are undoubtedly proving popular with business and leisure users wanting easy access in and out of the capital, London City airport only offers a very limited range of onward connections. For point to point service, the West Coast mainline upgrade now means that the train again provides a reasonable alternative to flights between London and Liverpool / Manchester . However, this upgrade has done little to improve connections between Liverpool and the UK 's busiest airport, as reaching Heathrow still requires an arduous trek across London , or a bus transfer via Watford Junction, a station not always served by trains from Liverpool .
Although Manchester airport can be reached from Liverpool within around an hour's drive, many of the flights from Manchester still require taking feeders through Heathrow. The option to have a Heathrow feeder direct from Liverpool would surely be welcomed across Merseyside, as the only other feeder option currently available is to take flights via Dublin with Aer Lingus.
British Midland added flights from London Heathrow to Aberdeen and Inverness earlier this year, so they would be the logical operator of flights from Liverpool to London Heathrow, if they could get suitable slots to make this viable.
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Bournemouth to Nice
Bournemouth 's experience with no-frills airlines is not good, following the cancellation of plans for a Buzz base there after the Ryanair takeover. Palmair do offer a very popular network of charter routes, although there are still plenty of notable gaps in this. Flybe offer a reasonable network of flights to Spain and southwest France from Southampton, leaving Nice as one of the biggest gaps in the market to be filled, together with any city in Italy .
Thomsonfly have been hotly tipped to be announcing a base in Bournemouth this week, and if this is proven to be the case, then flights to Nice, as well as Spanish destinations such as Alicante and Valencia , and Italian cities such as Pisa and Venice , look quite possible.
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Belfast to Amsterdam (KLM)
The announcement last week of direct flights from Belfast to New York will certainly have been very welcome across Northern Ireland , not just because of the ability to visit New York itself, but because of the huge range of connecting possibilities which are available at the Newark hub. Although the range of international flights from Belfast has grown substantially this year, the city still lacks a decent feeder service to a major continental European hub, which can act as an alternative to the congested and much maligned Heathrow. With EasyJet's recent complaints about using high charge airports such as Schiphol, they are unlikely to expand any more beyond the daily service they currently offer. Would Belfast be an ideal additional feeder option for KLM?
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Bristol to Milan
Bristol airport have stated that Milan is high on their wish list for routes they want to see developed. Although Bristol is a key easyJet base, they have pulled out many of their flights from Milan Linate, due to problems getting slots. Meanwhile, their rivals Ryanair have just announced significant expansion from Milan Bergamo, including new flights to / from Liverpool and Newcastle . With the net tightening on Alitalia, further expansion at Bergamo is looking likely, and Bristol would be an obvious choice for Ryanair to look at next, especially as there is no competition from any other airports nearby.
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Exeter to Paris
Flybe have expressed an intention to operate this service, if they are able to get some funding from the Southwest development agency. Whilst their route network from Exeter appears to be growing steadily, it remains essentially a point to point service, meaning that passengers wanting a wider range of flight opportunities must drive to Bristol , or more often than not, make the arduous trip to London . Flybe's links with Air France , together with the fact that Paris is a superb destination in its own right, would make this route a double win.
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Edinburgh to Dubai
Emirates seem to be following in the footsteps of Continental by offering an increasing range of UK regional departures to Asia and the Middle East via their lavish hub in Dubai . Their flights from Glasgow to Dubai have proved extremely popular, and although it has been suggested that they may add on an additional daily service, it would also make a lot of sense for them to add daily flights from Edinburgh to Dubai .
Emirates have been hotly tipped to be making an announcement at the upcoming business travel show which takes place in Birmingham this week, although it remains to be seen whether this will be a new route (Newcastle has also been mentioned), or whether they may be adding additional frequency on one of their existing routes, such as Birmingham.
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Liverpool to Edinburgh
Although the train service between Liverpool and London has recently been upgraded, connections to Edinburgh remain lousy, requiring a change in Preston , and a journey time of just under four hours. Edinburgh is obviously also a major tourist centre, and should be able to support leisure demand on this route. Manchester is able to support more than 20 flights to Scotland each day, and even if some of these passengers are making connections, Manchester does at least have direct train services to both Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Air Wales have recently announced twice daily flights from Liverpool to Aberdeen . Even if the Granite City is further away, Edinburgh and Glasgow are much more popular destinations. BAA's high landing charges have put some operators off, although their route development fund is also offering attractive discounts to help new flights to get started. Although EasyJet have a presence in Liverpool and all three of BAA's Scottish airports, they are unlikely to be able to fill the Boeing 737 economically on this route. Air Wales would not be able to offer competitive flights from Cardiff to Glasgow or Edinburgh via Liverpool , whereas Eastern might be able to offer a business service, but would be much less likely to offer sufficiently attractive fares to encourage many leisure passengers.
Flybe would be a much more likely potential operator, especially if they are confirmed as the new airline establishing a base in Liverpool next week.
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