Newquay and Plymouth Airports - their rise and fall - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[vacman]

By the look of the mass passenger numbers lately on ALL Cornwall-Padd and Padd-Cornwall HST^▸ (High Speed Train) services over the past month it looks like Air southwest are doing very little to coax customers from the railway like they were hoping!

[RichardB]

Air Southwest seat around 50 passengers per plane.  To put this into perspective - just over one HST^▸ (High Speed Train) coachload

Rail will always take the bigger numbers between the South West and London/Birmingham, despite Air Southwest's very proactive marketing.


   

[vacman]

Air Southwest seat around 50 passengers per plane.  To put this into perspective - just over one HST^▸ (High Speed Train) coachload

Rail will always take the bigger numbers between the South West and London/Birmingham, despite Air Southwest's very proactive marketing.


   

Just UNDER one coachload you mean! I wish FGW^▸ (First Great Western) would grow some balls and start some retaliating advertising to them though, Ilike air southwests environment bit on their website comparing their flight to a voyager between Plymouth and Glasgow and that per passenger their plane is more environmentally friendly based on the train being 30% full and the plane 70% full.... even on those statistics the plane only just comes in front, now why dont they try comparing a full HST with a Full plane between Plymouth and Padd??? I know why, because the plane would be grossly worse!!!!!!!!! I like Andrew Adonis' plan though, meaning the end of short haul flights in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) hopefully..

[RichardB]

Yes, of course, under one coachload.

I must have been thinking First Class!

[slippy]

I'm sure FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are helping to boast Air South West's success by rising certain London fares from ^83 to ^100!!!

[devon_metro]

I suspect most people from Cornwall travel on advance purchase tickets to London.

[vacman]

I'm sure FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are helping to boast Air South West's success by rising certain London fares from ^83 to ^100!!!

To be honest you never really see any "walk up" type tickets from Cornwall to London/Reading, you can work a train through Cornwall that is pretty full and see only 2 or 3 Off-Peak tickets, I don't think these type fares have any effect towards the air lines as they are for people who actually turn up and go which isn't possible on air lines!

[woody]

Mike Coombes, Air Southwest's Commercial Director, commented: "Our flights to London City Airport have quickly established themselves as the speediest and most cost effective way to get from Devon and Cornwall to the heart of London.  This new express shuttle service direct to Canary Wharf makes it even quicker and easier for our customers from the South West to get down to business in the capital."
http://www.airsouthwest.com/news/shownews.php?ne_id=259
 Hype or what?

[Bob_Blakey]

Not hype, just absolute b*llocks! For a day business trip Plymouth to London next Monday (15/02) the only flights are out 0750-0900 and back 1905-2015 for the sum of ^211.
Without any effort I have found an FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Plymouth-London U1 fare of ^137.50 which gets you to the smoke for 0930 and allows an 1800 departure. I haven't checked but I would imagine that for an early start the Night Riviera up to London would be cheaper.
Cost effective? I don't think so.
Describing London City Airport and/or Canary Wharf as the 'heart' of London is straight out of the Ryanair Guide To Air Travel.

[John R]

Describing London City Airport and/or Canary Wharf as the 'heart' of London is straight out of the Ryanair Guide To Air Travel.

TfL^» (Transport for London - about)'s journey planner gives travel time from Paddington to Bank as 21 minutes and City Airport to Bank as 23 mins. (bear in mind, Bank is at the hear of the City of London, which is where many business people will be heading). And I dare say the DLR^▸ (Docklands Light Railway) is more reliable than the Circle Line. So in comparison with where FGW^▸ (First Great Western) dumps you in London, there's absolutely nothing in it.

And London City Airport is clearly closer to the City than LHR or LGW, so I don't think that part of Air SouthWest's claim is unreasonable at all.

Though I would agree that in other respects the argument is much less clear cut,  in terms of overall journey time (check in, etc), frequency of service etc.

[RailCornwall]

London City Airport is a breeze, have landed internationally there, reclaimed luggage, through Passport Control and onto the DLR^▸ (Docklands Light Railway) platform in seven minutes from Engine Stop to top of escalator at the station.

[moonrakerz]

Not hype, just absolute b*llocks! For a day business trip Plymouth to London next Monday (15/02) the only flights are out 0750-0900 and back 1905-2015 for the sum of ^211.
Without any effort I have found an FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Plymouth-London U1 fare of ^137.50 which gets you to the smoke for 0930 and allows an 1800 departure. I haven't checked but I would imagine that for an early start the Night Riviera up to London would be cheaper.
Cost effective? I don't think so.
Describing London City Airport and/or Canary Wharf as the 'heart' of London is straight out of the Ryanair Guide To Air Travel.

Sorry Bob, but I feel your response is somewhat over the top - rather hysterical "rail travel good, air travel bad" type of stuff. Doesn't do much for sensible comparisons.  As has already been pointed out, it depends where you are going (and from), City Airport is a cracker too !

A bit of "bullocks" maybe, but  certainly not "b*llocks" ! 

[eightf48544]

John R's journey planner times are most revealing. Shows that Paddington is actually a long way West and City Airport is not as far East as one would think.

As for cost effectiveness it depends on where you want to go in London and how easy it is for you get to either Plymouth Airport or Plymouth Station and how much the overall journey costs (home to meeting location) and the overall time away from home.

I would suggest this would vary from person to person and even it's the same person where the meeting is and their personal cost/time frame.

Thus the old saying goes you pays your money and takes your choice.

[RailCornwall]

.... and if the business is paying from door to door pay costs need to be added to the equation too.

Not forgetting that the ambience of Plymouth Airport and LCY cannot be compared to North Road or Paddington too.

[devon_metro]

Not hype, just absolute b*llocks! For a day business trip Plymouth to London next Monday (15/02) the only flights are out 0750-0900 and back 1905-2015 for the sum of ^211.

Cheaper than buying a SOR on FGW^▸ (First Great Western)