Ostend Airport - Latest news

[Acid-drop]

Paranoia talk again ?
I just mean that the flemish gov seems to be doing a good job, especially when the aviation sector is very competitive and OST maybe hasn't got the same advantages than others (esp. the location).
It does not mean that the airport cannot grow a bit, but I understand that the flemish gov is not investing massively like the walloon gov in CRL. Different situation, different assets, different schedule.

[3toons]

Is Ostend Airport really slowly dying? I thought passenger numbers were increasing.

[regi]

wait, hold on, I think we are all aviation enthusiasts. Right? I don't think Willoo is here a member
Secondly, I think we all do agree that fresh jobs are needed. ( because there is a constant erosion of jobs )
Thirdly - yes Sean you are right - : if the infrastructure is already there, why should we not exploit it more? Quite obvious. And yes, to keep the airport open for just some flights involves a high fixed cost, we could write off over more users. And yes, I don't like it that my tax money is spent on a money loosing exploitation of Ostend airport.
Fourth: the government has invested already in zillion employment programms ( all kind of job training, re-activation programs, whatever )

So may I suppose that we are all on the same side? The discussion just got a bit heated because of details.
We do welcome more activity ( cargo and passenger, charter and regular flights, private or official e.g. relief flights, military, NGO's )
We do welcome every company - no exception - with the same conditions, both sides guarantees.

The moment that we give in to only money, it is easy: build up the area. But that is against our aviation mentality.

[fretn]

Yes, the numer of passengers is on the rise but on the other hand the cargo isn't doing so well (mk airlines), every year we are seeing an increase in pax (charterflights in the summer, and to the canary islands and southern spain in the winter). I think that we'll see this trend growing again. Every time I departed from ostend the flight was fully booked and not only with flemish people, but also people from henegouwen/hainaut, northern france (rijsel/lille) and from west-netherlands. So eventually we'll see some new destinations from jetair and thomas cook and operators (flybe? Cityjet?ryanair?). Also the terminal building is too big at the moment, they should just demolish it and build a smaller, more convenient building. Also the group thats against the airport (wil(c)o?) Should really shut up, i live less than a kilometer away from the airport and i've never had any complaints, who doesn't like the views of an md11 taking off right in your backyard. Plus the airport has been there for a longer period than most of the houses. And imho jobs > naging old people.

[regi]

right on

[sean1982]

couldn't agree more, all companies should be able to benefit from the same rules and regulations

[regi]

Also the terminal building is too big at the moment, they should just demolish it and build a smaller, more convenient building.

There are many complaints - I guess mainly from non-users - that Ostend airport looks old.
Right, the tiles look as they come from the same factory who did the tiles of Tempelhof.
But does looking old mean that it is not functional?
Secondly, the building is not that big. And if we want to present it to new customers, we have to guarrantee capacity. So demolishing it and building a smaller terminal seems a bit suicidal to me.
The current charter customers don't really complain. They do sometimes have a laugh about the 50-60 style.
I do also wonder if an airline would have 1 booking more or less if the airport would have a brand new terminal?
And than comes the next point: imagine that the government would build a brand new terminal. How long will it be considered to be representative? 5 year, 10 year?

[airazurxtror]

50-60 style ? Late sixties, rather :

http://www.ost.aero/engels/frameset_pas.htm

Following several years of preliminary studies, a start was made on the large-scale works in 1963. Five years later, this airport complex was officially opened on 4 April 1968 in the presence of his majesty King Boudewijn and the then minister of transport, Mr. Bertrand. The whole project had cost approximately half a billion Belgian francs, but there was justifiable pride in this achievement. The complex which is now entirely in the territory of the Ostend municipality as a result of mergers is the largest airport building in Belgium after Brussels National.

[3toons]

I made two return flights to Ostend from Stansted with Ryanair a few years ago. Honestly I had no complaints about the size of the terminal building or what it looked like inside. Getting through the airport was simplicity itself and it was very speedy which was great for me because I don't want to spend longer in an airport than I really have to. Unfortunately the Ryanair route from Stansted did not last very long. But hopefully a link to Scotland and the UK will re commence one day soon.

[regi]

I made two return flights to Ostend from Stansted with Ryanair a few years ago. Honestly I had no complaints about the size of the terminal building or what it looked like inside. Getting through the airport was simplicity itself and it was very speedy which was great for me because I don't want to spend longer in an airport than I really have to.

This is were it goes about.
Btw I am also very much interested in a connection with Scotland, for business matters.

[fretn]

I made two return flights to Ostend from Stansted with Ryanair a few years ago. Honestly I had no complaints about the size of the terminal building or what it looked like inside. Getting through the airport was simplicity itself and it was very speedy which was great for me because I don't want to spend longer in an airport than I really have to.

This is were it goes about.
Btw I am also very much interested in a connection with Scotland, for business matters.

What business connections are there between west-flanders & scotland? the zeebrugge harbour?

[regi]

I made two return flights to Ostend from Stansted with Ryanair a few years ago. Honestly I had no complaints about the size of the terminal building or what it looked like inside. Getting through the airport was simplicity itself and it was very speedy which was great for me because I don't want to spend longer in an airport than I really have to.

This is were it goes about.
Btw I am also very much interested in a connection with Scotland, for business matters.

What business connections are there between west-flanders & scotland? the zeebrugge harbour?

Scottish manufacturing industry in very high tech semi conductor markets, being sold here on the continent.
Aberdeen, one of Europe's most important centers for North Sea oil activities. ( extraction, manufacturing of all kind of special equipment )
Steel industry - heavy manufacturing.
Fish: Pieters Fish, a major employer in Bruges and Ostend of low skilled workers, is part of the world leader Marine Harvest- with important salmon activities in Scotland.

Just some examples.

[FLYAIR10]

It has been a while,but here are some new traffic figures for OST:

Half-yearly traffic figures January - June 2011
Comparison between the year 2011 and the year 2010 (JAN up to and including JUN)

Movements
20,849 in 2011 compared to 18,693 in 2010 (+11.5 %)

Passengers
97,756 in 2011 compared to 83,625 in 2010 (+16.9 %)

Freight (tons)
31,889 in 2011 compared to 33,494 in 2010 (-4,8 %)


05/07/2011
Source: http://www.ost.aero/engels/frameset_pas.htm

[fretn]

Just as I predicted, pax up and freight down. Charters are having their fun @ OST!

[3toons]

I'm going to Ostend at the end of next month. Because there are no flights from either Glasgow or Prestwick to Belgium any more I am having to go all the way by train. Irvine to Glasgow, Glasgow to London, London to Brussels and Brussels to Ostend. Although this is a very long journey it is much easier than getting to Glasgow Airport and flying from there to London and making my way to St Pancras to get the Eurostar. I hope the powers that be read my post and hopefully one day an airline will start flying from Scotland to Ostend. BMI fly from Edinburgh to Brussels but they wanted nearly £700 for a flight that lasts around 90 minutes!!

[andorra-airport]

Flybe (BE) was not an option? Glasgow-Southampton-Brussels. Or Ryanair, Edinburg-Charleroi? But its true, long journey from Irvine to Ostend.

[fcw]

easyJet GLA-AMS and 3h30 train AMS-OST
or GLA-CDG 1hr tgv tot Lille and 50 min drive to OST

[FLYAIR10]

Or GLA-OST completely by air:
to Ost :Jet2 (Sunday -LS189): GLA-Palma(PMI) and PMI-OST: Jetairfly (JAF)
fm Ost : JAF to Alicante (Saturday) and Alicante-GLA : Jet2 or Easyjet or Tomson...
Need some internet time and adventurous spirit though and budget of approx 400-550GBP depending on timing of advance booking and bags carried or not,etc..;
Indeed, a direct airlink Scotland-OST would be faster and much more convenient!
Grtz.

[3toons]

Flybe (BE) was not an option? Glasgow-Southampton-Brussels. Or Ryanair, Edinburg-Charleroi? But its true, long journey from Irvine to Ostend.

I went on to Flybe's website but it did not give me the option of flying from Glasgow to Brussels via Southampton or anywhere else. Ryanair don't even fly from Edinburgh to Charleroi on the Saturday I want to travel. I could have gone all the way to Edinburgh Airport and flown with BMI direct to Brussels but they wanted £755 which is utterly ridiculous! So I ended up booking train tickets all the way from Irvine to Ostend. Scotland needs much better air links with Belgium, to Ostend hopefully but also to Brussels.

[fretn]

Flybe could easily fill an embraer or turboprop to Ostend for at least several turns per week. I'm wondering why this is taking so long.