sn26567 Maybe if an airline was able to offer connections at either Ostend or a Scottish airport instead of just a point to point service the route might be more successful. Low cost airlines are very slowly moving away from only point to point flights. Easyjet has been in talks with various airlines in the UK regarding offering a feeder service for medium and long haul routes and Ryanair has, I believe signed an agreement wih Norwegian and will also for a trial period offer connecting flights on some of its own routes .
True, there will be not enough point-to-point passengers between OSTand Scotland to fill every flight all year long.A flight from glasgow to ostend?? I have my doubts. I guess in setting up a connection between two cities there has to be a mutual interest otherwise it doesn't make sense to connect eachother. Yes from ostend there might be an interest to fly to glasgow, but the other way around??? What does ostend have to offer?
But,on the other hand ,combining it with a stop at another UK airport it may work.
As mentioned already a few years ago,imo a route OST-London Southend- Edinburg could generate enough revenue to at least break-even. SEN-EDI was flown by Flybe until last year. Also not enough passengers to bring in profit on its own apparently , but adding the OST passengers,it could be justified to reestablish this route. Also It would be the fastest connection (door-to-door) between NE London,Scotland and Western-Belgium,Northern France,Dutch province of Zeeland.
A319 equipment such as operated By EZY from SEN might be too big most of the time,but smaller regional planes as DH4,ATR,F50 could do the job imo. Alternatively, if a regional operator would base a plane(or 2) at OST this stop-and-go via SEN could also be widened to Belfast and/or Dublin. Both cities had connections with SEN until last year (Flybe and Aer Lingus-reg.) but not enough pax to keep on operating these routes on its own.
Combination with OST might work.
It's a pity VLM has no room to manoevre at this moment. Otherwise they could give it a go.Alternatively Flybe or Eastern Airways might be possible candidates.Or JAF,if TUI policy would foresee them to operate fm/to UK airports.
Of course,OST could also be acting as a stop-and-go airport i.s.o.SEN. for routes originating in Scotland.e.g.
GLA/EDI - OST - VCE/VIE/IBZ/ROM/ATH/etc... i.e. combining less-then-a-planeload demand per destination from Scotland with the same from OST.(assuming JET-equipment here)
Just some ideas.
