Charleroi trying to attract other LCCs

airazurxtror · Post by **airazurxtror** » 24 May 2006, 10:33

Article by Bernard Demonty in "Le Soir" (Belgian newspaper) this morning, p. 22:

Philippe Liévin, Brussels South Charleroi Airport boss (ad interim), said that there were at the moment encouraging contacts with three low cost companies : easyJet, Jet 4 You and Blue Air.

easyJet flies on 258 routes from 72 European airports, but not from Belgium. Negociations with BRU have fell through. CRL has made offers to easyJet, who is negotiating with some 80 airports in Europe, and nothing is yet finalized - but CRL has a reasonable hope to be chosen. easyJet would open a few routes to CRL, not basing there any aircraft.

CRL also speaks with Jet For You, a subsidiary of German TUI, in order to set up flights to Casablanca (Morocco).
The spokesman of TUI Belgium said that several airports are considered and no decision taken at the moment.

Talks are also being held with the Roumanian Blue Air, with a view to establish a link between Charleroi and Bucarest. Blue Air declined to comment.

BSCA hopes that at least one of these projects will materialize.

Cesare · Post by **Cesare** » 26 May 2006, 09:06

Ryanair probably will open new routes from CRL to Morocco.
If do so, is very difficult that Jet4you arrive at CRL!

airazurxtror · Post by **airazurxtror** » 26 May 2006, 09:38

Charleroi is , for all practical purpose, a one-airline airport (with just WizzAir, far behind Ryanair, and a few seasonal and charter flights).
If Ryanair says good bye, CRL is left with practically no traffic (and a new useless terminal...).
BSCA is thus seeking to attract other airlines, it's good business practice, I guess.

Post by **airbuske** » 26 May 2006, 09:57

But doesn't fly EasyJet more to main airports then regional airports ?

An other question , what would happen if Brussels ( BRU ) would open
a LCC terminal ? Would Ryanair and Wizzair move to BRU ?

Buzz · Post by **Buzz** » 26 May 2006, 10:51

airbuske wrote:But doesn't fly EasyJet more to main airports then regional airports ?

easyJet does fly from main airports mostly, but not as a rule. If they want to fly to Belgium and BRU is to expencive, they have no other choice. When CRL gets the new terminal and possibly a rail connection, it will be a nice enough airport for EZY.

airbuske wrote:An other question , what would happen if Brussels ( BRU ) would open
a LCC terminal ? Would Ryanair and Wizzair move to BRU ?

It all depens on the charges. If they are low enough, Wizz might tranfer flights. They will never be low enough for FR to transfer though.

Would they be able to get 20-25 min. turnaround times at BRU?

brieky · Post by **brieky** » 26 May 2006, 10:55

hello

EZY can fly from CRL to the Londen airports. Or maybe some destinations to the mediterrian sea countrys.
it would be nice

greetz Brieky

fokker_f27 · Post by **fokker_f27** » 26 May 2006, 11:44

I think CRL is a good choice for LCC. Like how SWA uses Dallas Love field instead of Fortworth, and Chicago Midway instead of O'Hare.

teddybAIR · Post by **teddybAIR** » 26 May 2006, 11:55

I was wondering wether Ryanair allready operates an airport where it has competition from other LCC's?
The reason for asking is that the more carriers operate the airport, the worse Ryanairs bargaining position in negotiating the terms with the airports. I know it is bad for Charleroi to stay dependent on only one main carrier, but in searching for other carriers, they might risk losing their biggest customer at this moment...food for thought!

kind regards,
Tom

Vinnie-Winnie · Post by **Vinnie-Winnie** » 26 May 2006, 11:59

If Easyjet ever ventures in the Belgian market well I'm sure they will never fly to London airports... The market is far too saturated as it is!

Well if Easyjet goes to CDG or AMS but not to BRU well sure there must be something wrong at BIAC. It's BIAC's loss not CRL win in a way!

Acid-drop · Post by **Acid-drop** » 26 May 2006, 20:55

I think that nothing much will happen between now and the opening of the new terminal in charleroi.

But then ... i expect one more big increase of the traffic.

Rynair signed a contract to stay in charleroi many many years and they said they will add at least one more plane based in charleroi, but not before the new terminal in july 2007.

airazurxtror · Post by **airazurxtror** » 01 Jun 2006, 21:45

In May, Charleroi airport has greeted 196.590 passengers, 18% more than in May 2005 (and 792.250 passengers since the beginning of this year).

The major cause of that increase is the opening of six new routes : again, mostly by Ryanair (Salzburg, Faro, Nîmes, Malaga, Valence) and also one by WizzAir (Ljubljana).

They have enlarged the car parking (+ 400) and, at long last, put an automatic banknotes distributor in the terminal.
Source :
http://www.charleroi-airport.com/BSCA/s ... ent&Key=no

Ozzie1969 · Post by **Ozzie1969** » 01 Jun 2006, 23:45

Vinnie-Winnie wrote:If Easyjet ever ventures in the Belgian market well I'm sure they will never fly to London airports... The market is far too saturated as it is!

Excuse me? Do you know when the last flight is every day from Heathrow to Zaventem? 8.15 PM! Don't tell me there's no room there for a later flight.

Buzz · Post by **Buzz** » 02 Jun 2006, 10:19

teddybAIR wrote:I was wondering wether Ryanair allready operates an airport where it has competition from other LCC's?
The reason for asking is that the more carriers operate the airport, the worse Ryanairs bargaining position in negotiating the terms with the airports. I know it is bad for Charleroi to stay dependent on only one main carrier, but in searching for other carriers, they might risk losing their biggest customer at this moment...food for thought!

kind regards,
Tom

London Stansted, London Luton, Rome Champino, Berliin Schonefeld, ...

The list goes on.

Buzz · Post by **Buzz** » 02 Jun 2006, 10:33

Ozzie1969 wrote:
Vinnie-Winnie wrote:If Easyjet ever ventures in the Belgian market well I'm sure they will never fly to London airports... The market is far too saturated as it is!
Excuse me? Do you know when the last flight is every day from Heathrow to Zaventem? 8.15 PM! Don't tell me there's no room there for a later flight.

Business travelers wanting to leave London after 8.15pm won't bother going to STN or Luton...Yields are bad on the route, to much competition (also with Eurostar).
The closure of the FR-route showed that.

There are far better revenue opportunities than London.

sn-remember · Post by **sn-remember** » 02 Jun 2006, 13:50

And don't forget there is a GMT delay of 1 hr between UK and the continent.
The last flight leaving LHR at 08H15 pm would arrive in BRU around 10H10 pm I presume which makes it a decent last flight no?

iechist · Post by **iechist** » 02 Jun 2006, 16:17

Buzz wrote:London Stansted, London Luton, Rome Champino, Berliin Schonefeld, ...

The list goes on.

In fact, there are even routes where both Easyjet and Ryanair operate head to head
LGW-ORK
STN-LEI
EMA-CIA

Buzz wrote:There are far better revenue opportunities than London.

Agreed

Even in the UK, there are destinations that would be much less likely to be affected by the train. The North-West (Liverpool or Manchester) and the North-East (Newcastle or Durham Tees Valley) spring to mind.

jsd95 · Post by **jsd95** » 02 Jun 2006, 18:04

iechist wrote:
In fact, there are even routes where both Easyjet and Ryanair operate head to head
LGW-ORK
STN-LEI
EMA-CIA

You can add LON-MRS soon, and also LON-GNB during winter season.

Vinnie-Winnie · Post by **Vinnie-Winnie** » 03 Jun 2006, 13:06

Ozzie1969 wrote:
Excuse me? Do you know when the last flight is every day from Heathrow to Zaventem? 8.15 PM! Don't tell me there's no room there for a later flight.

Leaves at 8H15 from LHR and arrives at 22H25 in BRU! This is already quit late! Say a belgian businessman needs to attend a meeting in London, surely he is either going to leave at 6PM or carry on negotiations or whatever it is in a fancy restaurant and stay the night in LDN to return the next morning!

I definitely think that the current offer already provides enough flexibility!

And don't count on a LCC to provide convenient times or airports for a businessman! They rarely do!

Buzz · Post by **Buzz** » 03 Jun 2006, 16:24

Vinnie-Winnie wrote: I definitely think that the current offer already provides enough flexibility!

Agree 100%.

Vinnie-Winnie wrote:And don't count on a LCC to provide convenient times or airports for a businessman! They rarely do!

I wouldn't be to sure of it. FR flies major routes multiple times a day. They start very early and only stop when the airport closes.
Although, this only is true for major routes (mostly from STN & DUB), not the smaller ones, that are mostly once dayly in between the morning and evening flights...

It all depends where & when businessmen have to be, and how long.