A Market for Air Travel to the SE from Teesside?

[Richard Preston]

Hello one and all,

My name is Richard Preston, I live locally in Stockton and I currently work for a national organisation in Quality and Service Integrity - however my passion and ideas lay elsewhere.

I would be appreciative if any one could give me feedback on my following idea.....

To keep things to the point - my aim is to run a commuter airline from Durham Tees Valley airport to London (Via Southend Airpot & train trasnfer) with tickets being prices between £110 - £135.

The service would allow arrival in London in less than two hours (a 55min flight and 49 minute train journey) allowing realistic day travel to our capital. The train ticket would be included in the price of the ticket.

A second route will be to Prestick win Scotland, with a similar 50 min flight time and 50% reduction on train prices across Scotland from Prestwick Airport it would open Scotland in exceptional short times.

Other routes could include Oxford and the South West, with an expantion plan of Northen Europe from Southend and Teesside.


Any thoughts on this idea be it pricing, destination, suggestions for aircraft, and where to source them would be hugely appreciated. For those interested plans so far are:

To lease a Jetstream 31 (19 seats) on an ACMI lease, and Type B license running under the name of UKair.net or something similar.

 

[pitchandstay]

Not connected with Martin Halstead are you?

Varsity Express was a similar model to what you propose and failed I think due to cash flow issues. You would need a significant amount of capital to sustain such a service in the early days.

Based on your average fare and an 80% load factor you would be looking at revenue of £1862 a sector. I'm not sure how much a long term lease will cost you but I can't imagine your margins would be vast. Take into account EU regulations on denied boarding compensation - These could prove damaging if you encountered any departure issues.
You would be competing against BA LHR-NCL and they offer fares for around £100-£150. Heathrow express to London in 20 minutes. Who would you rather book with?

Sorry to be so negative . I do think Southend has potential though; maybe look at underserved Scandinavian routes - plenty of money there!

All the best if you give it a go!

 

[Richard Preston]

You'll be glad to hear that i am not in anyway in contact with him!

The cash flow sums are large I know, but as you say the correct detinations could be viable - Eastern Airways run a lot out of DTV some services that head to scandanavia, so that may prove more difficult.

The aircraft running costs would mean needing about 150 hrs a month flight time to recoup, so by my reckoning the BE of each flight would be around 77% load capacity on the figures I was supplied with from the leasing company of as near as makes no difference £1700 per hour of flight. however I am confident I can find this for less. I would need to run around 6 hours a day to make it worth while from what I've worked out, but hopefully demand is such that i could be closer to 8/9 hrs

Thanks for the reply......and if you have any Scandanavian routes in mind feel free to share!!!!

thanks!

 

[pitchandstay]

Bromma? Located in the centre of Stockholm, a wealthy region. Lots of domestic routes there I think but potentially could sustain a London route in my opinion. No large aircraft because of movement restrictions and runway length so could work for you?

Maybe base at Southend or 'London' Ashford airport. You could benefit from getting Mr Boris on your side. He's keen to move traffic from LHR.