Airlines prepare for Cardiff Airport battle
11.02.08
The expansion of services by flybe at Cardiff Airport from March 30 will see competition on a number of key domestic routes. It will compete with bmibaby to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast and Jersey and with Eastern Airways to Newcastle. There will be variations in service levels between the three carriers with different types of aircraft being used and the frequency of service varying from route to route, but there will be real competition on the routes for the first time.
bmibaby will fly to Edinburgh twice every weekday and Sunday and once on Saturday, to Glasgow once daily, to Belfast International once daily and to Jersey on Tuesday and Saturday. Flybe will fly to Edinburgh three times every weekday and twice on Sundays and once on Saturdays, to Glasgow twice on weekdays and once a day at weekends, to Belfast City twice on weekdays and once a day at weekends, to Newcastle once a day and to Jersey on Monday, Friday and Saturday. Eastern Airways has responded to the competition by announcing a three times every weekday service to Newcastle.
bmibaby uses a Boeing 737 jet, flybe a Bombardier Q400 turboprop that is about half the size of the Boeing and is very fuel efficient and Eastern Airways uses an even smaller Jetstream 41 turboprop. The cruising speed of the turboprops is slightly slower than the jet but for these short flights there is virtually no difference in journey times.
It may seem odd that, with other routes that could be developed out of Cardiff Airport, it now has this level of competition on existing routes. However, domestic routes are very lucrative for the airlines with their short flight lengths and ease of marketing. With the expansion of low cost airlines, there are now fewer domestic opportunities left and airlines are trying to consolidate any opportunities available to them.
The airlines with the highest frequency on routes will be more attractive to business passengers, giving an advantage to flybe on the Edinburgh and Glasgow routes. Eastern Airways will pick up the business travellers to Newcastle until flybe goes to a double daily service, at which point it will make it difficult for a small company like Eastern to compete.
If flybe captures the lucrative business traffic, the reaction of bmibaby is uncertain. For the passenger this will be a good year to travel on these routes as the airlines compete for market share. Six years ago passengers were paying BA more than £400 to fly from Cardiff to Edinburgh. Now there are fares available for £50 return including taxes.
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