Perpignan airport - flights

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Kate
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Perpignan airport - flights

Post by Kate »

An important message from the development manager at Perpignan airport who is being told that if their new Flybe flight doesn't start seeing some bookings, they will lose it. Please share as much as possible, even if this route doesn't suit you, as routes breed routes and the more present flights are used, the more likelihood that other routes will be created.

"Nous avons besoin de votre aide pour la ligne Londres-Southend Perpignan avec Flybe. Pouvez-vous diffuser s'il vous plait l'info au maximum de personnes pour que le niveau de réservations puisse grimper, sachant que nous avons une chance que la ligne soit annuelle si les résultats sont au rendez-vous! La décision de maintenir la ligne à l'hiver sera prise dans les 2/3 prochaines semaines.

FLYBE in cooperation with Stobart Air will launch a new service from London-Southend to Perpignan from May, 25th. Flights will be operated each Thursday afternoon, and Sunday evening, allowing travelers to plan a city-break in the sunny South of France with ideal flight times! Many cheap tickets are still online and it's possible to find return tickets from 60€ or 73€ depending on the chosen dates.

We need your full support for this new route as there is a big chance that it will be maintained through Winter with 2 flights per week. So if you would like to ensure an easy solution to fly to Perpignan in Winter, we better show to Flybe our interest for this new route now. Please share this information with all people likely to be interested by this opportunity. Many thanks for your support."

Kind regards,
Dimitri

DIMITRI SINDRES
Development Manager
Carcassonne & Perpignan Airports
Tel. : +33 430 826 006
Mobile : + 33 625 590 289
DIMITRI.SINDRES@transdev.com
dsd
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Post by dsd »

It's very nice of them to put on a new flight, but it would be nicer if it went to and from somewhere people actually want to go!
My sister used to live in Southend and could have walked to the airport; now she lives in North Wales, so Liverpool or Manchester would be more interesting for us these days, as for many other people, if you read the various posts. There have been numerous requests for the South west or north of London - I've never seen anyone ask for a flight from Southend, particularly as there is a regular bus line to Stansted from Southend.
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Post by martyn94 »

dsd wrote:It's very nice of them to put on a new flight, but it would be nicer if it went to and from somewhere people actually want to go!
My sister used to live in Southend and could have walked to the airport; now she lives in North Wales, so Liverpool or Manchester would be more interesting for us these days, as for many other people, if you read the various posts. There have been numerous requests for the South west or north of London - I've never seen anyone ask for a flight from Southend, particularly as there is a regular bus line to Stansted from Southend.
You could maybe start your own airline and call it "Sisterjet": you can lease an A320 surprisingly cheaply.
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Post by dsd »

Read the last sentence again, please.

When people on this forum were asked where they would like flights to, nobody mentioned Southend.

Answers like that are why I do not post more often.
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Post by Owens88 »

Given the tortuous access to Stanstead, and then traverse within, I would consider Southend at a price.

However I have not heard of this route on any media other than this, and I do subscribe to some travel trade stuff.

It strikes me that somebody who opens a route needs to promote it.

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Post by martyn94 »

dsd wrote:
Answers like that are why I do not post more often.
A classic example of the passive-aggressive mode of reply: I am paining you by not agreeing entirely with what you say, so you take your bat home. But it is not going to persuade anyone to lay on flights that they will not fill at acceptable prices. I've never flown from Southend, but it could hardly be worse than Stansted or Luton. And there is a catchment area approaching 20m people. It's a lot more than they could ever get from Speke (sorry, "John Lennon").
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Post by Kate »

Martyn.....DSD is right...and is not the first person to be put off posting by the near guarantee of a sarcastic or ascerbic retort.
I know you are not 'méchant' but rather mischievous....but you yourself asked recently why the forum had so many views but so few posters - here's one of the answers.

Unfortunately DSD, you have hit the nail on the head, and there is a long thread on FB (PO Life) saying exactly that. Where the airport itself is concerned, they would love to get some flights going up north.....but struggle constantly to keep what they have and attract new routes, so have to pretty well take what they're offered, and try and make it work.
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Post by martyn94 »

If I'm acerbic (sic), it's at least in part because I'm too bad at typing to say what I think in more detail. It seems to me futile for us to say that we would like flights up north without our considering whether there are enough of us actually wanting to travel on any given day to fill a plane at the dead of winter. I have travelled from the U.K. to France and back by almost every known means over the years short of paddling a bath-tub. I have seen lots of providers go west by being over-optimistic, but none by laying on too little capacity.

It's no doubt a problem for the UK that the population with the means and (dare I say it?) the sophistication to live a second life down here are very much concentrated in the SE. But it remains true, and I doubt that we will soon see flights laid on by the sécu.
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Post by Kate »

It might well be futile.....but it doesnt do any harm to anyone for people to say what they would like (I would love direct flights from Perps to Leeds. Unlikely, but who knows....one day... :lol: ) or to give their opinion on airports that are unlikely to be convenient.

But hey...what a great idea, and so good for the health......flights with 70% remboursement by the sécu and the rest paid via a good mutuelle? Now that's something to work on :lol:
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Perpignan Airport

Post by CarolineN »

Thank you Dimitri for all you are doing to assist with better air travel access to the region, particularly out of the summer season. I know many people would love to visit the stunning PO region all year round for the walking, skiing and visiting family/friends

I am not sure Southend is the best airport in the UK to use as a new route. I seem to remember when there was a thread asking people which airport would be their preference, I recall Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester came up as tops. Not Southend.

would it be possible to revisit these options?
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Re: Perpignan Airport

Post by martyn94 »

CarolineN wrote:Thank you Dimitri for all you are doing to assist with better air travel access to the region, particularly out of the summer season. I know many people would love to visit the stunning PO region all year round for the walking, skiing and visiting family/friends

I am not sure Southend is the best airport in the UK to use as a new route. I seem to remember when there was a thread asking people which airport would be their preference, I recall Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester came up as tops. Not Southend.

would it be possible to revisit these options?
But the people flying from Southend presumably think that they might make money out of it, whereas those that might be flying from Bristol etc (but don't) have concluded that they won't. I am sure that Dimitri nags as hard as he can, but he's hardly in a position to "revisit" the choice of route by third-party, and profit-seeking, operators. Southend has a good claim to be the most unglamorous place in the world, but there are an awful lot of affluent people who live quite close.
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Post by Allan »

I think Southend is a brilliant choice. Firstly I love small airports, they are normally much quicker at baggage handling and passport control.

Southend is close to a major centre of population, has good train links to the centre of London and easy access to the M25, going northbound or southbound.

Of course it doesn't suit everybody and it is fair to say that many people might not have previously known there was an airport there.

I would like to think that airlines choose routes based on serious market research along with demographic and other data rather than asking a few expats where they would like to fly to.

I agree however that they can't expect people to book a route that they don't publicise.

Yes, it would be nice to see flights from Perpignan to the North of England but I used to commute on the old BMIBaby route and the planes were more than half empty most of the time.

We have airports at Perpignan, Carcassonne, Béziers and Gerona all within 100km or so with cheap car parking and Barcelona, Montpellier and Toulouse are really not that far, so I don't think we are that badly served.

Ryanair has talked about introducing connecting flights, if that ever happens the Perpignan to Charleroi offers multiple possibilities.
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Post by martyn94 »

Allan wrote:I think Southend is a brilliant choice. Firstly I love small airports, they are normally much quicker at baggage handling and passport control
I used to fly to Beauvais before it became popular: you could go from touchdown to the car (parked for nothing) inside 5 minutes, without breaking step. In those days, London/Beauvais was about the only route they did: nowadays it's about the only route they don't do. Ryanair are not sentimental, even if they are trying to seem a bit more cuddly.
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Post by Owens88 »

New routes are often 'bought' by the airport with inducements of one kind or another. Lets cheer for Southend but only give Flybe half marks for failing to promote it. I am on Flybe's mailing list as well !

Why not Coventry? They will have even less flights once they are stopped from flying live cows to mainland Europe, and dropping the occasional one.

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Post by dsd »

This is just to inform Martyn that the 1st Sisterjet flight leaves on 1st June! My sister is actually going to drive from North Wales to Southend to use that flight, when she could have done Liverpool - Gerona :lol:
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Post by martyn94 »

dsd wrote:This is just to inform Martyn that the 1st Sisterjet flight leaves on 1st June! My sister is actually going to drive from North Wales to Southend to use that flight, when she could have done Liverpool - Gerona :lol:
If she's got a few minutes to spare, she could pick up a few whelks and some jellied eels for me.

I wish her bonne route and bonnes vacancies, obviously. And I can add that I do, quite literally, "know where she's coming from": I used to live in Llanfairfechan. Which I was staggered to find still has quite decent trains, including a direct service to Birmingham International. Which connects quite neatly with a flight to Perpignan, though not on 1 June.
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