2008 certainly provided plenty of talking points. The airport spent much of the year up for sale, only for it to come of the market for rather uncertain reasons. The perishables hub was finally built and Hangar 9 was taken over. There was an expansion of winter charter flights, though serious declines in summer charter flights, while Bristow Helicopters returned to the airport.
The start of the year
The winter 2007/08 charter season saw the loss of two long standing charter flights; the weekly Gran Canaria flight and the Tuesday Tenerife flight. This was the continuation of a decline in winter charter to sun destinations over the past few years. The one bright spot was a new ski charter to Innsbruck in Austria. This brought a new tour operator, Inghams, and a new airline Austrian Arrows, to Humberside. Overall the winter charter programme was as follows:
Thursday
MyTravel Airways to Lanzarote – B757-200
Friday
MyTravel Airways to Tenerife – B757-200
Saturday
Austrian Arrows to Innsbruck - Fokker 70 - Operated from 22nd December to 22nd March
ThomsonFly to Alicante - B737-800
Sunday
BH Air to Plovidv - A320 – Operated inbound via Edinburgh - Operated from Late December to March
The MyTravel Airways flights were operated by an aircraft outstation at Humberside. It would typically arrive on a Wednesday evening and depart on a Friday night after returning from Tenerife.
Scheduled services were as normal; KLM to Amsterdam three or four times a day, usually with a Fokker 70, and Eastern Airways to Aberdeen four times a day on weekdays and once on Sundays with a Jetstream 41. There was also the CHC Scotia helicopter operation and Icelandair Cargo fish flights from Kefalvik three or four nights a week.
The first piece of big news came in the spring as Hangar 9 was taken over by aircraft maintenance company Roissy International. The hangar never seemed to get much use before the takeover, at least by commercial aircraft, and not that much more use since. During the year it was visited by Eagle Aviation B757’s in Saudi Arabian Airlines colours, and new start up Amsterdam Airlines with their A320.
And then all the bad news
Sadly the spring also brought a lot of bad news. Icelandair Cargo reduced to operating just on Sundays, with the midweek flights moving to East Midlands. And the first version of the summer 2009 charter programme was released by the tour operators bringing further cuts to the Humberside charter schedule. Further because summer 2007 had already seen cutbacks with XL Airways closing their summer base after just one season. Then this summer saw a further five long standing charter flights dropped: Alicante, the Saturday Ibiza, Sunday Palma, 2nd Saturday Palma and 2nd Monday Dalaman.
Not that the summer 2008 charter season was all bad; a second Heraklion flight was added while charters to Bodrum and Dalaman for Goldtrail Holdiays were extended to operate all summer season rather than just from July onwards as happened in 2007. But far less capacity was added than was dropped. The full schedule was:
Monday
Sun Express to Dalaman - B737-800
Tuesday
Air Europa to Tenerife – B737-800
Eurocypria to Heraklion - B737-800
First Choice Airways to Palma – A321
Onur Air to Bodrum - A321
Onur Air to Dalaman - A321
Wednesday
Air Europa to Fuerteventura – B737-800
BH Air to Bourgas - A320
Eurocypria to Larnaca - B737-800
Thursday
Air Europa to Lanzarote - B737-800
First Choice Airways to Faro – A320
ThomsonFly to Palma - B737-300
Friday
Eurocypria to Heraklion - B737-800
Futura to Menorca – B737-800
Futura to Tenerife - B737-800
Iberworld to Ibiza - A320
Pegasus to Dalaman - B737-800
Saturday
Eurocypria to Larnaca - B737-800
Futura to Gran Canaria - B737-800
Spanair to Palma – MD-82 or MD-83
VLM to Jersey - Fokker 50
Sunday
BH Air to Bourgas - A320
Sun Express to Antalya - B737-800
Though the really big news was the announcement in April of a strategic review by majority owners Manchester Airport Group (MAG), including a ‘possible transfer of ownership’. That was widely interpreted as definite sale. MAG said the airport ‘may not fit easily with their emerging strategy’ and needed attention to ‘maximise it’s full potential’. And attention it needed, and still needs, to stop a slow decline. The rest of the year saw that attention lacking as the airport seemed to go into ‘care and maintenance’ mode. Everyday operations continued but there was hardly any marketing and the website was very rarely updated.
Something a bit more positive
In August Bristow Helicopters set up a new operation while the spring and summer saw the long mooted perishables hub actually being built. This project actually had very little to do with the airport and is owned by North Lincolnshire Council. Anglia Cargo International are the operator funding came from the EU and Yorkshire Forward. The official opening was performed by Regional Minister Rosie Winterton MP on 10th November. Just a shame that the Icelandair Cargo flights that bring fish into the region have reduced in frequency. Let’s hope it doesn’t become a white elephant or is used for freight that is not being airlifted.
A couple of interesting movements during the year were the first flight of new airline Amsterdam Airlines being from it’s namesake airport to Humberside. PH-AAX, an A320 made it’s inaugural flight for it’s new airline on the 21st of June. Then on the 13th November the first commercial transatlantic flight for at least 10 years flew from Humberside to Miami. TOM515, operated by a ThomsonFly B767-300ER, routed via Belfast International to collect both fuel and passengers, for the Fred Olsen Cruise Line and returned on the 28th November. Might not have been non-stop but it was a same plane service and a nice symbolic moment.
November was a good month for Humberside actually, with a 1.9% rise in passengers. November is the start of the winter charter season and the main news was the return of Gran Canaria, albeit with a break between mid November and mid February. Fuerteventura also operated for a few weeks in November while Larnaca and Palma flights will operate in April. This is all down to having a Thomas Cook Airlines B757 outbased at Humberside for the winter charter season. The only bad news is that the Plovdiv ski charter with Balkan Holidays only seems to be operating for a few weeks in early 2009 rather than starting in December as usual. The full winter 2009/10 charter schedule is:
· Austrian Arrows to Innsbruck on a Saturday with a Fokker 70 from December to March (ski flight)
· BH Air to Plovdiv on a Sunday with a A320, inbound via Edinburgh, in February and March (ski flight)
· Thomas Cook Airlines to Fuerteventura on a Wednesday, with a B757-200 during early November
· Thomas Cook Airlines to Gran Canaria on the first 3 Saturdays in November, and then every Saturday from February to April, with a B757-200
· Thomas Cook Airlines to Lanzarote on a Thursday, with a B757-200
· Thomas Cook Airlines to Larnaca on a Wednesday, with a B757-200 in April
· Thomas Cook Airlines to Palma on a Saturday, with a B757-200 in April
· Thomas Cook Airlines to Tenerife on a Friday, with a B757-200
· ThomsonFly to Alicante on a Tuesday, with a B737-800
December saw two pieces of news in two days. On the 16th, MAG took Humberside off the market, issuing rather contradictory reasons why. On one hand they cite the arrival of Bristow helicopters, continued strong performance by KLM, the perishables hub and discussions about ‘further developments’ and reasons. Good news you may think. But MAG also cite the economic downturn, which would imply low bids for the airport, or maybe even no bid at all (MAG did state there had been possible purchasers).
The next day saw an announcement of a return of low cost services to Humberside. But don’t get too excited I’m afraid. It was just the conversion of the existing VLM charter in summer to Jersey to a Flybe scheduled seats on a larger aircraft.
Provisional 2008 passengers figure from the CAA, as off 16th January 2009 is 424402, 8.9% down on 2007.
And that was 2008.
Sources
· ‘MAG to review it’s stake in Humberside Airport’, Press Release issued by Humberside Airport on 25th April - http://www.humbersideairport.com/huyweb.nsf/Content/HumbersideReview
· ‘MAG scraps sale of Humber Airport’, Crains Manchester Business, 17th December http://www.crainsmanchesterbusiness.co.uk/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081217/FREE/312179993/1147/-/-/mag-scraps-sale-of-humberside-airport
· Roissy International website: http://roissyint.users46.webfusion.co.uk/ri//index.php
Date originally added to site: 5th January 2009.