Airport 7 day week.

[Jhon]

I think there should be flights 7 days a week from Wick to Aberdeen for local people that work offshore. There is a growing number of folk from Caithness that work out of Aberdeen and i think there surely has to be enough of a demand for this to happen, if not now in the near future.

If you agree ? Please post a comment to help this happen.

Cheers

[wndyndy]

i completely agree with you, jhon. hope there will be more people here surporting this!:)

I think there should be flights 7 days a week from Wick to Aberdeen for local people that work offshore. There is a growing number of folk from Caithness that work out of Aberdeen and i think there surely has to be enough of a demand for this to happen, if not now in the near future.

If you agree ? Please post a comment to help this happen.

Cheers

[Anne x]

I totally agree with you I dont work offshore but it would be great over a weekend to get North and back on a Sunday night instead of waiting until the Monday morning

[stekar]

Think there should be flights on a weekend too. Would like to be able to fly out of Wick but weekday only flights are limiting.
IMO they are still too expensive with the ADS

[Gadgie]

Count me in... I would fly to Aberdeen quite often if the prices and times were better.

[northener]

This is all well and good, but during the week I've seen the Aberdeen flight come in with just one or two passengers....sometimes none.

No company can afford to run at those sorts of levels indefinitely. If the airline cannot attract custom during the week from business users - how would it work for Joe Public at weekends?

Please don't talk about ultra-cheap fares...it won't work.

[lasher]

I think that if Eastern Airways were to have a fixed reasonable return fare they would get far more business, I know lots of offshore workers that would use it if the price was right.

[Jhon]

Well northerner it seems that you are the only person that has been a stick in the mud. Im looking for positive responses not the usual caithness droppie bottom lip haha. Im not to sure what part of Sinclair Bay you hail from, because where i am offshore is the only industry keeping the community afloat and not bankrupt. With Dounreays death not to far away government monies could be directed toward securing such an idea that can help locals secure good jobs long term. The idea is for people to join forces and think positive and push such ideas rather than pick away at the very foundations.

Cheers ;););)

[dakud007]

well, i don't fly alot, but i like to show my little surport here. if there will be a lot of passengers flying on weekend, the airport should provides weekend service for public convinience:D:D:D

[northener]

Well northerner it seems that you are the only person that has been a stick in the mud. Im looking for positive responses not the usual caithness droppie bottom lip haha. Im not to sure what part of Sinclair Bay you hail from, because where i am offshore is the only industry keeping the community afloat and not bankrupt. With Dounreays death not to far away government monies could be directed toward securing such an idea that can help locals secure good jobs long term. The idea is for people to join forces and think positive and push such ideas rather than pick away at the very foundations.

Cheers ;););)

Jhon, It's called looking at a situation objectively.

It's all well and good say 'we want', I 'want' too. But it's down to commercial realism, not what is believed to be best for the consumer, by the consumer.

Your original post stated that service for offshore workers should run at weekends, fair comment, it would be nice.

But, if the plane is coming in and leaving with just a small amount of passengers during the week, how is putting a plane on at weekends going to help? The workers aren't getting on board during the week in massive numbers, simply putting more planes on won't make any difference.

Who's going to fund this enterprise?

[noodle]

I would love it if Wick had flights at weekends, to be fair, I travel more regularly to Edinburgh than to Aberdeen (and the flight costs seemed much more reasonable for the former journey last time I checked) but being able to use it to connect to flights from Aberdeen would be very very useful...

I've been grumbling about not being able to get flights at weekends for a while now - surely there is the potential for boosting tourism up here if people have another option for getting up here in the first place?

[golach]

because where i am offshore is the only industry keeping the community afloat and not bankrupt.



Who's going to fund this enterprise?

Notherner maybe his employers, they are making obscene profits as it is[lol]

[mm1ii2aa3]

golach, it is very reasonable by saying this;)


Notherner maybe his employers, they are making obscene profits as it is[lol]

[Anne x]

This is all well and good, but during the week I've seen the Aberdeen flight come in with just one or two passengers....sometimes none.

No company can afford to run at those sorts of levels indefinitely. If the airline cannot attract custom during the week from business users - how would it work for Joe Public at weekends?

Please don't talk about ultra-cheap fares...it won't work.

Aye but other times its full I have tried to book flights in the past to no avail as its full If I went up Frid morning Id would have to wait til Mon to get back suppose Northener I am Joe Public who would actually use the service on a weekend basis we are not all in Oil you know having said that I would like to go north Fri - Sun
My Oh has travelled up on Eastern with just himself on board and they lost his luggage
Northener my friend we are not all Joe Bloggs just people who would like to get to Caithness as quick and easy as poss and pay for it

[nellie]

I for one would be delighted if flights went out of Wick at week-ends

[Fly]

I don't work off shore, neither do I fly very often but I think a seven day service is not too much to ask for. It is ridiculous that in this day and age people have to go to Inverness to get a plane going south at the weekends.
Perhaps if the fares were a bit less, more people would use the service and make it more viable. It is a long journey even to Edinburgh by bus or train, especially if you have young children.

[northener]

I'd agree that a seven day a week service would be 'nice' for people living up here. No conflict there.

But, we used to have a flight from Wick to Kirkwall,....there's a lot of people go over to Orkney and back...so why was the flight binned? Could it be that even a fare of around £20 wasn't enought to tempt enough people off the ferries?
We also used to have a flight from Wick to Shetland..why was that binned? I used to use that flight myself - my familiy's on Shetland, so this issue regarding usage of Wick Airport does affect me personally.

But nobody has yet answered the question of who is going to finance this? Everyone is talking about reduced fares so, come on, let's find out now:

What do you all believe should be a reasonable fare?

(two figures, please single and return to Aberdeen)

[theone]

I'm sure eastern would start the service if there was demand for one. Their early morning flight gets you in Aberdeen in plenty time for most people travelling to early meeting etc (7.35) and their last flight doesn't leave Aberdeen until 7.55 at night.

I normally pay £101 return when going offshore, by booking in advance and using the ADS.

First thing I'd say is that the ADS is a joke. The "40%" saving is off the fare only. My return fare is £49 reduced to £29. The other £72 is taxes and charges. If the government really wanted to discount our travel, they would subsidise these charges.

I do however think £101 is fair enough. For that I'm 23 minutes each way. When I take the car I'm 8 hours return and have to pay £50 petrol and £54 for my fortnights parking. When I take the train its 12 hours return and around £50 for an open ended return. That said, if you get advance singles you can normally get the return for £25.

[northener]

Thanks for that, TheOne. Nice to see some hard facts and figures.

So, would those of you who have posted on this thread in support of more flights/cheaper fares say that this figure of £101 for a 470 mile round trip is reasonable or not?

[lasher]

If i could get a flexible return for £100 i would prob use it the whole time, but I sometimes only know a couple of days before i need the flight.

[MileHigh]

I wrote to loganair when the Air discount Scheme began and asked them if they had plans to reinstate the weekend service. They told me that at that time there was insufficient passenger numbers to do it and were disappointed with the load numbers. Since then i think that passenger numbers have increased on that route and maybe they may relook at it. There is no point writing on here you have to write to the airlines or your MP. If people wrote to the airline they may take notice. I think a big problem with the Edinburgh Flight is the times and I think a early morning and late return flight would do well at FlyBe prices. Loganair also said that there Flights into Kirkwall and Shetland are subsidised where as the flights to Wick are operated at there own commercial risk.The Kirkwall and Shetland routes from Wick were dropped shortly after the ADS Scheme began as they increased the capacity on the Wick - Edinburgh route by giving Wick their own dedicated aircraft rather than a shared flight which they had with Kirkwall first then Shetland. Eastern Airways had plans to operate a evening Sunday Flight from Stornoway to Wick and on to Aberdeen to allow travellers a early morning start at Aberdeen but that was sometime ago and have not heard anymore about it since. Like I said write to the Airlines the more that write to them the better.