VS71 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 2:33 pm
The pessimist in me remains doubtful, but Virgin can't be happy with the seemingly constant delays for operational reasons beyond their control.
Never mind the astronomical drop in passenger numbers.
Fingers crossed VS return to GLA and EDI is ditched.
GKirk wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 2:35 pm
I think they are probably happy with having everything consolidated at one airport.
That being said, I would be delighted to see them return to GLA, but IMO it's more likely that we will see UA return first.
Consolidation is all well and good as long as you consolidate in the right place. In this case consolidation has cost Virgin 75%+ of its Scottish customers. Nobody at Virgin will be happy with how EDI-MCO has preformed and I'll not be surprised to see it binned just like EDI-BGI was binned.
Last edited by FlyGLA on Sun Jul 16, 2023 3:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I would hope as more aircraft come into the fleet they can return to a Friday/Saturday operation, for a full 14 nights, rather than the 13/17 they have just now with the W operation.
And as I typed this, the survey email came through...
FlyGLA wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 2:50 pm
[quote=GKirk post_id=10039 time=<a href="tel:1689514500">1689514500</a> user_id=86]
I think they are probably happy with having everything consolidated at one airport.
That being said, I would be delighted to see them return to GLA, but IMO it's more likely that we will see UA return first.
Consolidation is all well and good as long as you consolidate in the right place. In this case consolidation has cost Virgin 75%+ of its Scottish customers. Nobody at Virgin will be happy with how EDI-MCO has preformed and I'll not be surprised to see it binned just like EDI-BGI was binned.
[/quote]
But how do you know what the passenger demographics actually are? Even reading a passport showing place of birth doesn’t necessarily mean that the person still resides there.
What is telling is when the travelling passenger tells you “I normally fly from xxx” Then I use my own selling point of hope you become a valued customer then!
Last edited by atuk on Sun Jul 16, 2023 5:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
atuk wrote: ↑Sun Jul 16, 2023 4:53 pm
But how do you know what the passenger demographics actually are? Even reading a passport showing place of birth doesn’t necessarily mean that the person still resides there.
What is telling is when the travelling passenger tells you “I normally fly from xxx” Then I use my own selling point of hope you become a a revalue customer then!
Who said I did? I made no mention of passenger demographic. Only you did. I referred to passenger numbers. GLA-MCO carried 75%+ more passengers than EDI-MCO does.
I don't think anyone will be booking their future flights based on what a checkin agent told them or didn't tell them lol.
But how do you know what the passenger demographics actually are? Even reading a passport showing place of birth doesn’t necessarily mean that the person still resides there.
What is telling is when the travelling passenger tells you “I normally fly from xxx” Then I use my own selling point of hope you become a a revalue customer then!
Who said I did? I made no mention of passenger demographic. Only you did. I referred to passenger numbers. GLA-MCO carried 75%+ more passengers than EDI-MCO does.
I don't think anyone will be booking their future flights based on what a checkin agent told them or didn't tell them lol.
[/quote]
That’s as maybe but doesn’t take account of indirect traffic from either airport where connections can be made over LGW, DUB, AMS, FRA to name but but a few.
My personal opinion is that I can’t see this service returning to GLA in the near future.
Virgin vacated LGW, their original base, and have made no signs or even inclination of returning there despite Stuart Wingate’s invitations.
Virgin are placed at an airport, like London Heathrow, where there are many alliance partners on site, and even in the case of disruption transfers have many choices of non alliance partners too.
Perhaps, like LGW, DL May restart a GKA service over time but right now for me I don’t see VS returning.I’m sure Manchester expansion would take precedence over GLA.
EDI is not a hub. Not for SkyTeam or anyone else for that matter. EDI might be served by DL, AF, KL and whoever else (I don't care who BTW) but EDI is the spoke not the hub.
Flights from the UK to Orlando are not about facilitating connections at the UK end. They're about taking UK holidaymakers to Florida and as Scotland's population centre GLA is far better places to serve such a market.
The official passengers numbers from the CAA show what an error of judgement VS made in switching (everyone that knows anything about the Scottish market could have told VS this at the time) and the only decision worse than switching from GLA to EDI would be to not switch back to GLA.