Christopher Tibbett Interview at Routes Europe 2024

[GeorgeNTravels]

Interview with Christopher Tibbett, Aviation Director for AGS Airports, this might be interesting to some users. It begins talking about GLA before moving on to SOU.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXws3GuyMCQ

[Ekally1]

The part he says " airlines don't have the capacity to give to GLA due to engine and manufacturing delays " but they can give it to edi etc etc .. I find it an excuse

[McG]

Thing is that might well be what he is being told by the airlines.

PW powered A32X Neos are subject to delays due to engine issues and we all know the issues with the 737 Maxes.

[Aerecosse]

He mentions visitScotland in promoting Scotland, particularly in the US market..... would be interesting to see how much visibility Glasgow actually gets v our friends along the M8....

[Ekally1]

Think TK and EK are only hope of good news in coming months .

[Planeenthusiast]

Failing to secure Jetblue was telling. Can’t blame that on engines or max aircraft.

[Iain]

He seemed pretty bullish to me, talking about going "significantly beyond" 9m/2019 numbers. It's going to take a good bit more than a TK flight to IST or an extra EK flight to do that.

I can see why people think the engine/fleet issues thing might be a bit of an excuse (we're certainly used to them from some of his predecessors!), but it is a fact that these issues are affecting many airlines. Nevertheless, upbeat interviews from those in management mean nothing without more results. He talked repeatedly about a boom in inbound tourism particularly from the US - the longer they fail to capture that market with the return of direct scheduled US flights, then the more it looks like they're failing.

I am happy though that they seem to be pushing and promoting the airport more and apparently had a stand at the event to help this. Iirc previous management allegedly barely turned up at some of these conferences whilst EDI had a huge stand and piper!

[GeorgeNTravels]

One other comment I did see from him on LinkedIn was "Team AGS have arrived in #Aarhus for #Routeseurope flying the flag for Scotland’s fastest growing airport. " I have included the link to his post below.

LinkedIn Post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/ur ... 141518848/

[Iain]

One other comment I did see from him on LinkedIn was "Team AGS have arrived in #Aarhus for #Routeseurope flying the flag for Scotland’s fastest growing airport. " I have included the link to his post below.

LinkedIn Post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/ur ... 141518848/

Thanks for posting that, good to see the stand - "Scotland's biggest and best placed city" no less! Hopefully making airlines aware of how close to the Highlands GLA is too.

Is it really Scotland's fastest growing airport though?

[GeorgeNTravels]

One other comment I did see from him on LinkedIn was "Team AGS have arrived in #Aarhus for #Routeseurope flying the flag for Scotland’s fastest growing airport. " I have included the link to his post below.

LinkedIn Post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/ur ... 141518848/

Thanks for posting that, good to see the stand - "Scotland's biggest and best placed city" no less! Hopefully making airlines aware of how close to the Highlands GLA is too.

Is it really Scotland's fastest growing airport though?

I can't give a definitive answer to that last question, but I can give the most up-to-date statistics I have with some caveats.

Growth at GLA is listed by ACL for this summer as 10.5%, but this number was calculated on March 15th, meaning LM cuts have not been considered and also includes Southwind as well. It also shows FR operating WMI 2x week and AGP at 4 weekly all season.

Growth at EDI is listed by ACL for this summer as 10.2%. This number does not include Vueling, who at the time did not have any flights on sale, but they are now on sale with a smaller programme than S23. That number also included EK on a daily service, so far no EK flights have been added. It also included all of Hainan's flights as new, as their S23 programme was added after the 2023 report was released, thus, not all of the "growth" listed under PEK is actually new. It also does not include the changes FR made to their flying programme such as additional VIE, BUD and PRG in May and June.

I would say both airports are very, very close in growth terms this summer, but if he is talking in terms of based a/c then GLA will see 4 new aircraft this summer, Edinburgh will see 1.