The shortest commercial flight I've ever made

It was last week, courtesy of Easyjet...

When our flight from London Gatwick was about to land at Barcelona-El Prat, the pilot went on air to say that the runway where we were expecting to land had been temporarily closed and that, in view of the fact that we only had fuel for 20 more minutes of flight, we were diverting to Reus airport, 100 miles south of Barcelona, in order to refuel.

And so we did. The interesting part is that we then were to fly from Reus to Barcelona. I had flown short flights in general aviation aircraft before, but this is ceertainly the shortest distance I have flown in a commercial jet aircraft: it took about 15 minutes for the Easyjet A319 to cover the 100 miles that separate Reus and Barcelona airports...

Some curiosities from this experience:

-Upon arrival I noticed that our flight appeared twice on Barcelona airports flight information displays in the arrivals area and both with the same flight number: one for the original one from Gatwick and another one listed as coming from Reus.

-We could enjoy the safety instructions demonstration twice (even if no one exited the aircraft). I know this is standard practice but I found ita bit surreal.

-We were at Reus for longer than expected because the flight plan had to be provided to the pilots in paper and it seems there was no one ready to print it out at that time of the night at Reus airport (which is quite a small airport that gets only a handful of Ryanair flights at this time of the year). I guess this situation will not be hapenning a few years from now, when everyone is using iPads (I ignore if some regulations will need to change to adapt to the new paperless reality too).

This was my shortest commercial flight so far, but might not be the last, I know there are some scheduled flights out there that are even shorter than this, in the Caribbean and also in places like the Orkney Islands, that hold the record to the shortest regular commercial flight in the World!

Ryanair stops taking reservations from end of March for its Girona (Barcelona) routes

Passengers looking to book a flight out of Girona-Barcelona (GRO) with Ryanair for travel dates beyond 30th March are coming across this:



As Catalan daily Avui has pointed out, there are two possible reason why this is happening while bookings from the other Barcelona-area airports where Ryanair operates, Reus (REU) and Barcelona-El Prat (BCN), are working fine
Either it has something to do with ongoing negotiations to keep Ryanair at GRO or, the official version, the Irish company is still defining its summer flight schedule.

On one hand and as my article of a few days ago at AirObserver pointed out, Ryanair's recent arrival at BCN strengthens its negotiating power bis a bis the Catalan authorities. The current agreement between Ryanair and the local authorities expires at the end of the year 2011 and it seems that Ryanair has been asking for 12 million euros to renew it.

This happens at a time when these same authorities seem less keen on more money handouts and risk getting caught in a "subsidies war" with other local airlines (see AirObserver's post on this too). Blocking flight reservations could be a way to send a strong signal and an important power gesture...

On the other hand, Ryanair has just opened routes to destinations from GRO, such as Larnaca (Cyprus).

So possibly there was a combination of the two factors at play, negotiation strategy and route planning. In any case, while I finish to write this post I read that sources of the Catalan government have confirmed that an agreement has been reached to keep Ryanair operating at Girona airport (although has not yet been ratified due to last week's parliamentary election in Catalonia). I am waiting for more details...

Barcelona airport (BCN) or how to cope with simultaneous demand and offer shocks

foto: Terminal 1 by Ricardo Bofill (from Creative Commons)

Barcelona airport got its new terminal last month, almost doubling its capacity overnight, this would be alright was it not for the simultaneous demand and offer shocks the airport is facing.

Although designed in times of double digit growth the new terminal opens when the airport is experiencing its first decrease in passenger numbers in a very long time (-15% in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the same period last year). Europe is in the midst of one of the worst economic crisis in living memory and this would be worrying enough for an airport that relies almost exclusively on short and medium haul traffic, but is even worse when considering that the Spanish economy is among the hardest hit by the crisis. Tourist numbers are plummeting and some airlines have been cutting services (Easyjet has reduced capacity, British Airways is axing its Gatwick services). Other factors are contributing to the fall in numbers, the new high speed train link between Barcelona and Madrid has taken half of the market of the densest and most profitable route from BCN.

The recent merger between Clickair and Vueling, with the resulting company controlled by Iberia, is expect to bring some rationalization on some routes where the two companies had overlapping services. In the long term this might result in a stronger company able to maintain its base at Barcelona (Mr.O'Leary would probably disagree...).

And talking about Ryanair, the offer glut has not prevented Ryanair from opening a new base at Reus (REU), about one hour drive south of the center of Barcelona, to add to its current base at Girona (GRO), about one hour north. It seems that Ryanair is doing well in Barcelona (surely helped by the popularity of the city among the European city-breakers and young travelers). there was even talk of Ryanair eyeing slots at BCN...we do not know whether has there been a firm offer but it seems that the company expected some concessions that Aena was not ready to grant.

There is certainly the concern in certain sectors of Barcelona business and political spheres about BCN becoming an almost exclusively low cost airport. Hence, the takeover of the the troubled airline Spanair, engineered by a Barcelona-based consortium with the support of Catalan institutions, with the objective of making it the "Barcelona airline" (Vueling might also have some claim to the title). The hope is that its membership of Star Alliance will help Barcelona to become an alternative Iberian hub (although smaller than Iberia and Oneworld's at MAD). A challenging task indeed!
The reality in the short term is that Spanair does not have any long range plane in its fleet, so the long haul hub might have to wait, however the recent success of some Star Alliance partners at BCN (like the Singapore Airlines connection) allow for some optimism. Maybe Spanair could be a regional distributor, in the South-West of Europe for its long-haul Star Alliance partners? or will it continue to be a feeder for Lufthansa (a sort of Air Dolomiti)? time will say...the truth is that if it is currently difficult for BCN to become a hub, it has never had it better, since it is the first time that BCN is the base of two airlines of a respectable size.

Therefore, and despite the crisis, I am bullish on the long run prospects of BCN. It is the gateway to a densely populated and relatively rich area, with a diversified economy and some of the top tourist destinations in Europe. The airport itself is very close to the urban center (although could be better connected by public transportation with its hinterland)and there might well be a latent under served demand for direct long haul travel that is currently flowing through other airports (mainly MAD).

The 747s of the image might never materialize (smaller planes like the 787 might stand a better chance at BCN) but as Ryanair has proven at Girona (from nearly 0 regular traffic to 5,5M passengers in just over 5 years) sometimes offer can create its own demand...