Flights - Cardiff to London (City)

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From FlyBe ... from my mailbox this morning:



3 flights each way per day ... with the advertised price next available from Cardiff at lunchtime on Monday 26th; prices up to £100.99 for morning flight for next couple of days.  3% credit card surcharge.

Probably a sensible alternative for some who live on the west of Cardiff and who have Docklands business, but the route capacity will be very limited, and with only 3 flights a day it won't work for everyone.

[Thatcham Crossing]

These flights have been on sale for some months.

Some recent operational difficulty for them here as they were to sub-contract these flights to a small Belgian airline, VLM, who have since gone bust and ceased operations.

From what I can tell, the first flight left Cardiff at just after 8 this morning, using one of their own Q400 aircraft (usually these have 78 seats).
It arrived at London City at 0910 (source: Flightradar24)

[chrisr_75]

The advert appears to suggest it is a temporary arrangement during the Severn Tunnel works - any indications if it is intended to become a more permanent fixture? Base line prices versus the current price suggests reasonable demand is there. I wonder if this might, ahem, take off? Interesting bit of competition for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) if it did as LCY is also rather convenient and well connected for visits to the Square Mile and other central London locations

[LiskeardRich]

The advert appears to suggest it is a temporary arrangement during the Severn Tunnel works - any indications if it is intended to become a more permanent fixture? Base line prices versus the current price suggests reasonable demand is there. I wonder if this might, ahem, take off? Interesting bit of competition for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) if it did as LCY is also rather convenient and well connected for visits to the Square Mile and other central London locations

Normally with flybe the dates stated are the offer dates. It has been going for some months so maybe more permanent.

[grahame]

The advert appears to suggest it is a temporary arrangement during the Severn Tunnel works - any indications if it is intended to become a more permanent fixture?

Flights are being offered for sale up to and including 21st October (at present). Booking calendar greyed out beyond that point.

[Thatcham Crossing]

As far as I know it's only for the tunnel closure period - Flybe online timetable would appear to confirm as such.

The first return flight from LCY this morning shows an airborne time of only 40 mins, despite a slightly circuitous routing around some of the busy London holding areas.

[Tim]

The advert appears to suggest it is a temporary arrangement during the Severn Tunnel works - any indications if it is intended to become a more permanent fixture? Base line prices versus the current price suggests reasonable demand is there. I wonder if this might, ahem, take off? Interesting bit of competition for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) if it did as LCY is also rather convenient and well connected for visits to the Square Mile and other central London locations

one guy in our Cardiff office has used it to get to our London office (Holborn).  The convenience seems to turn on how easy it is for him to drive to Cardiff Airport because he lives South of Cardiff and would have to get in the car anyway to get to the station.  A colleague living in a valley North of Cardiff is driving to BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains), and one living in the city centre is getting the train via Gloucester. 

[basset44]

Hi All,

Might give this a try all I need is a reason to go up to London, had a quick look and on a couple of weekends it only works out £4 more than a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) return, must have the larger plane in use and spare seats. Even during the week there are some cheap fares. Have a look at month view.

Basset

[chrisr_75]

A follow up article from BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Wales here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-37276134

Cardiff's business community seem to be quite keen on this flight and also rail electrification - last 3 paragraphs contain a few interesting, but somewhat vague, opinions on the price of rail tickets and quality of service provided by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).

[Thatcham Crossing]

must have the larger plane in use and spare seats

Quite possibly, as the route would have originally gone on sale based on a 50 seat approx Fokker 50 (operated by the now-defunct VLM), but for reasons already explained is now being operated by Flybe themselves with a 76-78 seat Bombardier Q400.

[chrisr_75]

Flybe have announced these flights are to continue "while demand exists":

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-37671714

Flights between Cardiff and London City airports will continue while demand exists, the airline Flybe has said.

The carrier initially launched the three-times-a-day service until 21 October while the Severn Tunnel was closed as part of the rail electrification programme.

But it said there had been a "very promising" uptake, with 95% of passengers surveyed saying they would continue using it.

The service has now been extended.

Tickets are now available for the coming weeks, with Cardiff Airport chief executive Roger Lewis saying "the immediate future" is secure.

He wants to see continued use to make it a long-term route at the airport.

Flybe's chief revenue officer Vincent Hodder said: "This route has quite simply taken off, quickly becoming an early success.

"We have been heartened by the response it has received."

The flight time is about an hour, but the record journey to date is 35 minutes.

[ChrisB]

plus how long to get to the airport, minimum check-in times and, if Canary Wharf isn't your destination, another 30+minutes at least.....train wins. I can't see it lasting

[IndustryInsider]

No harm in a bit of competition though - even if it eventually fails.  I suspect it will struggle massively when when IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train)'s knock 15 or so minutes off the current timings, but might survive in the intervening years.

[TaplowGreen]

plus how long to get to the airport, minimum check-in times and, if Canary Wharf isn't your destination, another 30+minutes at least.....train wins. I can't see it lasting

Minimum check-in at London City is 20 mins but I'd allow half an hour.

When there were direct flights from London City to Plymouth (before the Landlords pulled the plug), I could leave my office in Southwark at 1700 and be back in Plymouth by 1900, If I had done the equivalent by train I would be lucky to be in Plymouth by 2130, providing there was no problems on the 2 tube lines I used, and I always got a seat on the plane......tended to be no signal failures either 

Sounds like Cardiff is even quicker. Plane wins every time if you want to get there reliably and quickly. Good luck to them.

[ChrisB]

indeed, certainly quicker on the London/Cardiff leg.