V-Flyer

Hey guys

Spotted this in the evening news here in Manchester so thought I would share..

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... in-6146174

I use little red quite a lot for both trips to London and long haul connections, and the numbers flying have definitely been increasing recently.

Nicksp wrote:Hey guys

Spotted this in the evening news here in Manchester so thought I would share..

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... in-6146174

I use little red quite a lot for both trips to London and long haul connections, and the numbers flying have definitely been increasing recently.

A really good interview, I was fortunate to meet Joe recently and was pleased to hear that Little Red out of Manchester is doing well, flying every week, loads have certainly increased since its launch in March and my last couple of flights, loads have been in excess of 100. I know the long haul connections out of Manchester are doing particularly well when compared to Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Little Red is certainly fresh, funky and reliable which cannot be said for BA in my experience. Really pleased to hear the summer was busy and long may that continue.

Jon

Begs the question as to why VS are dropping 1 of the MAN>LHR flights next year though ?|

mitchja wrote:Begs the question as to why VS are dropping 1 of the MAN>LHR flights next year though ?|

Can only assume it't to re-use the LHR slot for long-haul. I know that the LHR slots that VS picked up as part of the BA-BMI takeover "remediation" have restrictions on them, i.e. they can only be used for domestic routes / a few specific non-domestic routes for a certain length of time. Weren't there a few extra slots that VS had on loan to Cyprus Airways that they pulled back to help launch Little Red? If so, these may not have restrictions on, hence the dropping of a LHR-MAN round trip in favour of a more lucrative long-haul route.

mitchja wrote:Begs the question as to why VS are dropping 1 of the MAN>LHR flights next year though ?|

Indeed it does.....I've been told they are "giving back the Delta slot" which is nicely timed for DL to commence to Seattle :w


Jon

Interesting indeed, and we still havent seen anything use the VS657/658 rotation slots...

Were the Nairobi slots retained and reused??

Aren't VS launching a MAN>CUN service sometime next year, which could have something to do with it I suppose.

So based on that we an assume Little Red averages 30% load factors. Very poor - I'm sure the ABZ & MAN flights contribute quite heavily to this.

Yes loads aren't everything with this type of service but Little Red surely cannot possibly be positively contributing to VS' bottom line?

CaptainDoony wrote:So based on that we an assume Little Red averages 30% load factors. Very poor - I'm sure the ABZ & MAN flights contribute quite heavily to this.

Yes loads aren't everything with this type of service but Little Red surely cannot possibly be positively contributing to VS' bottom line?

Average will be influenced by the very thin start.
While VS have to say publicly that Little Red is doing 'as expected', they had to do something to avoid reliance on their arch rivals BA for domestic feed.

Cheers for posting this up Nick.

I'll be finally flying on LR next week and will admit that I am looking forward to experiencing the service offering. Hope it lives up to expectation. ii)

joeyc wrote:Cheers for posting this up Nick.

I'll be finally flying on LR next week and will admit that I am looking forward to experiencing the service offering. Hope it lives up to expectation. ii)

Finally Joey.....can't wait to read your TR.... ):

I have heard that for quite a few on the LR flights arriving at LHR they no longer offer the bus transfer to T3 due to few or no transfer passengers.

Though I doubt LR will see it much beyond 3, after a certain time constraint is lifted....

Hamster wrote:I have heard that for quite a few on the LR flights arriving at LHR they no longer offer the bus transfer to T3 due to few or no transfer passengers.

Though I doubt LR will see it much beyond 3, after a certain time constraint is lifted....

That has certainly not been my experience for the past few weeks, arriving into Heathrow this evening once again from Manchester, the bus transfer was certainly operating and 90% of passengers from the flight transferred onto it.....

It seems the press are keen for this venture to fail for some reason and indeed some fights are lighter than others, but personally the service is excellent, it's reliable and I know VS have some exciting ideas/plans for Little Red, they don't seem in the mood to throw in the towel as some would wish they did v(

Jon

Would you care to elaborate Jon...

i was surprised last time i used the MAN-LHR that some passengers were using to it to transfer from/to the south to Manchester to take VS holiday flights.

my experience has also been that most passengers are using the transfer coach. It surprises me that there are no checks though - what's to stop anyone transferring into T3 or even any other terminal using this shortcut?

i was surprised last time i used the MAN-LHR that some passengers were using to it to transfer from/to the south to Manchester to take VS holiday flights.

my experience has also been that most passengers are using the transfer coach. It surprises me that there are no checks though - what's to stop anyone transferring into T3 or even any other terminal using this shortcut?

Some of the data in the article posted by Penny is quite sobering, and tends to support those of us who have been scratching our heads from the beginning, wondering how on earth VS thought they could make this work when others have failed. To a layman, the loads just look unsustainably poor. If the losses are anywhere near the figures suggested, then the future looks bleak.

I wished VS well with this, but was never convinced it would work. (e.g. forum/index.php?f=4&t=279195&p=840108&hilit=little%20red&rb_v=viewtopic#p840108)

I agree 100% at240.

Clearly it's far too soon to write LR off. Loads are undeniably better than they were and the cabin crews and ground staff at the outstations are a credit to VS.

But I've said all along the experience at LHR - where, let's be honest, it matters most - is letting them down. An appalling lounge for AU members, inconsistent and indifferent ground staff and an average on-board offering won't pull FFs away from BA or bargain-hunters away from the LCCs.

Plus, as has been said before on another thread, the service just isn't frequent enough to offer a seamless experience long-haul connecting pax can have confidence in. With its hourly or two-hourly shuttles, BA will always win on that front.

It'll be interesting to see how the current long haul UC 2 free LR flights promotion works. It may raise awareness of LR among premium pax who didn't know about it, but equally it may just fill a few empty seats with pax who aren't even paying the taxes and fees.

As I've said elsewhere, this is not America or Australia where domestic air travel is a necessity for many people. We're a small island, we have plenty of good quality options for getting to or from London and I just don't believe the market exists to sustain 5 or 6 competing domestic airlines.

I love VS but I really do think they've bitten off more than they can chew with LR. If Simon Calder's right - and whatever you think of him, he does know his stuff - it's clearly unsustainable in its existing form. "Rock and roll spirit" takes more than a packet of Love Hearts.

hat wrote:my experience has also been that most passengers are using the transfer coach. It surprises me that there are no checks though - what's to stop anyone transferring into T3 or even any other terminal using this shortcut?

As all PAX have been screened by a UK airport they are considered "clean", so they can be transferred to T3 on a sealed bus. Only VS pax are allowed on this bus (BA sometimes do the bus service when they have a lot of connecting pax arriving on a delayed flight), at T5 if you arrive on a domestic and are transferring onto another flight, you aren't searched before you join departures (unless you arrive on an international gate...).

Gumshoe, I often think that Simon Calder doesn't know what he is talking about, I don't understand why anyone pays him! Especially recently when he has been talking about the passenger charges at LHR increasing, saying that the rise isn't linked to anything and that it is just a gentlemens agreement! The rises are to fund much needed investment, like T5Dand E, expanding T2 when T3 shuts, adding T2 satelights, digging a new road tunnel to the south to create another way into the central teminal area, etc.

I flew MAN-LHR last night. Very lightly loaded -- I counted about 28 passengers onboard. All but 6 of us seemed to follow staff to take the T3 bus connection.