V-Flyer

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-s ... s-27262382

Catching up with news and I see Thomas Cook are going to start Scotland's first Las Vegas service (seasonal from Glasgow) with an A330. This should really have been VS starting this service, can't help but think they've dropped the ball on this one.

The Glasgow-MCO flights are a bit of an oddball for VS. They were originally started by Travel City Direct (who used their own branded jumbo) before VH bought them and put G-VAST on the route. But they have nurtured it, went twice weekly with the Airbuses then back to jumbos.

But I can't help but think they're out on a limb here with just the one destination, LAS would have been the next obvious expansion to create a mini-base at Glasgow.

VS already do MAN-LAS seasonal after initially trying it permanently so it would be too much really to add another LAS flight from an another airport. They can't really make MAN a proper 3rd base so it would be strange to try to do so at GLA with a smaller pax pool.

GLA-MCO works because the peak season demand it so high due to the link up with VH and VS really do have the large market share on the MCO route with 5 flights a day some days.

What GLA really needs is to be part of the Little Red network. SRB said earlier this year he wanted that to happen.

I would imagine that many of the MAN-LAS passengers come from Scotland! The Scottish catchment area isn't an issue, we've got 3xdaily flights to the Middle East. But perhaps that is the problem, if MAN is marginal (I didn't think it was) then they wouldn't want to jeopardise it but adding a GLA service. The VS/VH link up could work very well too on this route. However it could just be a case waiting to let TCX test the market.

gumshoe wrote:What GLA really needs is to be part of the Little Red network. SRB said earlier this year he wanted that to happen.

BA currently run 5x to LHR, 3x to LGW and 3x to LCY, one or two of the LHR sectors are operated by 767s so i'm sure SRB would like a slice of that! The issue is slots at Heathrow you'd need at least 3 slots to run a proper service. British Midland ran 3x daily but I don't know where those slots went (suspect Lufthansa).

Well there you go, somebody in Virgin must have been reading my comments as VS are now starting a GLA-LAS service on 10 September 2015.

http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/gb/en/tr ... -news.html

Now VS what I really really want is the IT system fixed.

If VS little red started to GLA then I might be persuaded to fly then again, but at the moment EK wins from DXB, although KLM destroys them on price thru AMS.

I assume you're talking eastbound destinations otherwise GLA-DBX-LAS is just a bit long!

Yeah I wouldn't argue with that, going east from Scotland KLM, Emirates and Qatar have made BA via London largely irrelevant.

Fuzzy14 wrote:I assume you're talking eastbound destinations otherwise GLA-DBX-LAS is just a bit long!

Iforess1 lives in Dubai so presumably he's talking about DXB-LHR-GLA-LAS

Fuzzy14 wrote:The Scottish catchment area isn't an issue, we've got 3xdaily flights to the Middle East.

I wouldn't necessarily justify the viability of routes based on ME airlines, at the current time profitability is secondary to route network expansion. Whereas VS significantly need routes to make a profit, and this is their driving factor.

honey lamb wrote:

Fuzzy14 wrote:I assume you're talking eastbound destinations otherwise GLA-DBX-LAS is just a bit long!

Iforess1 lives in Dubai so presumably he's talking about DXB-LHR-GLA-LAS

Was thinking just DXB-LHR-GLA on VS B)