Aer Arann to Start flying to Southend from Waterford early next year.

Kotek Besar

What happened to the WAT - AMS route? That was a step in the right direction for making Waterford airport a viable possibility for long haul flights. It would have been even better if Aer Arann had partnered with KLM, making through-bookings (and through-checkin) a possibility.

Aer Arann partnered with Gulf Air for this purpose at one point iirc, though not from Waterford.

Aer Arann also matched the luggage allowance of any airline a passenger is flying with, within 24 hours of hours of the Aer Arann flight, free of charge. They stopped that too.

Poochie05

cocoshovel wrote: »

I wish Aer Arann would open up a good London route. the way it stands at the moment is that its cheaper and quicker to go to Dublin airport and fly to Heathrow. Just out of curiosity what are the Landing fee's for Luton, Heathrow, London city and Gatwick?

Maybe cheaper, but hardly quicker? I can leave our house in Wexford around 5:30 am on Friday morning and be in the centre of London having breakfast by 10:30 am!
That's fast.
The bonus with Waterford Airport is you don't need to leave hours to allow for security checks or getting from the car park to the terminal.
Also on the return journey, it's great not having to face in to a haul to the baggage reclaim and then a 2 hour drive, you can be out of the airport and on the road in 10-15 minutes and home in 50! If there's only an extra tenner or 2 in the price I always take this in to account when comparing prices.

Admittedly sometimes it can be more than a tenner or 2 ...

Kotek Besar

I drove a friend of mine to Waterford airport once, from his flat in the city centre. We arrived there 40 mins before departure, only to discover that my friend had forgotten his ID and his insulin.

The check-in staff asked how long it'd take us to nip and get it. About 20 - 30 mins there and back, I said (this was back when the new road was being built). She said go on then.

So off we went and back at the airport we were, 10 minutes before take-off. "Right, in you go", the staff said - and off he flew.

You wouldn't get that type of service at any other airport.

Beefy78

I'm sure it will change as the airport gets bigger but on the subject of small airports, a friend of mine flew out of Southend a few years ago to Jersey (which for a long time has been the only Commercial route out of Southend). He was checked in by a guy in a suit then went to the departure lounge. When it came to boarding, the same guy checked his boarding card again and then showed him and the other passengers to the plane. When he got on board he realised that the guy in the suit was actually the pilot.

fricatus

Beefy78 wrote: »

I'm sure it will change as the airport gets bigger but on the subject of small airports, a friend of mine flew out of Southend a few years ago to Jersey (which for a long time has been the only Commercial route out of Southend). He was checked in by a guy in a suit then went to the departure lounge. When it came to boarding, the same guy checked his boarding card again and then showed him and the other passengers to the plane. When he got on board he realised that the guy in the suit was actually the pilot.

Hehe brilliant!

Can't say I've been checked in by the pilot at Waterford Airport, but a couple of times I've flown, the girl at the check-in desk has been the same one who checked the boarding passes and ID on the way out to the plane!

On the subject of speed, nothing beats 27 minutes from my front door to sipping coffee in the "departure lounge" at WAT. For goodness's sake, you could be stuck queuing for security for 27 minutes at DUB!

Teebor15

Can't say I've been checked in by the pilot at Waterford Airport, but a couple of times I've flown, the girl at the check-in desk has been the same one who checked the boarding passes and ID on the way out to the plane!

This is not unusual at larger airports..i travelled through both edinburgh and newcastle airports recently both who cater for millions of passengers each year and the boarding staff were the same people who were sat at the check-in desk earlier. They are responsible for that flight..once check-in closes they go to the gate and board the passengers..then return to check-in desk and open up for another flight.

Beefy78

Yeah same thing happened to me at a BMI flight From Dublin to Heathrow not too long ago.

mike65

Bump for a guardian article Waterford gets a mention.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/04/london-southend-airport

fuzzy dunlop

Kotek Besar wrote: »

What happened to the WAT - AMS route? That was a step in the right direction for making Waterford airport a viable possibility for long haul flights. It would have been even better if Aer Arann had partnered with KLM, making through-bookings (and through-checkin) a possibility.

Aer Arann partnered with Gulf Air for this purpose at one point iirc, though not from Waterford.

Aer Arann also matched the luggage allowance of any airline a passenger is flying with, within 24 hours of hours of the Aer Arann flight, free of charge. They stopped that too.

I agree but there may have been some issue regarding the commercial viability.I think a more viable alternative might be Eindhoven.There is a large amount of traffic to and from this airport from Ireland.What is surprising is the amount of Dutch travelling to Ireland from this airport as well as vice versa.It also has good international links as well as being the main airport and city for Europes tech hub.I thought it was another Ryanair backwater airport but not so,

Beefy78

mike65 wrote: »

Bump for a guardian article Waterford gets a mention.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/04/london-southend-airport

Lovely stuff. The main picture above the article reminds me of being in my parents' car as a kid driving along that exact strip of road and having a decent-sized plane pass literally feet above the roof. Scared the life out of me. The old runway starts about 20ft from the road.

Finnbar01

Beefy78 wrote: »

Lovely stuff. The main picture above the article reminds me of being in my parents' car as a kid driving along that exact strip of road and having a decent-sized plane pass literally feet above the roof. Scared the life out of me. The old runway starts about 20ft from the road.

Hi Beefy, first up, congratualtions on your one thousandth post.

Could you tell me what is it like to work and live in South End? Would you recommend it?

Beefy78

Southend can be a lovely part of the country to live in. The area where the airport is in is near a lot of farm land with quiet neighbourhoods, low crime and good communities. Closer to the town itself there are other very nice areas. My old flat was a few minutes walk from the town centre, was on top of the cliffs with a great view of the sea (well, the Thames Estuary...!) and was much better value for money than I've found in Dublin.

That said, there are also some dodgy areas as there are everywhere. It's certainly not perfect and the High Street on a Saturday night can represent a warzone from too many 19 and 20 year olds having had too many pints of Stella and £1 shots.

Climate-wise it's the driest area of the UK. It has two mainline railway lines into London meaning that you can get to Liverpool Street or Fenchurch Street in less than an hour. That's handy as road access is a major problem. It's got a good school system with four grammar schools, all of which did very well in this year's results (one - Westcliff High School for Girls getting into the top ten nationally for GCSE results).

Jobs-wise, Southend has struggled the same as most places. The main road into town is in the shadow of eight or nine huge office blocks which were all full of workers in the mid to late 90s when I was leaving school but which are all now empty. The biggest employer is probably Royal Bank of Scotland whose credit card HQ is there. HSBC and Lloyds also have a presence in the town, albeit a lot smaller than they had previously. HMRC and the NHS also both employ a lot of people in the area and a card processer called First Data have a big office in nearby Basildon. And, as I said, you're only an hour from London so a lot of people commute there every day.

It's also the home of the longest pleasure pier in the World and a football club who it's never boring to follow.

That was a lot longer than I'd planned. I do miss home.

Finnbar01

Cheers for the info Beefy.

wellboytoo

Just looking at Aer Aranns new summer schedule, and they have put the Birmingham route back on with seven days a week against flybe, that makes 122 seats a day out of Waterford a day to Birmingham, that's a big ask

shanemul

wellboytoo wrote: »

Just looking at Aer Aranns new summer schedule, and they have put the Birmingham route back on with seven days a week against flybe, that makes 122 seats a day out of Waterford a day to Birmingham, that's a big ask

Haha don't know where your seeing that at all cause 1 Aer Arann don't have the capacity to run it and 2 the airport management wouldn't allow it to be run by two airlines

wellboytoo

I have the Aer Arann schedule in my hand given to me by reception in the Airport today, your move!

shanemul

Throw up a picture of it then as the summer Aer Arann timetable is on their website and the Waterford Airport website and neither have Birmingham listed as a route

wellboytoo

now.JPG

There ya go

wellboytoo

I'M A LANGER JUST READ IT NOW MEA MAXIMA CULPA

shanemul

ROFL haha