Those Uncooperative Airlines
Dear Sir,
Jeremy Cavanna, in his letter dated, 5 Jan, makes some very valid points when comparing UK airlines with German airlines. His points being that most UK based winter sports travellers find it better to use air travel than surface travel, whereas the Germans find surface travel to be much better. That having been said, it will be very difficult, as Jeremy points out, to convince the UK airlines that winter flights to Majorca will be of any benefit to them. In fact easyJet , according to a recent announcement, have a 92% overall load factor and are expecting that to increase to 94% in the near future: that’s just ten spare seats or less on every flight. Ryanair, recovering from their poor results of the past year or so, are up to 84% and rising rapidly.
The airlines would need to be convinced beyond doubt that their aircraft would attract better load factors or that higher fares could be charged, preferably both. That is unlikely to happen even if at least double the number of the present people wish to travel from the UK to Majorca and that would mean, in addition to Majorca residents and UK home owners, about 80 thousand visitors coming to Majorca over the five months winter period. There is no doubt that potential visitors are out there, as proved by the number of Germans who flock here in winter, but those potential visitors need to be told what is available and they need to know that flights from their local airports are available - has all this been said before?
Accepting that the UK and Irish airlines are not going to risk providing the flights, then two problems must be addressed. First, potential visitors must be made fully aware of what Majorca has to offer in winter; and second, an airline must be found which is capable of providing travel for those 80 thousand winter visitors, plus the many UK home owners who, at present, find it difficult to visit their properties in the winter time.
Any ideas, suggestions, hints, comments or explanations will be welcome and given due, nay in depth, consideration.
Tom Leeming
Winter tourism
Dear Sir,
Wanting to fly out to Palma for a few days this month, it was extremely upsetting to find that we cannot find a flight from our local airport London Luton Airport that is only 25 minutes away from our home. We must fly from Gatwick. Because of flight times, and an unreliable rail service, we find we must stay at a Gatwick hotel overnight adding a £200 bill together with a considerably longer, more inconvenient journey. So much for customer service and meeting their needs. So much for helping winter tourism.
Derek Hardy