Loganair reveals 5 routes from Teesside – to compete with Eastern on 4
Neil Warnock, Middlesbrough Football Club boss, celebrates the launch of Teesside to Newquay. This airport-pair will now have five weekly services in the week starting 1 July 2021 and potentially more.
Loganair has today (10 November) revealed five new routes from Teesside International: Aberdeen; Belfast City; Dublin; Newquay; and Jersey.
To operate these, ‘Scotland’s airline’ will base one 49-seat Embraer 145 at Teesside. Loganair last served the airport in 2018.
Read more: Loganair ‘won’t be another flybe’, MD tell us.
Four of its routes – Aberdeen, Belfast, Jersey, and Newquay – will compete directly with Eastern Airways. This reduces to three if scheduled flights are considered.
Eastern will end Dublin on 26 March, with a three-weekly service being offered in its final week. It’ll then be replaced by a once-daily service by Loganair from 28 March.
Come 1 July, Loganair will have 29 weekly services from Teesside. However, it is expected that its Jersey and Newquay frequencies will increase in the peak July and August months, although this is not yet certain.
| Teesside to/from… | Start date | Weekly frequency* | WF: week starting 1 July | Direct competition (WF)* | Direct competition (WF): w/s 1 July |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aberdeen | 1 February | 6 (10**) | 10 | Eastern Airways (9) | Eastern Airways (10) |
| Belfast City | 1 February | 6 (7**) | 7 | Eastern Airways (9) | Eastern Airways (9) |
| Dublin | 28 March | 7 | 7 | None | None |
| Jersey | 8 May | 2*** | 2 | None | Eastern Airways (1; charter only) |
| Newquay | 28 March | 2 | 3 | Eastern Airways (2) | Eastern Airways (2) |
| Source: airline websites. * Based on the week that Loganair begins. ** Based on the week starting 28 March. *** Available for booking at twice-weekly, but is believed that it will initially operate on Saturdays only. | |||||
Will Loganair or Eastern blink first?
Historically, bmibaby served Belfast, Jersey, and Newquay from Teesside, while Ryanair operated from Dublin up to twice-daily.
Since the start of this decade, however, Belfast has only be served in 2020 (in this case, by Eastern Airways). Now this route will have two operators, with a 16-weekly offering between them.
Aer Lingus Regional served Dublin until 2010, while Eastern began it on a limited-time basis in this current year. It has been particularly badly hit because of the 14-day quarantine between the UK and Ireland.
Read more: Aer Lingus Regional’s 1.9 million seats – Emerald to face Stobart for franchise?
Jersey, meanwhile, was operated by flybe summer-seasonally each year until September 2019. In the week starting 1 July 2019, it had two Dash-8-400 services.
After a long absence, Newquay was again connected with Teesside earlier this year. Come July, it’ll have five (or potentially more) weekly services across Loganair and Eastern – coincidentally the same number that Loganair will have from Newcastle.
Not surprisingly given energy market demand, Aberdeen has always been the core market from Teesside. Its capacity peaked in 2017 with 65,000 seats across Eastern Airways, flybe, and Loganair.
In 2017, these three carriers had up to 40 weekly flights to Aberdeen, well over twice the normal 15-weekly on this airport-pair. Come 1 July 2021, Loganair and Eastern will have 20-weekly.
It’ll be highly interesting to see whether Eastern or Loganair blinks first, especially on thinner Belfast and Newquay.
Here’s how seat capacity has changed on the routes that Loganair is to start from Teesside. At its peak in 2017, Aberdeen had three airlines and 40 weekly services! Source: OAG Schedules Analyser.
With thanks to Sean Moulton.
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