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- CarbonFibre
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Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
Have heard Cypriot carrier Cobalt plan to start Larnaca-Heathrow. Any more info?
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
Yes here is confirmation they will start on 27 March - http://cyprus-mail.com/2018/01/23/cobal ... -heathrow/
This means they will now fly to Larnaca from LHR, LGW and STN- anyone know where the Heathrow slot has come from?
This means they will now fly to Larnaca from LHR, LGW and STN- anyone know where the Heathrow slot has come from?
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
Be interesting to know who the slot came from and how much was paid for it, given Cobalt is still a relatively new airline, be interesting to see how it’s cost structure has allowed for a LHR slot.
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- readytotaxi
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Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
The J class product looks better than BA Club Europe and a return trip is over £100 cheaper.
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
readytotaxi wrote:The J class product looks better than BA Club Europe and a return trip is over £100 cheaper.
That's true. Having tried it, it is definitely a way more comfortable way to fly on a 5 hour flight!
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
Daily flights from March.
LCA-LHR 12.45-15.45
LHR-LCA 17.20-23.50
Flights will be operated by the A320 with 12 business class seats and 144 economy. This is great news as it provides a nice alternative to BA which has gone full ghetto in terms of onboard product, especially when it comes to their premium product.
LCA-LHR 12.45-15.45
LHR-LCA 17.20-23.50
Flights will be operated by the A320 with 12 business class seats and 144 economy. This is great news as it provides a nice alternative to BA which has gone full ghetto in terms of onboard product, especially when it comes to their premium product.
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- CarbonFibre
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Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
I see they've used the old Cyprus Airways flight numbers 326 & 327!
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
Did they get these slots from the lufthansa group?
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- flydude380
- Posts: 259
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Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
VCy wrote:readytotaxi wrote:The J class product looks better than BA Club Europe and a return trip is over £100 cheaper.
That's true. Having tried it, it is definitely a way more comfortable way to fly on a 5 hour flight!
I would agree to a certain extent.
I used to handle there check-in as a passenger service agent. I guess I won't be doing so this summer though, as they've ceased ops at my airport.
Would be good to know the price they paid for the LHR slot and where it has come from!!
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
The LHR slots aren't the best as the arrival is at 1545 and departure at 1720, meaning an arrival back at LCA at 2350 (which doesn't compare too well with BA's 1745 and 2230). But bearing in mind how hard it is to get any decent slots, I think that Cobalt can be pleased.
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
gunnerman wrote:The LHR slots aren't the best as the arrival is at 1545 and departure at 1720, meaning an arrival back at LCA at 2350 (which doesn't compare too well with BA's 1745 and 2230). But bearing in mind how hard it is to get any decent slots, I think that Cobalt can be pleased.
It's certainly an improvement compared to Aegean's 03.20 arrival. I heard BA lost a lot of customers once they moved to the lowcost model.
As a side note, LCA handled over 7.7 million passengers in 2017.
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
Did Aegean arrive that late? A nonstop flight in the winter season arriving at LCA at 0320 would have left LHR after midnight, and no scheduled flights from LHR leave that late.
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
So where did they get the slots from if I look at arrivals departures (no idea how I should find out otherwise) I see LH group flights at these times
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
gunnerman wrote:Did Aegean arrive that late? A nonstop flight in the winter season arriving at LCA at 0320 would have left LHR after midnight, and no scheduled flights from LHR leave that late.
Well, 03.20 is 01.20 London time and I think they had block time at five hours so departure was at around 20.20 if I remember correctly.
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
Two hours time difference and bloody long flight within Europe avoiding Turkish airspace and the shorter route for political reasons. Overnight flights to Cyprus have been routine along with the Canaries for decades allowing short local flights during the day sweating resources.
As it happens Cobalt today fly the Gatwick To Larnaca service departing at 2100 local from the UK and landing At 0320 local - That plane is scheduled to continue onto Beirut returning before 9am local and then out west again to Stansted for a day time arrival mid morning Sunday.
From Larnaca Beirut and Tel Aviv hops are cherries adding quick revenue and valuable transfer traffic
That sweating resources !
As it happens Cobalt today fly the Gatwick To Larnaca service departing at 2100 local from the UK and landing At 0320 local - That plane is scheduled to continue onto Beirut returning before 9am local and then out west again to Stansted for a day time arrival mid morning Sunday.
From Larnaca Beirut and Tel Aviv hops are cherries adding quick revenue and valuable transfer traffic
That sweating resources !
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
Oops, got the airports the wrong way round in working out schedules, inexcusable really.
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
gunnerman wrote:Did Aegean arrive that late? A nonstop flight in the winter season arriving at LCA at 0320 would have left LHR after midnight, and no scheduled flights from LHR leave that late.
Yep! 0320 Cyprus time is 0120 UK time. Arrival time was not great but most people I know would still pick this over BA.
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
VCy quite agreed many’s the time I’ve flown the route in the past with another carrier on a rather larger Airbus however now gone and not that Russian interloper using the name today !
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
rutankrd wrote:VCy quite agreed many’s the time I’ve flown the route in the past with another carrier on a rather larger Airbus however now gone and not that Russian interloper using the name today !
Unfortunately the leases on that rather large Airbus were so bad that the airline needed at least a loadfactor of some 85% to break-even.
Initially the plan was to replace the A310s with B763s but the EU pressured the government to go for the A332. Truth be told they should have gone for the A321... which they did later on but it was already too late.
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
Aegean recently discontinued LHR to LCA and I believe that Cobalt are using their slots to start their own service, there is definitely a connection between the two which allowed for Cobalt to announce LHR as another London gateway along with their existing service to LGW and STN.
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
Cunard wrote:Aegean recently discontinued LHR to LCA and I believe that Cobalt are using their slots to start their own service, there is definitely a connection between the two which allowed for Cobalt to announce LHR as another London gateway along with their existing service to LGW and STN.
I think Aegean suspended LHR because they needed to give their slots back to VS. Also, as mentioned above, departure times from Heathrow are not the same. Cobalt arrives to Larnaca at 23.50 while Aegean used to land at 03.20. These slots came from somewhere else.
Cobalt is owned by the Chinese so I doubt paying for the slots would be an issue.
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- PatrickZ80
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Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
Looks like slots for the outgoing flight are coming from Air Astana. They currently got a flight at that time, but it's moved to another time after march 27. Don't know where the slot for the incoming flight is coming from. Only one incoming at that time is Lufthansa from Munich, but that's still bookable after march 27 so that's not it.
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
Patrick I would not try to apply scientific methodology to slots to that extent especially bearing mind that contrary to perceived wisdom on these forums not all slots are filled.
There are actually two differing seasons operated by ACL and both differ in allocationed numbers - the Summer season releases more than the winter as this is scaled back for resilience more so than demand - If your comparing todays slots with those Post April you may well be completely wrong.
Further slots are not tied to route destinations
The IAG group plus AA hold roughly half of all slots in pool and therefore have the ability to build their own scheduleds pretty much as they please.
The number two grouping are LH group companies again pooling with UA/AC and SK . They also have a fairly free hand in cross slot usage.
Then there is AFKL/DL and VS taking up much of the balance .
The remainder are others.
There is also a natural daily arrival trough in demand between 3pm and 5pm in which this flight falls into - there is some slack here and that’s why new services tend to fill this period initiallly and then attempt to secure better slots down the road.
This trough is the result of low demand from the close continental commuter style traffic, the end of the TALC east bound rush after LAX similar West Coast South And Central American flights have landed and the beginning of the East Asia arrivals.
Basically this drop is the reason for the 27 runway swap taking place at 3pm - they could almost close the runways completely for an hour with little loss in traffic.
There are actually two differing seasons operated by ACL and both differ in allocationed numbers - the Summer season releases more than the winter as this is scaled back for resilience more so than demand - If your comparing todays slots with those Post April you may well be completely wrong.
Further slots are not tied to route destinations
The IAG group plus AA hold roughly half of all slots in pool and therefore have the ability to build their own scheduleds pretty much as they please.
The number two grouping are LH group companies again pooling with UA/AC and SK . They also have a fairly free hand in cross slot usage.
Then there is AFKL/DL and VS taking up much of the balance .
The remainder are others.
There is also a natural daily arrival trough in demand between 3pm and 5pm in which this flight falls into - there is some slack here and that’s why new services tend to fill this period initiallly and then attempt to secure better slots down the road.
This trough is the result of low demand from the close continental commuter style traffic, the end of the TALC east bound rush after LAX similar West Coast South And Central American flights have landed and the beginning of the East Asia arrivals.
Basically this drop is the reason for the 27 runway swap taking place at 3pm - they could almost close the runways completely for an hour with little loss in traffic.
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
rutankrd wrote:Basically this drop is the reason for the 27 runway swap taking place at 3pm - they could almost close the runways completely for an hour with little loss in traffic.
Totally incorrect. The ACL site shows 38 arrival and 41 departure slots currently available in the 1500 hour, of which up to 4 are still available in quiet weeks. Losing 70+ movements would make a significant difference
https://www.online-coordination.com/Def ... =AvailTime
Re: Cobalt starting LCA-LHR ?
fcogata wasn’t meant to be taken seriously (the closure bit ! )but you seem to concur with the the sentiment of my point in that 4 slots are still available in the hour in question.
Too many people on the Web read things to literally without recourse to tone and sentiment these days.
Too many people on the Web read things to literally without recourse to tone and sentiment these days.
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