Bluestar

Already bookable in Amadeus (so presumably an announcement is imminent): LCY-DRS and LCY-PAD, each operated daily except Saturday, starting on 22APR13.

On the heels of LCY-FMO and LCY-NUE, this will bring to 4 the number of CityJet German routes from LCY - could this be a strategy? Given the rapprochement between AF/KL and Air Berlin (and the first-stage codeshare), I would not be at all surprised to see an AB code ultimately appearing on the CityJet LCY-Germany routes.

Andre

Can flying from LCY to 3rd rate German airports be called a strategy?

If CityJet were actually thinking of a partnership with AB (perhaps not even a bad idea, as long as AB doesn't go under soon as well...), then TXL, DUS and VIE would be the obvious candidates.

My personal assessment: all 4 German routes are doomed to fail. Time will tell

San Gottardo

Define "fail". Will they not be profitable? I 100% concur with you. Will they be pulled? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe only once that AF-Cityjet decides that its new "strategy" is to fly to Liège, Linz, Limoges and Linköping from LCY and that planes are needed on those routes.

orbitmic

The Cityjet new strategy for the past 3 years of so has been 'only fly to places where BA don't fly from LCY except in truly exceptional circumstances' which naturally means avoiding any possibly profitable route/route in high demand in favour of obscure routes of the type that Ryanair used to open and close at will from STN. So indeed, whether it is Paderborn, Bolzano, or Katowice makes relatively little difference for the longer term future of the network.

Andre

Good point, I like the alternate "L" strategy you propose

The entire CityJet operation appears to be geared to fail. I can only assume that AFKL holds on to it in the vague hope of using the LCY slots as some sort of bargaining chip in an upcoming larger transaction, or of generating some cash by selling them.

In any event, with no fleet renewal plans announced, and an operating loss of EUR 26 million in the most recent FY results I could find (10/11), only one word comes to my mind: unsustainable.

Avoiding head-on competition with BA certainly seems sensible, however BA doesn't serve the 3 far larger destinations I mentioned earlier (DUS, TXL and VIE) from LCY either. Even more bizarrely, IMO at least, CityJet doesn't even serve CDG from LCY!

San Gottardo

DUS: used to be served by Lufthansa, has been abandoned
TXL: used to be served by Lufthansa, has been abandoned
VIE: used to be served by Lufthansa, has been abandoned.
CDG: there is a separate discussion on this forum on that

In the context of flying to Germany, it is even stranger:

MUC: used to be served by Lufthansa, has been abandoned

Also HAM and STR are no longer served by LH from LCY.

So some genius at AFKL route planning must have looked at a list of German airports and went:

"Hmm, not this one. Too much market potential. Not that one either, yield is too high. Oh, and that one, too much demand from business travelers. So let's go with Paderborn and Dresden until we can get slots at Altenburg, Kiel and Memmingen."

orbitmic

Yep just that! Just a small footnote on VIE. At a time of high fuel costs, it is worth noting that within most of Europe, longer routes don't generally mean higher fares, but - especially with WX's outdated ARJs, it does mean higher costs, so probably not the 'easiest' route to go for. But indeed, even if WX has now become too small to take BA head to head from LCY (I say now because I remember some conversations with someone from the WX leadership a few years ago who claimed to actually be quite happy with quite a few routes closed since), WX has the advantage of a more diverse fleet with a number of smaller crafts, and I would have thought that they might have made more to HAM or DUS or, looking somewhere else, to BHD.

rrrrrich

sorry to bring up an old thread, but does anyone know if the route will continue next year after the original schedule ends? got a wedding to go to near dresden and this would be perfect!

irishguy28

There are currently no Cityjet flights scheduled/available to buy past Saturday 29 March 2014.

The question is more will Cityjet exist in any form beyond that date (as the talks to sell the airline have apparently broken down).

I think you can safely assume that there will be no direct services to Dresden on the dates you require.

rrrrrich

Ok thanks for your help. Pity about this!

San Gottardo

No more Skyteam airline that gets you from London to Dresden (unless you want to fly via Moscow on Aeroflot).

Your options include Lufthansa via Frankfurt or Munich, or Germanwings via Stuttgart or Cologne, or Air Berlin via Dusseldorf.

irishguy28

Or fly to Prague and get a train (2h15minutes, from €25), or to Berlin and take a train (just over 2 hours for the direct service, from €44)

http://www.czech-transport.com/index.php?id=361
http://www.raileurope-world.com/trai...berlin-dresden