texas gold

I have been playing around with CO's timetable for the fall and winter and as it stands now they are reducing the IAH-AMS to one flight a day with the 772. This change had already been discussed and will go into effect this spring.

What I thought was interesting was the reduction of EWR-AMS to just one 757 flight per day. I would have thought that AMS would have enough BF traffic for at least a 764 once a day?

So I suppose FRA will be their new Euro-hub as evident by the addition of the new nonstop IHA-FRA. So instead of routing everyone through on KLM to other euro-middle east-africa destinations CO customers will use LH through FRA. Now this does make sense, but still the reduction of EWR?

I am surprised to see this change. EWR is a huge market and AMS a popular EU destination. ANyone have specs on EWR-AMS traffic?

aacharya

I thought there was always only one EWR-AMS flight a day. At least that is what it was last Friday. Maybe it is bumped to two during summer.

I do cheer the move from 764s to 752s. I can't stand the IFE on the 764s.

As for popularity, all the middle seats were not taken in rows 16-31 at least.

CO EWR CPH

Apparently CO 102 (with a 757) returns next week operating to AMS 5x/week. At the same time CO 70 moves from a 764 to a 762 and is now leaving a bit earlier. It seems that CO 70 will stay on the 762, as well. CO 102 drops off in September.

I think what is remarkable and what the thread starter perhaps also had in mind is that CO is losing all those NW/KLM flights EWR to AMS and yet is still keeping the frequency at 1 flight/day even after 28 October.

I've always thought AMS was overserved anyway EX-NYC. Others disagree, see this thread, post #24

CO EWR CPH

That's too bad for CO flyers. I always liked Schipol. Especially the way that you could build in a long layover and easily spend the day in some interesting city like the Hague, Haarlem or Amsterdam. The Schengen KLM club was pretty good too.

star_world

Agreed. And the brand-new non-Schengen KLM lounge was even better Absolutely huge, and a great selection of food & drinks.

Anglo Large Clawed Otter

I'm not terribly surprised that the drop off from EWR is greater than that from IAH. IAH-AMS consistently sees the front cabin packed due to oil traffic. Assuming the 772 deployed on the route is one of the AVOD models, CO will see a reduction of only 10BF seats per day on IAH-AMS (from 60 to 50).

star_world

Is it due to oil traffic, or the fact that AMS acts as a good connection point from IAH, which has less non-stops to Europe than the NYC area? The Netherlands is a reasonably significant destination for oil traffic (Shell, etc) but not to that extent, I would have thought.

Anglo Large Clawed Otter

It is due to Oil Traffic. One of the daily 767s from IAH is essentially always filled to capacity in BF (or at least the seats have been sold) due to a corporate contract with Shell. Shell's N. American Headquarters is located in Houston.

CHIC SILBER

Schipol is the easiest to connect to the trains

with a terrific array of possibilities and access

from within the main terminal (by escalator)

In Frankfurt you have to leave the terminal

and cross the drive lanes which is quite the

drag with your gear (especially in bad weather)

SpartanFlyer86

LOVE Schipol Airport! It's even fun to say Schipol.


Easiest customs clearance I've been through. No words were exchanged; stamped my passport and on my way.

FlyingHoustonian

Do you say [Skip-ol] or [Ship-ol] or [skeep-ol]

I normally hear it pronounced "skip-ol"

Off topic I know. back on topic,

What about KLM? I presume they are keeping a daily widebody and the privateair biz seat flight?


Ciao,
FH

star_world

It's "schkip" - "ol".

FlyingHoustonian

Thanks. When I lived in Maastricht I always seemed to hear more of a hard "Skip" but the "schkip" seems more common around AMS.
I wasn't sure what should be the 'official' way.

Ciao,
FH

doobierw

As this alliance deal progresses, you would have to assume that our feed will transition from the current AMS/CDG, and into FRA and possibly MUC. The effect on the hubs would obviously mean less service in SkyTeam land, and more into *A land.

The KLM and Air France flights into EWR/IAH will stop bringing in connecting feed, and it will be interesting to see if they shift the size and frequency of service into CAL hubs.

The Lufthansa flights into EWR and IAH will start bringing in connectors, so there will be a change of service on that front as well.

Should be interesting to see the impact on the schedule, shift of iron, etc. We've been told we'll be seeing more flying into Germany, and would have to assume that would mean a proportioned reduction into AMS/CDG.

DRW

texas gold

It certainly makes sense to reduce the number of flights to SkyTeam hubs, and focus more on LH hubs in Germany for transfer traffic. The fact that IAH-AMS is a strong oil based route with full BF cabins is a given. KLM once had in addition to their 744 combi a 763 on the route, though the 763 was light in back so they opted for PrivatAir all C class instead. I believe CO will continue to do well on this route, at least in BF.

What still surprises me is the reduction of EWR to just one 757. I would have thought that there would be enough dead end traffic to justify a bigger bird daily or have some days in the week be served by the 757 twice.

Time will tell.....