FYI Further Cancellations

Due to low demand the following services have been cancelled:-

VS 250: January 19 February 4 10 16 18 24 (Pax reprotected on flights following day)

VS 671: February 24 (Pax reprotected on flight next day)

VS 007: January 22 February 17 18 24 March 3 4 (Pax reprotected on VS 23 same day)

VS 023: March 10 24 (Pax reprotected on VS 007 same day)

[Neil]

Thanks for the info. Interesting to see LAX suffering with low pax numbers.

Thanks,
Neil

[Scrooge]

It is only the start of it Neil, just wait.

I am surprised that the flights are being cancelled so far out.

When it comes to my business travel, mostly I have no idea I'm going anywhere until the last 3 weeks. So for me, I typically book a March flight in early Feb.

I guess more of this sort of thing could become quite common over the forthcoming months. There seems to be two schools of thought on if the economy will effect air travel. One school believes that British people only cancel a holiday as a very last resort, the other believes the opposite.

Certainly in the quieter months it makes good sense and I guess Cobra VS will have looked at last years figures on those dates and acted accordingly.

Interestingly my parents came back from MCO (a route that often is touted as being poor out of school holidays) the other week for Christmas and they said there was not a seat left on the plane. Seemed to be full of a lot of golfers etc.

[Scrooge]

What I think we will find is a lot of UK holiday makers heading to Spain etc rather than the US, throw in that fact that US leisure PAX are suffering right now and the UK being an expensive trip any airline flying TATL is going to start to see lighter loads.

[Darren Wheeler]

Not sure about Spain. £ to Û is nearly 1-1 while the £ to $ is about 1-1.42.

[mitchja]

The US gets my vote over anywhere in the Eurozone at the current exchange rate.

The Û - £ exchange rate is the lowest it's ever been and I dont think it's going to get any better.

Regards

quote:Originally posted by Scrooge
What I think we will find is a lot of UK holiday makers heading to Spain etc rather than the US, throw in that fact that US leisure PAX are suffering right now and the UK being an expensive trip any airline flying TATL is going to start to see lighter loads.


Yes I think this could be true.

What I have always found though, is that the vast majority of families dont do long haul holidays every year (my family and the members of this board seem to be exceptions). The average family in the UK, go long haul once every five years. I think these families will just postpone the long haul trip in '09.

Dare I say it, and this is not meant to be class snobbery of any sort, but problems will arise when the families that long haul every year start looking closer to home. Like you say Dave, they could start looking closer to home in '09. Time will tell but I reckon the likes of VH, Kuoni, Mark Warner, Sunsail etc are all praying the middle class keep holiday in the States, Thailand and on flotilla holidays.

[Neil]

I'm not so sure Europe is any more attractive than the US at all. I couldn't think of anything worse than heading to Spain for my holidays, especially with such a terrible exchange rate.

Of course there is going to be a down turn in people travelling as often with the Global economy like it is, but I think that people might end up giving up there 'cheapo' week in the sun (Costa del sol etc), that suddenly isn't so cheap but still have there main 'big' holiday to the US, Dubai, Caribbean. Just look at the number of flights/destinations been axed by the likes of Ryanair!

Neil

[Scrooge]

As well as a general down turn in travel in general. as Willd points out, there are a great number of people on here, myself included who would rather shot themselves in the foot than go to Spain (Mexico in my case, I love Spain) however for the cost of a VS Y flight to LA a week in a hotel inc flight can be had in the sunny Med, the surcharges and from next November the long haul taxes are going to bite BA, VS et al in the butt.

Of course there is going to be a general softness to the travel market no matter what and I am going to say we are about 6 months away from really seeing it start to bite hard.

quote:Originally posted by Darren Wheeler
Not sure about Spain. £ to Û is nearly 1-1 while the £ to $ is about 1-1.42.


My snowbirding in-laws flew out to Spain a couple of weeks ago and have noticed a massive rise in the cost of living out there(compared to a year ago)and a Euro that has nosedived spectacularly. My parents (flying out in about 6 weeks)are dithering but their flights and the car are booked and paid for.Don't know if we'll be partaking in the annual half -term jaunt to visit them all- I'd rather spend the money on another long-haul trip.