BeOnTop Airlines - Liège Airport

[Nevihta]

So I guess the best is to wait for an official announcement...

[Boavida]

BeOnTop!? Sounds like a joke...

[regi]

BeOnTop!? Sounds like a joke...

yes, but we have Hooters and Virgin and even Virgin Express...So what's in a name?

[andorra-airport]

Actually, there is, but it's located near St. Moritz. IT has a runway of about 1700m at an altitude of 1700m. So no 320 operations.

I guess you mean Samedan (SMV). If they will fly a 318, they can

[Shanti]

Any ideas that BeOnTopAirlines will start in 2011?
Many thanks.
For everyone merry X-MAS and a lovely 2011!

[Deep Throat]

It seems they intend to ask for Aircraft Operating Certificate begining in July
First A318 should be OO-LGG abble to be delivery by Aibus in June;
Dest:Milan morning, Firenze, Venezia, Milan at night, and Catane late night

[Stij]

It seems they intend to ask for Aircraft Operating Certificate begining in July
First A318 should be OO-LGG abble to be delivery by Aibus in June;
Dest:Milan morning, Firenze, Venezia, Milan at night, and Catane late night

5 round trips à day? Even Ryanair soes make that! And Catania is even pretty far!

Cheers,

Stij

[Acid-drop]

that list of destinations makes more sense than the previous one
but that's still not the feeding airlines all news reports were talking about.

maybe it's cargo feeding for TNT ?

[Shanti]

It would be amazing to have a new belgian company offering passengers flights from Liège to
other european destinations. Fingers crossed. Still no information on their website. (only
be continued)

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Nice routings but this can never be flown daily !!!!!!!!
I believe Milan ( Malpensa-Bergamo-Linate ? ) daily but Firenze -Venezia and Catania
on a 2/3 weekly base.
Think they already have 1 pax !
Like to see their fares with FR-AZ-SN ...
Will it be also a LCC ?
Strange choice for the A318 , why? not a A319?

LGG will become a semi-italian base with FR also to Bologna !!


Cx-B

[Deep Throat]

That's clear, they are going to feeding: eg Milan MXP on morning & night, and between, they got legs to C airport as Firenze (short runway): you'll never have a B738 or A320 at Florence, you MUST have an A318 ... and the conclusions are: no low cost competitor, I secure my price, it's very brainy ...

[Atlantis]

Who or what are they going to feed???? There is no agreement with an other airline. It stays a very weird story.

[tolipanebas]

They seem to be focussing on IT now?

It's definitely more likely to see a direct entrant on the routes mentioned now, than those which were previously rumoured, but I still Wonder what they think their customer base is going to be? Can't be corporate with such destinations, base, and thin frequencies and a pure LCC with FR just next door?

Good luck to them, hope they stay on top, but I very much doubt it.

About their plane: an A319 can perfectly land at FLR too, Meridana does it all the time, so it needn't be an A318, and in fact if they want this project to make any sense, they better use an A319 with high seating numbers to keep ticket prices down...

[Acid-drop]

let's not forget that anyone could come here with a supposal ... we'll only know the truth when they release a press document ...

[tolipanebas]

Somebody here mentioned seeing an ex Sabena captain, also ex DAT, ex 747 captain working on the project...

This is actually quite specific if you know the ins and out of the industry, so It got me thinking: It couldn't possibly be one of the boys who also set up Cargo B, could it?

Also the fact BoT airline is focussed on LGG, the 'to-be new base' of Cargo B in their final stages and the fact I know he won't give up on setting up his own airline, all seem to point in this direction....

SN has already taken back one of the ex-Cargo B management team members as DFO for their Korongo project, but maybe his 'friend' is going his own way?

Very interesting indeed...

[an-148]

let's think the other way around ...........

(the - smiley - comment of DesertRat: "Emirates?" inspired me the following thinking:

- are all of you sure that it is to feed other companies in foreign hubs ??
- let's imagine some arabian company (Emirates, Qatar, Etihad,...)in discussion with LGG management to open a stopover in LGG for flying to US, Canada, South America, exactly like Jet Airways is doing in BRU.
They could agree very easy about landing fees, runway lenght, operation timing (24/7), .... but ask mandatory 25 to 30% passengers embarking/disembarking: the need for a dedicated feeder (to LCY, AMS, ....) becomes evident (in addition to the traffic coming from the highspeed trains with an efficient transfer)

we are all thinking about feeding other places from LGG and indeed, the market seems a bit too thin with all the already established aiports all around, but if we think feeding LGG from other places (for an intercontinental company that would stop over in LGG) it suddenly makes a lot of sense !!


what do you think about it?

after what I've read the last days on this topic, I come back to the above posted reply !!!
if we assume that BOT is right when it claims to become a feeder - for some other(s) company(ies) - we are obliged to note that the hub to be fed is LGG and not Firenze, Catania or Venezia !!!! the only place that could be considered as a hub could be Milano, but for which company: the main long haul operating company is controlled by Lufthansa, fed from Belgium by SN - and then why all the other italian stops ?

if we consider the feed of a new intercontinental company in LGG, all the above mentionned destinations (and many, many other) become part of the frame of that pattern (in addition of haviing some point to point clients to fill the planes) !!!

there are not only Persian Gulf companies who are looking to expand their intercontinental routes: Jetstar from Australia is repetedly announcing it could begin intercontinental flights via Europe, asian companies, a.s.o.....

if we consider that FRA, AMS, LHR, CDG are pretty expensive, that the slots are difficult to obtain (due partially to "obstruction" lobbying of Lufthansa, AirFranceKLM, BA,), the new candidate to long haul to/from/via Europe needs to find another place, cheaper, with plenty of cheap slots or no slots at all, open 24/7, CatIII, long runway, with experienced and skilled workforce, well situated in the heart of Europe (not Italy, Spain, Greece or Scandinavia) easily joinable by highways, highspeedtrains, and at least one dedicated air feeder being a local company free of any alliances and available 24/7., we can only consider that that feeder job is inbound LGG.

I repeat: this reflection is mainly due to the fact that BOT claims to become busy as a feeder!

in that optic, the choice of a plane like A318 receives also another lighting: it's the only airbus to be able to serve LCY (and other short runways).

if I had to bet, I would go for such an approach but as said before, time will tell

[Megaman]

I think it also makes sense from what we've read on this topic. Would any one dare extrapolating this to an intercontinental stop over to the US?

[tolipanebas]

All fine, but which 'exotic long haul company stopping in LGG and picking up some additional pax' is interested in feed from the places mentioned here?

I am not even asking for a name, just a profile, but I can't see which type of long haul carrier they could be feeding, for the simple reason that other than on ethnic routes, long haul traffic is mainly corporate driven traffic, yet the destinations mentioned are not very convenient for corporate travellers, to say the least!

Okay IF LCY would be in the mix, than that is a first good destination indeed, but FLR? CTA? What else was it again? Those are VFR routes!? How many people from there need to go to INDIA, AUSTRALIA or the AMERICAS, assuming that must be the origin of the exotic long haul carrier they are planning on feeding then? It just doesn't make any sense really with the routes mentioned....

The code-sharing between 9W and SN is a fine exemple for this: SN extensively feeds 9W, but only from premium business destinations (BHX, HAM, CDG, MAD etc): 9W isn't interested in codesharing on VFR routes from SN like NAP, CTA, AGP, SVQ or KRK for instance, yet at BoT, these kind of VFR destinations are to serve as a feeder network for a long haul network?

Things just don't add up for it to be correct....

[an-148]

you're right, but how to explain the word "feeder" than, regarding the supposed destiantions announced in previous posts ?

[Acid-drop]

That's the whole mistery ...
because I don't believe it's gonna be anything big.
LGG is small for pax and it's very likely that it will remain like that.
1Mpax/year (as the terminal was sized for) is already a wild dream.