AMS - UK Market developments 2011

[XYZ]

In January of each year, I post a review of the AMS-UK-AMS market developments over the past 12 months. As the United Kingdom is Schiphol Airport's most important market, it is interesting to see how individual routes perform.

Herewith an overview of the AMS <-> UK passenger market in the year 2011.

The year 2011 has seen a strong recovery on Schiphol's most important market, the United Kingdom. The UK's demand for air travel has picked up again even in the present economic crisis. This is partly the result of a very strong April 2011 following the April 2010 closure of UK & NL airspace as a result of the Icelandic volcano eruption and also a strong December 2011 following lots of weather related airport closures in December 2010.

So 2011 was a very good year for the AMS-UK-AMS market with overall market growth to 7.157.000 pax (+10%) from 6.486.000, and several routes saw new passenger records:

1. Edinburgh = 559.315 +13% - additional EZY & KLM frequencies
2. Stansted = 338.367 + 21,4% - EZY increased frequency, 2010 was also a pax record so STN keeps growing
3. London City = 366,462 +0,0% - exactly 336 pax more than 2010
4. Bristol = 289.119 +29,1% - both EZY & KLC increased frequencies
5. Manchester = 612.352 +40,1% - EZY introduced the route and KLM increased frequency
6. Inverness = 5.500 new route Flybe
7. Belfast Harbour = 3.226 new route BMI Baby

But some routes continue to loose passengers:

1. Exeter 33.446 = minus 4,5% - Flybe may well discontinue the route if pax continue to fall.
2. Cardiff 121.730 = minus 2,7% - KLC down to 3x/daily, route losses 4 years in a row was 193.682 in 2008.
3. Liverpool 339.712 = minus 1,8% - KLC has announced withdrawal from this route in March 2012.

Total Market - AMS-UK-AMS:
- 2011 = 7.158.000 +10,1%
- 2010 = 6.484.800 -0.9%
- 2009 = 6.544.135 -9,6%
- 2008 = 7.232.400 -7,3%
- 2007 = 7.801.718 + 1%

Markets by Size:

AMS - UK Market Size 2011 - 2010
1 LHR 1.408.096 - 1.332.798 (record 1.850.000 in 2006)
2 LGW 627.407 - 548.622 (record 670.000 in 2007)
3 MAN 612.352 - 436.927 new pax. record
4 EDI 559.315 - 494.777 new pax. record
5 BHX 474.316 - 426.822 (record 492.300 in 2008)
6 LCY 366.642 - 366.306 = new pax. record
7 LPL 339.712 - 346.088 = lower
8 STN 338.367 - 278.781 = new pax. record
9 GLA 298.795 - 260.988 (record 314.700 in 2008)
10 BRS 289.119 - 222.417 +29,1% grew 4 places in list (record 283.085 in 2007)
11 ABZ 272.067 - 247.354 (record 289.500 in 2008)
12 LTN 269.506 - 234.498 (record 355.088 in 2006)
13 NCL 258.662 - 244.143 (record 341.779 in 2006) fell 2 places in list
14 LBA 230.770 - 223.394 (record 294.269 in 2006)
15 NWI 125.423 - 121.767 (record 155.368 in 2007)
16 CWL 121.730 - 125.118 (record 225.444 in 2007) fell 1 place in list
17 HUY 118.937 - 113.714 (record 141.097 in 2008)
18 EMA 105.273 - 101.119 (record 132.549 in 2007)
19 MME 103.264 - 101.543 (record 123.679 in 2007) fell 1 place in list
20 BFS 99.020 - 89.909 (record 138.799 in 2008)
21 SOU 97.075 - 91.910 (record 102.730 in 2008) fell 1 place in list
22 EXE 33.466 - 35.037 (record 40.459 in 2008)
23 INV 5.500 new
24 BHD 3.226 new
25 DONC 771 - 40.690 (record 49.267 in 2006)

Stations ranked by growth/decline in passenger market:

Growth in 2011
1 MAN 40,1%
2 BRS 29,1%
3 STN 21,4%
4 LTN 14,9%
5 GLA 14,5%
6 LGW 14,4%
7 EDI 13,0%
8 BHX 11,1%
9 BFS 10,1%
10 ABZ 10,0%
11 NCL 5,9%
12 SOU 5,6%
13 LHR 5,6%
14 HUY 4,6%
15 EMA 4,1%
16 LBA 3,3%
17 NWI 3,0%
18 MME 1,7%
19 LCY 0,1%
20 LPL -1,8%
21 CWL -2,7%
22 EXE -4,5%
23 DONC -98,1%
24 INV new
25 BHD new

Things to watch in 2012:
- London Southend joins the list of UK - AMS Airports with new 2x daily EZY services.
- KLM is gaining marketshare at many airports as it introduces higher frequencies, while BMI stopped flying some key domestic routes resulting in less competition in connecting markets via LHR.
- Aberdeen - KLM is suffering a loss of marketshare as LH introduced 3x/daily ABZ-FRA in November 2011.

[PH-BRAD]

Do you have this information too about RTM-LCY? Im wondering how full those F50's are

[XYZ]

The following information is available about the UK <-> NL provincial routes;

- Rotterdam - LCY:
2011 - 123.435 pax
2010 - 115.255 pax
2009 - 106.991 pax

- Eindhoven - LCY:
2011 - 24.651 pax
2010 - 26.904 pax
2009 - 20.907 pax

- Eindhoven - STN:
2011 - 210.326 pax
2010 - 183.630 pax
2009 - 181.662 pax

[PH-BRAD]

Thank you very much!

[Harry Spotter]

Cardiff 121.730 = minus 2,7% - KLC down to 3x/daily, route losses 4 years in a row was 193.682 in 2008

Tata Steel used to fly many employees up and down every week for a big IT project the last 3 years. Not sure how it affected the figure above, but with the economic downturn, all travel has been stopped since last year to cut costs.
Hurray for video-conferencing! (not...)