This is a big loss specially for the airport of BRN, as the loads on the sector BRN - LCY developed quite good since the codeshare with LX was introduced. They averaged now 52%, probably one of the best loads on the Darwin network. Nevertheless the sector LUG - BRN was always ways below profitability. It was hold mainly as part of the so called "public transport" to link Southern Switzerland with the capital. The governments promised Darwin several times to financially support those flights, what unfortunately never happened, so Darwin took now the consequences.
As a matter of fact, Darwin did loose a lot of money the past years. The last year the business figures were something slightly more than 30 Millions CHF with a realized loss of 11 Millions. The company had to be re-financed and the management had been exchanged. Drawin is now owned for a major part by Italian MyAir and is supposed to fly for MyAir in their network. The aircraft doing the LUG - BRN - LCY - BRN - LCY - BRN - LUG rotation seems to be based in Venice from June on to realize MyAir flights.
For the region of Bern it's a big loss as the flights to England are traditionally important and well in demand. Since the collapse of Dan - Air it was a steady up and down and once again we reach zero. The worst is, the airport will loose once again lots of creditability with the customers, although Alpar - the operator of Bern Airport - did successfully build this route over the past two years. To find another carrier within just two weeks of time is for sure impossible.
The charters flown by Darwin should not be affected, so they obviously have a lot of ferry flights to do between LUG and BRN.
RJ100 From Switzerland, joined Nov 2000, 4107 posts, RR: 32 Reply 2, posted (6 years 1 day 14 hours ago) and read 957 times:
Indeed bad news for BRN...
CAA statistics show 302 passengers on the route BRN-LCY-BRN and 1412 passengers on LUG-LCY-LUG in April. If these numbers are correct, then that would mean less than 5 passengers on the flight BRN-LCY-BRN ??? Or did I get something wrong?
Legacy135 From Switzerland, joined May 2005, 1052 posts, RR: 29 Reply 3, posted (6 years 1 day 12 hours ago) and read 920 times:
Quoting RJ100 (Reply 2): CAA statistics show 302 passengers on the route BRN-LCY-BRN and 1412 passengers on LUG-LCY-LUG in April. If these numbers are correct, then that would mean less than 5 passengers on the flight BRN-LCY-BRN ??? Or did I get something wrong?
Those numbers do indeed look a little strange to me, as the official numbers, calculated by Bern Airport are completely different. I did see flights leaving with only a handful of people boarding, but I have also seen many of them leaving full or nearly full.
Well, what I do not know, is how those numbers split over the period of the year. Maybe those numbers you show compensate if other month's are taken into calculation?
RJ100 From Switzerland, joined Nov 2000, 4107 posts, RR: 32 Reply 5, posted (6 years 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 865 times:
As far as I understand it is the figure for April 07, interestingly in April 06 there were more than 900 passengers flying on this route. It could be an indication that the official reason given by Darwin in their press release, a drop in passengers due to increasing competition in ZRH/BSL/GVA, could be true.
Anyway, it is bad news for Berne. I hope they will soon find other operators to fill the gap.
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