Archive - Wednesday, 3 March 2010


Find by date

Other ways to search

Also look for

Never miss anything again. Sign up for our RSS news feeds and Newsletters.

Airport's Edinburgh link off to a flying start

CHAMPAGNE corks popped as the first daily scheduled flight from London Oxford Airport headed for Scotland.

Martin Halstead before the inaugural flight to Edinburgh Martin Halstead before the inaugural flight to Edinburgh

Martin Halstead, the 23-year-old aviation entrepreneur, launched the celebrations in Kidlington before stepping on board the inaugural Varsity Express flight to Edinburgh.

Summertown-based Mr Halstead, nicknamed ‘Baby Branson’ after previously setting up an ill-fated Oxford-Cambridge service five years ago at the age of 18, said he was confident this latest venture would be no flight of fancy.

He said: “It has been a long time coming but the market has completely changed.

“Five years ago people were still getting used to the idea of flying from a local airport but now Oxford has a new terminal and is ready to provide this sort of service.”

Mr Halstead, who worked as a pilot in Greece and will help fly the 18-seat BAE Jetstream 31 plane, set up Varsity Express after being approached by a group of investors.

He was joined by mother Susan on the 90-minute maiden flight. He said: “The journey by train takes more than six hours and can be expensive. We are offering one-way flights from £49 and demand so far has been very promising.”

Several passengers had read about the service in the Oxford Mail and jumped at the opportunity to visit friends and family.

Mike Lester, 73, from Headington, Oxford, was visiting daughter Rachel and his 18-month-old grandson Jack.

He said: “Normally I fly from Gatwick where I have a two-hour check-in, or I drive – but that can take six hours.

“This is a real godsend. As long as the prices stay reasonable I am convinced it will be a good option.”

The Edinburgh flight runs daily from Monday to Friday, leaving Oxford at 8am and returning at 5pm.

A separate flight to Newcastle which will continue to Edinburgh launches next month, leaving at 2.30pm.

If successful, there are plans to upgrade the aircraft to a 50-seater.


Comments (3)

03/03/10

Tom Daily says...

How is it possibly to make money on 18 seats by £45. When you take out costs of; lease of plane, fuel, salaries, airport fee's, etc, etc.

I hope he manages to make a go of it, but can not see this happening from where I'm sitting.

Best of luck

04/03/10

EB says...

Assuming 18 full seats on both trips, that's £1620 per day turnover, and it's a daily service so a sensible case is around £28k a month t/o, minus around £15k running costs makes it a slow earner but certainly not bad. Add in extra routes and the aircraft will soon be earning money. The more it can fly the more it will make.

Best of luck to him. I will be using the service!

05/03/10

Jimmy7701 says...

Good points on the economics of "thin" routes by Tom Daily and EB. And Eastern manages to turn a profit (presumably) on thin routes around the UK with small aircraft. But they are not competing with major carriers - eg. Eastern's Teeside to Southampton route. Varsity, on the other hand, faces some competition in routes to Edinburgh from both Heathrow and Birmingham.

As you work out turnover, of course, you have to bear in mind that not all seats are sold. For next week, Varsity have sold just now 66 seats of out a possible of 90 on the run from Oxford north to Edinburgh. Not at all bad, as that will surely still increase a bit. The northbound flight on Friday 12th is already sold out.