Northern flights to deep south west!

[Mauhoum]

Is there anybody else on here who, like me, are from the  very North of England/South Scotland and live in the Pyrenees Atlantiques or Haute-Pyrenees? If so do you too have to fly by Ryanair from Pau to Stansted, then fly by Easyjet up to Newcastle?

This is the only way I can see family and friends. I just hate paying two lots of tax and juggling flight times. I've been sending emails to Easyjet, putting a case forward for a route between Newcastle and Tarbes. Seems a good idea to me, what with apparently more northerners now moving to France these days, the two departments also apparently being the next property 'hot spots', and both Lourdes and the mountains being on Tarbes' doorstep. Easyjet seemed interested too, so if you are like me, please back me up and send Easyjet your emails too!

Tony

[CBC]

Unfortunately, I don't think that Tarbes-Lourdes Airport is interested in paying, ahem, "marketing contributions" to the likes of Stelios and co.  I would like to see a SW/NW England flight, though .............!  Ryanair do Carcassonne/LPL, so why not add PUF/LPL, I'm sure there would be plenty of business for them?

CBC

[Mauhoum]

Yes I agree that Pau to Liverpool would be fine too.

Interestingly, Tarbes airport originally wanted Ryanair to fly from there, and took Pau airport to the European courts when they snatched the deal from Tarbes! I'm hoping that Tarbes would still be interested in a rival company to Ryanair using their airport.

 

Tony

[CBC]

Quite so, but Tarbes was under huge pressure from its charter airlines (particularly Air Mediterranée who I used to work for) to make trouble for Pau.  They (mainly the airlines) claimed they were losing business from UK/Ireland - I can't imagine many pilgrims who travelled to Lourdes on packages deciding to book the separate elements themselves, expecting assistance for physically challenged/chronically sick passengers from Ryanair, though, can you? 

I think the bottom line for Tarbes was that they perhaps regretted their decision (not that they would ever say so publicly, they played the PR game, accusing Pau of breaking European competition rules etc), Tarbes/65 regularly loses out to Pau/64 on many new business initiatives.  The plane dismantling contract for Tarbes should help the airport and the area, as has the call centre business which is growing, but they just need to have more b**** and go for it, rather than moan when Pau, yet again, takes the spoils.

OK, I'll shut up now!

CBC

[briwy]

    Couldn't agree more Mauhoum  

See my previous post re Jet2 stopping flights from Manchester to Toulouse at the end of October.

Incidentally, check out the costs of Ryanairs flights to Biarritz.  We have found them considerably cheaper than the Pau flights and it's only about another hour and bit extra driving to our place in 65.

Another vote for Liverpool-Pau here as well.

[val douest]

Several votes from here too (us, friends, family and neighbours from the northern UK) for Liverpool-Pau.  At the moment we are using BA from Bordeaux-Gatwick, and then train to Warrington (which was an amazing £9 single when last checked for later this month, including cross-London travel) but it would be so much better to have a direct link.  I actually wrote to the Big Boss at Ryanair about it a year or two back and had a very friendly and obviously individually formulated letter in reply saying he and 'our friends in Pau' were keeping a watchful eye on the possibilities of extending the Ryanair services from Pau airport.  Sadly for us, his deliberations led him to believe that Bristol would be a better bet than Liverpool!

Val

[ChezTinns]

Another vote for Liverpool to Pau from us too.  We live in the Midlands and travel to our other home in the Gers (32), usually via Flybe Birmingham to Toulouse or Jet2 Manchester to Toulouse - both which ceaced end of October.  For Christmas we are having to travel 3 hours to Stanstead to take the Standstead Pau route. Don't want to have to do this monthly!!!!  Only other option is Bristol to Toulouse with Easyjet.  Really don't understand the cancelling of flights into Toulouse during the winter especially as they were always full last year with the proximity to the Pyrenees and ski-ing. Madness!

[Stefan]

ChezT..

I believe one factor in the loss of UK-TLS Winter flights was that the ski tour operators had major problems getting folk from TLS to the Andorra slopes a couple of years back ( Road closures at Ax Les Thermes for example). In some cases they ended up coaching people from TLS to Narbonne and eventually into Andorra from the South...therefore last year many of the ski companies flew folks into airports on the Spanish side, perhaps similar is happening again...  Of course we know how much it snowed last year [:(]  

[briwy]

   

Stefan, I can understand that but there are a lot of other ski areas in the Pyrenees apart from Andorra, better as well.

What really bugs me is that as I said previously, the route is actually advertised (or at least it was last month) in the Jet2 flight magazine.

When we have used the flight there have been quite a number of business  users on as well, possibly from British Aerospace at Chester going to Airbus at Toulouse.