News Update

Manx2.com has just reached a major milestone with the 100,000th customer having flown on one of the company’s seven routes from the Isle of Man.

The company now books customers on routes to Belfast (City and International), Blackpool, Leeds, Gloucester (M5), Nottingham East Midlands and Jersey.

"When we launched the business from scratch in July 2006 we offered three routes, and around 72 services each week", says communications director, James Filleul.

"That’s grown in less than two years to seven routes which have seen more than 100,000 passengers, and our new summer timetable offers at least 184 flights every week for our customers to choose from, and fares from just £15 (online single including tax)".

As dejected Cherry and Whites fans made their way home from Kingsholm, Gloucestershire Airport staff faced a further onslaught from the Munster hoards.

More than 500 fans and the Munster players used the County's Airport making it a recordbreaking day at Staverton. Irish airline, Aer Arann sent 4 of its 80-seater ATR 72 turboprops and a dozen more charter, private and executive aircraft made the trip from Cork and Shannon. The team arrived on Friday, signing autographs for waiting fans. They also left a signed rugby shirt, which will be displayed in the Airport Departure Lounge.

Head of Operations, Darren Lewington said; - "It was a very busy weekend. We handled more passengers on Saturday than ever before in a single day."

On Saturday evening, it looked very much like the chaos at Heathrow's Terminal 5, as coach loads of fans crammed into our tiny terminal. Fortunately, these travellers were in fine fettle and good humour following their win and weren't kept waiting for long.

Operationally, the ATR72 is about the largest aeroplane that the Airport can accommodate, but four at once left us very short of parking space. We had to extend the opening hours to allow the aircraft to depart after the match and the Munster team's flight was the last to take at 1020pm.

Campaigners opposed to the Airport's Runway Safety Project have expressed concerns that bosses are trying to expand the business to attract this type of traffic regularly, but Airport Director, Mark Ryan, dismissed the fears.

He said; - "This match, and the Cheltenham races, are very much special events. We simply don't have the infrastructure or staff to accommodate these sized flights on a regular basis. Our 19-seater scheduled services to the Isle of Man, Jersey and Belfast City are the niche market the County needs."

"As a Gloucester fan, though, I very much hope we can progress further in next year s competition and, perhaps, fly some of the home fans to away fixtures."

Forty Parish Councillors, representing the various communities around Gloucestershire Airport were invited to attend a guided tour of the Staverton site last week.

The Airport management team gave a presentation and coach tour of the facilities in a bid to promote awareness of the Airport, its role and future development plans.

Head of Operations, Darren Lewington said; “It’s clear that there are some misconceptions in the public domain about the Airport and our development plans. We wanted the opportunity to demonstrate exactly what we’re about.

Our visitors were able to see for themselves a good cross section of the aircraft that use the Airport, from light training aircraft to multi million dollar Executive Jets. We were also able to drive the coach onto the main runway and see first hand the hazards at both ends of the runway that our Runway Safety Project will address.”

Chairman of Up Hatherley Parish Council, Stewart Fowler said; - “It is no exaggeration that we were all amazed to discover the true story behind the proposed improvements to safety at the airfield. Having heard and read all kinds of scaremongering about the project, it was good to hear and see the truth for ourselves.”

Airport Director, Mark Ryan, was pleased with the response. He said: “We’ve had excellent feedback from all the attendees. There’s strong support for the Airport within our local communities and strong opposition against any housing developments on the site.

We’ll be inviting Councillors from Cheltenham Borough and Gloucester City Councils, and the Senior Officers of both to similar events in the coming weeks. We feel it is essential that those charged with making key decisions, which could affect the Airport’s future, have a full understanding of our business and operations.”

An Information Pack about the visit is available (PDF Format). This is a large file, so you may wish to right click on the link and choose "Save target as" to download it.

Gloucestershire Airport has introduced a number of new incentives to encourage pilots to ‘go green’ and reduce noise.

Landing Fees for aircraft fitted with diesel engines, silencers and noise-reducing propellers will be reduced by 20%.

Head of Operations, Darren Lewington said; - “We’ve committed the Airport to developing a Green policy, as part of our Runway Safety Project and this is our first step in a series of planned initiatives.

The aviation industry is responding to the challenges of climate change by developing new technologies and we want to encourage our customers to adopt them. Diesel engines burn up to 60% less fuel than traditional piston engines and are slowly entering the marketplace.

Light aircraft noise is a concern for some of our neighbours. Silencers are available on the market and even mandatory in some European countries, but the UK seems to be lagging behind. Often, the Civil Aviation Authority’s certification and approval processes are prohibitively expensive for small operators, but we’re hoping that our incentives will make a difference.

Our newest tenant, Wilksch Airmotive has developed, and is now manufacturing a lightweight diesel engine at the Airport. Their products are approved for use in Light Sport Aircraft and will offer flying schools and private operators much improved fuel efficiency.

Obviously, the introduction of manufacturing industry on-site, in a field at the cutting edge of technology is good for the Airport, its customers, our neighbours and the environment.”