http://www.easternairways.com are the only airline which serves East Midlands. Birmingham is served with BA.

Go to http://www.aberdeenairport.com for more info.

Thank you for your prompt reply. I have checked them out and they are really reasonable.

Thanks again

Nicole

Does anyone know where I can get cheap airport or near by parking, it is for 14 days and the cheapest quote I can get is £91 and looks like it would be cheaper to go up the night before and stay overnight in the Thistle hotel.

I use http://www.aberdeenairpark.net Tel 01224 729922 Their rate at the moment is £4/day.

luci

It was announced today that BA will be pulling out of the Aberdeen to Gatwick route from March. MORE HERE Although that link says it is due to be announced early this week, it was actually announced today.

This means there will no longer be any flights from Aberdeen to Gatwick.

luci

With regard to the demise of that Aberdeen to Gatwick service, I believe BA are attributing this directly to an anticipated downturn in demand from passengers involved in the oil industry. The service relied heavily on support from the oil industry, for passengers travelling to Gatwick to make onward connections to Houston and Dallas. But as BA are transferring those transatlantic routes to Heathrow from next March, the same demand is not envisaged between Aberdeen and Gatwick.

Aberdeen Airport seems pretty confident that a new operator will be attracted for the route, which apparently carried 19000 passengers last month.

David

Flybe adds extra Aberdeen-Gatwick flights

Flybe is adding extra flights to its Aberdeen to London Gatwick route due to "unprecedented demand".

The increase will see an extra flight added to the Saturday and Sunday summer schedules.

Flybe chief commercial officer Mike Rutter said: "When Flybe took over this route from BA, we pledged to grow the service and these additional flights are proof of our commitment to Aberdeen."

One extra daily service on Saturday between May 3 and October 25 departs Aberdeen at 1135, arriving at Gatwick at 1315 and departing Gatwick 1415 arriving at Aberdeen at 1555.

An extra daily service on Sunday between May 4 and October 19 departs at 1150, arriving Gatwick at 1330, and departing Gatwick at 1400, arriving Aberdeen at 1540.

Fares start at £29.99 one way including taxes and charges.

With permission from Travelmole

hi
never flown out of aberdeen before but being told upon landing there it is a short runway and landing can be quite quick and scarey anyone give me any info on this please
thanks

I have flown into and out of Aberdeen dozens of times and certainly haven't found it scary. It may be the reverse thrust on landing they are talking about, but all planes need this to slow them down.

luci

same here- no problems

bestfriend22uk,

ABZ's runway 16/34 is 1,829m (6,001ft) long so it's not the longest, but plenty big enough for the aircraft that operate in and out of it. Deceloration will be no different than many other regional airports around the country. The runway length is the same size as my local airport, Blackpool and I can't say I've noticed much of a difference between BLK and MAN on comparable aircraft types. Weather conditions on the day play a big part in how smooth the landing is. I wouldn't worry, you're in safe hands.

It may be the reverse thrust on landing they are talking about, but all planes need this to slow them down.

Not all aircraft are fitted with thrust reverse, it's only the larger jets that are equiped and even then, it's not always used for noise abatement reasons. Thrust reverse isn't factored in the landing calculations just in case of engine failure on approach and it becomes unavailable. Landing calculations (ie stopping distances) are based on the use of braking but thurst reverse is often used in favour of brakes to reduce wear and tear on them.

Darren

thanks very much for your replys feel better now
thanks

Like everybody else I can't say I've ever noticed landings and take-offs being any different at Aberdeen than at much larger airports but then I suspect I've always been too fascinated by watching the helicopters take-off and land!

Until I moved up here and started using it a lot I always assumed that the helicopters would just land straight up and down from the heliport - but no, they taxi out on to the main runway, lift up just fractionally above it and then fly forwards gaining height on the same trajectory as all the fixed wing planes. Same in reverse on landing. My brother who is, shame to say, something of a plane spotter, tells me that this is probably due to noise abatement regulation and/or air traffic control rules that mean they have to follow the same flight paths as ordinary aircraft coming in and out of the airport. It seems as good an explanation as any for helicopters not doing what helicopters are designed to do but it does look really weird! Perhaps Dazbo as our resident expert can confirm whether my brother's theory is correct? And does this happen at other airports - as opposed to specialist helicopter only heliports - too, or is this just one more of Aberdeen's little idiosyncracies?

SM

SMa wrote:

probably due to noise abatement regulation and/or air traffic control rules that mean they have to follow the same flight paths as ordinary aircraft coming in and out of the airport.

I can't comment on ABZ as I don't know the local regulations, but Helicopters, particularly larger ones used the same low level airways and come under the same aviations laws as other commercial air traffic. I would assume most of the helicopter operations in the area are centred around the oil / gas operations? They'll have to stick to the same flight paths as other traffic to begin with as that is likely to be the operational procedure for approach / departures in that area. Once clear of the airport, they'll have a flight path to follow like any other commercial traffic.

Darren

Wow! Talk about a quick response! Thanks, Darren!

Yes, the helicopter traffic is almost exclusively about ferrying staff backwards and forwards to the rigs and so they are nearly all large passenger-carrying craft. Supplies are transported by ship. The only exceptions I've seen are the coastguard rescue and an air ambulance. The local regulations are pretty fearsome with regard to noise - I'd never take the risk of booking a late evening flight into Aberdeen for fear of a delay. The airport shuts down at 11pm, no matter what and delayed planes then get diverted to either Inverness or Edinburgh and you then get bussed back to Aberdeen. As I live halfway between Edinburgh and Aberdeen it's extremely frustrating to have to spend 2+ hours being driven north and then have another hour or more travelling back south to get home! Far easier to book from Edinburgh in the first place if you have to travel in the late evening.

SM

Delayed flights can land after 11pm now.

That's good to hear, Fiona, I might take the risk now! I was rather put off by a colleague's experience when he and his family were actually nearly at Aberdeen but would have touched down at around 11.10pm and the pilot announced that they'd been refused permission to land so they'd have to divert to Edinburgh! It took them nearly an extra 4 hrs to get home to Arbroath over and above the original flight delay.

SM

Hmmm- how long ago was that? I certainly had a late landing last summer from Heathrow. We arrived way after 11pm and the taxi driver told us we were lucky as the same flight arrived at 1am the night before.

Hi Fiona, it would have been at least 2 summers ago because they had their teenage sons with them who no longer think it cool to go on holiday with their Mum and Dad. And it was on a holiday charter rather than a scheduled service - I don't know if that makes a difference or not. The thing which had particularly upset them was that they had paid a hefty supplement for what they'd hoped would be the shortest post-flight journey home!

I got into the habit of using Aberdeen for the Ryanair Aberdeen-Liverpool flights - the flights were early afternoon in each direction and even Ryanair were never running so late that it became an issue!

SM