Aviation Archive: Go – 2002

In the early 2000’s, low cost airlines didn’t have the scale of what we see today. More often or not they would only have a handful of bases, and therefore smaller fleets and a much smaller route portfolio. At the the height of its success in 2002, GO was already operating from three UK bases – the main base at London Stansted, Bristol and East Midlands (all of which were later taken over by easyJet).

At London Stansted, Go operated to:
Belfast International
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Newcastle
Alicante
Barcelona
Bilbao
Bologna
Copenhagen
Faro
Ibiza
Lyon
Malaga
Milan Linate
Munich
Naples
Nice
Palma
Prague
Rome Ciampino
Venice (Marco Polo)

In the smaller base at Bristol, they offered similar destinations:

Belfast International
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Alicante
Barcelona
Faro
Malaga
Nice
Palma
Prague

The same could be said at East Midlands, a base easyJet later closed down:

Edinburgh
Glasgow
Alicante
Faro
Malaga
Prague

There were also flights from Belfast International to both Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Aviation Archive: Summer 2006 – Norwich

Although similar to other regional airports in the UK, with a mix of city and leisure routes, Norwich had the benefit of flyBe and their attempt at becoming a ‘low cost airline’, with their fleet of 737-300’s and Avro/146’s.

It meant that it had a diverse, and intriguing network spanning across Europe, especially to the popular beach destinations.

flyBe’s network included:
Edinburgh
Manchester
Murcia
Malaga
Alicante
Jersey
Exeter
Glasgow
Guernsey
Bordeaux
Paris CdG
Faro
Dubrovnik
Split
Dublin

In addition, Eastern had three routes to Groningen, Aberdeen and Manchester, with bmi (British Midland) also flying to Aberdeen.

Other airlines included:
Air Southwest – Bristol
KLM – Amsterdam
First Choice – Mahon
TUI/Thomson – Corfu, Palma, Ibiza
Pegasus – Dalaman
Air Malta – Malta
LTE International – Lanzarote
Eurocypria – Paphos, Heraklion
Air Europa – Tenerife South, Gran Canaria, Palma

Aviation Archive: easyJet Luton – Summer 2006

easyJet’s home is at Luton Airport, it was its first base and is where their HQ is to this day. However, 15 years ago their route network was rather different to today, with the furthest services being Athens and Istanbul, neither of which are offered today.

There are a few notable words to say. Firstly, a notable lack of flying to the major cities of Italy (Venice, Rome and Milan), no Canaries or Ibiza, and a lot more flying to Eastern Europe.

Routes included:
Faro
Palma
Malaga
Basel
Inverness
Barcelona
Alicante
Berlin Schoenefeld
Amsterdam
Bratislava
Madrid
Budapest
Warsaw
Istanbul SAW
Paris CdG
Lisbon
Aberdeen
Glasgow
Geneva
Dortmund
Belfast International
Edinburgh
Cagliari
Turin
Nice
Krakow
Bordeaux
Grenoble
Athens
Bremen
Rijeka
Rimini

Aviation Archive: Summer 2006 – Bournemouth

Bournemouth was quite typical of regional airports before the recession at the end of the decade. It had a based airline (usually Thomson), along with charter airlines either from Spain or Turkey supplementing them. However, Bournemouth had a twist – an airline which was named the world’s best airline!

The Thomson destinations included:
Palma
Alicante
Verona
Salzburg
Amsterdam
Pisa
Ibiza
Faro
Jersey
Malaga
Paphos

The other based airline in question was Palmair. The aircraft was operated by European Aviation, a somewhat old 737-200, and was chartered for holidays provided by Bath Travel. (This later ended when Bath Travel was taken over by Hays Travel some years later).

Services included:
Funchal
Faro
Brescia
Palma
Tenerife South
Jersey
Mahon (Menorca)
Lanzarote
Corfu
Alicante
Dubrovnik

Additional services included:
Pegasus – Bodrum
Futura – Palma
SpanAir – Tenerife South
Blue Islands – Alderney, Jersey, Guernsey
Ryanair – Dublin, Gerona
Iberworld – Palma
Air Berlin – Paderborn

Aviation Archive: Summer 2006 – Coventry

It was a rather short-lived project, but Thomson’s reinvention into low-cost airline which saw the acquisition of 737-classics meant that different route portfolio was introduced. One of the key bases was at Coventry, with a small fleet of 737’s.

Routes included:
Malaga
Palma
Ibiza
Faro
Pisa
Paris Orly
Jersey
Valencia
Barcelona
Salzburg
Alicante
Amsterdam

Aviation Archive: Summer 2006 – Cardiff

Cardiff was quite a different place in 2006 compared to 2021, with four based charter airlines – along with a base for low-cost airline bmibaby. They covered all the usual summer sun routes, and overlapped considerably, but there were also a few you might not have expected!

Excel Airways

Fuerteventura
Dalaman
Paphos
Malaga
Tenerife South
Corfu
Gran Canaria
Lanzarote
Palma
Sharm El Sheikh

First Choice Airways

Lanzarote
Tenerife South
Palma
Reus
Dalaman
Bodrum
Naples
Menorca
Alicante
Bourgas
Kefalonia
Larnaca (Scheduled Service)
Paphos (Scheduled Service)

ThomsonFly

Malaga
Bourgas
Paphos
Tenerife South
Gran Canaria
Palma
Gerona
Ibiza
Varna
Jersey (operated by Aer Arann)
Alicante
Monastir
Lanzarote
Zakynthos
Verona
Corfu
Heraklion
Dalaman

MyTravel Airways

Menorca
Dalaman
Tenerife South
Lanzarote
Heraklion
Fuerteventura
Larnaca
Rhodes
Gran Canaria
Alicante
Reus
Palma
Faro
Zakynthos

Bmibaby

Palma
Alicante
Malaga
Faro
Edinburgh
Belfast International
Glasgow
Amsterdam
Prague
Jersey

Additional Short Haul Services

KLM – Amsterdam
Ryanair – Dublin
Aer Arann – Lorient, Cork, Dublin, Galway
Onur Air – Dalaman
Spanair – Ibiza, Palma
Astraeus – Funchal
Futara – Ibiza
Air Southwest – Newquay/Manchester
Eastern – Newcastle

Cardiff Airport – Long Haul Services

Excel Airways – Orlando Sanford
Monarch Airways – Orlando Sanford
ThomsonFly – Orlando Sanford, Cancun, Puerto Plata
Zoom – Toronto, Vancouver