Holiday flights from Newcastle.

Hihopes

Why are we in the north east treated so badly by the holiday companies when it comes to flight time departures and returns. More than anywhere else in the country we are expected to have to leave on 6.am. flights and return in the early hours of the morning. There does appear to be a biased for reasonable timed flights and returns the further south of the country you live. Simply not fair because we also, usually, have to pay extra on the very flimsy fact that we live a a very short distance further from the destinations. 

vacheron

I'm sure your frustrations are valid, but we almost exclusively fly from Newcastle as it is our local airport, and I can't say I've had any major issues. 

We are flying to Barcelona with KLM in September, for a 4 night city break, but we specifically chose the 6am flight as it gives us more time in the city rather than wasting a day setting off at 1-2Pm and only arriving in the city in the evening.  The same applies with flying home. I'd rather arrive at 1am and be on holiday most of the previous day than have to leave the hotel for the airport at the crack of dawn.

There are flights throughout the whole day at Newcastle, and it's a relatively small airport, so they can't all leave in the middle of the day, but opposingly, they can't "all" be leaving in the early hours of the morning either.

And yes, sometimes we pay a premium over other airports, but it is rarely the highest, and personally, the easy and quiet stroll through Newcastle is a price worth paying in my opinion compared to travelling to, and through, the huge queues at the likes of Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester etc.  

Maybe you've just been unlucky so far?

Alderbank

Government night flight restrictions severely limit the number of night flights to and from London Heathrow, Gatwick and Stanstead.
Manchester voluntarily limits the number of night flights to just 7% of the total so that locals can get a good night's sleep.

Price differences are to some extent because the largest (and noisiest) planes fly mainly from major airports, and those planes are the cheapest to operate per passenger mile. 

Doshwaster

Easyjet used to have a decent network of flights from Newcastle but most were lost during the pandemic and never came back. For long haul destinations, the whole world is available with a connection in Amsterdam, London or Dubai but you really don't want to be doing that on a weekend away.

NoodleDoodleMan

"Why are we in the north east treated so badly by the holiday companies when it comes to flight time departures and returns. More than anywhere else in the country we are expected to have to leave on 6.am. flights and return in the early hours of the morning."

Are we talking about the major package holiday firms TUI and/or Jet2 ?

I checked out a TUI deal to a popular hotel on the Costa del Sol from Newcastle in October - very little difference in flight times outward (early morning) and inward (late morning) compared to Glasgow our relevant airport.

Jet2 doing same resort, same days, outward (1 hour later) and inward (same time) - so effectively six of one and half a dozen of the other.

I expect you'd need to check one of the bigger airports, such as Manchester, to find other flight time variations to suit your preferences.

Most punters are happy to fly out early morning on short/medium haul for sun, sand and sea holidays as they get more time in resort on the arrival day. Late return flights are certainly a pain in the rear though.

Incidentally TUI use Easyjet for certain days on the Malaga run from GLA, we won't use them following a dreadful recent experience - only Thursday TUI or the BA Sunday flights which TUI have arranged to give 7 or 10 night packages.

Of course, there is no one size fits all - you just need to trawl around to find what you fancy.

bagand96

Holiday airlines like Jet2 and TUI tend to operate their flights in "waves".  First wave the aircraft will depart early morning to operate to a destination and back, returning to the UK around lunchtime/early afternoon.   Second wave they depart early afternoon, returning to the UK late evening or into the small hours depending on the length of flights.  There are often variations, if doing shorter flights they can squeeze a third round trip in for some aircraft.  But the pattern tends to be similar up and down the country often to the same destinations at the same time as as it also makes overseas logistics easier.

Some of tomorrow morning's Newcastle Jet2 departures, compared to Birmingham and Stansted:

Newcastle to: BHX     STN 05:50 Kefalonia     06:00 Alicante 07:00   06:30 Antalya 06:05    06:00 06:35 Faro 07:00    08:45 07:05 Mahon 16:20    05:55 07:05 Malaga 07:25   07:25 Palma 08:00    05:55 08:05 Ibiza 06:25    08:00

It doesn't seem to support the notion that Newcastle is worse off than anywhere else?  (Stansted has a slightly different route profile, but it's worth saying tomorrow there are an additional 4 departures before 07:00 to other destinations).  Haven't checked middle of the night arrivals, or TUI but I expect both will be similar across the airports.

TadleyBaggie

Turn up at Gatwick at 4:30AM and it will be heaving already, so it's not just a Newcastle problem.

Pollycat

Hihopes said:

Why are we in the north east treated so badly by the holiday companies when it comes to flight time departures and returns. More than anywhere else in the country we are expected to have to leave on 6.am. flights and return in the early hours of the morning. There does appear to be a biased for reasonable timed flights and returns the further south of the country you live. Simply not fair because we also, usually, have to pay extra on the very flimsy fact that we live a a very short distance further from the destinations. 

I don't understand this. 
Where are you flying to? 
We like early morning flights, from BHX/MAN/EMA, and fly back (usually from Greece) early afternoon.

Hoenir

If the planes are based at Newcastle then they need to start early in the day to maximise the utilisation around Europe.