In message , at 09:48:20 on Thu, 29 Sep
2016, tim... remarked:

The problem with BMIB was that they only flew from one region of the
country (the midlands) [1] which presumably wasn't a big enough
catchment for the quantity/type of flights that they offered.

Not that the individual airports were inconvenient (though for PT
access, one of them was)

[1] that's all Wikipedia will admit to, did they fly (to Europe) from
elsewhere?

Aberdeen, Bristol and Newcastle.

Like I said, their main problem was tidal flow. I used to fly regularly
from East Midlands to Schiphol, and the 7am flight out was always
packed, but the immediate return leg (about 10am Dutch time) was
virtually empty. As was the inbound flight for the busy 7pm departure
from Schiphol.
--
Roland Perry

On 2016-09-29 07:16:26 +0000, Roland Perry said:

Doesn't change the fact I wouldn't pay £50k for a second hand one.

Indeed - I vaguely looked but ended up with a LWB Defender because of
the outrageous price of used Discoveries. (Defenders aren't cheap
either but they are fun, and I managed to find an ex-farm one which had
been replaced early to get one of the last new ones, so it was a lot
cheaper than one that was alloyed up, and now is the last chance to own
a nearly new Defender to the original design...)

Will be interesting to see, with the Discovery having become less
utilitarian, if the new Defender plugs that gap well, or if those
wanting a comfortable utility 4x4 (the Defender is an excellent vehicle
but there's nothing comfortable about it) are resigned to having to
purchase Japanese pick-ups, given that US-style full-size SUVs by and
large are not available in the UK, with the old Discovery and Nissan
Pathfinder having been as close as you got?

(How did we get from taxis to Landys? )

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

On 2016-09-29 08:29:53 +0000, tim... said:

There are loads of products that Aldi do not sell in every country, and
there are some German ones that I wish I could buy here

I find Lidl to be better for actual German stuff - Aldi have by and
large Anglicised most of their range, Lidl much less so.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

On 2016-09-29 08:54:20 +0000, tim... said:

Gdansk-Gdynia would be the third largest city in Poland if it were one
single city

Fair point, it does get referred to as the Tricity almost as if it were
one. It is I suppose a coastal and smaller equivalent of the
Liverpool-Manchester-Preston (North West) conurbation, or the Randstad.

FWIW it's also an excellent airport, though the old terminal where you
get sent for actual departures on non-Schengen flights is a bit grim
and Lutonesque. (Best approach is not to go there until the flight
calls)

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

On 2016-09-29 09:03:40 +0000, Roland Perry said:

Like I said, their main problem was tidal flow. I used to fly regularly
from East Midlands to Schiphol, and the 7am flight out was always
packed, but the immediate return leg (about 10am Dutch time) was
virtually empty. As was the inbound flight for the busy 7pm departure
from Schiphol.

That was always going to be the case - BHX and EMA have no appeal for
tourists whatsoever, nor really for incoming business which is highly
London-centric.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

In message , at 10:19:38 on Thu, 29
Sep 2016, Neil Williams remarked:

Like I said, their main problem was tidal flow. I used to fly
regularly from East Midlands to Schiphol, and the 7am flight out was
always packed, but the immediate return leg (about 10am Dutch time)
was virtually empty. As was the inbound flight for the busy 7pm
departure from Schiphol.

That was always going to be the case - BHX and EMA have no appeal for
tourists whatsoever, nor really for incoming business which is highly
London-centric.

It's more a case that the empty flights lose you half a day, getting to
the UK too late for a morning meeting, and leaving the UK too early for
an afternoon meeting. And both (if as they were, used mainly by Brits)
in effect requiring an extra overnight hotel at the Dutch end.

If the morning flight from the UK didn't get in quite so early, it would
encourage more people to fly the evening before and use a hotel for an
early morning start. Which is what I did if the host rather than
attendee.
--
Roland Perry

"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...
On 2016-09-29 08:54:20 +0000, tim... said:

Gdansk-Gdynia would be the third largest city in Poland if it were one
single city

Fair point, it does get referred to as the Tricity almost as if it were
one. It is I suppose a coastal and smaller equivalent of the
Liverpool-Manchester-Preston (North West) conurbation, or the Randstad.

FWIW it's also an excellent airport, though the old terminal where you get
sent for actual departures on non-Schengen flights is a bit grim and
Lutonesque. (Best approach is not to go there until the flight calls)

That's like going down to the "low cost" cattle shed [1] at BUD.

tim

[1] almost literally

On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 03:46:02PM +0100, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 13:51:15
on Tue, 27 Sep 2016, David Cantrell remarked:
In any case, to compete with a business you don't have to do everything
that that business does or do it in the same way. The few remaining
bookshops, for example, are in competition with Amazon, despite not
also selling beer and sex toys, despite not stocking many books, and
despite not delivering them to your door for free.
Which is why people can easily set up competitors for Uber by
cherry-picking a bit of its market (just one of the types of service,
one city, etc).

Why does cherry-picking a bit of Uber's market count as competing with
Uber but cherry-picking a bit of Amazon's market doesn't count as
competing with Amazon?

--
David Cantrell | Reality Engineer, Ministry of Information

Do not be afraid of cooking, as your ingredients will know and misbehave
-- Fergus Henderson

On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 06:11:28PM +0100, Roland Perry wrote:

Of course, their non-food takes these features to extremes, with much of
the stock being for sale for only a few weeks a year, and bins full of
clothing that within a day or two are entirely the unpopular sizes
no-one wants.

I assume that's just because someone desperate to unload something
offered them a good price. I picked up a decent multimeter from them
for a song a while back and have never seen them in there since.

--
David Cantrell | Cake Smuggler Extraordinaire

Are you feeling bored? depressed? slowed down? Evil Scientists may
be manipulating the speed of light in your vicinity. Buy our patented
instructional video to find out how, and maybe YOU can stop THEM

In message , at 15:07:29
on Thu, 29 Sep 2016, David Cantrell remarked:
In any case, to compete with a business you don't have to do everything
that that business does or do it in the same way. The few remaining
bookshops, for example, are in competition with Amazon, despite not
also selling beer and sex toys, despite not stocking many books, and
despite not delivering them to your door for free.
Which is why people can easily set up competitors for Uber by
cherry-picking a bit of its market (just one of the types of service,
one city, etc).

Why does cherry-picking a bit of Uber's market count as competing with
Uber but cherry-picking a bit of Amazon's market doesn't count as
competing with Amazon?

In the sense you ask, because the only product being cherry picked from
Uber is transport *here*, whereas the thing which isn't in fact being
cherry picked from Amazon is mail ordering a specialist product.
--
Roland Perry