New Routes Review 2016 – London Heathrow (LHR) to Inverness (INV)
May 3, 2016, 1:50 am
#1
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New Routes Review 2016 – London Heathrow (LHR) to Inverness (INV)
New BA Routes: London Heathrow (LHR) to INV.
This is a guide for one of BA's new routes, London Heathrow Terminal 5 to Inverness, in the Scottish highlands. This is the only route in the area to London Heathrow, providing an important link for local businesses and communities to the wider world.
Route history
This route has certainly seen a lot of name changes. BA, or rather BEA, started the LHR to INV service in November 1968 using Hawker Siddeley Tridents and Vickers Viscounts, and it was considered an important route when BA had a closer relationship with Loganair. But the service stopped in 1997 when the routes were passed to British Regional Airlines, a BA franchise partner, and thereby moved to Gatwick. This then became BA Citiexpress then BA Connect and then finally passed on to Flybe in 2007. BA restarted the Heathrow route under its main EuroFleet on Tuesday 3 May 2016.
Timetable
At the time of writing (May 2016) there is a single, daily, year-round service from LHR T5:
LHR depart 09:50 - BA1468
INV arrive 11:25
INV depart 12:10 - BA1469
LHR arrive 13:40
Aircraft
The timetable shows this as an Airbus 319 service, it would be quite likely to also see some A320 aircraft as well.
Seating advice
There are great views on this route, particularly from the Lake Districts northwards through the Highlands, assuming the weather obliges. The landing into INV is particularly eye catching, with (typically) a left swing around the coast of the Moray Firth. The port (left) hand side going northwards probably has the edge but the right hand side is also attractive. Assuming an A319, you probably want to get rows 1 or rows 10 for legroom.
Miles: 443 miles on the Great Circle mapper between LHR-INV
Crew: 2 flight crew, 3 cabin crew, standard A319 crewing. An A320 would have at least one extra cabin crew.
Fares
At the time of writing, the lowest fare LHR-INV, is £66.81 for HBO (Basic) single fare, O fare bucket, but the return is £75.30, which is relatively inexpensive. The checked baggage (Plus) fare is an extra £10 each way. Note however that the cheapest single from INV-LHR is just £40.49 HBO, illustrating in part the impact of APD. Return fares are about the same from both LHR and INV. Note that this isn't a cost effective route for upgrading to N fares, which get more TPs and Avios, you'll typically be paying an extra £48 over the cheapest O fares each way.
POUG and AUP
POUG and AUPs are not available, it's a one class domestic service.
Earning Tier Points and Avios
Reward Flight Saver
BA release at 2 seats for RFS per flight, and at the time of writing often a great deal more availability is on offer, so this is a relatively easy and cost effective way to use Avios, . Each way:
Peak: 4,500 Avios + £17.50
Off peak: 4,000 Avios + £17.50
(Note that for some reason a single INV-LHR cash element is 1 penny cheaper at £17.49).
Routing
This was the first flight INV-LHR routing, the LHR-INV was fairly similar:
Catering
Due to the flight timings, there is only the standard domestic biscuits/crisps/nuts basket offered. See the Short haul catering guide in the Dashboard for the latest offerings. So no breakfast option here, the timings don't allow for it. The slightly longer flight to INV does give a better option to get an additional round of drinks in. A full bar is available, including wines and spirits, along with soft drinks, tea and coffee, though in line with other domestic services no champagne is offered.
INV Airport facilities
Airside there is a gift shop called Jail Dornoch; The Fly Nip - a local whisky emporium; the D'Lish (sic) licensed snack bar and WH Smith.
INV transport logistics
There is a regular bus service to Inverness bus station, running every 30 minutes, £6 each way. Journey time 20 - 25 minutes. The railway station is next door to the bus station. FTers have been known to lunch at the Royal Highland Hotel at the station. A taxi to the centre would cost about £20
Lounge
There is a Swissport Aspire lounge airside at INV which is open to BAEC Silver, oneworld Sapphire passengers and above. They can also guest one other BA traveller. Business UK passengers also get access, though without guesting privileges. More details in the UK lounge thread in the Dashboard.
Fast Track and Priority boarding
Both Fast Track security and Priority Boarding is offered and enforced at INV. Security in normal circumstances should not take long and is both efficient and friendly. If connecting on to another T5 flight there is no further security check at T5.
Weekend potential:
LHR to INV has good weekend potential, though the middle of the day flight schedule would eat into the available time. On the other hand Inverness is very near by, and with car hire the Highlands can be accessed quickly.
Back to back and cheap fares potential:
Back to back is easy and near idiot-proof. As you come off the aircraft you walk (no bus is involved) though a corridor to the left of main airside area, this gets you airside very quickly. Then left and a short 20 metre walk bring you back to security. The distance between security and the gate is also very short, and indeed the whole of airside is not big.
Note that Inverness has important potential since it is not subject to APD (Air Passenger Duty, a UK government tax). This is out of recognition of the high cost of transport for communities well away from the South of England. This concession is slightly constrained by the middle of the day flight timings, and being domestic to international, a 23 hour stayover in London may make you liable for APD. This applies to revenue, Upgrade using Avios (UuA) and Avios flights, but it is on Avios flights, particularly when used with a 2-4-1 Amex companion voucher on longhaul service in WTP and above that the benefit of starting from INV become particularly stark.
For example if two passengers used Avios and a companion voucher from LHR-JFK, the cost of 2 adults offpeak is 100k Avios and £959 total. From INV-LHR-JFK it becomes a total of £726 total and the same number of Avios. So if you wrap a low cost or RFS service LHR-INV-LHR around the long haul - on a separate ticket, then doing a back to back around it. However you will need to travel Hand Baggage Only to and from INV (actually at INV it may even be possible to do back to back with checked luggage but I'm certainly not recommending it!) and work out some plan to handle any checked luggage at LHR. Bigger savings could apply for longer distance travel.
Some things to do in Inverness
[Calum and others: any suggestions to improve this section?]
- Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, next to Inverness Castle. The castle itself, with its ties to Shakespeare's Scottish play, despite being in public ownership, isn't open to visitors but the grounds are, and give good view over Loch Ness.
- Loch Ness - watch out for the bright blue monster that certainly lives within its dank depths
- Leaskey's - One of the UK's largest second hand bookshops, in a converted church.
- Culloden Battlefield - scene of the the most important and last battle of the Jacobite uprising in 1745, and the last hand to hand battle on British soil, is 5 miles out of Inverness, between the town and airport.
Interesting features
Inverness Airport started as RAF Dalcross in 1940 as part of the war effort to help defend the Northern Approaches. The airport is still known locally as Dalcross. There is a small aviation museum in the industrial estate next to the airport.
Other links
Inverness Airport website
BA press release announcing the restored service
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...lborg-aal.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...hafen-fdh.html
This is a guide for one of BA's new routes, London Heathrow Terminal 5 to Inverness, in the Scottish highlands. This is the only route in the area to London Heathrow, providing an important link for local businesses and communities to the wider world.
Route history
This route has certainly seen a lot of name changes. BA, or rather BEA, started the LHR to INV service in November 1968 using Hawker Siddeley Tridents and Vickers Viscounts, and it was considered an important route when BA had a closer relationship with Loganair. But the service stopped in 1997 when the routes were passed to British Regional Airlines, a BA franchise partner, and thereby moved to Gatwick. This then became BA Citiexpress then BA Connect and then finally passed on to Flybe in 2007. BA restarted the Heathrow route under its main EuroFleet on Tuesday 3 May 2016.
Timetable
At the time of writing (May 2016) there is a single, daily, year-round service from LHR T5:
LHR depart 09:50 - BA1468
INV arrive 11:25
INV depart 12:10 - BA1469
LHR arrive 13:40
Aircraft
The timetable shows this as an Airbus 319 service, it would be quite likely to also see some A320 aircraft as well.
Seating advice
There are great views on this route, particularly from the Lake Districts northwards through the Highlands, assuming the weather obliges. The landing into INV is particularly eye catching, with (typically) a left swing around the coast of the Moray Firth. The port (left) hand side going northwards probably has the edge but the right hand side is also attractive. Assuming an A319, you probably want to get rows 1 or rows 10 for legroom.
Miles: 443 miles on the Great Circle mapper between LHR-INV
Crew: 2 flight crew, 3 cabin crew, standard A319 crewing. An A320 would have at least one extra cabin crew.
Fares
At the time of writing, the lowest fare LHR-INV, is £66.81 for HBO (Basic) single fare, O fare bucket, but the return is £75.30, which is relatively inexpensive. The checked baggage (Plus) fare is an extra £10 each way. Note however that the cheapest single from INV-LHR is just £40.49 HBO, illustrating in part the impact of APD. Return fares are about the same from both LHR and INV. Note that this isn't a cost effective route for upgrading to N fares, which get more TPs and Avios, you'll typically be paying an extra £48 over the cheapest O fares each way.
POUG and AUP
POUG and AUPs are not available, it's a one class domestic service.
Earning Tier Points and Avios
Reward Flight Saver
BA release at 2 seats for RFS per flight, and at the time of writing often a great deal more availability is on offer, so this is a relatively easy and cost effective way to use Avios, . Each way:
Peak: 4,500 Avios + £17.50
Off peak: 4,000 Avios + £17.50
(Note that for some reason a single INV-LHR cash element is 1 penny cheaper at £17.49).
Routing
This was the first flight INV-LHR routing, the LHR-INV was fairly similar:
Catering
Due to the flight timings, there is only the standard domestic biscuits/crisps/nuts basket offered. See the Short haul catering guide in the Dashboard for the latest offerings. So no breakfast option here, the timings don't allow for it. The slightly longer flight to INV does give a better option to get an additional round of drinks in. A full bar is available, including wines and spirits, along with soft drinks, tea and coffee, though in line with other domestic services no champagne is offered.
INV Airport facilities
Airside there is a gift shop called Jail Dornoch; The Fly Nip - a local whisky emporium; the D'Lish (sic) licensed snack bar and WH Smith.
INV transport logistics
There is a regular bus service to Inverness bus station, running every 30 minutes, £6 each way. Journey time 20 - 25 minutes. The railway station is next door to the bus station. FTers have been known to lunch at the Royal Highland Hotel at the station. A taxi to the centre would cost about £20
Lounge
There is a Swissport Aspire lounge airside at INV which is open to BAEC Silver, oneworld Sapphire passengers and above. They can also guest one other BA traveller. Business UK passengers also get access, though without guesting privileges. More details in the UK lounge thread in the Dashboard.
Fast Track and Priority boarding
Both Fast Track security and Priority Boarding is offered and enforced at INV. Security in normal circumstances should not take long and is both efficient and friendly. If connecting on to another T5 flight there is no further security check at T5.
Weekend potential:
LHR to INV has good weekend potential, though the middle of the day flight schedule would eat into the available time. On the other hand Inverness is very near by, and with car hire the Highlands can be accessed quickly.
Back to back and cheap fares potential:
Back to back is easy and near idiot-proof. As you come off the aircraft you walk (no bus is involved) though a corridor to the left of main airside area, this gets you airside very quickly. Then left and a short 20 metre walk bring you back to security. The distance between security and the gate is also very short, and indeed the whole of airside is not big.
Note that Inverness has important potential since it is not subject to APD (Air Passenger Duty, a UK government tax). This is out of recognition of the high cost of transport for communities well away from the South of England. This concession is slightly constrained by the middle of the day flight timings, and being domestic to international, a 23 hour stayover in London may make you liable for APD. This applies to revenue, Upgrade using Avios (UuA) and Avios flights, but it is on Avios flights, particularly when used with a 2-4-1 Amex companion voucher on longhaul service in WTP and above that the benefit of starting from INV become particularly stark.
For example if two passengers used Avios and a companion voucher from LHR-JFK, the cost of 2 adults offpeak is 100k Avios and £959 total. From INV-LHR-JFK it becomes a total of £726 total and the same number of Avios. So if you wrap a low cost or RFS service LHR-INV-LHR around the long haul - on a separate ticket, then doing a back to back around it. However you will need to travel Hand Baggage Only to and from INV (actually at INV it may even be possible to do back to back with checked luggage but I'm certainly not recommending it!) and work out some plan to handle any checked luggage at LHR. Bigger savings could apply for longer distance travel.
Some things to do in Inverness
[Calum and others: any suggestions to improve this section?]
- Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, next to Inverness Castle. The castle itself, with its ties to Shakespeare's Scottish play, despite being in public ownership, isn't open to visitors but the grounds are, and give good view over Loch Ness.
- Loch Ness - watch out for the bright blue monster that certainly lives within its dank depths
- Leaskey's - One of the UK's largest second hand bookshops, in a converted church.
- Culloden Battlefield - scene of the the most important and last battle of the Jacobite uprising in 1745, and the last hand to hand battle on British soil, is 5 miles out of Inverness, between the town and airport.
Interesting features
Inverness Airport started as RAF Dalcross in 1940 as part of the war effort to help defend the Northern Approaches. The airport is still known locally as Dalcross. There is a small aviation museum in the industrial estate next to the airport.
Other links
Inverness Airport website
BA press release announcing the restored service
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...lborg-aal.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...hafen-fdh.html
Last edited by corporate-wage-slave; May 3, 2016 at 1:02 pm
)
May 3, 2016, 3:26 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: London
Posts: 17,007
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...lands-36187042
Looking forward to hearing about the assembled dignitaries.
Looking forward to hearing about the assembled dignitaries.
May 3, 2016, 5:39 am
#6
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Original Poster
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Well greetings from the BA lounge in INV, Calum has duly boarded and G-EUPG will be shortly on its way back to London. paul4040, nufnuf77, crazy8534 and srbrenna will be posting far better photos and videos than me, but here's the welcome committee at INV today. There was a bit at London too, but here in Scotland the Provost was rolled out to shake hands with all the arriving passengers in front of the assembled international media lined up behind a tensa line on the apron.
The blue thing is the Loch Ness Monster, I had to ask.
I hope this brings tears to HIDDY's eyes, haste ye back!
The blue thing is the Loch Ness Monster, I had to ask.
I hope this brings tears to HIDDY's eyes, haste ye back!
Last edited by corporate-wage-slave; May 3, 2016 at 6:20 am
May 3, 2016, 6:15 am
#9
Join Date: May 2015
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Posts: 251
May 3, 2016, 7:08 am
#10
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Tyrone,EU
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Posts: 2,811
May 3, 2016, 7:33 am
#11
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Argentina
Posts: 40,210
Looks as if you got a decent day for it....lovely photographs. ^
Inverness is a nice city and perfectly placed to start a holiday from. I certainly hope to use the service in the future. Here's wishing it every success.
Inverness is a nice city and perfectly placed to start a holiday from. I certainly hope to use the service in the future. Here's wishing it every success.
May 3, 2016, 7:39 am
#12
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Posts: 4,456
Had a brilliant day, it was great to meet some of 'the gang', I will post some of the photos I took when I have returned from the Highlands!
May 3, 2016, 8:15 am
#14
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Edi
Posts: 2,203
There was a rather elderly couple onboard, both of them had never flown before. They seemed to be the only people interviewed by the media aside from officials.
I'll post a bit more when I can find something other than my phone.
I'll post a bit more when I can find something other than my phone.
