Originally Posted by
Andriyko
For a 3+ hours flight there is no benefit on the overnight flight with any configuration because there is simply not enough time to sleep.
And you are right about the volatility of demand - the MON/FRI pattern (which I also see on the KBP services) is not a sufficient reason to introduce LH equipment on all 3 services every day. Nor does it make sense to confuse customers with different products on different flights, which is why I believe that a move back to SH or to an all MH fleet would make sense.
OT - my 3000th post. Yay!
I think we will have to agree to disagree here. On the overnights, this does make a huge difference to me vs previous SH configuration as well as vs BMI craddle seats before - with a bed, you get 3 hours of sleep, then another 2 hours in the hotel and are then fully functional from 9am onwards, which is a big difference from before.
Also, it you think about economics of the route - J regularly sells for £2k+, and BA can do turnaround and redeploy the plane in under 10 hours - there aren't many routes like that. So I think (and certainly hope!) that as long as demand stays at current levels (with full planes on Mon/Fri and, say, 60% on other weekdays) BA would be happy with continuing the service. If there were any utilization issues, they would not have deployed a 747 on such a route to begin with.
And congrats on the 3000th post! something I seem to never be able to achieve...