Originally Posted by
Dan72
I'm sure you're right. However I can never understand why BA has so many 319s in their 320 mix. Given the constraints we hear about operating at Heathrow, why not more 320s if not 321s? The cynic in me thinks BA just want to monopolise slots, which might explain their resistance to a third runway. If another runway is not agreed, I hope that Heathrow incentivise the use of bigger aircraft to get more out of the slots the airport is limited to offering.
Most shorthaul routes require high frequency not huge per-flight capacity. There is natural "resistance" to consolidating lots of services into one, no matter how much more efficient it would be. BA could get a shorthaul configured 777 and replace all its services to AMS into two, but it would not be profitable even if it were more efficient. Then the choice becomes you either serve the market with the frequency it desires, or you think carefully about whether it is worth running a skeleton service to the place and the effect it would have on feed to longhaul.
KLM and Alitalia use much smaller planes at Heathrow than an A319 on a few of their late evening slots.