Overall yes, I think it's tricky and BA have little incentive to invest when Crossrail is going to knock out a lot of demand as City-LCY and City-LHR become more comparable time-wise. And
Odyssey are supposedly launching a non-stop LCY-NYC all-biz service in 2017. Their CEO was very involved in the launch of CWLCY, and my impression from a brief chat we had a year or so ago was that he expects BA will step back and find some way to collaborate rather than go head to head.
Going a little OT, in general I think Odyssey are going to find it challenging, as their potential route network is not as exciting as they'd hoped. The CS100 hasn't been permitted into Toronto's downtown airport, and they haven't overcome long-haul international restrictions into DCA and LGA which might have given them an interesting edge. But I think Moscow and Dubai might be on the cards.
Originally Posted by
DocWatson
I don't see this working, the CWLCY lounge is at the end of the pier, and the corridor behind leads to domestic arrivals. To reach immigration you'd need a bus, as LCY doesn't mix arriving and departing passengers. And having a bus shuttling 1 passenger at a time from the lounge as they finish their coffee seems wasteful.
How about they clear Customs and Immigration, then are escorted back along the domestic arrivals corridor as one group and into the BA lounge. IIRC there is a door at the bottom of the stairwell into that domestic corridor. When they're done, they can stroll out that way on their own as they're now arriving pax, C&I cleared?
There is a single door out of the lounge into the departing pax area, which as I know from trying to go for a pee, is very much locked from the inside a lot of the time. No danger of mixing there.
One minor hitch is collecting bags, but I imagine it's few enough pax and given that like with the Radisson they might have to pre-book, someone could hold the luggage for them off the belt, or they could be collected first.
Originally Posted by
Roger
Ever heard of Customs and Immigration? Where would you have these?
Charming tone you have there. Jeez, I'm just spitballing an idea here.
Originally Posted by
orbitmic
No way that this will happen, and as you correctly hint upthread, the main point of the arrivals service is the showers even more than the breakfast.
I think there's some undercroft space next to the lounge, where some small shower/WC facilities could be added - I linked to a temporary plug-and-play solution that would let BA test it out at minimal capex. Departing pax on the later flight might well be grateful of the use too, after most of a day of work.