Originally Posted by
Ldnn1
But are there many in those places who really are particularly loyal to BA? I gather from your posts, for example, that you tend to use other airlines a lot already, depending on what suits best. I would expect most high spending customers do too, no?
I'd say that yes, BA has historically taken a higher share of the connecting high contribution West European traffic than both AFKL and LHLXOS (I expect LHLXOS to be stronger in central Europe).
You are right that I have never been an exclusive flyer for any airline but loyalty does not have to be and I am CCR cardholder (and most primarily on BA rather than OW partners) for a reason. I - and many others - built primary loyalty to BA over the years for a variety of reasons: full flat beds in J, comparatively good BAEC programme, historically good treatment of GGL. There is a reason why BA has such large C cabins on LHR-NCE and LHR-GVA flights for instance (on NCE routes, 12-18 rows of C is not unusual, even though 7-12 is the most routine level), and despite strong o/d C traffic, it is primarily connecting. Moreover, remember that all of the airports I took as example have high premium pax both as origin and destination.
For instance, my understanding is that NCE is actually the first location for GGL in France, higher than Paris, and that BA competes on equal terms with AF for premium traffic despite the natural advantage of the national player (corp contracts etc).
As mentioned, London, Paris, and Frankfurt as just really hard markets to crack for non-dominant players, but more than half of long haul premium traffic in Europe is connecting, and with BA having largely been recognised as the historically dominant EU3 player to date, should LH or AF manage to get some shares back, it could make the difference between profit and losses on some routes.