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Apr 15, 2017 | 2:29 am

Prospero

Moderator: The British Airways Club, Iberia Club, Airport Lounges and Eco-conscious Travel

Join Date: Jan 2003

Location: London, UK

Posts: 22,593

Measuring BA's grip on London Heathrow

Work in progress

There is one thing I read quite frequently in this forum and that is comments about BA’s dominance at LHR. While BA has a dominant position and there is no doubting that, the matter was somewhat unmeasured in my mind. So I set to work…

To begin this study, I am starting with the long haul routes operated out of Heathrow. This makes my task a little more manageable, but please don’t let my shortcomings stop you adding your own short haul figures. If asked to estimate the total number of long haul destinations operated by all carriers out of Heathrow, i'd probably guess somewhere in the region of 150. Well, according to London Heathrow, the current number is 96 (give or take one or two). So there you go, much fewer than I thought. These have been plotted on to the map for dramatic effect as you can see below.

Abu Dhabi was overlooked when the map was created. I will try to work it in ASAP (the ME region is a very tight fit)

Using oneworld.com’s interactive network map, I collated BA’s current long haul routes served from LHR and plotted them onto a fresh map. Then I counted. By my calculation, there are 68 BA routes. So if you are to fly from LHR to anywhere in the world this week, BA can take you to about 70% of the destinations direct out of LHR. This figure includes BA's one-stop routes such as Sydney and Grand Cayman - a minor variance that comes out in the wash.

So if BA serves 70% of the current routes, which carriers are serving the remaining 30%? And, more to the point, which routes are currently missing from BA's network?

North America and Caribbean (8):
CLT Charlotte [AA: 14]
DTW Detroit [DL: 7]
YHZ Halifax [AC: 5]
MSP Minneapolis [DL: 7]
YOW Ottawa [AC: 6]
RDU Raleigh-Durham [AA: 7]
SLC Salt Lake City [DL: 5]
YYT St Johns [AC: 7]

South America (1):
BOG Bogata [AV: 7]

Africa [3):
ADD Addis Ababa [COLOR="Gray"][ET: 7]
LXR Luxor [MS: 5]
MRU Mauritius [MK: 3]

Asia (17):
AMD Ahmedabab [AI: 1]
ASB Ashgabat [T5: 1]
TSE Astana [KC: 4]
GYD Baku [J2: 5]
BWN Brunei [BI: 7]
CMB Colombo [UL: 7]
DAC Dhaka [BG: 4 via ZYL]
CAN Guangzhou [CZ: 7]
HAN Hanoi [VN: 4]
SGN Ho Chi Minh City [VN: 3]
ISB Islamabad [PK: 4]
CGK Jakarta [GA: 3]
KHI Karachi [PK: 2]
LHE Lahore [PK: 4]
MNL Manila [PR: 7]
ZYL Sylhet [BG: 4]
TAS Tashkent [HY:2]

Australasia (2):
AKL Auckland [NZ: 7 via LAX]
MEL Melbourne [QF: 7 via DXB]

Summary data
Having collated the service frequencies developed from the list of long haul destinations provided by Heathrow Airport, these can be reviewed by geographic region. Routes within each region have been divided into alliance groups with weekly slot pairs added to indicate service frequencies. Charts have been added for dramatic effect.

North America and Caribbean

oneworld
BA: 4 airports | 23 slot pairs
JJ: 1 airport | 7 slot pairs

Star Alliance
AV: 1 airport | 7 slot pairs

Africa

Last edited by Prospero; Oct 18, 2020 at 12:10 pm Reason: recover images