Originally Posted by
phdtraveller
Going to need to go from HKG<->LHR, have a choice of the BA27/28/31/32 which basically have exact same departing/arrival times.
Q1, why have them have exactly same departure/arrival times? Why not spread them out throughout the day? Wouldn't it capture more market share from CX by giving travellers more option?
BA31 and BA27 absolutely do not have the same departure / arrival times! The gap between them makes the difference between having and not having to take half a day off work on departure day - although life was easier when the later/last BA departure was more like 2230.
In the HKG-LHR direction, the aircraft go at the same time because it's about the earliest that they can depart for a morning landing at LHR after the curfew partially ends. That's why the VS and the two corresponding CXs depart at the same time too. This is the departure period that's usually in highest demand, as you can sometimes see from award availability patterns on CX; the daytime CX departures tend to serve a different - often connecting - market that neither BA nor VS really have. I suspect that last factor probably applies to some extent to CX's early LHR departures too.