FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - EW stops flying TXL-LHR [split off from EW routes thread]
Old Sep 2, 2019, 2:17 am
  #10  
oliver2002
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Join Date: Dec 2002
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Originally Posted by lhrpete
Years back there were four LH A320s a day operating LHR-TXL. It's a route LH always started from behind on because they were only allowed to operate from TXL after unification and BA or BEA had been there for 40+ years at that point.

What they systematically failed to do was gain codeshares on it from the inbound *A traffic at LHR and so it struggled because TXL is an O & D place only. They also charged more than BA by a significant amount which as the weaker of the two on that particular route was foolish.

It was handed to BD who made a reasonable job of it and when they foolishly handed BD to BA, LH took it over as mainline again and it remained reasonable but was downgraded to 3x daily. It was then part of the wholesale handover to Germanwings and it has gone from bad to worse with them. I tried it a few times but the premium experience isn't and arrival at the D gates at TXL can easily involve a 60 minute wait just to get through immigration.

Anyway now it's gone and so the choice is BA or connect.
LHR is not a hub for any *A longhaul carrier, its a pure O&D market. Slots are way to expensive for that. T2 is only around since 2012, before that the *A partners were spread all around the field in T1, T3 and T4.

Bmi was a cash draining black hole. The sale of BD's assets to BA was an end to a desastrous attempt by LH & SAS to get a foothold in the UK.
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