perthflyer

AusBT (Australian Business Traveller) is a website that I visit frequently and in the past week or so the following articles have been written:

Your guide to British Airways World Traveller Plus
What is 'EuroBusiness' business class?
BA serves Taittinger at its Heathrow T5 business class lounge: here's how to get it
Get Qantas Gold frequent flyer perks in a single trip
Introducing British Airways 'On Business' program

A few of them are even sponsored by BA. Currently you are unable to be a BAEC member with an Australian address (this has been the case for quite a few years). Are they maybe thinking of changing this? Or could BA be thinking about an expansion of their Australian operations or is maybe BA15/16 struggling and they are attempting to market themselves aggressively towards the Australia - Europe market?

corporate-wage-slave

Or maybe they have found a spare 787.....

#fingerscrossed

Ldnn1

Seems a long shot, but maybe.

The problem is demand would depend on oil/resources prices bouncing back, but a bounce would make the route much more costly to run. Catch 22.

ESFLYER95

Is this a hint?

QF Lad

I understand the current BA service to SYD is doing quite well.

Since Qantas went with Emirates, BA have reduced their prices significantly ex-Australia and gone into a partnership with CX to fly passengers from other Australian ports to HKG to transfer to BA aircraft there.

The lower prices ex Australia, the reduced capacity on the route pushing up yields and the more efficient 777 service have likely contributed to a viable service to SYD.

You can't join the BA Executive club from Australia. This has been a long standing issue, and it may be due to the whatever rights BA ceded when it joined the JSA with Qantas years ago. Certainly you would expect that BA would let Australian members join, but there is quite possibly a legal hurdle that is stopping them do this, dating back to the days of the JSA with Qantas.

When the JSA was terminated by Qantas there was a comment in the Australian Financial Review that BA were very unhappy about the way Qantas had gone about terminating the JSA. It is possible that this may have been related in part to Qantas not reversing whatever legal impediment that was stopping BA from enrolling Australian Executive Club members into the Executive Club post-JSA.

In around 2005 I recall reading in the BA Report that BA's traffic from the Oceanic region was a tiny percentage (may have been 1 or 2% of total traffic, so pretty insignificant). This was at a time when BA ran a daily service to Melbourne as well as two daily services to Sydney.

Since then the service to Australia has been reduced immensely, making the total Oceanic traffic to BA even more insignificant. Further Australians are spoilt by a host of excellent ME, Asian and Australian airlines all wanting their business. So it is unlikely to be a region that BA would identify for further growth going forward.

Stez

Fingers uncrossed...!

Tobias-UK

I've done 8 SIN/SYD sectors this year and every flight has been very busy, at least 3 of those were full. So on my limited exposure to the route this year it appears the loads are pretty good. I'd be surprised if the B773 is substituted for a B787, that would also reduce capacity on the LHR/SIN route where almost all the fights I've taken this year have been full.

Cymro

True.

But a 787 could be used on a second daily service to SYD, maybe via KUL, or even a non-stop to PER (or indeed via KUL in the same way that SYD runs via SIN).

I think c-w-s was getting at a non-stop to PER. I don't see the 787 on SYD, at least not on its own. More likely to get the A380 if they wanted to grow the route further, at least initially.

fransknorge

Rumors is that QF will start a PER-LHR service once they receive their 787.

firstclassnewbie

We are quite spoiled for choice but BA do present and attractive price proposition in Australia compared to their rivals, particularly in premium cabins.

Tobias-UK

AH! Now I get it, I'm a bit slow today ... too many flights and not enough days between them! In that case, I'm in the #fingerscrossed category ^

Davidjonesk

I can see the advantages of a direct flight from LHR-PER if you need to travel from London to Perth. ^

Does it help with connections too? I mean, would LHR-PER-SYD be better than LHR-SIN-SYD? What am I missing?

Also, anyone want to guess a schedule?

BA0197

How about a shortened resurrection of the former BA9, LHR-PER-AKL on the 788. Now that would be one hell of a route (and just in time for the Lions tour)! Anything to down under would be welcome by all I'm sure!

perthflyer

PER is not great for oneworld INT-DOM connections and vice versa as there is no airside transfer - think of an LHR T5 - T4 landside transit in terms of inconvenience. QF's domestic operations are from the terminal west of the main runway. VA have recently moved from that terminal to a new domestic terminal adjacent to the international terminal.

I also don't really see that much of a LON-PER market. Perth has a large UK born population (and the largest per capita of any city in Australia) but the majority of that population originate from outwith London/southeast England - there is a very sizable Scottish population (to the extent that I tell people up here in Glasgow that back home in Perth some areas are basically like living in Scotland but with different weather!).

I think PER-AKL would be a bit of a stretch for BA as the PER-NZ market is pretty well covered - NZ serve it year round at daily/almost daily with seasonal extra flights (as well as seasonal CHC flights). QF also seasonally operate the route a few times a week over the summer. It's also very much a VFR route due to the large Kiwi population in Perth.

Stez

I can't see a LHR-PER route happening for BA. QF keep hinting at one, but I have to wonder if it will last once QF starts it.

As Tobias-UK indicated, it is also my experience that the BA15/16 are generally quite full, but the Y prices can be really low, not muc more than a TATL Y for a substantially longer route.

A 787 replacing the route, although lower capacity, might up yields somewhat?