Pilot37

I'd be shocked if this routing came to fruition.
The number of aircraft tied up on such a route alone would make it questionable in terms of viability and with Qantas strongly rumoured to be looking at Perth > London direct once the B787's come on stream, BA would have to offer very competitive fares for the Perth contingent to consider going via TPE to reach London.

Pilot37

Sam Bee

Would be the oddest possible new route I would imagine BA could mention.

OK, there is no TPE-PER direct flight currently, but there is a daily LHR-BKK-TPE on Eva and China Airlines are relaunching their LHR services (non stop) when they get their new planes (350/787 - can't remember which).

A one stop to Perth on a very indirect routing? Nah. BA would be better plying their 787's non stop, or resurrecting the route that was more than just rumours - LHR-CGK-PER-CGK-LHR

Down Low

Expect to hear of a new route soon, however. Although it definitely won't be TPE.

mikeyfly

Long haul - and not North America?????

nufnuf77

You naughty teaser

Ldnn1

Well this is what I've heard...

mikeyfly

I'd prefer LHR-TPE-OGG myself

binman

Is the great circle route not LHR TPE/SEL BNE SYD or MEL? I would have though that would be a better option?

I would not have though BA stood a cat in hells chance of eating into the QR EK and EY markets out of OZ.

Cymro

Non-stop PER would work but it looks like QF will get there first.

A second daily KUL might work if MH scales back LHR when it's sold its A380s and BA tags on KUL-PER at the opposite end of the day from the MH flights.

perthflyer

On paper LHR-TPE-PER doesn't seem viable. As others have mentioned it is quite a bit of a diversion to the direct distance and there isn't a sizeable Taiwanese population in PER which would help the O&D numbers. Yes it would be a monopoly on the PER-TPE route but there just isn't enough demand between the two cities. There is LHR-PER demand and I assume for LHR-TPE also but without much demand for TPE-PER BA would be better off just serving LHR-TPE. If TPE-PER was a sizeable enough market it would already be served by either CI or BR who would be able to provide connections to North America and Asia as well as Europe. I'd say there is more chance of BA launching LHR-TPE-HNL (which certainly isn't going to happen!) than LHR-TPE-PER.

I do think one day PER will see BA service again but it will either be a non-stop LHR-PER or via SIN, KUL or CGK as they are more direct than TPE and even though there is already service from these cities to PER (8x daily SIN, 5x daily KUL, 4x weekly CGK) there is much more demand between the cities (from both ends).

It does seem more and more likely that QF will launch PER-LHR although I think the flight could originate in SYD or MEL first and the domestic sector depart from the SYD/MEL international terminal as even though there is enough O&D, QF would be relying on a decent amount of connecting passenger from the east coast and at the moment the domestic - international transfer at PER is quite time consuming as there is no airside transfer as QF domestic flights arrive into T3/T4 which is on the other side of the airport to the international T1 (so think of a landside T5 - T4 transit at LHR as a rough equivalent).

With your second point I agree with you - I think that would be the best case scenario for BA. If MH scaled back their LHR ops then a second daily LHR-KUL could work with a PER tag on. A midnight departure PER-KUL and a morning departure KUL-LHR could in theory provide feed from KUL for the evening east coast TATL flights - KUL-LHR-JFK is only 400 miles shorter than KUL-HKG-JFK.

QF Lad

There did.

I caught the last BA service out of MEL on 31 March 2006, more than 10 years ago.

I believe it was BA 17/18 but can't remember the flight number for sure.

Can I help you

Some of us know when to keep our mouths shut.

lost_in_translation

If BA were to launch LHR-TPE-PER over other Asia routes then I think it's a sign of the level of strategic thinking of the current management team rather than anything else...

brentford77

Would me much more fun if you didn't (although potentially career limiting)

mec72

I think DXB-BKK-SYD on EK is also a significant diversion but it's been out there for many years.