Next USA city?

Old Aug 21, 2018, 9:26 am
  #61  
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Originally Posted by Steve_ZA
Press release from AA today where they are adding seasonal flights PHX-LHR as well as DFW-DUB (B787-9!) and PHL-EDI.

Newsroom - American Airlines Expands European Footprintand Modifies Asia Service - American Airlines Group, Inc.
Wish they would take on DL on the NCE market too!
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Old Aug 21, 2018, 9:32 am
  #62  
 
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Originally Posted by TedToToe
I believe CMH (Columbus, Ohio) is keen to attract a TATL service. It would seem a good fit for BA, a growing city with lots of businesses.
It's been said they've been to talking BA for a while, but it seems DL may be the favorite for a TATL flight from here. I've always thought an AA 757 with a BA codeshare would be the airline/airplane of choice for that one.

Last edited by JSprague24; Aug 21, 2018 at 9:42 am
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Old Aug 21, 2018, 9:56 am
  #63  
 
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Originally Posted by JSprague24
It's been said they've been to talking BA for a while, but it seems DL may be the favorite for a TATL flight from here. I've always thought an AA 757 with a BA codeshare would be the airline/airplane of choice for that one.
I wonder what Delta's load is like for IND-CDG this summer. If it's doing well, then there's something familiar about Delta adding a Columbus transatlantic since PIT-CDG seems to be going well, and the CVG-CDG (Airbus parts cargo drives that) route is quite stable.
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Old Aug 21, 2018, 10:27 am
  #64  
 
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Originally Posted by beachmouse
There remains a certain BA mystique in the USA, and combine it with broad low level dissatisfaction with the US legacy carrier domestic operations and the popularity of London as a leisure destination because they speak 'merrikun over there and all, I suspect a lot of load originates on the North American side, where BA can also often charge higher fares than they would on London-originating flights.
Yes, I work at an international company and while the majority of Brits, Japanese, Germans and French all seem to favour their national airlines, there is a sizable amount of Americans, maybe a majority, who seem to prefer BA to the US airlines for their trans-Atlantic travel. I've asked a few why and it usually boils down to preferring European airlines but BA being little less exotic and 'foreign' feeling than the others. A couple said they actually prefer Delta for domestic but fly AA instead in order to keep their eggs in one basket and be able to use BA when going abroad, the JV certainly seems to be working for AA for those two!
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Old Aug 21, 2018, 12:22 pm
  #65  
 
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Originally Posted by flatlander
Minneapolis-St Paul. It doesn't have any Oneworld direct flights at all from London and it's about the biggest place not served by the alliance at all.
Originally Posted by ajeleonard
BA can’t make Detroit work because of the Delta fortress hub, they’re certainly not going to make Minneapolis work
The difference would be that MSP is actually a desirable destination that is not economically wrecked, while the only reason to fly to Detroit is to board another aircraft to get out of the post-industrial economic disaster ASAP. So MSP might live on O/D traffic at MSP and connections onwards into Europe via LHR the other way. A route on BA to Detroit wouldn't have enough people wanting to travel to Detroit and would not have good onward connections.

Originally Posted by Dicksbits
Minneapolis: I thought Delta flew there from London?
Originally Posted by Calchas
Yes, Delta Flights 10 and 11.
Yes, I only said there's no Oneworld service there, not no service at all. It seems most unlikely that BA would fly to a second-tier city already served by AA but they can compete with a non-Oneworld carrier.

MSP is certainly a more significant place than Nashville. I doubt the local government would feel any desire to subsidise the route, however, while Nashville just opened their wallet and held it out to BA.
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Old Aug 21, 2018, 12:39 pm
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Originally Posted by flatlander
The difference would be that MSP is actually a desirable destination that is not economically wrecked, while the only reason to fly to Detroit is to board another aircraft to get out of the post-industrial economic disaster ASAP.
Do not confuse Detroit the city with Metro Detroit as a whole. Oakland County (northern suburbs) is one of the richest large counties in America, there's a huge amount of high tech R&D both at the University of Michigan and in the region as a whole if you look a little bit, etc. There are reasons beyond physical geography that Delta kept so much hub action there after the merger.
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Old Aug 21, 2018, 12:41 pm
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Originally Posted by Calchas
Add ons are always a bit dicey, I don’t think BA likes them.

Also it seems that the treaty between the U.K. and South Africa doesn’t allow traffic to be carried between South Africa and Namibia.
Comair flies the JNB-WDH route in BA livery.

WDH would have been a better tag on to LAD anyway, alas that one is gone as well.

If Zimbabwe ever comes back from the brink, a VFA/LVI-HRE flight would be attractive for tourism.
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Old Aug 21, 2018, 12:46 pm
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Originally Posted by ubiest
Comair flies the JNB-WDH route in BA livery.
Comair is a South African company so their flights are not part of the UK-SA bilateral agreement. There is a separate bilateral agreement between SA and Namibia which Comair is a part of but BA is not.
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Old Aug 21, 2018, 1:25 pm
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Originally Posted by Steve_ZA
Comair is a South African company so their flights are not part of the UK-SA bilateral agreement. There is a separate bilateral agreement between SA and Namibia which Comair is a part of but BA is not.
Thank you for pointing out the legal technicalities, which I was not minding (as I have very little knowledge there), just the commercial potential of a route which was already being operated by a partner airline, and would lead to an equivalent one-stop LHR-JNB-WDH.
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Old Aug 21, 2018, 1:37 pm
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Originally Posted by NonSmokingWindow
I’m hearing CHS.
Discuss. 😀
Mrs PtF and I used to own a house in CHS (actually Mt Pleasant) for five years in the early 2000s, while I was working on the construction of the Arthur Ravenel Bridge. I can’t for the life of me envisage there ever being sufficient demand for BA to fly directly to ‘The Low Country’.
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Old Aug 21, 2018, 1:49 pm
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Hardly any mention of CVG - I would have thought this very likely. Possibly IND, but that is nearer ORD...
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Old Aug 21, 2018, 1:50 pm
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Originally Posted by flatlander
Minneapolis-St Paul. It doesn't have any Oneworld direct flights at all from London and it's about the biggest place not served by the alliance at all.
MSP IS served by "the alliance". AA/Eagle fly 8 routes from MSP. I'd love to see BA start MSP - nice city, and I've got friends there!
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Old Aug 21, 2018, 2:17 pm
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I believe BA has actually got too many cities in the US, I wouldn't be surprised if they actually drop a few and adjust frequency/metal to others. I am not aware of revenues/loads, but I don't see how they can justify flying to SJC, which is only 30 miles away from SFO. BWI, SAN, and AUS are the other three BA may consider axing for the proximity of bigger hubs. MSP is the only one I think they may consider, but with almost no presence of their partners in this hub, BA may struggle to fill their planes (from what I know DL10 loads are pretty light on MSP-LHR route).
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Old Aug 21, 2018, 2:24 pm
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Originally Posted by luitje
I am not aware of revenues/loads, but I don't see how they can justify flying to SJC, which is only 30 miles away from SFO.
It's been rammed full the 3 times I've taken it.
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Old Aug 21, 2018, 2:34 pm
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Originally Posted by BA0197
The trouble with a new USA route now is the lack of 788s BA has. Either it means they upgrade a current 788 service to something larger (BNA/MSY etc) or they have to launch the service with a 789 or 772. Me thinks the USA expansion is done for while and BA will be looking further afield. My best guesses for USA:

MCI (Kansas City)
PDX (Portland)
DTW (Detroit)
SLC (Salt Lake City)

Again I can't imagine any being started with anything but a 788.

I think it's time BA takes a look at some of their large holes in African Commonwealth countries:

DAR or ZNZ (Dar es Salaam or Zanzibar, Tanzania)
FNA (Freetown, Sierra Leone)
EBB (Entebbe, Uganda)
WDH (Windhoek, Namibia)
HRE (Harare, Zim)
BJL (Banjul, The Gambia) - An odd one but a coup with them rejoining the group and steal some traffic from Thomas Cook with BA Holidays
TUN (Tunis, Tunisia ;not Commonwealth, but a glaring hole for OW in general)

Not sure of the bilateral restrictions in these relationships, but it does rather surprise me that BA have been so keen to send the 788s on routes to the Americas without a single attempt for a 788 to Africa.
The trouble with the African destinations is that BA have flown to all of them previously and since pulled out. Some were for political instability or security reasons, others simply did not work economically. Most are still easily reached using a OW partner airline and some are BA code shares.

When previously operated frequencies were often poor and final destination was often a tag on. For many of these the current arrangements are actually an improvement.

There seems to be much talk of WDH in this thread including the bizarre idea of flying an A380 there. Comair struggle to fill a 737 on the JNB-WDH route, which is likely to be the largest route by passenger numbers out of WDH. Whilst Namibia is a great country, for most visitors to Southern Africa exploring SA or even Zimbabwe are likely to be higher on the agenda.

Africa is lacking direct BA routes compared with previous decades, but there will be sound commercial reasons for this. It is a hard market, as Comair have found out. Note that Comair only flies as BA between CPT, JNB, PLZ and DUR. It offers no BA domestic routes to Bloemfontein, East London, George or the plethora of other sizeable cities with proper airports. It tried route to MPU and pulled out. Within the region, it has tried and withdrawn routes to GAB, MPT, DAR to name but a few.

When the African economy grows, flights may come back, but we are no there yet.

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