BA’s Network Strategy in Central/Eastern Europe
Dec 8, 2018, 6:06 am
#1
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BA’s Network Strategy in Central/Eastern Europe
Most certainly a topic which got discussed a number of times and that indeed generated some degree of interest amongst BA’s FlyerTalkers (normally triggered by threads along the lines of “BA to Belgrade/Gdańsk” and you name it). That said and further to some recent news featuring Air France restarting Belgrade services, but also KLM increasing Gdańsk up to 3 daily flights and launching their 4th destination in Poland (Wrocław) after Warsaw, Kraków & Gdańsk, not to mention a particularly marked presence of Lufthansa/Austrian not only in Poland (serving even minor airports such as Bydgoszcz or Rzeszów) but also within the Balkan region with all-year-round services to places such as Sarajevo, Pristina etc., I was wondering why BA doesn’t really ‘care’ about the above (and indeed beyond e.g. Minsk, Tbilisi etc.) mentioned markets? I’m not suggesting that they are wrong, clearly they are a very successful business and for several valid reasons, I was however trying to understand the reason(s) behind this particular strategy — perhaps low-cost presence but surely even some of those places would easily guarantee a ‘slice’ of market and connecting traffic needless to say?
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Dec 8, 2018, 6:12 am
#3
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They did have a LGW-POZ summer service a few years back. That was brilliant but poorly advertised and only seem to last one season. Pity as useful to me, only other Lon-POZs are from LTN on wizz or STN on Ryan.
Dec 8, 2018, 6:22 am
#4
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BA strategy is to make money. It won't care what any other airline does unless if parallels a BA route
KL AMS-XXX = meh
Norwegian LGW-USA = kill them with fire!
KL AMS-XXX = meh
Norwegian LGW-USA = kill them with fire!
Dec 8, 2018, 6:31 am
#5
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Star Alliance practically 'owns' Eastern Europe. I don't know how big of a slice of passengers BA can get and whether there is money in it. LON is further away from all of these Eastern European cities, so it is pretty natural that people will opt to connect at FRA or VIE. P2P traffic to the UK is probably mostly low cost airlines. I am surprised myself that BA has such a limited presence here - only 1 flight a day from KBP, for example, while LH has several flights a day to its hubs. Eastern Europe gets little/no OW presence unfortunately. Plus, BA is surprisingly very expensive from some of the Eastern European markets.
Dec 8, 2018, 6:52 am
#6
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Start by making a list of which routes BA would drop or shift to LGW to free up slots for such routes and it looks very different.
LH feed people into their hubs, I doubt the routes would stack up if point to point as the other LCCs would be doing it (and in some cases are).
LH feed people into their hubs, I doubt the routes would stack up if point to point as the other LCCs would be doing it (and in some cases are).
Dec 8, 2018, 6:54 am
#7
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Star Alliance practically 'owns' Eastern Europe. I don't know how big of a slice of passengers BA can get and whether there is money in it. LON is further away from all of these Eastern European cities, so it is pretty natural that people will opt to connect at FRA or VIE. P2P traffic to the UK is probably mostly low cost airlines. I am surprised myself that BA has such a limited presence here - only 1 flight a day from KBP, for example, while LH has several flights a day to its hubs. Eastern Europe gets little/no OW presence unfortunately. Plus, BA is surprisingly very expensive from some of the Eastern European markets.
For short medium haul the biggest eastern European non soviet airlines are Wizz and Ryanair
Dec 8, 2018, 6:59 am
#8
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Please read what other posters write before replying. I did write that people mostly use low cost airlines for point-to-point travel, while Star Alliance airlines carry a significant share of connecting traffic. Not sure what exactly you wanted to 'correct.'
Also - talking about facts - Soviet Union disappeared 27 years ago, so I am not sure which non-Soviet airlines you are referring to.
Also - talking about facts - Soviet Union disappeared 27 years ago, so I am not sure which non-Soviet airlines you are referring to.
Last edited by Andriyko; Dec 8, 2018 at 8:33 am
Dec 8, 2018, 6:59 am
#9
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LH can command a real premium on tickets from the UK to places like Belgrade, Skopje and Sarajevo. The relatively poor (though rapidally improving) road and rail infrastructure means you want to go direct to where you are heading too.
I’m also led to believe that traffic from the non-EU parts of the Balkans is hampered by cumbersome and expensive visa rules for people wanting to visit the UK.
I think someone might trying to open a direct route from the UK but much more likely to be Easyjet, Ryanair or Wizz. Wizz had a go at Luton to Tusla twice a week but that is finished now I believe. Luton to Belgrade or Sarajevo might have more of a chance.
I’m also led to believe that traffic from the non-EU parts of the Balkans is hampered by cumbersome and expensive visa rules for people wanting to visit the UK.
I think someone might trying to open a direct route from the UK but much more likely to be Easyjet, Ryanair or Wizz. Wizz had a go at Luton to Tusla twice a week but that is finished now I believe. Luton to Belgrade or Sarajevo might have more of a chance.
Dec 8, 2018, 7:09 am
#10
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Star Airline's network is amazing in Central/Eastern Europe. I think geography plays a role as well. These airlines carry a lot of intra-Europe connecting traffic, while it will make little sense for someone who needs to fly from ARN to SKP to connect at LHR. When MA/AB were alive things were better for those of us who wanted to fly OW within Europe.
Dec 8, 2018, 7:23 am
#11
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Dec 8, 2018, 8:24 am
#12
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I think that there are multiple reasons.
First, we often forget that when it comes to short haul air traffic, geographical proximity is important because long haul connecting ticket prices are entirely unrelated to how far your place in Europe is from the connecting hub and point to point is only minorly related to distance. That means that if, say, you have a 1h30 flight to destination, you can run twice more flights whilst selling long haul tickets at the same price compared to someone 3h away from hub. When it comes to Central and Eastern Europe, this means that LH, OS are at an advantage compared to BA, and OS and TK for Southeastern Europe and the Balkans. When it comes to the Caucasus/Central Asia, the TK advantage is even stronger.
Then, as mentioned above, low cost airlines are arch-dominant on point to point Y flights to/from the area, and local airlines also run with a much cheaper cost base. This means that for the point to point part of the income, only an underlying C market will likely be lucrative. There again, however, UK business are doing comparatively very poorly in the area compared to German, Turkish, or even Italian businesses so the C potential to/from London is actually not that great.
Third, I think it is fair to say that of the three main alliances, BA has the most restrictive threshold for short haul routes, in part because of slot constraints at LHR and the lack of use of a regional fleet from their hub (plus see above limitations on distance. An E95 will comfortably reach many more Central European airports from VIE than it would from LHR) unlike all of their competitors. Moreover, its network integration with IB is much less than between AF-KL or LH-LX-OS. So on the whole, it would take a much higher traffic potential for BA to open a route to destination X from LHR than for LH from MUC, OS from VIE, or KL from AMS.
That said, BA just announced LJU and they may of course add a few more Central and Southeastern European destinations in coming months. I'd love for them to return to GYD, TBS and the likes but to be honest, I doubt that it will be any time soon.
First, we often forget that when it comes to short haul air traffic, geographical proximity is important because long haul connecting ticket prices are entirely unrelated to how far your place in Europe is from the connecting hub and point to point is only minorly related to distance. That means that if, say, you have a 1h30 flight to destination, you can run twice more flights whilst selling long haul tickets at the same price compared to someone 3h away from hub. When it comes to Central and Eastern Europe, this means that LH, OS are at an advantage compared to BA, and OS and TK for Southeastern Europe and the Balkans. When it comes to the Caucasus/Central Asia, the TK advantage is even stronger.
Then, as mentioned above, low cost airlines are arch-dominant on point to point Y flights to/from the area, and local airlines also run with a much cheaper cost base. This means that for the point to point part of the income, only an underlying C market will likely be lucrative. There again, however, UK business are doing comparatively very poorly in the area compared to German, Turkish, or even Italian businesses so the C potential to/from London is actually not that great.
Third, I think it is fair to say that of the three main alliances, BA has the most restrictive threshold for short haul routes, in part because of slot constraints at LHR and the lack of use of a regional fleet from their hub (plus see above limitations on distance. An E95 will comfortably reach many more Central European airports from VIE than it would from LHR) unlike all of their competitors. Moreover, its network integration with IB is much less than between AF-KL or LH-LX-OS. So on the whole, it would take a much higher traffic potential for BA to open a route to destination X from LHR than for LH from MUC, OS from VIE, or KL from AMS.
That said, BA just announced LJU and they may of course add a few more Central and Southeastern European destinations in coming months. I'd love for them to return to GYD, TBS and the likes but to be honest, I doubt that it will be any time soon.
Dec 8, 2018, 11:45 am
#13
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I did once tackle one of BA's High Paid Helps on this one, specifically Belgrade. He said "wait until that part of the world gets easier visas". At the moment Serbians need visas for the UK, USA and Canada even though Serbs can now freely enter Schengen.
Dec 8, 2018, 1:26 pm
#14
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Belgrade is a thrilling city and Serbia as a whole (Niš amongst my favourite places — Swiss currently operates a year-round service from/to Zürich, bizarrely enough!) has lots to offer, I'm sure many would welcome a return [of British Airways] to Nikola Tesla airport
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Dec 8, 2018, 2:18 pm
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