Is British Airways really just London Airways?
Jun 26, 2019, 11:47 pm
#76
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: AMS
Programs: BAEC Silver, Flying Blue Gold, TK M&S Nobody
Posts: 2,468
And don’t forget the geometrically challenged “CW is twice as dense as 1-2-1” whine we’ve just had above... Again.
Jun 27, 2019, 12:38 am
#77
Join Date: Jan 2005
Programs: BA Gold, AA Lifetime Gold 1.8mm, IC Spire Ambassador, Hilton Diamond, SPG Gold et al
Posts: 4,350
Agreed but there are no feeder flights to LGW at all from many UK airports and the timings of those that do have them often means that many LGW only destinations are impossible to make same day connections to or from. That can't really be accurately described a 'hub and spoke'.
Jun 27, 2019, 2:58 am
#78
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Devon, UK
Programs: VS Silver; Matmid Silver, BA Bronze; Accor Plat.
Posts: 954
Fascinating insight.
No professional football currently being played in Manchester, or indeed during the next few weeks or so. And yet inbound flights to MAN from around the world have not (strange though it may seem) been suspended.
Just how, I wonder, do all those arriving pax manage to fill their time ......
Jun 27, 2019, 3:26 am
#79
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: LON
Programs: Mucci, BAEC, Eurostar
Posts: 3,286
Totally agree - Talking of which.... the obvious bit missing in the discussion (or in the landscape for that matter) is HS2. In principle at least, it would make a lot more sense to have Heathrow as "The UK airpor" between 0.5-2 hours of most large English cities and barely more to Scotland than have BA duplicate efforts by starting lots of long haul flights from MAN or BHX. The reason why, say, AF can afford not to fly at all to Lille or Strasbourg or for that matter Brussels from Paris is that it codeshares on fast nonstop trains from those cities to CDG. For all practical purposes, you could make the argument that CDG is Lille's second (or rather first) airport. The UK is a lot smaller than France in terms of surface area and in practice that situation could be true of most of the country's largest cities.
And to come back on HS2 and intermodality at LHR, it was already short-sighted decision not to link HS1 and HS2, so you can't have expected better decision making.
Jul 1, 2019, 12:33 pm
#80
Join Date: Oct 2018
Programs: BA
Posts: 7
British Airways? Nope, still London Airways
It's long been a frustration of mine that the British Airways web site is London focused, so much so that it's impossible to search for holidays, offers etc. from anywhere in the UK other than London. It's even more frustrating that there are very few direct flights out of the UK that don't depart from London. This year is very rare in that there are 2 direct flights out of Edinburgh to Florence and Palma
It's probably ten years since I first complained to BA about this, always to be told that the team are working on this and an updated search engine "is imminent".
The latest annoyance is the Centenary Offers page. Come on BA, if you want to be called British Airways, live up to the title.
It's probably ten years since I first complained to BA about this, always to be told that the team are working on this and an updated search engine "is imminent".
The latest annoyance is the Centenary Offers page. Come on BA, if you want to be called British Airways, live up to the title.
Jul 1, 2019, 2:05 pm
#83
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Dundee
Programs: BA Plastic. HH Diamond. Speedwell Bar Lifetime Platinum.
Posts: 1,425
The regional bases were just not profitable.
GLA BA used to serve CDG twice daily and the only time the BAC 1-11 service made a few bob was during the Glasgow Fair holiday and when Scotland played France at football or rugby. The Tristar/767 service to JFK was another white elephant. I dare say it was a similar story at BHX MAN etc.. BA staff were on pretty good working conditions back then so when the low cost airlines got going the final nail in the coffin was hammered home.
GLA BA used to serve CDG twice daily and the only time the BAC 1-11 service made a few bob was during the Glasgow Fair holiday and when Scotland played France at football or rugby. The Tristar/767 service to JFK was another white elephant. I dare say it was a similar story at BHX MAN etc.. BA staff were on pretty good working conditions back then so when the low cost airlines got going the final nail in the coffin was hammered home.
Costs are reduced, planes are higher density at the back, and more people are flying, while staff Terms and Conditions for MF are hardly going to make anyone rich.
The European market from rUK is pretty much gone thanks to the LCC and & ULCCs, but that's not to say that the right aircraft and right fleet flying from the north couldn't work over to North America. IAG seem to do OK from Dublin.
Two other parts of IAG have the 321XLR on order.
Still won't happen though.
Jul 1, 2019, 2:20 pm
#84
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,930
i am not saying you are wrong, but there have been many galley fm rumours over the years which have been false, and such a move would seem completely at odds with the current BA business model. Perhaps CityFlyer may dabble a bit more once they have their resourcing issues sorted, but I see mainline sticking rigidly to the two hubs.
Jul 1, 2019, 4:25 pm
#85
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Perth WA/ UK
Programs: BA Gold, Priority Club Gold, Accor Silver, Virgin Australia Gold
Posts: 1,750
And the business has moved on from then.
Costs are reduced, planes are higher density at the back, and more people are flying, while staff Terms and Conditions for MF are hardly going to make anyone rich.
The European market from rUK is pretty much gone thanks to the LCC and & ULCCs, but that's not to say that the right aircraft and right fleet flying from the north couldn't work over to North America. IAG seem to do OK from Dublin.
Two other parts of IAG have the 321XLR on order.
Still won't happen though.
Costs are reduced, planes are higher density at the back, and more people are flying, while staff Terms and Conditions for MF are hardly going to make anyone rich.
The European market from rUK is pretty much gone thanks to the LCC and & ULCCs, but that's not to say that the right aircraft and right fleet flying from the north couldn't work over to North America. IAG seem to do OK from Dublin.
Two other parts of IAG have the 321XLR on order.
Still won't happen though.
Jul 2, 2019, 1:56 pm
#86
Join Date: Oct 2013
Programs: BA Gold, VS Gold, IHG Platinum, Hilton Gold, Hertz Presidents Circle.
Posts: 1,446
Does anyone know if BA have plane to expand their services outside of London?
Sure I don’t mind getting to London or connecting at Heathrow to go long haul. I do find it really annoying though that the only options I have out of of Manchester are often Ryan Air.
BA’s offering these days is super if you live in London, but up north/scotland/wales, BA’s offering is pathetic
Sure I don’t mind getting to London or connecting at Heathrow to go long haul. I do find it really annoying though that the only options I have out of of Manchester are often Ryan Air.
BA’s offering these days is super if you live in London, but up north/scotland/wales, BA’s offering is pathetic
MAN is my main airport too and the enforced Heathrow connection is a pain, mainly due it to it being at full capacity and unable to mitigate any delay factors. BA does have a couple of year round destinations with Sun Air and then there's the summer Cityfler stuff but other than that it's crap. That said if they did start doing other euro cities I'm not sure I'd fly with them, only benefit is the lounge access, tier points aren't enough to trump a scheduled based alternative and some of the other mainline co's still feed and water you en route (I don't generally fly club on euro short haul, don't find it value for money <3 hrs).
Even long haul now I tend to go from MAN with other OW carriers, AA to ORD (dropped off schedule now) was a 787 and PHL was an A330 (swapped to refurb'd 767 recently sadly) so gave good options direct into US, Finnair have some interesting connections and QR are running 787 and A350 down to Doha which makes heading south a pleasure.
Jul 2, 2019, 2:10 pm
#87
Join Date: Oct 2013
Programs: BA Gold, VS Gold, IHG Platinum, Hilton Gold, Hertz Presidents Circle.
Posts: 1,446
Fascinating insight.
No professional football currently being played in Manchester, or indeed during the next few weeks or so. And yet inbound flights to MAN from around the world have not (strange though it may seem) been suspended.
Just how, I wonder, do all those arriving pax manage to fill their time ......