Will there be mass cancellations for Lockdown 3?
Jan 4, 2021, 11:16 am
#76
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I'd have thought so but as London21 says, the fact so many routes are still going now, despite most of the country being in Tier 4, suggests otherwise UNLESS this time around the government makes explicit reference to international travel in the announcement tonight. If we just move to "Tier 4 for the whole country" I don't see why BA would act any differently than they have been over the last few weeks, although it beggars belief how they'd justify running, for example, the 2 flights a day to MLE they have on certain upcoming dates
Jan 4, 2021, 11:23 am
#77
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I think the point is that BA doesn't have to justify what routes it runs to anyone. There is no suggestion that the government has (or will) ask, suggest, or mandate airlines curtail schedules to make it more difficult for people in England to travel on holiday. And emphasis on the "make it more difficult" - even if they did, there are a bunch of connecting options to the long haul leisure destinations BA flies to that fly through non-leisure destinations (e.g., DOH, DXB, MIA, JFK). This may change tonight but I doubt it (and it would be a misguided priority as it wouldn't deal with the issue).
Jan 4, 2021, 11:28 am
#78
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I really hope BA cancels it’s leisure routes and everyone cancels their plans. Even if it curtails business trips for 6/8 weeks there should be a concise, hopefully successful, stay at home
Jan 4, 2021, 11:31 am
#79
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 98
I think you've grossly misunderstood me. I wasn't referring to BA having to "justify" continuing its flights to anyone but its own shareholders - i.e. I was merely commenting that I struggle to understand how those 2 daily flights will be (economically) feasible and desirable to run if the entire country is under a strict lockdown, notwithstanding your point about connecting traffic. Despite what you say, the vast majority of people will "follow the rules" and cancel / not travel.
as soon as they become unfeasible economically for BA... guess what, they'll be canned
Jan 4, 2021, 11:33 am
#80
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Yes, and that's exactly my point ... I think there is a significant risk that the "announcement" (and any resultant new measures) of tonight will push a sufficiently high enough number of people currently in the "don't care, I'm going anyway" camp into the "OK fine, we will stay home" camp, meaning mass cancellations from BA to follow as demand dries up. It'll be a case of chicken and egg as to whether customers or BA move first.
Jan 4, 2021, 11:43 am
#81
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I’d have thought BA would want to avoid the negative PR implications of pictures of planeloads of happy holidaymakers arriving in the Maldives, the Caribbean, Cancun or wherever going viral and ending up in the Daily Mail.
Not a problem at the moment with people in Tier 3 legitimately able to travel, but once the whole country’s in Tier 4 you’d think BA appearing to be complicit in mass law-breaking would be an issue.
Not a problem at the moment with people in Tier 3 legitimately able to travel, but once the whole country’s in Tier 4 you’d think BA appearing to be complicit in mass law-breaking would be an issue.
Jan 4, 2021, 11:53 am
#82
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I think we are looking at something much more than just the entire country being in Tier 4. From what I can see in the news, we are looking at something much closer to the March 2020 lockdown and I fully expect mass cancellations from BA to swiftly follow.
Jan 4, 2021, 12:07 pm
#83
Join Date: May 2010
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Were all flights stopped in March/April or just mostly leisure routes, can't remember?
Jan 4, 2021, 12:18 pm
#84
Join Date: May 2014
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There isn’t much to cancel to be honest. I think BA has gone from a network level of 650+ flights/day to 150/160, dipping as low as 80 between Xmas and NYE, and I’m including the freighters and freight-out-passengers-in flights.
Jan 4, 2021, 12:19 pm
#85
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There were very few flights in March and April. If we are facing another lockdown akin to the March 2020 one, I'd expect that to be the case again. If nobody can legally leave home except for essential work travel, there are not going to be flights to destinations which are primarily leisure focused such as MLE.
Jan 4, 2021, 12:21 pm
#86
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I'd be interested to know how many flights a day there were back in April as I suspect we might be heading back to that sort of level. There are still daily flights (and sometimes twice daily) to MLE that I can't see being viable if we head back to a March 2020 style lockdown. I was due to fly to MLE on February 7th and am fully resigned to that not now being possible.
Jan 4, 2021, 12:28 pm
#87
Join Date: May 2014
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I'd be interested to know how many flights a day there were back in April as I suspect we might be heading back to that sort of level. There are still daily flights (and sometimes twice daily) to MLE that I can't see being viable if we head back to a March 2020 style lockdown. I was due to fly to MLE on February 7th and am fully resigned to that not now being possible.
I personally hope the “close the border” argument (Jeremy Hunt was the last to tweet about it) doesn’t pass. While I think we can all agree that swanning around in Dubai is unnecessary, there’s plenty of people who must fly. A friend of mine, for instance, is booked on a flight out of Dubai at the end of sixteen months on a container ship. He joined that vessel on a 6 months contract and hasn’t been allowed off since Covid as port after port after port panicked and prohibited seafarers from leaving ship.
Jan 4, 2021, 12:30 pm
#88
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I'd be interested to know how many flights a day there were back in April as I suspect we might be heading back to that sort of level. There are still daily flights (and sometimes twice daily) to MLE that I can't see being viable if we head back to a March 2020 style lockdown. I was due to fly to MLE on February 7th and am fully resigned to that not now being possible.
Jan 4, 2021, 12:31 pm
#89
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If memory serves me right there were 70-80 flights a day and between 5-10k passengers.
I personally hope the “close the border” argument (Jeremy Hunt was the last to tweet about it) doesn’t pass. While I think we can all agree that swanning around in Dubai is unnecessary, there’s plenty of people who must fly. A friend of mine, for instance, is booked on a flight out of Dubai at the end of sixteen months on a container ship. He joined that vessel on a 6 months contract and hasn’t been allowed off since Covid as port after port after port panicked and prohibited seafarers from leaving ship.
I personally hope the “close the border” argument (Jeremy Hunt was the last to tweet about it) doesn’t pass. While I think we can all agree that swanning around in Dubai is unnecessary, there’s plenty of people who must fly. A friend of mine, for instance, is booked on a flight out of Dubai at the end of sixteen months on a container ship. He joined that vessel on a 6 months contract and hasn’t been allowed off since Covid as port after port after port panicked and prohibited seafarers from leaving ship.
Jan 4, 2021, 12:42 pm
#90
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I think there will be less flights than March/April because at that point, there was no requirement for a 10-day quarantine when entering the UK, however there is now. Furthermore, there are many more countries blocking flights from the UK because of the second strain.
Finally - I can't remember, was international travel restricted to people leaving the UK during the March/April lockdown? I genuinely don't remember - from memory it didn't seem like there were any issues for people wanting to leave the country. Nowadays, things are more strict - or at least in principle they are.
Finally - I can't remember, was international travel restricted to people leaving the UK during the March/April lockdown? I genuinely don't remember - from memory it didn't seem like there were any issues for people wanting to leave the country. Nowadays, things are more strict - or at least in principle they are.