andymcdonnell

https://www.paddleyourownkanoo.com/2023/08/29/is-british-airways-about-to-sell-its-gatwick-shorthaul-operation-to-holiday-airline-jet2/

Im not sure how much truth is in this, especially if we’re to accept Sean Doyle’s comments of how successful is been so far

Joshb18

I’ve always been surprised J2 aren’t at LGW… yet. Will be very interested to see if anything comes of this.

rockflyertalk

Now that the pandemic is behind us! (Moving on swiftly) traffic and numbers are increasing and /or positive, so I don’t see why BA would give up a large customer market when potentially better times are ahead and there’s money to be made. Pulling out of Gatwick or just having a small long haul operation doesn’t really make sense in my opinion.

Are Monach not relaunching? It would make more sense for them to buy BA EF…

South London Bon Viveur

I have assumed that Jet 2 aren't at Gatters because they can't get slots or aren't prepared to pay the going rate for them.......

It would be strange for BA to leave Gatters so shortly after setting up again, but you never know. Their Gatters ops are clearly aimed at holiday and leisure travel, so maybe it does make sense longer term to leave that side of things to the real low-cost experts, like Vueling (please God no).

sammyg901

Wouldn't completely surprise me to be honest. It seems to have been very difficult to scale - need to pay higher salaries than planned to retain crew and against Easyjet/Ryanair/Wizzair/Vueling it must be really hard to fill A320s/A321s at a worthwhile yield for most of the year.

Whereas Jet2 are operating almost fully as a package carrier which means they can get their profit from the whole holiday.

BA holidays can focus on longhaul and LHR short haul (city + high end beach)

Never Stansted

Very interesting. Jet2 are arguably the best UK short-haul airline operationally. Wonder if this would be a bit of a play into the premium leisure sector (perhaps a bit like their close namesake JetBlue) - would be surprised if they introduced a business class offering but could imagine them keeping priority check-in / security etc. Potentially also scope for a deal to have some access to the BA lounges since they'd presumably be much too big for a long-haul only BA operation.

DYKWIA

All that's based on a single anonymous post on PPrune...

Smid

I assume Jet2 would run it as it currently is, at least for a bit, ie: having a cantankerous and lazy version of Club Europe, with access to, I guess, a jet2 lounge where the old BA lounge is. Though if they're still running Longhaul to the Caribbean, I guess BA will want the lounges.

Freddorick

I can't see that happening. My understanding is that BA is short on planes and crew to the degree that they wet lease from AY. The only reason for them to sell would be if 1) they are required by a regulator, 2) they think airtravel demand peaked for the forseeable future and Jet 2 is offering top dollar for the operation.

Ghrycllwl

If there was a secret meeting with Jet2 discuss selling BA EuroFlyer, it would not have been held at Jet2’s offices….

bafan

Seems a bonkers idea to me. Even according to BA, the leisure sector is where all the current growth and money is, so selling their leisure division would seem completely irrational.

But, then BA has been here before - creating Go, selling Go; losing GB Airways, then recreating all of the GB airways routes; building up Gatwick, then winding it down, then building it up again…

So, hey what do I know…

BJ787

Does Jet2 have the bottomless pockets that people make out? given they're now on the hook for financing 95 brand new Neos over the next decade.

I can't imagine LGW slots come cheap. BA hold a lot of them at around 19-20%. You obviously have long haul but outside of that there's not just EuroFlyer to consider, there's also the 400-450 a week they lease out to easyJet & Vueling.

Actual slot values are something of a mystery unlike LHR where they tend to make headlines but for comparison in 2007, easyJet paid Ł103, for GB and for that got 15 aircraft and an increase in their own slots from 17 to 24%. In 2017 BA paid Ł50m for 20 ex-Monarch Slot pairs.

Are LS desperate to move into LGW? are they willing to do it at any cost?..

BahrainLad

This article is based one one post on PPruNe which is apparently a rumour from "two separate people one of whom is a Jet2 Captain" so I would treat accordingly.

steview111

Jet2 pilots are renowned for spreading nonsense around aviation forums.

krispy84

I’m filing this in the tray marked ‘utter tosh’ personally.