BA Ghost Flights
Nov 13, 2007, 1:34 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 470
BA Ghost Flights
This became topical again on the news last night. Quite frankly it beggers belief, especially in the light of green issues and recent fuel surcharges
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ma.../et-ba-113.xml
What a way to run a business!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ma.../et-ba-113.xml
What a way to run a business!
Nov 13, 2007, 1:39 am
#2
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: London, Sydney
Programs: Muccihood de la Rotisserie Doree, BAEC Gold, SAS Eurobonus basic, Ansett Golden Wing :-(
Posts: 3,114
"Some of the aircraft are thought to be Boeing 747s, which when full carry between 500 and 600 passengers. "
Really?
"Earlier this year it emerged that BMI, which operates as a British Airways franchise "
Really?
Really?
"Earlier this year it emerged that BMI, which operates as a British Airways franchise "
Really?
Nov 13, 2007, 1:50 am
#4
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 120
I have dispatched so many airlines and I can promise you that ALL airlines including people such as ryanair to the big boys aka VS/BA run positioning flights. These are for various reasons....some operational (i.e crew shortages) and occur infrequently...many others epecially the charter bunch operate dozens of posn flights! I don't hear them getting shot for it!?
True at all LON bases we are short of crew because of the 900 rules and at LGW around 35% of the base is on restricted rosters (including myself)!
True at all LON bases we are short of crew because of the 900 rules and at LGW around 35% of the base is on restricted rosters (including myself)!
Nov 13, 2007, 1:58 am
#5
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA Gold(OWE), QF LTG, MR Plat, IHG Spire, Hertz PC
Posts: 8,156
Nov 13, 2007, 2:08 am
#6
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: London, Sydney
Programs: Muccihood de la Rotisserie Doree, BAEC Gold, SAS Eurobonus basic, Ansett Golden Wing :-(
Posts: 3,114
Nov 13, 2007, 2:18 am
#7
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Europe
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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3A110a Safari/419.3)
Quite. If those are the rules then all airlines will use their slots. Not
BA's fault; fix the underlying problem!
Originally Posted by Jenbel
ITN carried a report on this as well last night.
If they want to keep the slot, they have to do it.
If they want to keep the slot, they have to do it.
BA's fault; fix the underlying problem!
Nov 13, 2007, 2:41 am
#8
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Eurozone
Programs: LH SEN, HH Gold
Posts: 3,002
Nov 13, 2007, 2:44 am
#9
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: It's Grim Oop North!
Programs: BA & A3 - Silver and fading
Posts: 182
Well this is just sensationalism gone mad.
Basically it must have been a slow news day for this to make the ITN News.
So BA has operated several transatlantic flights without crew and pax due to crew shortages and the angle ITN take is the supposed harm this causes to the environment. Pleeeaassseee! tell me what should BA have done instead.
Whilst having crew shortages and managing the rosters to make sure flights are staffed and therefore filled is a basic part of BA's business, and they are failing miserably, that is the only story here.
That the planes flew empty is regrettable but lets face it they would have flown anyway as they were scheduled flights so no more CO2 was expended than normal (probably less due to the light loads).
However, what about the passengers waiting in the USA for these flights to return to the UK? If BA had decided to 'protect' the environment by not making the outbound flights they would have stranded several 747's full of pax for the return flights and the crews already positioned to staff them. This would have in turn increased the problems with crew availability in LON.
So the story here should have been 'Poor Staff Management Causes BA To Make Tough Choices' but thats hardly going to make anyone spill their cocoa is it!
Signed
Bad Attitude
Basically it must have been a slow news day for this to make the ITN News.
So BA has operated several transatlantic flights without crew and pax due to crew shortages and the angle ITN take is the supposed harm this causes to the environment. Pleeeaassseee! tell me what should BA have done instead.
Whilst having crew shortages and managing the rosters to make sure flights are staffed and therefore filled is a basic part of BA's business, and they are failing miserably, that is the only story here.
That the planes flew empty is regrettable but lets face it they would have flown anyway as they were scheduled flights so no more CO2 was expended than normal (probably less due to the light loads).
However, what about the passengers waiting in the USA for these flights to return to the UK? If BA had decided to 'protect' the environment by not making the outbound flights they would have stranded several 747's full of pax for the return flights and the crews already positioned to staff them. This would have in turn increased the problems with crew availability in LON.
So the story here should have been 'Poor Staff Management Causes BA To Make Tough Choices' but thats hardly going to make anyone spill their cocoa is it!
Signed
Bad Attitude
Nov 13, 2007, 4:11 am
#11
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: London
Programs: I've got three passports, A couple of visas, Don't even know my real name.
Posts: 909
As pax agent said, these sound like positioning flights.
If these really were ghost flights to keep slots open at LHR, then why didn't they just fly Heathrow to Bristol in a small aircraft late at night (as someone got rumbled for doing a couple of months ago)?
If these really were ghost flights to keep slots open at LHR, then why didn't they just fly Heathrow to Bristol in a small aircraft late at night (as someone got rumbled for doing a couple of months ago)?
Nov 13, 2007, 6:53 am
#13
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: San Diego
Posts: 2,685
The article is erroneous in many ways, not least the fact that the aircraft are surely far from empty.
Slots wouldn't really be the issue here, as the number of flights being cancelled are well below the (10%?) threshold.
Nov 13, 2007, 6:56 am
#14
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: 2.18 miles east of 23R at MAN
Posts: 1,042
A work colleague's son flies long-haul for BA as a senior FO. He's forever relating stories to her of forced drafts (you try flying LHR-BLR-LHR then LHR-NRT-LHR back to back over 13 days after doing LHR-JFK-LHR the day before) and being at least 40 pilots short to cover long-haul. He flew a jumbo BOS-LHR empty of passengers (but full of cargo) quite recently.
Nov 13, 2007, 7:00 am
#15
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: AMS (SEA, JNB)
Programs: Mucci Reperateur des Coeurs Brises
Posts: 4,107
Why not hire additional staff? The demand is obviously there these days to fill the currently available aircraft. What a waste of money, fuel and especially slots to fly out empty aircraft.
Why would the schedules be out of synch if BA puts passengers on them anyway?
If BA cannot properly utilise the slots, they should be provided to someone who can IMHO. LHR is too congested for these sorts of flights to occur. Go to Entebbe or Denver for that...
Why would the schedules be out of synch if BA puts passengers on them anyway?
If BA cannot properly utilise the slots, they should be provided to someone who can IMHO. LHR is too congested for these sorts of flights to occur. Go to Entebbe or Denver for that...
