2 Class A380s to Gatwick
 

I got an email today from FT which mentioned this article:

https://www.flyertalk.com/articles/e...w-flights.html

The reasoning for the extra flights sounds far fetched to me. How many extra holidaymakers are there on 8th and 13th November? Or on Tuesday and Wednesdays (5th, 6th, 12th, 13th, 19th and 20th December) compared to weekends?

There's a total of about 13 flights over two months going to two class when there are normally 3 x A380s every day to/from Gatwick makes it seem just headline grabbing , and it forgets to mention the 4 extra 3 Class B777 flights added.

Of course there will be increased demand for Economy seats over Christmas but this article seems to make a drama out of nothing, especially when the headline says First is eliminated on most LGW flights.

Am I being to cynical or do others agree?

Overall there are no "extra holidaymakers" , however because Emirates has the network via Dubai and ability to (when they deem necessary) be competitive on fares so they see this as a way to feed passengers into their system,at the expense of other carriers.
The soon to be non stop QF flights from LON to Oz(which are also Y+J config) and with reasonable fares I would imagine has rung alarm bells in EK sales dept, hence part of the focus on the extra flights ex UK. Can they fill them in low season and during the week? My guess is we 'll start seeing some fare promotions ex UK to Oz and also to other EK dests that have low load factor very soon.

Just a poorly written article IMO.

EK now have enough 2-class A380s to swap and change at relatively short notice - rather than using them on specific routes. They've done this for years with the B777.

Let’s put it this way - the UK is the largest source market for O/D travel to DXB, most of which Is leisure.

The profit from a 2 Class A380 may very well be higher than a 3 Class - or in any case, higher load factor in Y is possible -the 3 Class frames can be better deployed elsewhere.

You seem to have missed my point. Whether they are extra holidaymakers or other travellers poached from elsewhere is irrelevant. Direct QF flights don't start until March next year so don't even relate to this time period.

My point was that I thought the article was just sensationalist, inaccurate nonsense and I wondered if others agreed.


Thanks.

Definitely, I agree. Very little actual information in it, the rest ist just utter rubbish. A one-liner would have sufficed - "Emirates to add extra seats for holidaymakers on its popular Gatwick to Dubai route during the festive season".

Saw the email and article but didn't bother clicking as I assume it was a re-hash of what had already been covered in the forums.

The FT homepage articles are generally not very impressive, there's no evidence that they are adding new seats "for holidaymakers", nor that adding additional Y seats is even the intention, vs. utilizing 3-class frames elsewhere as eternal suggested, and LGW had the right loads to receive the chop. Ultimately it's not news, there are still a solid half dozen or more flights from the London area that offer F, and with CD how big of an issue is a swap to LHR really?

It’s LGW not LHR, don’t forget that.

I have a flight from LGW on Dec21 which became a 2class, so no upgrade possible but I’ve been told the service in J is better with the smaller cabin so I’m not too disappointed

Local news in the USA picked this story up Friday (November 3rd) morning and suggested that it was all Emirates flights during the Christmas season. I was envisioning a big mound of FC seats being stored in the desert.

I don't think anybody has suggested it's LHR :confused:

The title of the thread and linked article both say Gatwick.

Let’s not start that thread again!

:D:D:D

It’s all a lot of shouting, a storm in a tea cup or whatever you want to call it. In the real holiday season (I checked from 4 December to 21 January), F seats are for sale on the vast majority of flights. Most days all 3 LGW flights are 3 class, a few days have 1 2-class flight, one has only 1 flight with F. There are no days without F seats at all. Done quickly through EF.

Let’s :p. I missed it the first time around :D:D

S