NonSmokingWindow

UKtravelbear

CHS is where? Not everyone knows every airport code.

And why do you think this city deserves a BA flight? What would attract people to go there on a year round basis? What businesses are located there with international clients ? What events and attractions to encourage the leisure flyer?

labdoctor

If they will fly to Charleston then I see no reason why 6 times daily shuttle flights to Doncaster couldn't also come to fruition 😂

Ldnn1

Given that Charleston has no international service at all - not even to Canada or Mexico - it would seem a rather unlikely choice.

Though I suppose if the subsidy were crazy enough...

Prospero

I'm hoping for PDX (Portland, Oregon)

apollo00

Seem like an unusual (perhaps even unlikely) choice, it's a nice city for sure and the IT sector there is reputedly growing nicely. It doesn't have any international flights currently I don't believe (not even Mexico) so I don't even know it has the necessary facilities.

I guess it'll depend if some entity is prepared to stump up the cash to support the route at the end of the day. I'd like to see PDX added personally but BA don't seem to like routes with direct competition so the DL service probably rules that out now. SLC would be vaguely useful too but has the same DL competition (and KLM to Europe also).

Gomac

apollo00

There's already a pair of AA flights to CLT which makes that fairly unlikely I'd say, given the joint venture. Palm Springs I'm really not sure could handle anything big enough to fly that far, would be nice to have a 'not LAX' option in LA area though..

flatlander

Minneapolis-St Paul. It doesn't have any Oneworld direct flights at all from London and it's about the biggest place not served by the alliance at all.

Charleston Tom

Charleston is a historic city where much of the framework still exists and did not have to be reconstructed like for example Willamsburg Va. Charleston has 2 major international business-the Boeing factory making 787's and a new Volvo S60 plant. It also has a several billion dollar a year tourist industry including access to the coast, sailing,off shore fishing and of course golf courses including the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island. We also have a major international art and music festival -Spoleto- over two weeks at the end of May each year.

Anyway lots of reasons for BA to include us.

PS. For our British guests on this site you should consider visiting on June 28th when we celebrate our famous victory in 1776 over a large British Fleet with a parade and speeches.

BA0197

The trouble with a new USA route now is the lack of 788s BA has. Either it means they upgrade a current 788 service to something larger (BNA/MSY etc) or they have to launch the service with a 789 or 772. Me thinks the USA expansion is done for while and BA will be looking further afield. My best guesses for USA:

MCI (Kansas City)
PDX (Portland)
DTW (Detroit)
SLC (Salt Lake City)

Again I can't imagine any being started with anything but a 788.

I think it's time BA takes a look at some of their large holes in African Commonwealth countries:

DAR or ZNZ (Dar es Salaam or Zanzibar, Tanzania)
FNA (Freetown, Sierra Leone)
EBB (Entebbe, Uganda)
WDH (Windhoek, Namibia)
HRE (Harare, Zim)
BJL (Banjul, The Gambia) - An odd one but a coup with them rejoining the group and steal some traffic from Thomas Cook with BA Holidays
TUN (Tunis, Tunisia ;not Commonwealth, but a glaring hole for OW in general)

Not sure of the bilateral restrictions in these relationships, but it does rather surprise me that BA have been so keen to send the 788s on routes to the Americas without a single attempt for a 788 to Africa.

GaxxyFlyer

Ldnn1

There is a single attempt - to DUR.

corporate-wage-slave

Me too, it's a interesting place to visit, a bit 1980s in a way, bookshops, decent sausages and workable public transport. This is the city which is like the joining point, historically, between a USA that was once as much tied to German speaking immigration as English.

But the answer - as we have seen from BNA, presumably MSY and certainly PIT - is which ever city dips into its wallet sufficient to provide a revenue guarantee. St Louis used to make money for British Caledonian somehow. Cargo I would imagine.

Previously on FT (and interesting to see some of it has come true):
I would like to see BA fly to ...

rapidex

No one has mentioned SJU.