UA Fan

http://airlineroute.net/2010/08/27/ok-uk-w10/

ajs123

a real shame!

nomad1974

If they can't make LON work then I don't know what they can...

UA Fan

I guess there are just three major airlines in ST.

RobertS975

I took one of the OK flights LHR-PRG this past July when there were already strong rumors that this route would be dropped. Of course, the plane was almost completely full. Too bad they could not plan things better to get some feed from incoming DL flights from points that do not have direct PRG service like DTW.

another_shot

Copy&paste from one industry publication on this matter:

Czech Out - CSA Focus On Eastern Markets As It Leaves UK


SkyTeam member CSA Czech Airlines has revealed that for the coming winter season it will axe a number of routes across its network. Most notably, however was the decision to discontinue its UK routes. It currently operates services to London Heathrow and Manchester, with a total of 18 weekly flights, four of which are to Manchester in North-West England.

UK DECLINE
In 2003, CSA actually operated 47 weekly flights from Prague, not just to London Heathrow and Manchester but it also operated scheduled frequencies to Birmingham, Edinburgh and Stansted. CSA has no doubt been put under pressure over a number of years by the emergence of the low-cost sector. Even on its two remaining routes there is intense low-cost competition.

The Manchester route is operated by UK low-costs Jet2.com and bmibaby, whilst easyJet serves Prague from London Gatwick 13 times weekly and Stansted daily, with Wizz Air offering a six-times weekly service to London Luton.

CHANGE IN STRATEGY

The impact on yields has made market conditions in the UK difficult for CSA, however CSA network planning team has for a number of years had its focus away from the UK and targeting other central European markets. Czech Airlines focus on eastern markets which is driven by the SkyTeam alliance strategy for CSA to be the hub for central Europe and the CIS.

With KLM and Air France able to provide codeshare connectivity to CSA passengers, the carrier has been encouraged by the larger members of the alliance to focus east. Given the geographical presence of Prague it provides a perfect location to feed markets for Air France and KLM in the CIS.

A look at the CSA network is illustrative of this. Whilst announcing the UK cuts and dropping its Cologne service, in June it launched twice weekly service to Astana, interestingly not served by KLM or Air France. Its focus for the SkyTeam alliance is illustrated by the fact that Czech Airlines serves several eastbound markets not served by either KLM or Air France. Notably these markets include, Bratislava, Dubrovnik, Minsk, Odessa, Riga, Skopje, Tbilisi and Tallinn.

Whilst Wizz has moved quickly to ramp up capacity on its Prague to London sector to a nine-times weekly and will also a open a London Luton-Brno flight, it is clear is that the valuable London Heathrow slots will go back into the SkyTeam pool.

DLNYC

Is this where DL's slots came from for BOS/MIA-LHR? I wish DL would actually codeshare with OK to further open up the eastern market.

RobertS975

DL's slots presumably would come from the AA/BA slots that had to be divested in order to clear the anti-trust hurdles prior to their joint venture.

WilcoRoger

Good luck with those routes, real gold-mines they are!

In the Baltic they'll have quite an established competition from BT, in CIS and others from OS, LO and MA and even TK.

checkxp

London isn't an easy one for Short haul routes... Expensive Slots at Heathrow, very harsh competition through auxiliary airport... You could also see that BMI dropped the Belgian route, so did VLM (now cityjet), they also dropped amsterdam and a couple of other European routes, which I think is a real shame as BMI was to my eyes really the best value for money. Unfortunately I've flown with them on the Brussels route until they stopped and there was a clear drop in Passenger numbers over the years, I don't know the exact reason for that. By the end they were using ERJ-45 flying less than half full! Devastating I found that the last time few times I flew with them.

DownUnderFlyer

Correct, LHR seems to be difficult for many airlines. LHR-BER is another route which airlines struggle to make work even so one would think that two big cities like that should work like a charm.

soorox

So does this mean ANY SkyTeam member can take up these slots?

I pray VN might take this opportunity to operate SGN/HAN>LHR, as i believe they have been hunting for slots for quite some time now. They need to expand their European network, only having FRA, DME & CDG doesn't cut some slack, they also freed up some 777's from MEL & NRT also.

NickB

The bmi situation is not quite the same: the route was taken over by SN, so a transfer from one Lufthansa-owned airline to another Lufthansa-owned airline, and BD still codeshare with SN on the route.

Not quite as simple as that. OK will not have released the slots for free. They would have engaged into negotiations with another airline to sell/lease the slots (technically 'exchange' their slots against junk-slots (+, of course, payments)).

If it were simply a matter of cost of operating at LHR, given that LON is a terminal point for OK rather than a connection one, they could also have used another airport where it is cheaper to operate (LGW being the most obvious example) in the same way as MA do (or, for that matter, SN before they were acquired by LH and joined *A and got the slots from bmi).

OK's problem is that the UK market is much more competitive on the lcc front than most other European markets and that OK are not mainstream enough and cannot rely on the same amount of worldwide connecting traffic as the big boys to make the routes viable. They are therefore much more exposed to lcc competition.

kilgore75

CSA did that only for cash they can get from LHR slots. They were sold to BA (new service to GOT) before this was even announced. It's not about if route was successful or not, just about money they need now to cover their losses. CSA may be back in London, but it won't be LHR for sure. Many people here think it's not the wise decision and I agree.

NickB

If so, why did they not simply move the flights from LHR to LGW? This would have enabled them to pocket the cash for the slots and maintain the LON service, albeit to another airport. once you have left a route, it is much, much harder to re-establish it.