I am sorry to interupt your little BA-bashing, but when given the choice to travel on Ryanair or BA I prefer the latter...
Why? For cost reasons, logically.
With BA I take public Transportation from House to airport and Airport to Hotel, at a cost that already is better than the parking of my car at the not exactly close airport Ryanair is flying from and to. Adding to that the rental car I most certainly need at destination and the cost of my own car that I neecd to get to departure. So if I could all aplles, oranges, nuts and bananas together and not oly compare the aples then I am about even, if not in slight favour of the 'legacy carrier'. Adding my personal comfort to that and the favourite is given...
Looking at the latest straffic figures I must say I am probably not the only one thinking like that.
That does not mean that LCCs have no right or potential to be in the marketplace, but to claim that a rather strong legacy carrier like BA would die within the next visible timeframe is about as unprofessional as it would have been to say that all US legacy carriers will die soon after a certain company names Southwest started to fly criss cross around the lower 48.
Oh, on another note regarding Ryanair. What was that 'evacuation incident' again? I faintly remember to have read something like 'flight attendants found operating the doors with armed slides to be unfamiliar'. Makes ME think....
hmmm...most analysts agree that at the end of this financial year BA will prove to have been the most profitable airline in the world. I will repeat this - the most profitable airline in the world. But never let the facts get in the way of a good story eh?!
As a pilot for a Uk charter carrier and from my own travel needs I take at least 30 scheduled flights a year Ba are my carrier of first choice always a consistent quality product and from Lgw normally the cheaest option when I,m paying for it myself.I think people who actually consume the product rather than spotters running virtual dream loco airlines on their computers at home prefer the full qualilty/frills of the Ba product especially when offered at lower prices thanthe so called locos.
are people forgetting that BA are more than just a short haul operator. Yes, they are being attacked on domestic and European flights, but even then they still have the frequency and bus product (some people still want it) to get decent yielding traffic.
But, BA have admitted they make their money on the longhaul routes. The New Yorks, Dubais, Mumbais, Tokyos and Washingtons of the world will also give a lot more money than the Amsterdams, Manchesters and Pisas.
Plus, the added benefit that BA can partly fill up their aircraft in Europe with feed from the longhaul - trafic that the lo-co's can never get their hands on.
Yes they do have short haul difficulties, and if they get that right then who knows how much they could make!!!
as far as i can see the grand old elite are doing a great job of self destruction. Ryanair nearly had arch rivals Aer lingus dead and burried, then Willie Walsh comes along turns the whole thing around and the Irish government come in and fall out with him over financing new planes So my friends believe in the trusted BA they'll be back i dont BA will have to suffer this kind of intrusion LONG LIVE THE FLAG CARRIERS
What a load of cr@p. BA are the most savvy and the most forward-thinking of the 'legacy carrierrs'.
They have had 15 years of dealing with Ryanair - they weren't driven off LHR-DUB in the early 1990s, they walked away from the route when a 'legacy carrier' (like EI) would have carried on taking the pain.
From their experiment with Go, they know plenty about LoCo dynamics. Their profits this year are being earned in spite of record fuel prices and a simplified fare structure that gived a real low-cost alternative for business travellers.
And no, I'm not one of their employees.
PS if you're looking for real tough competition, you're looking in the wrong place. Think 'Emirates' with their unlimited government money and their 40-plus A380s on order.
BA will do fine, but only as a London (LHR) airline, there will be nothing 'British' about it. The foreign long/short haul carriers are taking the traffic directly from the so-called 'Regional' airports like MAN, as travellers choose that instead of BA via LHR. Interestingly JET2 have just pushed BA off the MAN-AMS after 50 years, and last month BA stopped MAN-CPH when Maersk joined Scandinavian on the route, so i'm not exactly convinced about their competetive instinct. I expect that the Open Skies agreement and LHR access for transatlantic slots will be the big issue for BA.
the Irish government come in and fall out with him over financing new planes
What financing are you talking about? The A320s are mostly coming in on lease as the 737s are going out.
The A330 replacements will be financed by private money, whenever the govt gets the bottle to face the unions down. With AA now coming on the transatlantic, ditching the codeshare, that had better be sooner than later for EI's sake.
BA are supposedly pulling out of the Manchester to Amsterdam route. Who would have believed that back in the days when it was only KLM and BA with a bilateral air agreement protecting them both. The liberalisation of air services in Europe has been good for the new low cost entrants but has its casualites too.
Darkstar, I've read alot of your so called posts and all are negative towards BA. Do you actuall work for them??
I'm on the new contarct and the crew on the old contracts deserve what they get paid. They were in the right place at the right time and no crew on new contracts ever moan about it. We accept it as it's just the way it is. BA offered that pay to them so they should pay it.
MarkD,I am not commenting on BA,but you seem to enjoy a bit of union bashing. Do you exclude the CBI and BALPA from your ire. All unions are primarily there to protect the interests of their members,who elect their leaders. If they get bad leaders they simply deserve them. I would no longer not join a union,than run my car without insurance
So my friends believe in the trusted BA they'll be back 
i dont BA will have to suffer this kind of intrusion LONG LIVE THE FLAG CARRIERS
