Another thing I forgot to mention, just because there are A380 gates doesn't indicate anything. LTN has gates capable of holding 767's/a330s although it doesn't mean EZY will go out and order them!
Not sure how relevant the point about early production A320s is as they remained when BA ordered the B737-400s and still do to this day. They went on to acquire early production B747-400s and launched the B777 with United.
Correction 2 of the 'BUS' BCAL 320 have been broken up this year at Lasham. BA has many other problems to sort out, the choice of aircraft must be the least of WW concerns at this time. Final choice may also be dictated by whomever purchases BA in the near future.
One ( G-BUSD ) has been withdrawn and parted out at Lasham. It is 20+ years old and the A320 was not built to fly forever, unlike the B737. Not a criticsim just a different approach to design. And considering they are being replaced by more A320 series aircraft it seems to be working. The remainder of the G-BUS* series will be withdrawn over the nect 12 months.
The choice of aircraft is a high priority when no new long haul machines have been delivered in the last half decade. The competiton must not be allowed to get too far ahead.....
Skipness - newer 737s than that have been parted out. Not many, but let's be fair. The BCal 320s are an odd breed with CFM56s and some with no winglets so no surprise Willie's beady eye, keen as ever on fleet rationalisation after the hacking at EI, sought to get rid especially now the IAE fleet is well beyond critical mass.
MUFC_fan: As has been pointed out, the UK government has no direct financial or operational control over British Airways and has not done for some time. Further, BAe Systems no longer has a stake in Airbus/EADS, and even if they did UK.gov doesn't have a say there either. The former BAe Airbus plants are now owned by Airbus/EADS.
If I were a BA exec and Gorn Broon visited me to twist my arm in favour of the 380, I'd tell him the RAF have been waiting for years for the UK government to purchase FSTA A330s through their stupid PFI "scheme" so if Airbus plants need business that HMG should do the buying and BA will buy what's best for BA (and maybe its customers).
WW was all airbus at Aer Lingus so maybe this will impact the decision
The man is a commercial animal, who does not think in terms of anything other than the shareholders' return. I really doubt he has any preference for one or the other.
Forward Airstairs; A couple of them did, however, they were lethal in the wet and to steep for many of the passengers and after a couple of falls were not used again.
Rainboe, I'm sure there was a huge fuss when Northwest ordered Airbus but I can't find anything to prove it. Maybe I'm going mad and making it up! Can anyone remember?
Rainboe
Whilst I see where you are coming from on this, having spent almost twenty years selling commercial aircraft, I can assure you that politics does play a huge part, whether in the UK or darkest Africa.
The politics are played out by the manufacturers themselves, usually with govt. backing. The US has only one commercial aircraft manufacturer, but then it's only one country. Europe has one manufacturer, but has, say, five different countries representing them. I've always found it rather strange that KLM/Air France/Iberia/Lufthansa have large Airbus fleets, but BA does not, especially when their route networks are basically similar.
There are many reasons for this, which could take up a whole forum of their own. What I can tell you is that I spent as much time with the politicians as I did with the carriers when selling aircraft.
Suffice it to say however, that BA have to date been very conservative in their choice of new aircraft. They invariably wait for other carriers to build up experience with any new aircraft, and then take another look. QED the 747. Nothing wrong with that, but don't hold your breath waiting for an A380 deal announcement by BA.
My guess is that they'll watch developments on the T/Atlantic routes (introduction of Ryanair etc.,), plus the continuing effect of the ME carriers on the SE Asia/Australasia routes, before taking another serious look. Nickmanl
Yes there was! Questions in Congress, behind-the-scenes pressure on the board of NW etc. I can't remember the details now, and I wasn't involved with it, but it was a very unpopular decision at the time, not least because geographically MSP is not that far from Seattle.
As evidence of both the above, I recommend reading 'The Sporty Game'
by John Newhouse. The book is 25 years old, but it's as relevant today as it was then.
If WW were to get involved in Supertanker, I think he would infinitely rather the RAF purchase the entire fleet of BA 767-300s which was the alternative to Air Tanker if I remember rightly. As the only other carrier apart from China Southern to order RR-powered 767s, BA is in a rather unique position with those aircraft and there is little or no ability to sell them due to the odd engine types.
Well what a nice bloke, The pax seemed to like him,
and he was funny, so much better than the normal
hard to hear flightdeck announcements we are use to .
Nothing particularly sensational in this as most if not all EU airlines will be
given approval if they so wish.
It is what is being rumoured about the slots for such flights which is
interesting (let alone the aircraft to fly the routes).
It has been claimed in a Bloomberg interview that WW stated that EU
flights will start as soon as they can (business only?) but one of the
unsubstantiated rumours is that Frankfurt slots (and others) might be
come from flybe (I think they have at least seven pairs 3 BHX, 3 MAN
and SOU).
This sounds a reasonable rumour rather than reducing LHR-FRA and
I was wondering if anyone on here has heard about this?
My angle is purely as a BHX local and the persistent rumours that
BHX-FRA, MXP, STR CDG etc could be dropped soon. Slots for MXP,
CDG and FRA would be worth something wouldn't they?
I'm always a bit sceptical when I read about BA flying soon from FRA or CDG. I would have throught that they would choose a starting place where the market is good but the home team is weak. Brussels and Milan come to mind, although all three airports in question have reputations (at least to this SLF) as being operationally difficult. STR sounds like a good idea.
I have seen how bad operational performance has been lately first hand! How can we expect to reach a 10% op margin when we cant get the really basic things right?!
Coaches, TRMs, loaders, even crew all completely disorganised! Somebody looking from the outside could be forgiven for think that we had just started operating a new airline!
We have competition on so many routes, whose staff are hard working and complete their responsibilities. I know there are more than a significant few at BA in key operational areas that don't give a damn about our passengers and the impact of our incompetence on the rest of the LHR airlines.
Lets get back to where we belong, or are we only capable of doing any good during disruption?
Not the only one that feels like that then. It is quite alarming the prospect of setting up in the EU. BA cannot cope with LHR and must focus on what is it is trying to achieve.
BA faces summer of discontent
British Airways has been warned that it could face another summer of industrial strife after its largest union reported mounting discontent among Heathrow staff.
The T&G section of the Unite union, the largest at BA, said baggage-handling staff were under strain due to job cuts. Brendan Gold, T&G national secretary for aviation, told Guardian Unlimited that the airline's management had mishandled the situation "to the point of incompetence".
He said: "Our people are doing huge amounts of overtime and people are being drafted in from other parts of the business to help move baggage but that's not a sustainable position.
"There has been a failure of leadership by BA to the point of incompetence. Our members are doing their best but BA are not acting on the very clear warnings we have given over many months
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