British Airways - 2

[LD12986]

Regarding slots and extra services, this what seems confirmed so far for S12 (and earlier for GLA).

JFK: 1 extra daily flight

MIA: 1 extra daily flight (4 joint AA-BA services is a strong frequency advantage over DL and VS)

JNB: Increase from 14 to 17 weekly

HKG: Increase from 14 to 17 weekly

GLA: Progressive increase from 52 weekly to 60 weekly from 30 Oct 2011 and then to 67 weekly from 9 Jan 2012.

Still scope to add a couple of new routes!

[GROUNDHOG]

I love BA, always been a huge fan but just flew LHR/YVR on the scruffiest 747 I have ever been on. Baby changer fell off the wall so the toilet door wouldn't open, IFE did not work, seat I was in was broken and the life jacket holder kept falling on to me feet, dirty and premium economy certainly wasn't worth the extra apart from the extra legroom. What has happened to my favourite airline, I hope the return is much better or I will be adding to the workload of customer services.

[WHBM]

New UK transport secretary

Well in the UK government, transport secretary Philip Hammond has moved on, and been replaced by Justine Greening, MP for Putney.

Her principal claim to fame in Putney has always been vitriolic hatred of Heathrow, and especially the third runway, so we can kiss goodbye any commonsense about that for the near future.

[CabinCrewe]

She'll not last , I wouldnt worry. Cue reshuffle....

[clareview]

Can anyone confirm the rumour that BA is going to refurbish the interior of the B767's - I thought they were due to go soon as the years are there?

[CabinCrewe]

Its not a rumour. Its true. Long haul 767 refurbishment to start shortly.

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by clareview

Can anyone confirm the rumour that BA is going to refurbish the interior of the B767's - I thought they were due to go soon as the years are there?

They would have been gone by now if the 787 had gone to plan - as it is they will have to do another 4-5 years service, which makes a refit worthwhile.

Same is true of many other 767s.

[Bearface]

New Route - LGW

Went to see what BA were offering for flights to Nice yesterday - only LHR and LCY available.

Looked again this morning and now NCE is available from LGW as of 25 March - 3 flights per day.

Can't seem to find any press release about this new route - seems a bit odd to keep it quiet.

[globetrotter79]

Looks like BA are in the midst of a bit of chopping & changing at LGW:
3x daily LGW-NCE now showing in booking engine
LGW-FAO down from two per day this summer to one next
LGW-FCO down from two per day to one
LGW-MAN down from four per day to three (MAN nightstop disappears)
LGW-PRN and LGW-TIA moved from lunchtime to evening departures

quick calculation looks like with the current year-on-year moves this will result in 'spare' morning LGW departure slots at 07.10, 09.45, 10.00 and 10.10...so either some more new routes to come (around 10am is a good time to fire off long-haul transatlantics?!) or maybe they are in the process of chopping the number of LGW-based aircraft...

[Wycombe]

.....would think that unlikely bearing in mind the amount they have just spent on the Terminal facilities at LGW?

[cornishsimon]

.....would think that unlikely bearing in mind the amount they have just spent on the Terminal facilities at LGW?

I think its very unlikely that we will see any further downgrade at Gatters, my hope is that we will see some expanded routes both short and longhaul

cs

[vectisman]

I believe the British Airways schedules are being updated at the moment. Therefore some schedules are provisional.
If you check the One World Timetable, that can be downloaded online and is updated regularly, you will see that most frequencies have been maintained at Gatwick (at the moment).
I checked for the month of July 2012. Of course changes take time to filter through but the full schedules will become clear in a few weeks time.
Thanks.
V.

[cesare.caldi]

BA will add any special flight, increase frequency or increase capacity (maybe WB also on european route) for the London Olympics games period?

[Aero Mad]

cesare.caldi, both of BA's London bases are slot regulated so it simply isn't that easy. I suspect that they'll rely on their current capacities filling up, and maybe do a bit of shifting for routes expected to yield major Olympic traffic.

[pennineuk]

I doubt they'll add flights. If you look they have chopped redemption fares during the games period and many flights seem to have lost the cheapest fare buckets during the same period.

[newscaster]

Why have BA altered the tail livery on the 747-8F?

[TURIN]

I didn't even know they had ordered them?

[pennineuk]

BA is updating its fleet of Boeing 747-400F with new Boeing 747-8F’s and will be leasing them through Global Supply Systems, which is 49% owned by Atlas Air. On the press release BA states, “It has also been agreed that the new 747-8fs will be delivered in British Airways livery and incorporate the British Airways World Cargo logo.” Flight Global reports that they will be wet-leased for five years by GSS.

[newscaster]

What about the livery? why the change?

PICTURE: BA World Cargo 747-8F — Civil Aviation Forum | Airliners.net

[WHBM]

BMI merger

OK, being wholly positive about the BMI merger, what is going to be done with it ?

There may be some fine detail about keeping services on the BMI licences to comply with slot rights, route licences, ownership by IAG and not BA, etc, but the overall image presented will be BA.

BA would appear to be back in the Middle East to all the points that went with B Med (whose cold-shouldering in the first place must surely be seen as a mistake), and indeed back to Belfast. I hope they hang on to them all. The trunk Scotland routes are still capable of pulling in a great deal of revenue, as has been found after BMI gave up Glasgow, and could do with a good recast.

All the moaners seem to go on about "only for the slots", so what might these additional slots actually be used for ? There is the sudden opportunity to do a big network recast that has not been possible for years, so what shall we do with them ?