bmi's A319'S coming to LBA in June

[Bailey@LBA]

Hi

Noticed that bmi will start to operate there Airbus A319's into LBA from March on the 4 times daily LHR Route

[ILS 119.5]

Doubt it. None of the base crews have been told nor have they been informed of any conversion training.

[carbine]

ILS 119.5

There is no rush in getting the LBA guys typed just yet after all they now have another 2 fokkers arriving very soon on lease to Regional, so it is very possible that 319's could be here soon. :hmm:

So whats this I hear of ERJ's doing AMS and BRU out of LHR? Before anyone jumps down my throat, i think its a weekend jobby in a few weeks, and its a one off i believe! But Why???:ugh:

[ILS 119.5]

Sorry to say, but if the A319's are coming then there is a rush to get the crews type rated. It costs money for them not to be. Some of the pilots are working half the hours over the next couple of months because of the extra F100's. If you were running a company and paying a pilot to work half of their duty hours for full pay then you are mad. BMI try to work the crews to the limit, which is subject to flying hours. The company will do its best not to lose money and to base crews from LHR into Leeds overnight everynight would lose money. I can assure you that when the A319's are sceduled to arrive at LBA, I will know.

[Going loco]

Despite ILS's claims, the A319 will be on LBA/LHR w.e.f. 1-JUN. Mixture of ERJ / A319 / A320 on Sundays.

loco

[BombardierCR7]

Amadeus is showing 319 weekdays from May 31. Going Loco is correct, mix of ERJ and 320's from May 30 on a Sunday

[Flightrider]

The LBA-LHR is indeed showing A319 from the beginning of June on all four weekday flights.

A number of weekend flights through LHR are to be operated by an Embraer 145, which appears to be the Manchester-based aircraft. It puts in an appearance on Heathrow-Paris and Brussels on Saturday before operating the Sat nt LHR-TeesSide nightstop. On Sundays, it is doing the southbound TeesSide-LHR, morning LHR-LBA-LHR and then the lunchtime LHR-MAN, before taking over the MAN-GLA-LBA-GLA-MAN Sunday evening service.

It would appear as though the arrival of the F100s at Leeds to operate the bmi regional routes is not a long-term change. It's interesting to note that no announcement of this has been made when you would think that doubling capacity on a couple of routes would merit some form of public comment. The choice of routes is also odd and it appears as though the whole plan is driven towards running the two F100s on the cheapest combination of flights to operate. They are also not being crewed up for anything other than token weekend operations. I would guess that this is a short-term way of covering flying before a longer-term solution (more Embraer deliveries?) comes into play.

[682ft AMSL]

regional do seem a bit rudderless at LBA at the moment. EDI / GL A / CDG do well for them but they are vulnerable to future competition from Jet2 (espeically if Jet2 are sticking in more units to their LBA base). CDG is already suffering from cheaper alternatives elsewhere in the North. BRU is low on volumes but OK'ish on yields. On top of all of this CDG / ORK / JER have to contend with the cannibalisation effect of 'baby' services from MAN, EMA and MME. There have been numerous times when regional have taken out press advertising for their LBA services and baby have been advertising their own routes on the next page. Talk about brand confusion

Putting dedicated F100's onto EDI / GLA / CDG could be viewed as one way of buying some time and assessing how the market reacted to more capacity - perhaps as a forerunner to switching services over the baby. But as Flightrider rightly says, the lack of any PR suggests the arrival of F100s is being driven by the accounting dept, not the marketing team.

Persisting with thin routes to ORK and JER seems pointless if your loco arm is going to offer cheaper alternatives from nearby airports and there appears to be no growth potential in BRU. The Embraers would be much more suited to FRA, DUS, MUC and CPH (a) because of the extra traffic that Star Alliance membership would generate and (b) they are less vulnerable to low-cost competition.

682

[Bezi l]

Looks can be decieving!!!!

A319's was originally planned for the LBA-LHR once the 3rd aircraft arrived into the fleet (01 June).

However, plans have been scuppered... and the LHR-LBA route will stay on F100's. Easier from a crewing perspective, as it requires only Fokker drivers to operate ex LBA instead of a mix. Easier from an engineering perspective too, and also if there are any opertional on the day issues.....

You're going to have to wait a little longer for that Airbus!!