BA in Asia

[mattredd]

What do people think are BA's plans in Asia are? They are probably the weakest carrier to Asia of the big 3 and since 98 have been cutting their routes to Asia. Do you think this trend has ended and they are going to expand in Asia? They have a lot of routes that they could serve such as Seoul, Osaka, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpa, Taipei, Manila etc. where yields could generally be good.

[Hotel Mode]

Rumour Has it 2 of the above could soon be making a return and 1 of the others (the one we havent been to before!) is certainly being looked at.

[mattredd]

I think the one BA hasn't been to is Shanghai and I've heard that for a long time now BA have wanted to fly this route (I think BA even announced this route before but VS got it). Could you give us any hints on the rumoured 2.

[London Jets]

rumour has it that BA are going to start flights to Kuala Lumpur this year. I think Lufthansa have just started flying there.

(hope thats better for you hand solo, made the correction to my spelling now!!)

[maxy101]

Seoul also being looked at....Seems BA have realised there might be money in cargo after all....

[mattredd]

Do you think that, if they do start a Kuala Lumpa service, the flight would go on to Australia?

[Hand Solo]

rumour has it that BA are going to start fights to Kuala Lumpur this year

Best keep our heads down then. Who you looking at?:mad:

[stiffwing]

BA to operate heathrow-shanghai and QF to continue through to sydney or maybe brisbane (or both) .Starting mid 2005 is plan "a"

[Jordan D]

Just a theory, but I'd guess that they wouldn't do flights to Oz via KL, as they canned them last time they operated through KL (and cut the KL route while they were at it).

Jordan

[B737NG]

Poor blokes... if they fly east bound past the URAL then they will
see what poor quality of ATC english you can get there!.
I hope the ICAO test will be conducted sooner then 2008!.
Some Chinese and Korean controllers needs to be changed.
Do not forget to take more fuel when you fly there. They advise
you to desent up to 100 NM before TOD for no reason as they
do not understand Jet performance at all and excuse it with
flight safetey.
The ability to communicate and interact with the crews is in
reality non existend and simply dangerous itself, it calls one day...

NG

You'll find BA already fly to the Far East and have experience of the airspace .... it is not really a relevant point to the commercial introduction of a route. Try the ATC Forum in a new thread perhaps ?? PPRuNe Radar

[mattredd]

Since the rumour that BA is going to fly to Kuala Lumpa is getting very strong, how do you think they will do it? Another city in Asia, OZ or it terminates there?

And what equipment do you think they will put on it, 772 or 744?

[thegoaf]

BA used to operate to KUL. For some years some Australia flights transitted there. More recently they operated adaily non-stop on a 772. This was withdrawn during the Asian economic crisis. If they did operate a daily non-stop they would either need two extra aircraft in their fleet or would need to withdraw other saervices or downgrade some services to a 767.

There is no possibility of their operating to Shanghai. Only one British airline can operate there and that is Virgin. BA do have unused traffic rights to Osaka, Nagoya, Seoul, Taipei, Manila, Djakarta, Perth and Brisbane.

They also used to operate to Auckland but getting there via an oriental route is costly (It is far less distance to go via the Pacific).

[Globaliser]

thegoaf: BA used to operate to KUL. For some years some Australia flights transitted there. More recently they operated adaily non-stop on a 772. This was withdrawn during the Asian economic crisis.IIRC, a number of major airlines withdrew from KUL at about the same time, complaining that MH was dumping and that the Malaysian government was (surprise! surprise!) unwilling to stop it. Has MH now stopped doing this? Could it be relied on not to re-start if BA and others now came back to KUL?

[mattredd]

The 3 big airlines I meant are BA, AF and LH.

I thought that Britain and China have just signed a new bilateral agreement where BA can fly to Shanghai and one other city in China later on this year?