Flight Time Changes

[newswatcher]

In February I booked return flights to Malaga for the end of October. The carrier is BA.

Since then I have received two updates telling me that there have been changes in return flight times. The first moved it from 17:05 to 16:50hrs. The second moved it from 16:50 to 17:40.

Now, I am very happy that BA are keeping me informed, but why are such minor changes necessary 6 months ahead of the flight?

[Getoutofmygalley]

Because the airline will be working out it's winter aircraft rotations. Also BA might be introducing new routes somewhere, which requires tweaking of existing aircraft rotations.

They probably have a built in function in their reservation system that upon any tweaking will send out an email advising pax as soon as the tweak happens. Better that than no notification at all :)

[bealine]

Malaga is also operated by BA Franchisee "GB Airways" who do not have a high number of aircraft at their disposal, so the "winter rotations" argument is much more significant for them than it is for mainline BA.

[Big Tudor]

Could be the result of the last IACA slot conference. Runway slots get traded at the conference to get the best possible programme structure which often results in minor time changes. Further trades take place after the conference as contacts are followed up on once people return to work, again resulting in time changes.