Originally Posted by
virginblue
Realistically, a twice daily flight with a single aircraft on a route with a block-time north of 2,5hours would not be that helpful either as the first arrival into FCO (or LCY if the aircraft were to be based there) would be around noon-time and unlike Alitalia, BA has nothing to do at FCO before a second daily flight in the afternoon.
This is the case anyway, with a 1 hour clock change even an 0730 departure from any London airport is not going to be in to Rome before 1100 Local. For LCY the business demand is much more in morning, out evening, which is why an outstation base, plus the one hour clock change loss that way, means an 0700 departure (Rome and others having a much more constrained catchment area than South-East England) gives an 0830 arrival at LCY.
The "Alitalia would have something to do" etc argument is often incorrect, as the "something" is not defined and often will not exist. Alitalia will have its own trunk business routes already at Rome which also peak in morning and evening, with a lull in between. The fact is, a twice daily service with nothing in between may be the best financial return. So many of the operating costs, fuel, crew, nav charges, even a significant proportion of the leasing cost, are flying hours/sectors based, all of which rise with marginal time flights which at the fares you can get then are just not worthwhile.