Originally Posted by
Cloud1
I also still think there may be some meat to the bones of an idea that City Flyer could fill some void at LGW operating sun and leisure city routes with LCY significantly reduced to core business traffic - and as such a reduced portfolio.
What has made BA CityFlyer do well on Mediterranean routes at London City is the ability to mesh operations with those same "core business" routes. There is not equal 24x7 demand for business travel, and BACF have developed over time a very efficient model. Starting with one Med round trip in between morning and evening business high demand, they have exploited different demand patterns for different days of the week (business travel is very different on Fridays), and different times of year. Not all the routes run all the time - Nice is cut back most winters, a personal inconvenience, and surprising as BA from Heathrow and Gatwick do not cut back their frequent multiple daily flights, but there we are. You won't get any of this with a separate fleet at Gatwick.
It's also something of a myth that travel there is wholly connected with Canary Wharf - its catchment area spreads wide, as is apparent from conversation with those seated alongside me. It's the most convenient for Central London, especially those doing day return trips, and you find people from outer London, Essex, Kent etc make a considerable proportion of the load. One regular traveller I know from London to Athens finds it quicker to use Swiss, connecting at Zurich, than trek out to Heathrow or Gatwick for a direct flight.