Hotel Mode said:
Why shuld BA operate flights out of the regions that dont make money? Its not state run anymore. The yields from the regions are absolutely dire. As for continental, well thay are just dumping capacity whilst the domestic market is down, should it ever pick up watch those services disappear.
and bealine said the same thing...
Think you'll find a lot of the regional services that CO provide are doing exceptionally well. Here at EDI the CO flight has gone from one 757 a day to two. Next year it is being upped to a 767 for one of those flights.
True the American carriers are dumping capacity from their domestic market but just as in Europe there is not much future for legacy carriers on shorthaul.
FACT: the market in the regions has been built up, customers like it and the fares aren't cheap. Average CO fare to EWR from EDI is around £450. Much more expensive than the cheapest ticket from the London airports but also much more convenient. People like it! They're willing to pay to avoid the inconveniance of routing via London. Emirates have started out of GLA, been so successful it's going up to a B777 and they're talking about starting an EDI A330 service.
This is a change in CO policy, can't see it changing since it's so successful. This is also what the dreamliner concept is based on. More smaller capacity aicraft flyig point to point rather than hub and spoke with all the delays that incurs.
I should say that the load factors on the CO's are almost always full.