Latest rumour I heard was that BA wouldn't just give the Gatwick 737 operation wholesale over to GB, but they were negotiating a deal for BA to take over the few Heathrow slots which GB holds before BA bails out of Gatwick completely in return. 737s to GB, RJ146s to BACE.
BA are half-way down the slippery slope at Gatwick now. It's unprofitable; so they cut routes which are unprofitable and hand the slots back. Along come easyJet and compete with BA on routes like Geneva, Barcelona and Amsterdam from Gatwick and then those routes become unprofitable so get cut. More slots go back, easyJet expand...this could continue until there's no BA and a huge easyJet operation at Gatwick. I bet easy would love to launch some domestics from Gatwick but just can't get enough slots to launch them at high frequency.
I wonder what the "BA Future Size and Shape" quango will come up with about Gatwick? What's the betting that they demand a low-cost subsidiary at Gatwick to keep any presence there - only 12 months after they started integrating the only hope they had of keeping LGW alive.
Yes, EOG may have the lowest cost base of any operation within BA. However, I'll bet it's still a damn sight higher than easyJet's, with whom they are competing. Look at all those fancy exec lounges, Jubilee House, costly union agreements on rostering and working practices etc. Unless they can EITHER get the costbase down OR maintain significantly higher revenues to pay for it, they are stuffed.
I heard a little story last week. A crew were ready to push back for departure to wherever and called the ground crew for start. The tug was just in the process of disconnecting, so the captain asked the tug crew what was going on. "End of our shift," came the reply. "We go off at 12 today, so you'll just have to wait for another tug." 40 minutes later, one arrived and the crew were absolutely speechless. I have heard several occurrences of crews delaying flights because their crew meals were not aboard PURELY because they would be hauled over the coals by their union for setting a precedent to management of departing without them.
How the hell can you expect to run a profitable operation with low costs and good customer service if your airline is riddled with silly agreements like this, enforced to the letter by people who feel they have no option to stick by those agreements to "fit in" at BA?
BA have *never* understood how to make Gatwick work for them and have a consistent track record of ******ing up operations which they have bought there. Dan-Air had a low cost base which they managed to increase substantially to quasi-BA levels before buying CityFlyer and stuffing that as well by merging it into EOG.
Do civilisation a favour. Let BA go from Gatwick and give someone half-decent a chance of making it work, offering a punctual service at the right times, getting your bag back to the terminal within 20 minutes of landing (instead of the usual 40) and cutting the crap out that you don't need (hot meals to Aberdeen etc). That would be pretty out-of-keeping with the numerous recent flights I've had with EOG, but that's what I think is needed as a frequent flyer with them from Gatwick.
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New BA policy decision. With immediate effect, catering on short-haul flights will change from a torpedo roll with a fun-size Mars Bar to a fun-size torpedo roll and a Miniature Hero.