Re: BACitiExpress The final solution!
Marlowe
Yes, as it happens I do fly for BA ex LHR, but that is NOTHING to do with it.
You may well be right about the LCY flights being listed after the LHR flights to a given destination - there is nothing new about that. About 15 years ago if you wanted to travel from London to Milan, BA Reservations would not even recognise the LGW-Bergamo flights as London-Milan. So I have some sympathy with you on that score.
HOWEVER, my point is that while the regions in general cannot sustain a business class product (ie the incremental cost of delivering the product is less than the revenue it generates), in particular, due to the high yield business traffic ex LCY, then those routes warrant the product as the incremental yield is there.
I know that BA at present are continuing with business class at LGW, as again the yields make it presently worthwhile, but even there the yield is being continually eroded to the point that J class ex LGW may only have another 12 months or so of life, ie before 2007 is out you may well find that BA and its derivatives operate single class everywhere except LHR.
Whether or not BA Connect will be the saviour of the regions I am not convinced, I suspect that it is a last gasp effort to make it work and contribute to the 10% margins demanded. I doubt if BA Connect has the management, the infrastructure (planes/manning levels/employee contracts) in place for it to work. If it doesn't then I guess it could go the way of Buzz etc and become subsumed into a no frills operator (don't go along with the loco motif - they are often anything but).
Good luck!