Slots at LHR and Project Lauren
Project Lauren has been launched by BA because of the acute slot shortage at LHR and the great uncertainty at LHR following the introduction of Open Skies next April.
BA rejected the option to buy the GB airways slots at LGW (approx 30) at a cost of £3M each and yet in the same breath bid for the GB LHR slots (4). They got 1, with Continental getting 2, and Qatar 1. However these slots cost about £20M each.
There have been several other "slot swaps" between partner airlines at LHR this winter.
However there is a ticking time bomb at LHR with the coverted 14% of prime time slots held by by bmi. Lufthansa has a 30% stake in bmi and just like BA with the GB slots at LGW has first call on the purchase of bmi. This option matures soon, and must value bmi at least £1.25B. Likewise SAS owns 20% of bmi and is hoping to sell its stake soon.
All three of these airlines are part of the Star Alliance an arch rival of BA.
Just to add a little more interest to the Airline ownership situation at LHR, it is heavily rumoured that Singapore airlines is seeking to sell its 50% stake in Virgin. Virgin is of course non aligned but SIA is part of the Star Alliance.
This brings me back to PL, more than anything I believe any delay in pilot recruitment within PL is subject to the jockying by airlines over their future North Atlantic flights, however Balpa is right to reject any calls by BA to ignore the current Scope agreement it has with its pilots.