BALPA and BA talks breakdown

[biddedout]

xyzzy

Don’t worry, airlines traditionally get round preserving slots by leasing in aircraft to operate short versions of the routes from nearby regional airports.

Easy money for the minnows who can provide the airframes. Not sure what size of airframe is required to keep LHR happy these days, they used to use Small piston twins. Recently, a four engined jet was leased in by a well known Southern Hemsphere flag carrier in order to operate EMPTY Manchester to Heathrow and back three times a day for two years to preserve slots. Probably 2-3 million litres of fuel burnt carrying nothing but fresh air. Interestingly, BAConnect bid for this work, but according to BA management, the nasty BA BALPA CC refused to allow it. Funny old thing, it turned out that was not actually true.

This might be a clever trick to get round the rules, but I can’t see our friends at Greenpeace keeping quiet. It wouldn’t sit well with the Respecting our World policy either, unless this has already been thought of and WW compensates by turning Waterside into a giant composter and planting a million trees.