Originally Posted by
AirportPlanner1
This to me says well and truly that the old favourites are very much back in fashion for 2016. BA obviously see the need for extra capacity.
Not a huge advance. A couple of Cityflyer E190s are "locked in" at LCY during the Sat/Sun shutdown, this just positions one of them out to do something useful. BA Cityflyer typically have quite a bit of the capacity on their Mediterranean summer routes tied up through small specialist holiday operators.
Having used the LCY-PMI service a couple of times now, including this last summer, it was a pleasant operation far removed from the traditional Med charter operators, and not a huge difference in price. LCY check-in, 2+2 seating, 34" pitch, hot meals, full bar service, it really is like C class. I did feel it was a hard grind for just two cabin crew doing all that for 99 seats, including a C cabin. Someone once said it seemed to be pretty much the same pax (or at least the parents), off on family hols, who the crews saw out of LCY the rest of the year on the regular schedules. Notably at PMI this last summer on a Friday morning there was not only the LCY flight but also BA E190 charters to both Glasgow and Edinburgh departing all together, with the three aircraft lined up abreast on the ramp; it would have made an interesting
PR photo with the Majorcan mountain backdrop.
The charters are normally just Sat and morning Sunday, but in July/August when business travel drops the likes of LCY-Edinburgh is reduced, especially on Friday mornings, when business travel is always thin, and the capacity is usefully redeployed on these Mediterranean routes. Come the Autumn things move back to the regular Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Zurich etc financial world shuttle flights.