Originally Posted by
Brakefan2
Being new to this thread please excuse my naivety. With the announcement today that FR are switching from LGW to STN ex BFS and the slots now floating about for LGW in IAG workshops,is there any possibility of IAG reinstating BHD/LGW using either BA or EI?
Or maybe them being sold to Norwegian?
I use the BFS/LGW route for business and it has always been rammed. Living in the east of NI when EI pulled out of BHD /LGW it is a pain routing out of BFS. EI's rotations were always well used.
Love to hear others views on this one.
I would really love to see BA operate the Belfast/Gatwick route. I think they could pick up a lot of business traffic and wouldn't need to compete directly with Easyjet on price. I think the route would work much better for BA than EI as BA has a hub at Gatwick which could drive sales for connecting BA flights and it is a better known brand than EI worldwide. Also BA being part of the oneworld alliance (which sadly EI don't look to be joining anytime soon) would be able to bring in traffic from the alliance.
If EI were to bring back the route I think they would be competing more directly with Easyjet, albeit there would no doubt be some codeshare traffic from BA.
Sadly though I don't think there is any chance that IAG will use the slots for Belfast if they get them back, they will use them elsewhere, most probably for LEVEL.
The best chance of getting competition on Belfast/Gatwick is if Flybe decide they want to grab the remedy slots like they have done at Heathrow on the Scottish routes. They used to fly Belfast/Gatwick and only ended it as far as I recall as they needed to raise some cash and got a big offer from Easyjet for their Gatwick slots.