LONDON CITY - 2
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: London
Posts: 77
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Swiss RJ100
I see the Swiss RJ is not in its temporary hangar on the Red Bull strip on the other side of the dock.
The hangar is being dismantled.
Presume HB-IYU is back in service with a patched up bottom.
Anyone with more info?
The hangar is being dismantled.
Presume HB-IYU is back in service with a patched up bottom.
Anyone with more info?
Flight report that SAS Denmark are recommending CRJ700/900's as Q400 replacements - interesting LCY relevant quote:
"According to SAS Group Pilots Association president Capt Mogens Holgaard, the Q400s could be replaced by an equal number of CRJs. He adds that the switch from turboprop to jet would not prove problematic. "We believe it fits in well [with the network]," he says. "The only route it doesn't fit is Copenhagen-London City." He says the recommendation is likely to favour using Airbus A318 on the London City route. While SAS Group is an A320 family customer, it has not placed orders for the A318 version."
"According to SAS Group Pilots Association president Capt Mogens Holgaard, the Q400s could be replaced by an equal number of CRJs. He adds that the switch from turboprop to jet would not prove problematic. "We believe it fits in well [with the network]," he says. "The only route it doesn't fit is Copenhagen-London City." He says the recommendation is likely to favour using Airbus A318 on the London City route. While SAS Group is an A320 family customer, it has not placed orders for the A318 version."
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Europe
Posts: 2,175
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
VLM Airlines to be bought by KLM/Air France and to closely co-operate with Cityjet.
http://www.reuters.com/article/marke...0071224?rpc=44
Now that will give BA a headache at LCY.
http://www.reuters.com/article/marke...0071224?rpc=44
Now that will give BA a headache at LCY.
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: London
Age: 56
Posts: 135
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
"Now that will give BA a headache at LCY."
Good - they need it. Cityflyer on the surface looks like it belongs to BA but when things go wrong (like yesterday with all the flight cancellations) BA service tends to disappear and the customers are left on their own:
- No advance information that the flights were likely to be cancelled (BA ask for our mobile number but don't seem to use it)
- No LCY information on the BA website (LGW and LHR cancellations mentioned though)
- LCY Bookings on the BA website can't be changed online (so not possible to change to a Gatwick or Heathrow flight)
- BA reservations line "too busy to accept calls", so can't change flights on the phone either.
In the end I didn't bother going to LCY but just caught a train to Luton and flew home with easy instead.
If I were CityJet I'd be on the phone to the Royal Bank on a regular basis offering them a nice deal on EDI - LCY seats. With the shoddy treatment of its customers at EDI since they subcontracted their ground handling and check-in, BA don't look very interested in keeping their existing LCY customers.
I wonder if 2008 is the year when BA stop doing domestic flights altogether. They do seem to be behaving as if they want us to fly with the competition.
13Alpha
Good - they need it. Cityflyer on the surface looks like it belongs to BA but when things go wrong (like yesterday with all the flight cancellations) BA service tends to disappear and the customers are left on their own:
- No advance information that the flights were likely to be cancelled (BA ask for our mobile number but don't seem to use it)
- No LCY information on the BA website (LGW and LHR cancellations mentioned though)
- LCY Bookings on the BA website can't be changed online (so not possible to change to a Gatwick or Heathrow flight)
- BA reservations line "too busy to accept calls", so can't change flights on the phone either.
In the end I didn't bother going to LCY but just caught a train to Luton and flew home with easy instead.
If I were CityJet I'd be on the phone to the Royal Bank on a regular basis offering them a nice deal on EDI - LCY seats. With the shoddy treatment of its customers at EDI since they subcontracted their ground handling and check-in, BA don't look very interested in keeping their existing LCY customers.
I wonder if 2008 is the year when BA stop doing domestic flights altogether. They do seem to be behaving as if they want us to fly with the competition.
13Alpha
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Scotland
Posts: 391
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I'm sorry to read your LCy experience. I agree with you on the ba website with it's LCY/BA Cityflyer info. Unfortunately flights get cancelled last minute. Annoying for pax and crew but there are a lot of people working hard behind the scenes to be at everybody's service. But sometimes you can't beat the weather... I ended up with two cancelled flights due weather, then A change of plan and of to GLA, with Flybe to Southampton and onward to FRA iso LCY.
After the startup problems at EDI with Aviance it seems to work well now. BA will not stop flying the GLA/EDI-LCY sector in 2008. It remains a busy sector.
Hope you didn't have too many discomfort. Hope to see you back on board in the future.
After the startup problems at EDI with Aviance it seems to work well now. BA will not stop flying the GLA/EDI-LCY sector in 2008. It remains a busy sector.
Hope you didn't have too many discomfort. Hope to see you back on board in the future.
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: London
Age: 56
Posts: 135
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I don't have any quibbles about the frontline staff at BA Cityflyer - they are very professional and friendly in my experience. So if you are one of them - thank you! 
It's the BA "machine" (website, customer services, call centres) which is supposedly supporting them that I have the issue with.
And while the issues with Aviance at EDI might be solved from the cabin crew/flightdeck point of view, I can assure you from a customer perspective that they aren't. The service at check-in, in the lounge and the baggage handling has deteriorated significantly since the BA days.
But anyway - this is the LCY forum, not the BA or EDI one...
13Alpha
It's the BA "machine" (website, customer services, call centres) which is supposedly supporting them that I have the issue with.
And while the issues with Aviance at EDI might be solved from the cabin crew/flightdeck point of view, I can assure you from a customer perspective that they aren't. The service at check-in, in the lounge and the baggage handling has deteriorated significantly since the BA days.
But anyway - this is the LCY forum, not the BA or EDI one...
13Alpha
Thread Starter
Besides, anyone looking at the congestion in the mornings and particularly in the evenings nowadays will realise that all the slots are full. And if you don't serve LCY at business hours you are really wasting your time.
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: North East
Age: 37
Posts: 204
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Lcy-gci
Would there be enough business for a GCI-LCY route? GCI already has 8 flights to LGW each day (the best part of 600 seats). JER-LCY couldn't be sustained with a three times daily rotation, and with the recent take over of VG by AF-KLM I can't see the arrangement of daystopping an aircraft in JER remainging for much longer. Bearing in mind JER is bigger, the LCY service isn't hugely popular (though has a few loyal customers).
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Europe
Posts: 2,175
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
New Eindhoven route
Anyone know of any new routes apart from the Lufthansa Berlin and the recently announced BA routes?
KL 992 LCY 0815 - 1040 EIN
KL 996 LCY 1830 - 2105 EIN
The route replaces the long-time thrice-daily EIN-LHR service, the slots of which will be transferred by KLM to Northwest in order to operate transatlantic long-hauls (certainly much to the relief of BAA who certainly did not like the odd Fokker 50 around LHR)
Interesting to note also that EIN was very briefly served from LCY on a scheduled basis in 1996 by Denim Air (before they turned into an ACMI operator).
All seems a bit quiet.
Well with Scot, Cityjet, VLM, KLM and Air France all wrapping up into one big organisation it seems some consolidation is more likely.
- Skyteam: Air France, KLM cityhopper, Cityjet, Cityjet by Scot Airways, VLM
- Star Alliance: Lufthansa, SAS, Swiss, Austrian, AirOne, Luxair
- Oneworld: BACF
- Independent: Euromanx
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: 3 rock of the moon
Posts: 82
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
(certainly much to the relief of BAA who certainly did not like the odd Fokker 50 around LHR)
I assume you mean ATC, yes they should be happy.
Sorry back to LCY issues
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Europe
Posts: 2,175
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I guess both BAA and ATC.
I recently read an interview with Luxair's CEO and he said that he was laughed right in the face when Luxair tried to move its afternoon slot at LHR to a more viable departure time. BAA was not accommodating at all making it crystal clear that they are not interested in airlines operating 50 seaters into LHR. As a result, Luxair is now considering selling its slot pairs at LHR and concentrate all LON ops at LCY (so we are back to topic
)
I recently read an interview with Luxair's CEO and he said that he was laughed right in the face when Luxair tried to move its afternoon slot at LHR to a more viable departure time. BAA was not accommodating at all making it crystal clear that they are not interested in airlines operating 50 seaters into LHR. As a result, Luxair is now considering selling its slot pairs at LHR and concentrate all LON ops at LCY (so we are back to topic
)
Thread Starter
I recently read an interview with Luxair's CEO and he said that he was laughed right in the face when Luxair tried to move its afternoon slot at LHR to a more viable departure time. BAA was not accommodating at all making it crystal clear that they are not interested in airlines operating 50 seaters into LHR.
1. Heathrow slots are organised not by BAA but by a body called Airport Coordination Ltd, which is owned by airlines, not by BAA.
http://www.acl-uk.org/default.aspx
2. There are still quite a number of business jet operations into Heathrow (some days up to 30) who are given slots and contribute virtually no passengers at all, far less than Luxair, and certainly very little to BAA's retail side.
3. Luxair used to have good morning and evening slots at Heathrow. No airline can be forced to give up good slot times, under "grandfather rights" provisions. If Luxair let them go in the past that was down to them.
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Europe
Posts: 2,175
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Surely not correct
Speaking at Luxembourg national carrier Luxair's launch of Bombardier Q400 operations to London City airport, the airline admitted that Luxair is examining its options, with both BAA and airlines interested in acquiring its allocation.
"At the moment, yes, we are fully committed to Heathrow, but BAA's business plan is to get as many possible through its airports," says Luxair's Simon Cook.
He confirms that BAA and Luxair had entered into talks about possibly either swapping or selling its slots, "And when we say swapping we are talking about switching them to different times," says Cook.
Dirk Throwirth, Luxair sales and marketing vice-president, adds: "We think that Heathrow is the most important airport in Europe and we have also been asked by other airlines if we wanted to do something else with our slots. We are now the only airline that goes there with regional aircraft - Embraer ERJ-135s and the Q400s - but it's not really in line with what the authorities want."
"At the moment, yes, we are fully committed to Heathrow, but BAA's business plan is to get as many possible through its airports," says Luxair's Simon Cook.
He confirms that BAA and Luxair had entered into talks about possibly either swapping or selling its slots, "And when we say swapping we are talking about switching them to different times," says Cook.
Dirk Throwirth, Luxair sales and marketing vice-president, adds: "We think that Heathrow is the most important airport in Europe and we have also been asked by other airlines if we wanted to do something else with our slots. We are now the only airline that goes there with regional aircraft - Embraer ERJ-135s and the Q400s - but it's not really in line with what the authorities want."
Luxair used to have good morning and evening slots at Heathrow. No airline can be forced to give up good slot times, under "grandfather rights" provisions. If Luxair let them go in the past that was down to them.
There are still quite a number of business jet operations into Heathrow (some days up to 30) who are given slots and contribute virtually no passengers at all, far less than Luxair, and certainly very little to BAA's retail side.
Looking at LCY, it is interesting to note how many airlines have been cashing in on their LHR slots by moving operations to LCY. Swiss comes to mind, Virgin Express (by way of a VLM code-share to BRU), possibly Luxair. KLM, Air France, Lufthansa all have moved flights to LCY in order to free up slots at LHR.
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Europe
Posts: 2,175
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
As we are just at Flight International 
Preliminary pax stats for 2007: 2.9m, up a whopping 23%.
Buried metal linked to London City aircraft compass deviations
By David Learmount
Metal structures beneath the holding area for runway 28 at London City Airport can cause aircraft compass deviations of up to 97deg left and right, according to the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB)
Full story: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...t-compass.html
By David Learmount
Metal structures beneath the holding area for runway 28 at London City Airport can cause aircraft compass deviations of up to 97deg left and right, according to the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB)
Full story: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...t-compass.html
Preliminary pax stats for 2007: 2.9m, up a whopping 23%.