BA Cityflyer

[AirLCY]

Cityflyer cant reduce any further aircraft until the new aircraft come, so doubt ZAX will be next month.

[BAladdy]

Can't see them sending any more aircraft back before the delivery of the 1st E170 in September

Also just noticed on jethros they have added the new aircraft regs and expected delivery dates. They will continue with the G-LCY- regs they started with the two RJ85's.

E170's

G-LCYD expected 01SEP09 (I/S 28SEP09)
G-LCYE expected 08SEP09 (I/S 28SEP09)
G-LCYF expected 26OCT09
G-LCYG expected NOV09
G-LCYH expected DEC09
G-LCYI expected JAN10


E190SR's

G-LCYJ expected MAR10
G-LCYK expected APR10
G-LCYL expected APR10
G-LCYM expected MAY10
G-LCYN expected JUN10


Meaning all deliveries will be made in time for the peak summer 2010 timetable.


Timetable Changes

BACF will increase NCE to 2 x daily with the re introduction of the afternoon service 03Aug09 - 01SEP09.

The BA8737/BA8738 LCY/FRA/LCY will not operate from 03AUG09-31AUG09 MON-FRI.

[DutchBird-757]

Thanks BAladdy. We were just discussing the reg issue on the flightdeck the other day. Very good to see they continued the LCY regs!

Also heard the initial two aircraft delivery dates have been pulled forward by two weeks resulting in the dates mentioned above. First routes for the 170 will be EDI and AMS.

In case anyone wondered why we didn't use the LCYA reg for the RJ85, it was used on a Dassault Falcon 900EX by the London City Jet Aviation Centre.

[BAladdy]

Cityflyer cant reduce any further aircraft until the new aircraft come, so doubt ZAX will be next month.

BACF's currently need 7 RJ100's and 2 RJ85's to operate their current schedule so they could send one more back before the E-JETS go into service on the 28th September. This would however mean there would be No standby aircraft.

Who are the RJ100's leased through??. Does anyone know the dates they are meant to be handed back?.

Also what date the 2 RJ85's leases comes to a end??. They were only delivered last year.... Could the 2 RJ85's stick about until after the Summer 2010 schedule to allow for additional frequencies and new routes??

[cornishsimon]

dont forget that BA still have options on the EMB's so if they like what they get and expansion/new routes is on the cards when things start picking up i would expect to see them take the options.

CS

[cmf146]

They are leased from BAE and all but one of the RJ100's are due to be handed back this year, although this could change. Which will leave just the two RJ85's and one RJ100 to return.
So the currrent plan sees a fleet of 5 Emb's and 3 RJ's by year end.

[virginblue]

What is the current load factor of the Cityflyer flights? Replacing a 110seat RJ100 with a 70seat E170 is a significant reduction of capacity (as the larger E190s will not arrive for another 12 months or). Or is Cityflyer not selling a third or so of the seats on RJ100 for performance / comfort reasons?

[celso75]

E-Jet Ownership

Will the E-Jets be owned by BA or will they be leased?

[nebpor]

virginblue - they are most certainly still filling the RJ to capacity - I frequently have uncomfortable journeys in them

We got one of the 15-row RJ versions recently ... must have only been on the GLA route as another plane was out of commission - it was sheer luxury in comparison!

[32SQDN]

What is the situation regarding crewing of the new Embraer's. Given that there were originally 11 RJ's and they will be replaced by another 11 a/c, does this change the required number of pilots and cabin crew?

[DutchBird-757]

Expect new routes from LCY next year. Source confidential.

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by cmf146

As you rightly state Cityflyer are already three aircraft down on the operational fleet of last December, and AW has also now left. It ferried to Exeter last Saturday for hand-back, and AX is due to follow next month with all this quite a few months ahead of the replacement Emb's coming on-line.

This is a poor practice which one can find elsewhere, eg on the railway, where assets start to be disposed, or at least withdrawn from service, before their replacements are delivered and commissioned, and leads inevitably to unreliability of service.

Regarding the aircraft handed back at end of lease, most leases make provision for the lease to be extended short-term on the same terms if both parties agree. As BAe appear to have no new customer in prospect for the aircraft (which may indeed be performing their last commercial services here) they wouldn't be averse, I'm sure, to maintaining fleet strength for a while, so it just seems parsimony on the part of BA. I can't believe the whole fleet is coming up for major and expensive checks all at once.

[BAladdy]

What is the situation regarding crewing of the new Embraer's. Given that there were originally 11 RJ's and they will be replaced by another 11 a/c, does this change the required number of pilots and cabin crew?

Cabin Crew compliment will reduce from 3 to 2. They need to reduce the headcount by about 25. The head count is to drop at the EDI base. It is hoped it will be achieved through part time working, unpaid leave and voluntary severence.

Will the E-Jets be owned by BA or will they be leased?

The aircraft are owned by BA.

What is the current load factor of the Cityflyer flights? Replacing a 110seat RJ100 with a 70seat E170 is a significant reduction of capacity (as the larger E190s will not arrive for another 12 months or). Or is Cityflyer not selling a third or so of the seats on RJ100 for performance / comfort reasons?

The BA routes are high yielding ex LCY. They easily fill the second 0720 ex EDI M-Thu and the 1600 Wed-Fri. The last 2 ex LCY most nights. Otherwise they can have anything between 20-60 pax during the day,

FRA, AMS, ZRH, GLA and MAD will be more suited to the E170 than the RJ's when it comes to loads.

[AirLCY]

ZAX wont leave the fleet until the E170 enters service, the RJ fleet cant operate with no spare, it's not relaible enough. The fleet needs to remain at 10 hulls, 9 of which operational. In the current climate the only routes that need high capacity are morning and evening GLA and EDI flights as mentioned by BA Laddy. I guess this will change in the coming year or two when the economy starts to pick up. It will be interesting to see if new routes do start next summer, all depends on economy and competition I guess. Some EDI flights are on sale on E170 in Oct.

[cornishsimon]

so any suggestions as to what the new routes are likely to be ?

[Leading_Edge_190]

Does anyone know if there is any plans for pilot recruitment for the embraer? I hear that alot of the pilots are due to be retrained from the RJ, but will they need any extra hands?

[BAladdy]

so any suggestions as to what the new routes are likely to be ?

Depends on what the range will be for the new aircraft.

I don't think the E-Jets have the range but the one route BA would make a alot of money on ex LCY is DME. BA carry alot of customers on the LHR/DME that are in the banking business. LCY would cut out around 2-3 hours off there journey time.

That route a side any of the following routes would probably do well as BA have a large number of corperate account in those cities

DUS,
HAM,
STR,
OSL,
ARN,
HEL,
LIN ( 2 flights a day and would be much more popular than the failed MXP was)


I also reckon they will try and add another leisure route or two. If the aircraft has the range AGP and FAO would be well recieved and used by those who work in the city and go down there for golf weekends etc. Other possible leisure routes PRG, BUD, VCE, and FCO.

[WHBM]

Even if the Embraer (or even the A318) had the range out of LCY (and I don't think they do) Moscow DME would be improbable, as the UK-Russia market is still tightly regulated, and the Russians would never agree to anything that didn't give at least an equal advantage to their own carriers. Not a competitive approach, but at least they look after their own. Always have done, always will do.

The list of routes suggested as likely to do well unfortunately contains too many points which have failed in the past.

LCY only does well from major business destinations, inbound early morning, outbound afternoon/evening, so not for aircraft actually based at LCY. Everything else is a filler that hopefully covers its direct operating costs. If LCY allowed operators to park during the day I'm sure we would see a lot of aircraft stood there between morning and evening. However there isn't the ground space to permit this.

[LondonCityBoy]

Damaged RJ100 at LCY

Passing through LCY last weekend and noticed they have erected a large scaffolding/hoarding around G-BXAR.

Does this mean it's being a) scrapped b) repaired or c) other ???

[Cyrano]

Does this mean it's being a) scrapped b) repaired or c) other ???

a) scrapped