BA Cityflyer

[DutchBird-757]

There seems to be a new schedueled destination for BACF out of LCY starting 13 Sep. It's double daily and on weekdays only. Operated by an E170. Block time 1:55hr and a nightstopper! The timings are ideal for an office day in London.

A wild guess: Prague. My reasoning is that CSA Czech Airlines are stopping all UK flights in NOV this year and the BA LHR-PRG is also 2hrs block time)
CSA Czech Airlines To Leave The UK Market — Civil Aviation Forum | Airliners.net

[cornishsimon]

sounds a good new route for ba ex lcy

[cmf146]

G-LCYB

RJ100,

Can you confirm please when G-LCYB transited to Kemble.

Many thanks

[DutchBird-757]

14 July as 'Flyer 01P'. And that's where it stays for the rest of the month.

[cmf146]

Last RJ 85 is service

Thanks Duchbird-757.

'YB is not due to be handed back to the lessor until October 10 and 'YC until November 10, so I guess CFE will still be paying the leasing costs for a few months yet !

[DutchBird-757]

Depends. I've heard that there's a financial bonus (jokes aside) to returning these aircraft early. Whether that's true or not, who knows.

Another interesting comment in this thread:
BA W10/11 Schedule Changes Summary — Civil Aviation Forum | Airliners.net
A new destination for LCY; Chambery? If so, who's gonna operate that one?

BA's summer 2011 timetible is suggested to be released either this, or next month. (iso DEC) If true, who knows what that brings.

[CabinCrewe]

Hope theyve still got a standby the GLA chartesr last weekend had terrible punctuality- 2 and 3 hrs delays.

[towser]

cmf146; My understanding is that its cheaper to park them up in a field than keep them flying, for one thing you have no maintenance costs to pay and we have all the aircraft we need for the schedule provided nothing goes seriously tech!
DB 757; its my understanding that it's us that will be operating the Chambrey

[BAladdy]

There seems to be a new schedueled destination for BACF out of LCY starting 13 Sep. It's double daily and on weekdays only. Operated by an E170. Block time 1:55hr and a nightstopper! The timings are ideal for an office day in London.

A wild guess: Prague. My reasoning is that CSA Czech Airlines are stopping all UK flights in NOV this year and the BA LHR-PRG is also 2hrs block time)

PRG would be a good addition but not sure there is much business traffic on that route. Also with No Sunday service LCY-PRG will not appeal to many leisure pax.

With that type of frequency and the block time stated maybe BACF could be starting flights to TXL, STR or MUC??. All routes that perform well for mainline.

Any word on if or when a official announcement is expected??.

[DutchBird-757]

I see that things have changed and the first service is now on SEP 12th ex LCY. Some more small changes as well. There's now a saturday morning 0515z departure form the destination to LCY and back again departing LCY on the sunday at 1805uk. Similar to the MAD operation. Weekdays still double daily E170.

As you stated BAladdy, it could be something totally different. And they are still tweaking the scheduele. They'll have to announce it quickly otherwise it will appear on the rosters in two weeks. My wild guess is that we'll find out before Farnborough is over. Hopefully, fingers crossed, they'll announce the 3 extra E190's as well. But then again...

[WHBM]

Prague would be a surprising route, there is not a lot of business traffic there, certainly not from LCY's base in the finance industry, but the established carriers there have suffered more than anywhere else in Eastern Europe from the Low Cost Carriers, who have come in from all directions.

Berlin would be a better commercial option, but that has been tried and failed at least twice from LCY (including my first ever LCY flight, Contiflug to Tempelhof). The "new airport" (actually just a new terminal) at Schonefeld opens in 2012 and it would be good to get a toehold in there early. Berlin has of course always been a strong destination for BA, and is surprisingly marginalised by Lufthansa, so a worthwhile consideration.

There actually aren't any likely destinations left across Europe which do not already have a service, or have been tried and failed.

It's a shame the Embraers haven't got the range for Moscow, that would be a sure fire success.

[DutchBird-757]

I'll guess we'll find out shorty. Seeing BA just announce LHR-GOT maybe they'll anncounce this today as well. Anyways, Moscow would only work if they only sold a third of the seats on the outbound and operate it on the E190. And even then it would be problematic.

Anyone heard anything about WAW coming back next year?

[BAladdy]

I see that things have changed and the first service is now on SEP 12th ex LCY. Some more small changes as well. There's now a saturday morning 0515z departure form the destination to LCY and back again departing LCY on the sunday at 1805uk. Similar to the MAD operation. Weekdays still double daily E170.

So the new flight has a block time off 1hr 55 but only gonna operate twice daily. So does that mean that the aircraft looks as if it will be on the ground at the new destanation for much of the day. If thats the case is that not a bit of a waste of money??

[DutchBird-757]

It leaves LCY 0745z, arrives at 0940z.Then returns at 1435z and arrives at LCY 1635z for a 1705z departure to nightstop. Leaving again at 0515z and arriving at 0715z. So yes, there're two gaps; one of 5hrs and one of 11hrs on the ground at destination.

[Cyrano]

Originally Posted by WHBM

It's a shame the Embraers haven't got the range for Moscow, that would be a sure fire success.

I agree entirely with you about the commercial potential, but sadly there's also the small matter of a frequency-restricted UK/Russia bilateral, so if I recall correctly BA would have to give up one Heathrow-Moscow 767 flight for every LCY-Moscow Embraer (or more likely A318).

C.

[airhumberside]

Unless a Russian carrier wanted an extra UK frequency in which case an extra frequency for a UK airline maybe granted - when bmi got both their DME frequencies they got Transaero to add an LHR flight at the same time

[Skipness One Echo]

All irrelevant unless they fit a giant catapult at the 27 threshold though.*BOIIING*.

[BAladdy]

I am suprised that BACF dont make changes to there MAD weekend services during the summer. At the moment there the inbound Saturday flight/aircraft continues to EDI. Returning from EDI on a Sunday night before going on to MAD. The current timetable is less than appealing for those pax who want to go to MAD for a weekend but need to be back in work for 9am Monday. BACF would see booking increase by quite a bit if they operated a flight ex LCY on Saturday back to MAD and operated a round trip ex MAD on a Sunday. i.e

Saturday

BA8752 MAD 07:40 LCY 09:00
BA8753 LCY 09:30 MAD12:45

Sunday

BA8752 MAD 17:00 LCY 18:20
BA8753 LCY 18:50 MAD 22:15

BA's summer 2011 timetible is suggested to be released either this, or next month. (iso DEC) If true, who knows what that brings.

Hopefully we will see a return and possibly a frequency increase of IBZ and PMI routes.

It's a shame the Embraers haven't got the range for Moscow, that would be a sure fire success.

I have always thought DME would be a success from LCY. They could drop one of the LHR (Mon-Fri) flights and replace with a LCY flight on the all J A318 (Embrear would no way make it).

[AirLCY]

Ibz and pmi already seem to be on sale next summer.

I don't think the 318 would make dme without a stop, even with just 32 seats!

[DutchBird-757]

No surprise to see PMI and IBZ return. Hopefully with a higher frequency.

Regarding the new destination. How about Berlin, as WHBM already mentioned. New airport under construction and a base for Air Berlin.
Just announced; Air Berlin to join Oneworld Alliance. Official announcement in Berlin tomorrow with the CEO's of AA/AB/BA/AY and Oneworld itself present.

Press release here and Oneworld info.