OpenSkies

[HZ123]

Here at Waterside and Wokingham we have started this years' pantomine season earlier than useual but you would be forgiven for thinking that we continued running last years without the seasonal break. The sooner the LR A318 arrive the better. Some staff think we might do a lot better if concentrated on the task in hand at T5.

[Re-Heat]

There are portions of management who are focused on investments and alliances and those focused on operations. Both are essential to developing the business, and to suggest that one group should not be investing in the future of the business while the other are messing up T5 is hardly relevant or useful.

As to why BA did not buy L'Avion earlier, or initiate the setup with the former BA management, there are several valid reasons:

- PrivatAir was the only proven business class transatlantic operation (subbing for Lufthansa and KLM)
- 757s were highly utilised at the time and hard to source from the BA operation or elsewhere
- Management was embroiled in the Iberia LBO
- The OpenSkies business plan had yet to be conceived
- OpenSkies itself had not been negotiated, let alone finalised, introducing the complication of G-reg operations from France to the US

Frankly the world has changed a great deal in 2 years. It is disingenious to suggest that BA should have bought L'Avion at that stage - no other commentators suggested they should have done so either at the time or until they did so yesterday.

[Globaliser]

Originally Posted by Walnut

Assuming they really did pay £28M for the airline (excluding cash) then each a/c has to generate £40,000 profit pd to cover that cost spread over a year.

What sort of business would write down the purchase cost of an acquisition over as short a time period as one year?

[tristar500]

The sooner WW takes his thumb from this as*, the sooner BA will start picking up - preferably with a leader who actually cares about BAs grass roots (ie UK and Europe) but off course not forgetting the bigger world-wide picture...

The downgrading of the domestic BA product along with comical attempts to 'hold onto' Premium passengers on the EDI-GLA -- LCY routes is far more of a pantomime - AND its an all year one! 7 shows a day, all week long!

Grappling and grasping for 'new ideas' to outdo the competitor is too little too late. The arrogance of BA in recent times that they are untouchable in everything they do, has now come back to haunt them.

LHR is now open-house for anyone and everyone. LCY A318 longhaul ops... Does anyone really think this will work? With only 2 aircraft and very demanding operating criteria for LCY, its not just a pantomime, its a circus! BA cant even sort out their domestic affairs at LCY nevermind introducing longhaul. Its a joke and thats being polite...

[AirLCY]

I agree with Globaliser - there is no way the company would aim to bring in all the revenue to cover the purchase price, it's more likely to be over a period of at least 5 years.

Also BA/ Openskies are not interested in connections, the business model is for point to point traffic which is why JFK was chosen.

Re the LCYJFK point - there is a lot of excitement in the City for the route, even with the fuel stop, it will work really well, but should have been started sooner!

[Skipness One Echo]

On downgrading the domestic network, Glasgow has lost one of the two overnighting early Heathrow services which used to be packed every day and made the money on the route! WTF is going on?

[flightlevel26]

How do you exactly know it makes money? Remember the numbers of bums on board does not mean it makes money!

[Deep and fast]

Don't worry about the GLA LHR pax. Our company will help them out

D and F

A little bmi time

[HZ123]

By down grading the shorthall service levels (no club) and sourcing it as a locost there may well be a number of locations that will not have an early morning departure to LHR. The objective is to curtail as much as possible night stoping crews from and to LHR. I still feel that with the AA-IB-BA link up plus all the numerous problems, OS may well be too late on the block. I hope to be proved wrong but BA's record with projects is not the best, but OS has been very good for the retired league of gentlermen and old pals.

[Re-Heat]

Curtailing nightstopping would entail hiring local crews in European bases. Openskies strategy Mk2?

[Skipness One Echo]

How do you exactly know it makes money? Remember the numbers of bums on board does not mean it makes money!

Historically the early Shuttles were so busy they had a spare B737 to back the B757 up. So on a Monday morning instead of 2 B757s and a B737 back up they're down to a single A321 to catch the punters heading into town to start the working week. It was a high yield, high volume business route, not so much anymore. And yes, BMI WILL do well here I have no doubt.
Of course in those days GLA was a crew base with B757 drivers heading south to fly short haul from LHR so there was some flexibility in BRITISH Airways. If they can't be arsed to night stop a crew to hold onto a *loyal* passenger base then God help them. I don't want to fly on a low cost domestically, I always choose BA where possible.

[Re-Heat]

And now they have 3x daily from GLA to LCY. Think about it.

[CabinCrewe]

isnt it 4x daily GLA-LCY.....

[Walnut]

I still find it hard to find the rational for the OS concept in these difficult times. Management at BA seems to be spending all its time (see last 3 weeks of BA News) on this minor part of its business, BA needs £25Mpd revenue just to stand still and at best OS is going to generate .3% of this sum!! if it operates full?
The only way any airline is going to survive, say $150 Oil, is by using the most fuel efficient a/c and charging the right price for the service. At present an OS a/c is costing about $ 75,000 round trip on fuel, thats a huge amount to be shared by a small number of pax.