Heathrow-2

[BAladdy]

BA are transferring there seasonal service to MLE from LGW to LHR from the start of the W20 schedule. Flights will be operated 3 x weekly by a 4 class 77W from 25th October. It is not yet known if the route will remain seasonal or operate year round.

BA061 LHR 18:15 MLE 09:40 77W 357

BA060 MLE 11:45 LHR 18:10 77W 146

[Fairdealfrank]

So put a second runway at Gatwick and give the capacity the south east needs. You know it makes sense

.

Not necessarily, LGW is far more affected by discretionary/leisure flying than LHR thus more vulnerable to downturns in the event of worldwide viruses (e.g. covid 19, SARS, etc), oil price spikes, terrorism, etc.. Also there isn't the hub connectivity and the carrier with a huge base there is a point to point airline (U2). Carriers that want to be at LHR and cannot get slots are likely to go to CDG, FRA and AMS (while slots are still available there) for the required hub connectivity and not LGW (unless using it as a waiting room for LHR).

Developing the stand-by rwy may be a better option and the better business case.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Asturias56 View Post
and another at Stansted ........................
Agree totally with that argument. It will bring much needed competition to the south east, make it cheaper for airlines and free up
access to slots. Heathrow wants it all and the only ones who will benefit are the airport shareholders. Airlines, passengers and people under the flight paths over London are the ones who are disadvantaged.

Fantastic, but you may not have thought this through properly. STN is nowhere near capacity, and there would be no profit/return on investment for the airport owners from a second rwy, so it is a classic example where a business case cannot be made and it will never get past the airport's shareholders, let alone the planning system, the ecowarriors, and government imposed obstacles.

You can forget about Boris Island for exactly the same reason.

As for BHX, "London-Birmingham", as LHR's third rwy and linked by HS2: (1) HS2 will never be built; and (2) it is not planned to go to LHR.

Quote:
Originally Posted by True Blue View Post
What does this mean for Gatwick?
Hopefully this will bring about further route development and infrastructure investment in regional airport connectivity!

Don't hold your breath! Didn't LGW management wack up the charges for small aircraft a few years ago thus killing off regional connectivity at a stroke? Consequently BE pulled out of LGW leaving just its PSO route LGW-NQY until that shifted to LHR.

[nowhereasfiled]

Surely BA don’t have the capacity to fill the extra 160 odd slots they’ve just been handed back following the Flybe collapse.
I wouldn’t have thought both financially and in the current situation that they’d be leasing in anybody to fill slots, will we see BA Cityflyer perhaps operating a few quiet routes? Or maybe another airline coming in to operate domestic routes?

[BACsuperVC10]

Originally Posted by nowhereasfiled

Surely BA don’t have the capacity to fill the extra 160 odd slots they’ve just been handed back following the Flybe collapse.
I wouldn’t have thought both financially and in the current situation that they’d be leasing in anybody to fill slots, will we see BA Cityflyer perhaps operating a few quiet routes? Or maybe another airline coming in to operate domestic routes?

Didn't LHR promise to connect the regions that weren't connected !!?

[Trinity 09L]

from 2015 LHR press release
Heathrow has announced a new package of commitments deliverable with expansion, designed to connect the UK’s nations and regions to growth markets around the world. Taken together they have the potential to deliver billions of pounds worth of trade and investment opportunities, reversing a lost decade of connectivity which has seen regional connections to long-haul markets squeezed out of the UK’s hub airport.

[giblets]

Originally Posted by nowhereasfiled

Surely BA don’t have the capacity to fill the extra 160 odd slots they’ve just been handed back following the Flybe collapse.
I wouldn’t have thought both financially and in the current situation that they’d be leasing in anybody to fill slots, will we see BA Cityflyer perhaps operating a few quiet routes? Or maybe another airline coming in to operate domestic routes?

EU has apparently dropped this requirement
https://simpleflying.com/eu-slot-restrictions-relaxed/

[boredintheairport]

BA has dropped their route from LHR to Beirut from the 12th May, which coincides with BA inheriting the former Flybe slots on the 11th and in turn releases an A321 (albeit a mid-haul one). Also coincides nicely with the currency crisis in Lebanon.

[LBIA]

According to ACL report BA are going to use the 12x daily slots pairs its regained at Heathrow from Flybe as follows during the summer 2020 season.

5x daily to Edinburgh
4x daily to Newquay
3x daily to Aberdeen

https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/n...medium=twitter

[SWBKCB]

That's what they are currently allocated to - there's no obligation on BA to use them in that way.

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by SWBKCB

That's what they are currently allocated to - there's no obligation on BA to use them in that way.

Yes, it's hard to imagine BA putting on another 800 daily seats to EDI to replace less than half that number lost by the Flybe collapse.

[Peter47]

You put on smaller aircraft on the BE routes, although 319s may still be too large. BA could always lease smaller aircraft. What happened a few years ago was that BA would suspend particular flights for maybe four weeks at a time which still kept them above 80% over a 30 week season. You can easily cutback operations by 10% and keep all your slots.

Still, Covid19 makes all this academic.

[Asturias56]

SQ into LHR yesterday almost all Brits self-repatriating plus a few London based Singaporeans doing the same.... Changi very quiet, LHR dead

[Asturias56]

Loads into LHR are relatively high as people are self repatriating - outbound... not so great except US tourists heading home

Colleague HAD to make a a trip to the USA on Monday - only Business Class passenger on a BA 747. Coming back yesterday he said Business was filled mainly with upgrades and the back -end was full of Brits of a certain age

[Sotonsean]

Terminal Closures

Terminal Closures.

http://www.simpleflying.com/heathrow...-4-closure/amp

Looks like Terminal 4 will be closed and British Airways to consolidate all of their flights at Terminal 5.

Looking back in time a few months ago know one could have ever envisaged this.

Just a few weeks ago everyone was discussing the planned 3rd runway at LHR, move just a few weeks later and we're now at a situation where the prospect of a terminal at the once busy hub airport is closing along with the prospect of airline lounge's, etc in other terminals.

It's absolutely unbelievable how this has all transpired in such a short space of time.

In the article it states the inevitable withdrawal of British Airways B747's which I predicted on the British Airways thread the other day and with a couple of posters suggesting otherwise stating that they won't because "they are bought and paid for and are economical to run due to the lower price of aviation fuel". It was a very naive comment I have to say. The days of British Airways and the Boeing 747 are numbered and they will end far sooner than any of us expected.

I've yet to see the British Airways "BOAC" retro B747. I need to get up to LHR before it's too late. It's very very sad indeed, we all knew that the day would come at some point but not like this 😥

[Asturias56]

well there goes the 3rd runway..

[Navpi]

F'cast figures for LHR for this year now below 40m.
Will take years to comeback if ever.
No passengers and the way we are going no airlines.

[Norman.D.Landing]

Originally Posted by Navpi

F'cast figures for LHR for this year now below 40m.
Will take years to comeback if ever.
No passengers and the way we are going no airlines.

Government across the world will have to step in and support airlines and airports. When this is all over, 3-6 months, life will slowly get back to normal and the world economy needs aviation to function.

[Asturias56]

Originally Posted by Norman.D.Landing

Government across the world will have to step in and support airlines and airports. When this is all over, 3-6 months, life will slowly get back to normal and the world economy needs aviation to function.

I reckon it'll be 3 years before we're anywhere near "normal" - and countries will be hocked up to the eyeballs - no money available for many things

[ara01jbb]

Originally Posted by Norman.D.Landing

Government across the world will have to step in and support airlines and airports. When this is all over, 3-6 months, life will slowly get back to normal and the world economy needs aviation to function.

3-6 months is absurdly optimistic. In my organisation we are now actively planning for at 12 months of shut down. There is zero chance of an effective or widespread vaccine becoming available before next winter when we can expect a second wave of covid-19 to hit the northern hemisphere.

[inOban]

Originally Posted by Norman.D.Landing

Government across the world will have to step in and support airlines and airports. When this is all over, 3-6 months, life will slowly get back to normal and the world economy needs aviation to function.

The world economy as it has been operating needs aviation to function.
In the future the world economy will need some aviation, but how much? One thing we can be sure of, the shock, economic and psychological, of the current situation will mean that the future will not be the same as the past.