BA Cityflyer-3

[inOban]

Pre COVID there were up to. 3 early bird flights from EDI to LCY. Now there's no more than 1. I think that indicates the level of demand.

[BA318]

BACF is so short of crew they are now asking pilots and office staff to work as cabin crew.

https://onemileatatime.com/news/brit...Ewuh1XlthpSrWE

[WHBM]

One wonders if they are going to be paid for cabin crewing, in addition to their current role pay.

Colleague long ago got a junior management role at a major city bus company. It was standard/expected there, as they would commonly run short of drivers in the evening rush hour, or at weekends, that once they finished their day job in the office analysing revenue or whatever they would head for the garage and take a bus duty for a couple of hours, or at weekends for a full shift. This was all paid at the standard drivers' hourly rates. Apparently normal in that industry, a first thing as a management trainee was to get a bus drivers' licence.

But I don't like this "being given basic training". Surely, as BA regularly reinforces that cabin crew are there primarily for safety, it should be full training. Is breach of that not a breach of their AOC. And if you have to go through full training, why not recruit new staff and put them through the same. What happened to all the crew that used to work out of Gatwick ?

[tictack67]

Originally Posted by WHBM

One wonders if they are going to be paid for cabin crewing, in addition to their current role pay.

Colleague long ago got a junior management role at a major city bus company. It was standard/expected there, as they would commonly run short of drivers in the evening rush hour, or at weekends, that once they finished their day job in the office analysing revenue or whatever they would head for the garage and take a bus duty for a couple of hours, or at weekends for a full shift. This was all paid at the standard drivers' hourly rates. Apparently normal in that industry, a first thing as a management trainee was to get a bus drivers' licence.

But I don't like this "being given basic training". Surely, as BA regularly reinforces that cabin crew are there primarily for safety, it should be full training. Is breach of that not a breach of their AOC. And if you have to go through full training, why not recruit new staff and put them through the same. What happened to all the crew that used to work out of Gatwick ?

Basic I think they mean necessary.

Much of the current cabin Crew training involves other non essential things, eg learning about the brand, how to read a roster, exec club, team building excercise, sales techniques, grooming standards, personnel matter ID cards

[GayFriendly]

I work for a Train Operating Company and its standard practice for all office based management grades to operate as Train Managers when required due to sickness, staff shortages etc. They are safety critical trained but not revenue or ticketing.

Being former cabin crew myself, spending a flight in the cabin as opposed to behind a locked door will give a very good reality check for some pilots on the stresses and strains of being face to face for hours on end with the SLF!

[WHBM]

I recall in the 1980s a lengthy baggage handling strike at Heathrow that BA office staff got stuck in outside their normal office duties, and some made considerable amounts of money from lengthy shifts there.

[richardwpprn]

Flightradar24 has G-LCYW doing lots of flights this weekend starting with BA2227 visiting PMI, JER, IOM, GCI. Are some of these training flights?

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by richardwpprn

Flightradar24 has G-LCYW doing lots of flights this weekend starting with BA2227 visiting PMI, JER, IOM, GCI. Are some of these training flights?

Normal. With LCY closed Saturday lunchtime to Sunday lunchtime, an aircraft heads from there for Palma early on Saturday, then operates several holiday flights from there to these other UK points before returning to LCY on Sunday afternoon when it reopens. There's a comparable operation with another LCY aircraft which runs flights from Southampton at the same time.

[KindaUnstuck]

Originally Posted by richardwpprn

Flightradar24 has G-LCYW doing lots of flights this weekend starting with BA2227 visiting PMI, JER, IOM, GCI. Are some of these training flights?

They are charter flights for a local CI/IOM tour operator called FlyDirect (CI Travel Group) offering 7 night holidays from JER, GCI and IOM to PMI.

This is the first year of the IOM and GCI flights, certainly in GCI they appear to be doing pretty well if what is being reported is correct due to people preferring to fly direct even if it costs more than connecting through the UK post-Covid.

FlyDirect also bring in BA CityFlyer for their JER-AGP flights which operate in May/ October

[richardwpprn]

Thanks KindaUnstuck.

[richardwpprn]

Originally Posted by WHBM

Normal. With LCY closed Saturday lunchtime to Sunday lunchtime, an aircraft heads from there for Palma early on Saturday...

BA2227 is a Friday evening flight.

[Jerbourg]

BA/CFE are operating sheduled flights GCI to EDI & GCI to LCY this summer season, I have yet to see any publicity for either of the routes, would be a shame if the loads don't live up to expectations as the travelling Guernsey public are keen for more operators/routes from the island.

[KindaUnstuck]

Originally Posted by Jerbourg

BA/CFE are operating sheduled flights GCI to EDI & GCI to LCY this summer season, I have yet to see any publicity for either of the routes, would be a shame if the loads don't live up to expectations as the travelling Guernsey public are keen for more operators/routes from the island.

I think the Edinburgh will suffer only being weekly this year, I know quite a few people who went for long weekends last year but have said they would have gone again but a week was too long. The Aurigny long weekend flights to EDI in August sold out within a few hours so the demand may still be there.

Hopefully LCY will do ok, would be great if something more came of it.

[mikkie4]

SEN used to do alright with divertions on a Saturday due to LCY being closed

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by mikkie4

SEN used to do alright with diversions on a Saturday due to LCY being closed

Diversions are of course an expensive nuisance, but Southend was the next best thing, both for operators and passengers. I don't quite know what Southend did to make BACF not welcome, but now it seems Gatwick is the diversion of choice, while Southend's new terminal is deserted.

[DC3 Dave]

Originally Posted by WHBM

Diversions are of course an expensive nuisance, but Southend was the next best thing, both for operators and passengers. I don't quite know what Southend did to make BACF not welcome, but now it seems Gatwick is the diversion of choice, while Southend's new terminal is deserted.

There are no commercial flights from SEN on Saturdays at the moment so they are in no position to handle diversions from LCY. I note the previously fairly regular BACF training flights are not happening either.

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by DC3 Dave

There are no commercial flights from SEN on Saturdays at the moment so they are in no position to handle diversions from LCY.

There were no scheduled services at all at Southend 20 years ago when I was regular GA into there. Maybe just one on summer Saturdays from and to Jersey, which I never saw. This didn't stop them handling any and all LCY diversions, they were welcomed.