Well from another paper that states.. "BA are also looking at lifting charges on tickets sold overseas"

Now is that meant to say increasing, or getting rid of the charges to tickets sold overseas?

If it's the later, then not good news for UK passengers on BA, who yet again get shafted!

M.

moku

why should overseas pax pay more than uk pax?

Incidentally, the last time I checked, the BA fare YYZ-ORK-YYZ was always substantially higher than ORK-YYZ-ORK... before charges! Riddle me that one.

Mark D Your premise assumes that BA (And any other airline) knows in advance what the Oil Prices are to be. if they could do that, they could (And should) get right out of the Airline business and make their fortune speculating on the stock exchange and guarantee a profit.!!

If one carrier puts their surcharge up more or sooner than another, it ignores the fact that thier cost base is hugely different.
Example.... BA and QF on their common rute stations (eg: Singapore, Sydney, London, Frankfurt etc etc etc) pool their fuel buying power so that their fuel costs are lower than the carrier who operates once, twice three times etc per week. Simple premise....the customer with the highest volume purchases gets the lowest price. It's the Law of supply and demand. :confused:

Put this question to a Qantas manager recently, and the reason is that if its in the fare the travel agent gets a percentage, if its a levy they don't, so overall there is less of a fare increase. I agree with you that its misleading, especially as the levy only covers part of the fuel used. IMH(and cynical)O, there will be a move to gradually increase the fuel levies and reduce the base ticket price.

BRITISH AIRWAYS
 

Since there doesn't seem to be an active BA thread at the moment I thought I'd take the opportunity to start one and let you know what I believe Willie Walsh should do with his fleet:

Order the Boeing 747-800 to replace the Boeing 747-400's.

Order the Boeing 787-800 to replace the Boeing 767-300ER's.

Order 10x Boeing 777-300ER's to compliment the 748's and assist with the replacement of the 744's.

Dispose of all Boeing 737's and 757's.

Make BA Connect an all-jet airline, therefore dispose of the Dash8's.

The above orders would be expensive but the long term benefits would make it worthwhile. I think this may already be underway, but remove the United Kingdom and Royal Mail stickers from all aircraft. Also, get rid of all the logojets including the Official Airline of the England Football Team logojets unless they decide to do a real logojet like Qantas' Wuanala Dreaming.

Order the Boeing 747-800 to replace the Boeing 747-400's.

Order the Boeing 787-800 to replace the Boeing 767-300ER's.

Order 10x Boeing 777-300ER's to compliment the 748's and assist with the replacement of the 744's.

Dispose of all Boeing 737's and 757's.

Make BA Connect an all-jet airline, therefore dispose of the Dash8's.

The above orders would be expensive but the long term benefits would make it worthwhile.
What do you believe the long term benefits would be? and why?

I think this may already be underway, but remove the United Kingdom Why would you remove the United Kingdom logos?

and Royal Mail stickers from all aircraft. Why would you do this?

Also, get rid of all the logojets including the Official Airline of the England Football Team logojets again why would you do this?unless they decide to do a real logojet like Qantas' Wuanala Dreaming.

It is very easy to come in with bold statements as you have - but it would add to the presentation of your point of view if you gave some explanations.:ok:

As a BA employee; as you state we do not have the finance to replace anything at the moment. The idea of replacing union colour scheme seems good to me as BA is international and its income and equipment is something like 75% sourced from outside the uk.

I think you'll find the vast majority of our profits come from UK based customers and companies. Why do you think the Utopia livery was so unpopular?

BA have plenty of cash at the moment, including over £2BN in cash and another £2BN odd in 'undefined' liquid assets. They are paying off debt at a rate of over £1BN per year, they have been able to make provision for a potential £850M fine by the OFT and procure 10 delivery slots from Boeing for777s. The only reason BA won't invest is to perpertuate the lie that they cannot afford to invest until they've robbed the staff of their pensions.

Are you nuts? That's what Robert Ayling said with his "Project Utopia" and world tails!!! The whole point was that the Union Flag was an unbeatable brand known throughout the world.
British people, and I am one, have no idea how lucky they are.
Does the goldfish know you have it's memory btw?

Firstly it's the 747-8 there is no need for the extra zeros :ok:

10 x 777 already ordered, first delivery April 2008.

Agreed the 787 is the logical choice for 767 replacement but getting advantageous line numbers will be the problem.

Last point - DTVAirport wasn't suggesting removing the Chatham Flag design but the words "United Kingdom" from the side of most of the fleet.

Seeing as the Dash 8 fleet has been the only section of BACON other than LCY to have ever made any money this is unlikely to happen. Its the poor jet equipment that is the main problem.

Also consider the success of flybe with their fleet of Dash-8 aircraft. Unsure whether they still operate the Dash 8-300, but the Q400 has completely revitalised the company, and allowed them to comfortably compete in numerous markets alongside low-cost airlines flying bigger Airbus & Boeing jets. Surely BA Connect would want to phase out the ERJ-145 with more Dash 8s, rather than do the opposite, given today's price of oil.

The Q400 is a very different aircraft to the Q300 in terms of perfomance and economics though.

BA Connect will not be getting any new aircraft whatsoever in the near future, so you can forget an all jet fleet.
BACON are disposing of another Dash 8 at the end of September (BRYX), which has come from a bean counter's abacus not working correctly!.
What next for us Mr Walsh?

The Union schemes reinstatement was actually driven by foreign pax feedback IIRC (the Bearded One's "we're the flag carrier" probably helped too).

Funnily enough some people still like British stuff despite the best efforts of President Tone :D :D :D

BA 1st Quarter Profits
 

Quarter one headlines 2006-2007:

Pre-tax profit up to £195 million
Operating profit up to £211 million
Operating margin of 9.1 per cent
Revenue up to £2.3 billion
Total costs up 11.8 per cent

Quarter one headlines 2006-2007:

Pre-tax profit up to £195 million
Operating profit up to £211 million
Operating margin of 9.1 per cent
Revenue up to £2.3 billion
Total costs up 11.8 per cent

Re, the World Tails/Utopia scheme, remember taxiing in at LGW one day and there was a line up of various BA tails at the North Terminal. Conversation between 2 American PAX in the row behind:-

"That's a colourful tail. Wonder what airline?"

"Must be Caribbean!"

What a corporate identity!

Any company can achieve a short term rise in profits by the simple expedient of reducing costs. (Yes, I know they are up 11.8%, but I am speaking in relative terms and not scoping in fuel into my thinking.)

The question is whether this performance will be sustained in the longer term and time will be arbiter of that.

I find it hard to characterise BA's cost reductions as a "simple expedient", as if it were some slash-and-burn operation. A lot of what's been done has been structural, and good for the long term. Think, for example, about the work on distribution channels and costs.

My personal worry is that some of what BA is doing now has moved into the realm of the silly, causing problems which may have disproportionately adverse operational effects that ultimately really irritate pax and drive them elsewhere. An airline operation has to have some fat, some margin, to deal with irregularities and randomness, and BA is showing many signs of now having insufficient.