Smart move by FLYBE to let BA take all the flack over this before they take over.Another PR own goal by Willys team.

Does anyone know if these are additional cancellations since the signing of the deal or just the cancellations that have been dripping through the system for the last couple of weeks and are already shown on BA.COM.

See http://www.flybe.com/news/0703/02.htm

New aircraft, more routes, lower prices than conair....

....and they're busily recruiting new pilots.

so when will BA change their name to London Airways?:E

Another PR disaster from Waterside,i hope the public have had just about enough from the worlds "favourite " airline and start giving the competition the business.to just dump passengers for the companies convenience is not acceptable in todays customer orientated market.i for one will use any airline other than BA whenever possible.

The ship finally goes down!
 

NOTICE TO SHIPPING

Coastguards are reporting that the S.S. BA Regional has finally capsized and vanished beneath the waves taking to the bottom once proud names such as Brymon etc. Luckily most of the crews have jumped ship and it is hoped that only the awful management were on the bridge when she floundered.

Some of the slippery Didsbury officers were seen rowing away in a lifeboat bearing the name "Hopes on LCY" however this is also expected to be swallowed by the waves in the near future.

Unconfirmed reports are that an Exeter based submarine U-FLYBE, commanded by Kapitan Von French was seen in the area just before the disaster.

A sea search by helicopters has been deemed pointless. end

soon to become West London Airways, I fear. :rolleyes:

13 Alpha,you are spot on...gatwick will be next for the chop....won't be much left,just too many aircraft trying to operate in and out of T5.....think it might be time to flog BA shares !

Well the stockmarket hasn't taken it well - BA shares down 7.5% this morning (versus 1.6% fall elsewhere).

And when Blair or his successors finally cave in to the US and open up LHR then it could be goodbye to BA altogether if they keep this up.

Where is the CAA in all of this ? If a carrier just decides arbitrarily to cancel some operations then surely this is one of the key areas where the CAA should be acting.

Things far too cosy between Kingsway and Waterside.

13 Alpha

I strongly suspect that the share price drop has more to do with the "open skies" announcement and trades speculation that this will impact upon the north atlantic.
The city have long known about he sale of BAcon...the announcemnt this morning will not have caused more than a ripple. at the FTSE

GO?
 

I wonder why BA don't start a new LOCO airline, base it at the busiest LOCO airport in UK and call it GO. I am sure it would be great success. After a few years of rapid growth it would have bases all over UK and be making a good profit for its parent company. :ugh:

Open Skies would probably ultimately be a good thing for BA, I just see a screw up by the EU on the horizon. A deal where everybody meets halfway is never going to wash with the US so if it happens soon I think all EU airlines will suffer.

The thing BA needs to get back to is providing a reliable proper service to it's customers. It doesn't matter how things work out with open skies, if people know and trust you as a service provider you'll get their business.

At the moment BA is teetering on the edge, I don't see it being a viable business in time. The brand is no longer trusted by it's core business customers, they're putting too much effort into thinking t5 will get them out of the mess they're in but it's not about a building at LHR it's about basic failings of poor management and loss of confidence by the travelling public.

No they had a better Idea transfer all regional operations and call it Gone

Ian

Golden ticket said

.

Well BA would be as well to shut up shop then!

I have never seen a company score so many own goals in PR - but it will be ok because of the NSP!

Yes I expect you're right, 3Greens. The additional £20m cost is pennies for BA compared to what they might lose on transatlantic routes.

The bad PR is hardly a positive though.

If people trust you ...
 

Nice sentiments Golden Ticket but unfortunately just that. Swissair always came out with that line until it was demonstrated for them how much sentiment counts for in business...

FC.

I think the share price slide also has something to do with the general fall of share prices worldwide at the moment!
But i imagine most of itis to do with the cancelation of all these flights etc, although I think BA have made the right choice in cutting their losses.

MAN-JFK gone
 

and BA have dumped the MAN-JFK route. For me as a Yorkshireman this really seals the fact that BA are no more than a London airline, as others have said.

MAN-JFK was the "family" route for years, my twins went when they were 8 to see family in New York, and my little one started at 7. Both loved it and I don't suspect the US carriers on the route now are nearly so understanding about very young UMs.

I would really really like the Government to protect all the regional routes into LHR so that they are not swapped for the more profitable transcontinental trips. As then the regions will be third best to people that can taxicab from the West End or Thames Valley.

S

It sounds like Willy and his mates will be celebrating when they finally dump BA Connect. Firstly, they give BA Connect away. Secondly, before it's gone they stem further losses by cancelling 1000 flights.

It's not surprising you folks in BA Connect don't feel any loyalty to BA.

In the short-term the BA share price has gone down. In the long-term BA profits will go up because they've dropped the dead donkey.

Groundbum - how do you know the MAN-JFK is dumped? It is still bookable, the BA1503 right through the summer - operated by BA mainline.

Pretty sure that they are not cancelling the Man JFK flights. These have always been operated by mainline crews, BA Connect cabin crew. Now it will be BA cabin crew as well.

Groundbum,
If your source of information was the BBC website then look again because they've changed it.

MAN-JFK was never part of the deal and is as far as I am aware to continue as normal

Ian

Quote:
so when will BA change their name to London Airways?

Maybe one of you guys who is a British citizen could add a petition to the Downing Street site to have BA change it's name to London Airways as it certainly no longer serves the British public outside of London :suspect:

That should mess up their marketing!!:}

When I was a lad....
BA flew long haul from Scotland and Manchester, flew regional turboprops and regional jet services. ( BAC111s and Viscounts / 748s). BA lost money, these flights got axed and BA retrenched to Heathrow, leaving the Shuttle and a few flights from the regions. "Reorganise!" went the battle cry.
Later they look at the market and see that it has "changed". This creates opportunity for people to make a career out of changing things. They decide after a few years to return to regional long haul and gift ex LHR B737s to the regions. "Reorganise!".
They then have all the little airlines painted up as BA Express and these franchises make money on the back of the BA name until GLA and MAN become mini BA hubs with loads of BA shiny planes.......''Reorganise!''
They then buy all the little airlines who used to make money and put an end to "profit". "Reorganise!''
BA the loses money(again), these flightsget axed (again). BA retrench to Heathrow(again),leaving the Shuttle and a few flights from the regions(again). Reorganise.
*prediction*
5 years down the road someone realises that those money making flybe shiny planes would look better in BA colours. "Reorganise!''
Anyone who has ever seen the Dilbert "Bungee Boss" cartoon knows the type. Charges in "Reorganise!" and buggers off. That is how they make a career...in a cyclical industry.

Maybe all the PR team left in the job cuts last year, keep going like this and Terminal5 may be to big, the BAA would then have to make Terminal3 bigger, happy times for all the airlines in T1,2 and 3 at LHR???:)

whilst browsing through one of the broad sheets whilst on nights over the weekend i came across a little right up right at the bottom of the page it went something like this (if memory is correct)

BA are to start flying forom london city with a new franchise called british airways city express flying to one or two cities in europe and it went on to say dont be suprrissed to see them at manchester within a year and make it there main base

now was i dreaming whilst i was on nights or did i read that if so BA are such a bunch of :mad: ... ill not carry on before i upset someone

:ok: rampman

Perhaps I am being over-sensitive here - but as a member of the BA Exec Club, I have just received a personalised "Welcome to flybe" email, signed by a very happy looking Jim French.

I have never had any dealings with flybe. So who gave BA permission to release my personal details to them?

Not impressed. Can't believe that this is legal somehow.

TA

Rampman;
BA have been flying in and out of London city for quite a while now to several European destinations. These operations will now be done by a new wholly owned operation called BA Cityflyer. ( not cityexpress) And the MAN-JFK route definately not stopped.

Legal
 

TA -

If FlyBE have bought the company BA Connect, they own its records.
If they have only bought the assets, it will depend on whether you authorised disclosure of your details when you signed up. Mailing lists are bought and sold daily...

Interesting thoughts, LG - but as I understand it I am a customer of BA, via the Executive Club - not of BA Connect per se.

I am still miffed if my records have been passed on like this.

TA

MAN-JFk still on, hurrah
 

aha, yes I did get the info from the BBC website earlier today, and it has now been updated to say main BA will operate MAN-JFK, great news! All happy again. But I still want those LHR slots reserved for the regions.

S

Can't help feeling open skies concerns are misplaced - High Heid Yins can plug competition all they like, but the value is in the slots - as far as I know, BA aren't being required to give them up? Not "talking my book", btw - it's a long time since I owned any of these!

Also see BA is talking to Go Ahead group about giving ground handling to Aviance in Scotland and MAN.

The BBC website had a poor sentence construct that appeared to say MAN-JFK and all LCY routes had been dropped. Of course in actual fact its the other way round, with these being the only ones being kept.

Man - Jer
 

Flybe's site says it will operate this route but you can't book it after 24th March! Before that it is JER - SOU - MAN and at an extortionate price.:confused:

On the face of it, losing regional connections would be disappointing .........but the more you look at it, the less you see there is to lose. If you're from the regions, who needs LHR/BA anyway? Huge numbers have chosen to use KL via AMS as their preferred hub and this continues to grow, what with KL being an airline which is happy to embrace the UK with open arms. If you need to get to London then there's BD/VG/CB/EZY/FR/LS/AB or the train. If you need Oz/NZ then go on EK from MAN/BHX/GLA/NCL.
Huge numbers of people have already voted with their feet, showing their displeasure at the attempts to funnel them through LHR, which is not the most user friendly hub in Europe, and have found better options. Just look at the CAA domestic passenger figures ex LHR and you'll see that all domestic routes are down, most of them heavily.
Whilst I wholeheartedly dislike BA's contempt to anything outside of London, we are fortunate that there are other carriers that care to put the effort in and are perhaps more worthy of our cash.

The routes out of all of this that I'm surprised Flybe are dropping are into Madrid, Barcelona - and Manchester-Aberdeen. They have a reasonable presence in both Aberdeen and Manchester now, and to drop a route which links a base with what the Americans would call a "focus city" is surprising.

Mad BCN
 

I wonder if Barcelona and Madrid were dropped due to the lengh of the sectors as you can get more rotations by not going so far. With the aircraft and crew situation perhaps this played a part.


Centre cities