This isn't quite true, if you arrive on a domestic flight in to T5, you'll pass through the conformance point, where your boarding card is scanned to make sure you have enough time to make your next departure. From there you go up and escalator (or lift) directly in to the departure lounge.

There is no security as you have been through this already at your departure point which will be up to DfT standards.

International/International or international/Domestic will pass through security as so that they are cleared to DfT standards before travelling.

tsb

The retirement of the first BA 747-400s has just been released by Engineering planning dept.....G-BNLB and C will be stood down within the next few weeks followed by NLA in January!. All three a/c are to have the interiors stripped out at LHR after which they will be flown to either Arizona/New Mexico or possibly Kemble for scrapping/part reclamation. Early indications are that these first three will be followed by two more airframes in April 09.

Did anyone read about the possible takeover bid for BA by Cathay Pacific?

Cathay Pacific - BA
 

Reuters reports that Cathay Pacific have denied it

Cathay Pacific says no plans to buy British Airways | News | Hot Shares | Reuters

BA's Winter pdf timetable
 

I've just downloaded BA's winter BA timetable in pdf format which appeared on their website over the weekend.

Seems there are still 3 daily LHR - LAX, NRT is double daily throughout the winter, 8 x LHR - JFK.

Has someone at Waterside pressed the wrong button somewhere?

Just back from SFO. Full First, full Club, full WT+. All full fare.
It was virtually the same on the way out.
Did an LAX last week. Same again.
Don't know about NRT. Haven't been there for a few months.

BA have decided to pull the DUB-LGW services from next March.

British Airways - Latest News

Although of much less significance than the DUB service, LGW-Sarajevo also seems to have disappeared from the system for next summer. LGW-Dubrovnik is being increased from daily to 11 per week though and Tirana going up to daily, so looks like some routes are doing OK.

I do not know how many times that threaders must realise that a full a/c does not mean a great deal of profit. For all of the full a/c we have many others flying empty by comparison. I was told yesterday that the A380 @ LHR is only showing about 280-300 a flight. For those of us working at LHR you can feel how quite it is by the lack of travellers and traffic jams around the airport. Having worked last week @ LGW and MAN both airports were painfully quite at times.

HZ123,

You are correct up to a point. One of my previous employers had its largest loads ever in the month prior to bankruptcy. However, given the choice of seeing rows of faces behind me or rows of seats....I know which I'd go for.

Some major hacks to the Gatwick domestic routes coming up. Manchester goes from seven a day down to five, Edinburgh loses one from six to five and Glasgow loses one from five to four.

I suppose that's before Flybe take over the lot anyway....

Was i seeing things this week or was G-BNLC in CWL? Are the interiers being stripped out there now or is it still being done at LHR?

I really worry about the long-term future of Ba, for this reason. They have announced capacity cuts before and it is rumoured in a previous post and in the press again today, that more cuts are to be announced, especially at Lgw.

I am fully aware that there are tough economic conditions at the moment, but when do you stop cutting? When do you discover that you have cut too much, too often and there is no way back? It is not the first time that a business decided to make cuts as the answer, only to find that there was no way back.

A few years ago, Ba had a good network out of Lgw and by all acccounts, transfer traffic was really starting to grow. But Ba never really supported Lgw, if you looked at timetables, for example, they were much more likely to promote Lhr than Lgw, where there was the facility to use either. Now they are taking the axe to Lgw big time, but Easy seem to find it ok. Additionally, they are now finding more competion in their own back yard at Lhr in the form of open skies and Lh.

At what point will they decide that cuts are no longer viable and that they must correct the model? The unions can protest all they want, but in the end, if Ba are not able to reverse the trend of cutting all the time, then all will end up without jobs.

And how come LH are not having all these problems, they are not cutting, to the best of my knowledge.

True Blue

The BA LGW expansion creating the "hub without the hubbub" lost BA millions and was axed by Eddington. Every long haul flight moved around the M25 left the yield on the competitor's service from Heathrow. Hence the entire B747-400 fleet was moved to Heathrow and only a small sub fleet of B777s was left to service leisure routes and US routes barred from LHR under Bermuda 2. With Open Skies DFW, IAH and soon ATL moved to LHR.

Also remember that a lot of BA LGW was actually CityFlyer and GB Airways, both of which are now gone. With the removal of the B737-500s the smallest routes will be axed and in the medium term a fleet of ex LHR A319s will be brought in as they are displaced by new A320s from LHR. With fewer and fewer flights the opportunity to outsource passenger handling is now being mooted by I don't think that will happen in this case.

Bottom line is that on leisure short haul, easyJet have a much lower cost base, younger aircraft and are handled by external handling agents. There is no way BA could justify the capital investment in replacing the Euro LGW fleet with new aircraft to compete as the return on investment is negligible.

As a former LGW crew member I sadly must agree with you Skipness!!!!

Its a sad fact but I fear LGW is about to become the new "regions"!!! It too will slowly be eroded until nothing is left and then we can start calling London Airways, "HattonCross Airways"!

I was going to post that BA were about an international hub and LHR and short haul was primarily to feed into that - and as Skipness pinted out they can't compete at LGW

But in the Indian Press here in Delhi I read that their bid for Go Air had failed on regulatory issues but they still might codeshare - is this real as it's the first I've heard of it.

I've just come back to this.

I don't know if you are aware how the world of airline reservations work, but you can't just make up your own connections, they are offered by the arline concerned, and indeed in this and similar cases appear as such in the timetable. In fact looking at the pattern of arrival and then departure times grouped together by LH, flight times are deliberately arranged to do this for many possible connections.

Please see above.

I think this comes from BA staff who can't see that the rest of the world did far, far better, and long ago.

Funny you should say that as they were apparently in talks with Aviance this week about just such a thing....

If Flybe were to take over the Gatwick domestic routes, then I'll think that'll be the end of Aviance in Manchester at least !

078/ 04th November
 

Just noticed that this flight has operated ACC/LOS/LHR rather than direct ACC/LHR. Is there problems with getting fuel again in ACC. Or is there another reason for this diversion??

Are BA set to return to Saudi??.... BMI think so
 

Just found this article that was published today on the website of the UK newspaper The Telegraph. It is an interview with BMI's chairman

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...audi-for-BAs-benefit-says-Bmi.html

Here is a little piece of the article. It looks like someone is wanting BA to restore services to Saudi and Sir Michael is not happy

“We said we would go in and replace BA. Now BA is keen to get back in again, the British Government has granted open skies. There has been a strong push from government departments to get this route application through and get BA on the route.”

Another interesting part of the article is this sentence

A BA spokesman said: “It’s one possible route that we are considering but no decision has been reached.”

BA never comment on rum-our so they are either serious about returning and are wanting to get the word out before the official launch or someone should have kept their mouth closed.

So I guess a possible return to JED/RUH and even possibly DMM could be on the cards. If BA did relaunch one or all these routes could we see them online by the begining of or during the Summer 09 schedule.

Aviance don't handle anything at LGW anymore and anyway FlyBe are mishandled by Servisair. Which station are you being scurrilous about? Tut tut

I used T5 for the first time a few months ago and it was fantastic. Clean, bright, quiet.

I used T5 for the second time this week, and now it's full, it looks and feels like a slightly newer LHR terminal. It was dirty, busy, hot, long queues at 'Fast Track' security, the BA Galleries Lounge (South) was untidy, litter abounded and there didn't seem to be many power points to plug the laptop into.

Not that impressed really.

Is BA parking B747-400's?
 

Any truth that BA have parked up to three B747-400's and are scrapping one for parts?

Ask MOL - he was a man reportedly looking for some cheap heavies just the other day there......

G-BNLB and G-BNLC are at BAMC in Cardiff. G-BNLA to follow.

-LC has been at CWL since last week. -LB turned up on Monday.

Anyone know how long they intend to be parked up there? They are being stored on Taxiway E which is commonly used for diversions / extra large a/c at CWL.

Been stripped out inside and sent out for parts reclamation iirc.

Ba 747-400's
 

Who is MOL? I am new to this site so excuse the lack of knowledge.

Cardiff - Does this apply to all the -400's being parked there? or just one?

MOL refers to Michael O'Leary the boss of Ryan Air.

Now I know I am getting old747-400 my last command,great aircraft,hard to believe these "new" birds are being retired.Does LC still carry the name City of Cardiff ?

Perhaps another opportunity for Paul Stoddart?

Just returned from YVR round trip BA world traveller plus, they were excellent in every respect. As for T5 it all seemed to work very well, was quite empty but I was expecting something a bit more welcoming after all the hype. Check In was a dream ( on line and baggage drop) but thought Vancouver airport had a much nicer ambience.

BA well done for another excellent flight, looking forward to the next one!

BA profits fall but they're still making money
 

News this morning says BA is still making money

British Airways says to make small profit this year | Industries | Industrials, Materials & Utilities | Reuters

When most airlines are in the red it is encouraging that they are indicating some profit! :D

Whats not so encouraging is their profits fell by 91.6% in just half a year.

BA will axe Kolkata and Dhaka and LGW-ZRH and LGW-DUB.

And the results for the half year: profit down from 616 to 52 Mio. GBP :eek:

News Release=

Unusual for Virgin to be making more profit than BA:

This is good news for BA in very difficult market conditions. I have flown with them a few times recently so have been through T5, which I must say as a passenger is an excellent experience. Good luck to all at BA and I hope the next year continues to see profits (however big or small).