MUFC Fan, nothin sinister there. Problem is that T5 was immediately seen as too small for te BA operation. It's easier - much easier - to keep as many of the airline's smaller operational groupings - that is 757s, Australasias - together.

Floored regional flying argument
 

Beancounter1 said;
Delta also fly international and domestic service from Minneapolis,Salt Lake City and New York JFK

Lufthansa also has a major hub at Munich as well as international services from Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover and Berlin.

Air France operates international and domestic services from Nice, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux and Toulouse

American flies from Chicago, JFK and Miami to domestic and international destinations

United manages to support several international hubs across the US e.g. San Francisco and Washington

BA can't take on its low fares competition in the regions as it is so top heavy with managers. It is tied into it's out of date massively overpriced contracts for CC etc. To say that BA is following the rule of most airlines is wrong. BA are the exception when it comes to regional flying.

Oh and the distances involved argument is also floored ie; short journey from Birmingham to London can be dismissed when airlines like Austrian manage to operate service from airports so close to Vienna as Linz and Salzburg. Why do Swiss manage to fly from Zurich Geneva and Basle?
Daza

Daza,

Are you familiar with the concept of Economies of Scale?

Mucfan,

757 not used from T5 as only aircraft (747/777/767 a319/a320/a321) that take the baggage containers (LD3?) are based at T5. IIRC apparently to streamline the baggage transfer process.

T5 is designed around containerised baggage so whichever size the aircraft uses can be accomodated. It's planes such as the 737 and 757 which are unsuitable as they need yer traditional old bag-smasher to load them up.

Interesting that those little A318s being bought for LCY-JFK won't be able to use LHR T5 on diversion either as they are a bit too dainty to have the required cargo door for containers.

That said there is still equipment in place to deal with that eventuallity. 75/73 can be containerised but issues such as hoped for disposal / age and the vast costs prompted only Airbus conversion. As things have turned out so far so good, when the next uoturn in the market occurs things may be different?

Skylion,

Quote 'sexism (in favour of women)'

What evidence do you base your statement on?

Yes it will, T5 can still handle non containerised aircraft if the need arises.
757's have operated out of T5 a few times since it opened.

Will those little 318s still be used now that all the bankers are learning a hard lesson? If they can find the pax will they want to spend the money ?

Nice one. Maybe PwC, Lehman's administrator and a long standing BA customer, will be still picking over the international bones, but in Canary wharf there still are HSBC, Barclays and others with an appetitie for voyages transatlantic.....

These days they seem to count as something less than "abroad". Using BA, if you want to go to anywhere in continental Europe and do anything like a full day's work, it takes part of at least two days, and for a really full day, it takes three. From London, you can get to, say, Brussels reasonably early in the morning and get home that night after finishing work after 5pm. However the last flights with connections to Manchester are at 15:30 via LHR and 16:40 with SN Brussels via LGW. The earliest flight from Manchester showing for next Monday is at 10:15, arriving at 14:45. For some reason the FlyBE flight at 06:35 is not showing on ba.com.

Just a few years ago I could travel in reasonable comfort in a jet rather than a turboprop, with reasonable service, get to a meeting in central Brussels for a 10 o'clock meeting, and get home the same day after a full afternoon session. And the flights were usually pretty full.

So "London Radial Airlines" it is.:{

And so profitable that other airlines have been falling over themselves to provide substitute services on these routes ...

Ba Shares
 

I dont hold shares in BA but, notice that the share price has fallen big time last week. Any particular reason why?

Imploding financial institutions = significantly less bums on premium seats

More Redundancies At Ba
 

For what it's worth the last bastion of BA operations outside London will be all but gone by Christmas.
22 of the 33 Engineers at MAN have been given 90 days notice.

We knew it would happen as soon as the MAN-JFK route cut was announced but it still hurts. :{

....aside from BA Engineering Glasgow and Cardiff I hope. Sad news for all. I guess 11 engineers for the LGW / LHR shuttles remain?

These are Mainline BA Engineers.

Cardiff and Glasgow are separate subsidiaries.

Not criticising that just being a pedant. :ok:

BA Route moves for Summer 2009
 

BA had announced that the daily 777 flight from Gatwick to Atlanta is to move to Heathrow from the end of March. In addition the Gatwick Toulouse route will also move to Heathrow at the same time.

A new route to St Kitts (Via Antigua) will commence on 10th Jan 2009..it will operate once a week on the 777.

Shorthaul capacity to be cut by 15% from this summers schedule, and the short haul network at LGW will be operated by a total of 28 aircraft( B737 and Airbus)

Funny: I thought there was a BA thread.

BA shares 12-month low?
 

Apart from the general financial malaise, is there any other news driving BA shares down to a 12-month low?