This sounds like one of the first sensible decisions from BA in a long time. It is also brave. To state in advance that they will cut back services - rather than have to cut them at short notice, is exactly what pax (and shareholders) need. Then they can adjust schedules and make alternative arrangements for those that have already booked. Others will follow but not might give so much notice as they try to tough it out.

Manchester - JFK
 

The unofficial reason for pulling the MAN-JFK was due to lack of aircraft.

There are now plenty about. How about going 10x daily using the grounded aircraft?:ugh:

Sorry, couldn't resist it.

It is at times like these , that all aviators should reflect on the viability of their current employer to weather the approaching recession .
In 92 a fair number of us thought we were safe in Dan Air because Air Europe had left the scene , only to be undone by skullduggery masquerading as 'downturn' .
Luckily , I spent the next few years with a National Airline in a hot place whose whispered motto was ' Recession , what recession ?'
So , any of you waverers on the question of 'To go to the sandpit or not to go ' should re-examine their options and how green the grass really is.

Keep safe .

I never thought that i would see BA flying "The Hajj", but this year could be different......

Mutt

Best I can do for now pahtty130 though it wasn't the one I was referring to:

http://cockeyed.com/science/gallon/liquid.html

Coming home to roost
 

Well well well, City unimpressed with BA's 'possible merger' rumour that came to nothing, customers unimpressed with BA's customer service and failure to actually provide what was bargained for, they are deserting in droves. In a downturn its these loyal customers you will rely on. They have all deserted and BA face with incrediably low yields are consolidating their schedule. Hence the grounding of the fleet. BA nad their incompetant managers only have themselves to blame.

"BA - Hajj" - why not? They may have a few (Open Skies) B757's available soon.:eek:

BA-HAJ,
Now that would be really interesting.
Lets see how they handle the 10- 20 ton over max gross weight takeoffs, ,barely clearing the lights after rotate, passengers using the seats for toilets, fighting in the cabin, overheads overspilling with zam zam water etc.
Flight Duty days in excess of 30 hours.
Come on BA show us how its done properly!
:D

What makes you think BA would know anything about flying the kind of sh*tkicking Hajj operation you fly Earl? The frightening thing is you seem proud of it!:eek:

Thats just it BA would probably not know what they were getting into and would have problems with this type of operation.

I don't think BA will be doing Hajj any time soon, although your concern (which I think it is) is appreciated. It would cost far too much to refit the aircraft with 400+ economy seats, not to mention that they'd never get the cabin crew to do it (plenty have in the past and know exactly what it entails). There's also the fact we don't go anywhere near Saudi due to the massive bullseye painted on the side of the aircraft. *

*Only visible with an Islamoscope

... and funny enough, they still look for pilot applications (according to Flight International adds). I wonder how many of those will see a flight deck from the inside after their ground school.

Dani

BA, as British Airtours, did many Haj charters.

Some people think think they are the first and only to do anything unfortunately. Shame they are not up in their historical facts.:}

Earl -if you think it only happens on a Hajj flight -you have had a sheltered career!

Wasnt that BEA? Couldnt see BOAC getting involved with the Haj :8

My guess is LGW takes the hit, not LHR. Start of the end for LGW and a start of EU bases at the main hub airports once bad times are over

Oil panic
 

I seem to remember similar forecasts of a dire future back in the 1980's with extrapolations and "guesstimates" being hurled around like confetti which gathered a momentum of their own. The fact is that oil reserves are plentiful but we have to decide how we wish to use them.

The oil sands and oil shales of North America and Canada have 100's of years capacity at current usage rates. It used to be forecast that at $25 dollars a barrel it was economical to extract it. Obviously that has risen and I believe it was based on using oil to produce steam to make the oils flow. However, I also understand that they are seroisly considering placing a nuclear power station within or close to the deposits for non-oil energy to create the steam. Man will find a way believe you me. Also we are beginning to realise that oil is still the best TRANSPORTABLE energy source and that to use it in any fixed ground based installation is absurd.

There will be changes but at $150 per barrel you can bet your life that the oil industry scientists are motivated to find further suppies. The danger of course is if the price should suddenly drop - but then we are back to square one.

not good for us wannabes :ouch:

Received this email the other day. Don't know how long it's been doing the rounds but on face value it makes sense:

See what you think and pass it on if you agree with it

We are hitting £112.9 a litre in some areas now, soon we will be faced with paying £1.20 a litre. Philip Hollsworth offered this good idea:

Please read it and join in!

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre is CHEAP, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the market place
not sellers. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not
purchasing their Petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. Here's the idea:

For the rest of this year DON'T purchase ANY petrol from the two biggest oil companies (which now are one), ESSO and BP.


If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact we need to reach literally millions of Esso and BP petrol buyers. It's really simple to do!!

Now, don't wimp out at this point... keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to a lot of people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) ... and so on, by the time the
message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and
pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it... ..

THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all You have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all.(and not buy at ESSO/BP) How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt,
all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8days!!! Acting together we can make a difference . If this makes
sense to you, please pass this message on.

PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE 69p a LITRE RANGE

It's easy to make this happen. Just forward this email, and buy your petrol at Shell, Asda,Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons Jet etc. i.e. boycott BP and Esso:D

I totally agree with the above 'e-mail'

'Ballocks' to BP & Esso @ their 2 million an hour profits.:=

Me Thinks = Protest time = While we still have Airliners to fly??:D

If this situation is not addressed very soon, Then It will be 'Curtains'
For more companies??:sad:

So Far we have lost = ATA, Hawaiin, Eos, Euromanx, And others.:*:sad:

If the Airport's themselves had any 'nouse' about them, they would talk to Esso & BP or show them the door.:E:D:hmm:

The Airport's need to support the Airlines at this difficult time.

It could yet all end in tears??:(