Why have BA altered the tail livery on the 747-8F?

I didn't even know they had ordered them?

BA is updating its fleet of Boeing 747-400F with new Boeing 747-8F’s and will be leasing them through Global Supply Systems, which is 49% owned by Atlas Air. On the press release BA states, “It has also been agreed that the new 747-8fs will be delivered in British Airways livery and incorporate the British Airways World Cargo logo.” Flight Global reports that they will be wet-leased for five years by GSS.

What about the livery? why the change?

PICTURE: BA World Cargo 747-8F — Civil Aviation Forum | Airliners.net

BMI merger
 

OK, being wholly positive about the BMI merger, what is going to be done with it ?

There may be some fine detail about keeping services on the BMI licences to comply with slot rights, route licences, ownership by IAG and not BA, etc, but the overall image presented will be BA.

BA would appear to be back in the Middle East to all the points that went with B Med (whose cold-shouldering in the first place must surely be seen as a mistake), and indeed back to Belfast. I hope they hang on to them all. The trunk Scotland routes are still capable of pulling in a great deal of revenue, as has been found after BMI gave up Glasgow, and could do with a good recast.

All the moaners seem to go on about "only for the slots", so what might these additional slots actually be used for ? There is the sudden opportunity to do a big network recast that has not been possible for years, so what shall we do with them ?

Well, according to a story on the Guardian site here,
And to think about slots for a moment (but hopefully in a non-moaning way;) ) I would imagine that the competition authorities will require divestment of slots to enable competition on existing competed routes (e.g. Moscow, which Virgin might like, and Manchester and Edinburgh, which...hmm, who knows? Business Air Mk 2 for the latter?).

And what about DUB-LHR? Currently of course BA codeshares with EI for connecting traffic, so bmi provides the only effective competition. Unless BA starts their own DUB-LHR (unlikely), there is a Significant Lessening of Competition as a result of the deal. Could we see a slot divestment ordered for this route too?

Actually its not BA's fleet of -400F's. Never have been. The deal is complicated but the aircraft belong to AtlasAir. GSS (49% owned by Atlas, 51% by a British interest-JP) dry-lease the aircraft from Atlas and then wet-lease them to BAWC. The -8F deal is the same except BAWC insisted on them being in their livery this time, so they have a token "operated by Global Supply Systems" on the nose. The first one (G-GSSD) arrived from KPAE this morning and sits not 300 metres from where I type!

Does T5/T3 have the capacity for further growth?

It's all well and good bringing in the aircraft, routes and slots but if there is nowhere to park the planes!

Maybe we will see a BA long haul jet order around the corner?

Aero Mad, baby do not have planes as modern as 737-800s. They have 300s and 500s!

In spite of Willie Walsh's comments I'm not so sure the acquisition of bmi will result in a large expansion into Asia. The extra slots will help but if there was money to be made in destinations not already served BA would have found the slots from its current portfolio. The competitive issues of not being in the right place in Europe to pick up connecting traffic from mainland Europe for Asian routes, lack of onward connections onto local partners will remain.

I expect we will see yet more routes to North America (San Diego seems to have been very successful) when the 787s arrive and more routes to South America as much as new routes to Asia.

I wonder if they will use a 'BMI' slot for this????

Doubt it, there's still a lot of water to go under the bridge before/if the BA/BMI is approved, so I suspect it's a bit early for BA to be planning to use BMI slots.

748F
 

What routes do the BA freighters operate on or what will the 748F operate on? Are they random or scheduled routes - have never seen one and I live on the flight path to LHR - cheers

B748-F
 

I think you might need to look at STN :ok:

The largest plane registered in the UK landed at Stansted Airport yesterday to begin a five-year contract flying cargo around the world. The new Boeing 747-8F is painted in the British Airways livery and flew directly into Stansted Airport from the factory at Seattle.

It is the first of three aircraft on order, with the other two set to arrive before the end of the year. They will fly to destinations across the world such as Hong Kong, Atlanta, Houston and Shanghai from their base at Stansted, London’s second busiest cargo airport and third overall in the UK.

Youve not seen it at LHR because its based at STN

Thanks guys. If you look at the Worldcargo website under a/c types they have MD11-F, DC8-54F, 752F and of course the 742/4F's. Do all variants exist and if so what is their base (if available)?

BA do not own or operate any cargo aircraft.
The new B748Fs are the first in their livery for many years, but are not owned or operated by BAWC.
All these aircraft are operated for BAWC bu other companies.

This was the last cargo aircraft operated by BA, was sold to Cathay in 1981 after a year in service with BA, G-KILO.

Photos: Boeing 747-236F/SCD Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

This was Atlas Air operating for BA
Photos: Boeing 747-47UF/SCD Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

Sadly the beautiful Chelsa Rose colours became the below when GSS became the operator :
Photos: Boeing 747-47UF/SCD Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

Finally, GSS are upgrading to the B747-8F and the BA colours return :
Photos: Boeing 747-87UF/SCD Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

And the other types mentioned, 757s etc etc are all from other operators, dhl etc who carry freight for BAWC.

However the most cargo moved by BAWC goes as belly freight in the normal scheduled passenger flights

cs

Er, correction to post 1758 - Manchester is the UK's third busiest airport. Always was until Stansted briefly took third spot. Normal service now resumed.