BA exit LGW
 

Just heard BA are going to pull nearly all their LGW services and use T3 instead. Looks like they are happy for it to turn orange.

T3 at Heathrow? They pulled all their domestic services out of heathrow to move them to LGW a few years back citing costs like landing fees at LHR.

Sounds strange to be but this is BA...

Not to mention slot (un)availability.

Most of the extra slots that BA inherited from BMI have already been earmarked for more longhaul services. Where are they going to get additional ones from ?

Funny they recently announced plans for additional services later this year..

British Airways Adds Ski Flights | First Tracks!! Online Ski Magazine

British Airways Adds Ski Flights


Published on May 26, 2012 @ 1:00 am
By First Tracks!! Online Media

London, UK - British Airways announced on Friday that the airline is increasing flights to two of its popular European ski destinations from Gatwick next winter.

British Airways Introduces Flights from Gatwick to Las Vegas | Travel News

British Airways, a UK-based airline company, has announced a new route from London Gatwick Airport, in the UK, to Las Vegas, USA.

The new, three times weekly service commences from October 29, 2012, and will be operated by a three-class Boeing 777 aircraft, which will feature fully flat beds for Club World cabin passengers.

I suspect kiteflier is flying a kite :bored:.

There aren't enough ATC slots to allow BA to move the LGW operation "up the road", irrespective of Terminals.

Actually I heard this half a year ago, from someone who has seen the "plans" apparently.
Longhaul will remain at LGW but short haul will pull out, not sure of the date, but they've apparently decided they can't compete with the Orange army.

BA recently announced more short-haul for the slots acquired from BMI -> BA to use Bmi slots on new short-haul routes | ABTN

'British Airways is planning to start flights from Heathrow to Leeds-Bradford, Rotterdam and Zagreb'

Now, as I mentioned earlier, BA pulled out of the short haul market from LHR due to the profit margins either being very slim or non-existent so if they are going to have short-haul from LHR again and shuffle services around isn't that same risk still there?

I'm confused but I guess BA know what they are doing.... :confused:

williamsg

Where did you get the idea that BA cut short haul and domestic from LHR?

poppycock. . . .:rolleyes:

There are lots of rumours about LGW.

The ones I've heard in recent weeks:

- BMI Babys 737s to go to LGW and replace our old knackered 737s. (I thought our 737s were newer than BMI babys!)

- Short Haul to cease at LGW

I prefer the expansion of LH at LGW with all 787s coming to LGW to be crewed by LGW pilots!

However, since our new business plan is not going to the board, then I assume LGW will be closed, since no new plan, no LGW.

Baby 733's
 

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If you take out the two Baby 735's and G-OBMP then most are around the
1997-98 vintage and thus have a few years on the 1991-93 BA 734's.

Some operate 8 sector days from BHX & EMA have thus far have stood up well to the task this summer but there was slack in the schedule until this weekend - although obviously from 10/06/12 things change big time with the closure of the BHD routes and various ones from BHX & EMA.

The Baby 733's to LGW has also been rumoured on a BHX forum.

If the rumour is that loss making short haul is axed then I can see it happening. Long haul is a stand alone profitable niche that does not require feed, so they do not need to spend millions replacing the old B737-436s to maintain losing money against easyJet.
I would be a sensible business decision and one a long time coming as I have said before, it's the last painful plaster to be removed after the regions. Just treat staff well in any transition and minimise any redundancies if it comes to it.

Who did what now? Certainly not BA.

Hope springs eternal

I used to travel from LHR to JER quite a bit (and on occasion a few other domestic locations). BA did move a lot of those flights from LHR to LGW. I was told that this was purely due to costs.

This simply isn't going to happen

Well according to the baby crews coming through BHD the reason that BHD got the chop ahead of the Midlands was that a number of 733 are going LGW at the end of June with the rest to follow in the Autumn.

BA's JER-LHR was moved to Gatwick alongwith INV-LHR and Manx's IOM-LHR so that slots could be redistributed to long haul. Replacing old bespoke BA B737s with old B737s from a myriad of sources seems desperate. Are we not swapping old and paid off with old and leased?

" Long haul is a stand alone profitable niche that does not require feed"
Conjecture or fact ?
Speaking of fact, here is what Willie had to say recently

"Longhaul operation is very successful, with some feed from shorthaul"
"we've reduced scale over past few years but don't see further reduction"

LGW short haul has had question marks over it for years (it's being dropped, changed to a single class operation and so on).

I thought the point of the recent restructuring of ground operations was to justify a business case for short haul fleet renewal? Has the BA board approved or rejected this?

I'm not so sure BA is that willing to give Easy free reign at LGW - something I think has been acknowledged as a mistake is handing expansion to Easy on a plate at LGW.

Bmi Baby was shut down because it was loss making and had no fit with BA. I can't see their aircraft staying with BA. Just straight back to lessors I think.

FlyBe. That's the solution. Using EMBs to face up to Orange might actually be doable.

Possible 3rd way?