PPRuNe Forums - British Airways

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BoB........ Another giant leap backwards in the race to the bottom.:ugh:

Next thing they'll be coming round with scratchcards, changing to a blue and violent yellow cabin colour scheme and sounding a foghorn each time the wheels hit the runway again.

Given the number of routes BACF has dropped at LCY (BCN, MAD, CPH, ARN etc) I don't think you can say it is cannibalising LHR short-haul. But credit where it is due, it's a niche that's working very well and has gone from next to nothing in ten years.

I stopped using BA long haul several years ago but decided to try them again last autumn.

Big mistake.

Sadly they are now on a par with the US airlines.

Dear Alex Cruz

You are constantly saying that British Airways is a Premium Airline, including in your recent email to all your Exec Club card users.

My employers are paying for me to make a quick necessary trip from London Heathrow to a meeting in Vienna. The fare for this is £789.50. In economy. That's for a flight about two hours airborne each way. For this amount, which is more than we have ever paid before, I am now expected to actually buy my own drink, both ways, and my own sandwich.

What part of a Premium Experience is that ?

What were Austrian charging for equivalent flights?

Of course you could have just gone down the road to LGW or up to LTN and got the flight for about one seventh of the price. Sorry I forgot, you are not paying personally for the flight, how remiss of me!

WHBM

my thoughts too - he had the gall to say that in an email to BA exec club members

compton3bravo

me like WHBM sadly have perhaps mis-thought loyalty to what was a very good airline and rally our national carrier - but today what price that loyalty

quick bucks mark em up sell em cheap YUK imho

it still is in many ways a good airline - the staff in the main on the ground and in the air i meet are all 100%

British Airways is talking to Airbus about an order for six A380.

Supply and demand, Y and B class fares at short notice will always be expensive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rich3 (Post 10025036)

British Airways is talking to Airbus about an order for six A380.

They may be talking as this Reuters article fully explains....

Quote:

DUBLIN (Reuters) - British Airways owner IAG (ICAG.L) is holding talks on leasing additional A380s second hand because it believes the options it has to buy more of the Airbus superjumbo are too expensive, its chief executive said on Monday.

The move is part of a strategy of increasing the proportion of leased aircraft International Airlines Group (IAG) has within its fleet, Willie Walsh told the Airline Economics aircraft finance conference in Dublin.
“We have options on A380s ... but we are not going to exercise them because they are too expensive,” he said.

“We see the option of leasing them second hand as an attractive opportunity.”
Walsh said IAG was also interested in leasing or buying more second-hand Boeing (BA.N) 777-300ERs.

“We see going forward probably a greater mix of leased in the fleet than we’ve traditionally had,” he said.
Leasing has traditionally been seen as an expensive option by large established carriers, which can often secure large discounts on new plane orders.
But airlines are increasingly looking to lessors to quickly add and subtract capacity at short notice to match market demand, experts told the conference.
“The adversity to off-balance sheet leasing from the mega carriers of the world is gone forever. Leasing is here to stay,” Steven Udvar-Hazy of Air Lease Corporation (AL.N) said in response to Walsh’s comments.
Walsh said IAG was looking at adding another five or six A380s to the British Airways fleet, but that the jet could also be suitable for Spain-based group airline Iberia.
He said the plane was successful for British Airways on routes where demand was high but it didn’t necessarily need to operate frequent flights, thus freeing up a slot at London’s overcrowded Heathrow airport.
He said there was a limit to IAG’s appetite due to the inflexibility of the aircraft, which he said suited relatively few routes.
The 544-seat A380 has been a slow seller for manufacturer Airbus (AIR.PA) and is untested on the second-hand market.
The first leased A380 aircraft are set to return to the market in 2017 and Malaysia Airlines is also looking to offload some A380s as it restructures.
“There’s no time frame, it will depend on when aircraft become available, we’re not in an immediate hurry,” Walsh told journalists on the sidelines of the conference, adding IAG had already held talks with lessors.
The A380s would not be a replacement for the 747s British Airways currently operates. Walsh said the low oil price meant the carrier was not going to accelerate retirement of the jet. Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA) last week retired its final 747s.

However from my personal experience the real market for this aircraft lies in the explosion of economy seats from China in the last few years.

Air Asia and other local low cost airlines are the driving force of mass travel in South East Asia.

The A380 was designed as a super jumbo to bring down fares but sadly Singapore and Malaysian airlines are too expensive. Not flown with either for several years.

China Southern is already the worlds sixth largest carrier and still growing.

Imagine flying in from Tokyo (long tiring flight) make your connection to LBA. Fly up to LBA. Multiple laps of the racetrack and then fly on back down LHR! Not for the first time either.

I know let's build a motorway to this wonderful well planned gateway! Naughty BA for not basing a plane here!