BA A320s
 

I understand that BA is in the process of buying a number of second hand A320s.

1. Is the plan to totally get rid of the LGW 737s and have only A320s as the short haul aircraft

2. Is it only 320s they are buying second hand or 319s and 321s?

3. Apart from the 1988ish ex BCAL 320s is this the first time BA have acquired 320s except from the manufacturer. (Except for the ex BMI aircraft. Also see next questions)

4. BA did acquire some A320s when they took over BMI. I believe the ex BMI 321s are route specific. Have they been modded to the BA spec yet.

5. Have all the ex BMI 320s been modded to the BA spec? (I believe the 320 used on the LGW/LCA route still has no rear galley)

6. Will these new second hand 320s be modded to the BA spec?

Thanks

1. The 737s will all be gone at end of winter season 14/15 ie by end of March 2015. The LGW fleet will be a mix of A320 and A319s.

2 Announcement stated A320s but this might be just generic statement

3 BA have bought Airbuses from Easyjet ( Ex GB airways ones , so technically bought them back ......GB was a subsidary company owned by BA but sold off completely to Easyjet)

GB was never a subsidiary of BA It was owned by Bland Holdings for many years and they sold it to Easyjet.
The only connection between GB and BA was that GB was a BA franchisee

Beerdrinker,

Continuing with answers to your questions:

4) You are correct in that the ex-bmi A321s are route specific. They are flown on mid-haul routes out of Terminal 1 (Beirut, Amman, Tel Aviv etc). They were reconfigured during the buy out of bmi (as it happens, this was planned by bmi to happen anyway. The buyout happened to be at the same time). They feature a different Club seat to that found on the other short and long haul aircraft. They do have the Thales personal IFE system installed which is the same as on the refurbished native BA 777s, 787s, A380s etc. Again, the procurement of this system was done by bmi before BA bought them out - it just happened that the system was the same as BA had chosen for new long haul aircraft deliveries (and long haul refurbishment of the 777-200 fleet. They are due to be made ULD capable starting from mid-February (with the programme finishing in May). This will make them more suitable for operation from T5. This also coincides with Tel Aviv and Moscow switching to T5/A321 ops.

5) None of the ex-bmi A319s and A320s are in native BA spec. They also have blue seat covers over the old bmi seats. I believe the configs of them will be looked at in more detail when the short haul refurbishments begin this summer.

6) The leased aircraft that are due to arrive at Gatwick will be stripped inside completely and refitted to BA spec. The average Joe will think the aircraft are brand new.

Champ

Isn't DME operated by 767s and the odd 744?

DME I think is 2x 763 and 1x 743

That will change to 1 each of 744,763 and midhaul 321


cs

2 x 763s, 1 x 744. Didn't know they were adding an A321 to the schedule.

JonnyH

They are not adding to the scheduled - It subtracting a 763 and adding a Mid haul 321.
Remains 3 daily - In fact on some days it two mid haul 321s and no 763 !

The 744 rotation remains.

According to Jethros fleet listings, the 10 A320s will come from the following source: 02 ex Onur Air, 03 ex Wizz, 05 ex TAM

Can these be retrofitted to accomadate ULD's? Otherwise they cant be used in T5

Maybe not an issue if they are to be based in LGW?

Sounds like fleet renewal on the cheap to me! I wonder how much "newer" some of these 320's are than the 734's they will replace?

It might well be fleet renewal on the cheap, but better that than no BA Gatwick European operation as the Boeing 737-400's are long in the tooth and need replacing. Acquiring secondhand aircraft, with some cosmetic work done to make them look like the BA standard, makes a lot of financial sense to me. There is also the benefit of a lower fuel burn per seat plus no B737 spares needing to be held. Plus BA now have a larger Airbus fleet with all the economies of scale that this brings.

Definitely the right thing to do and full credit to BA Gatwick team for putting together the investment case and getting it accepted by the BA Board.

There's a clear push to ensure LGW get's second best, that's driven by ROI. The ex BMI A319s are split between LGW and Terminal 1, the ex BMI A320s are mainly based at Terminal 1, LGW got the ex BMED A320 then got back the two ex GB Airways LHR based A320s too. There's an attempt there to make sure T5 gets the newest and shiniest as far as they can.

Was told on our Brands conference day last week by the BA Gatwick boss that BA is finally making money at LGW and short haul broke even last year and hopefully this year will start making money

They are investing in A319 and A320 for LGW having had board approval with 1 extra 777 and more Airbus joining short haul

All the short haul fleet is having a makeover starting next month and expected to be completed by the end of the year , including new cabin refresh , toilets and seats . The new Recardo light weight seats ( i think thats what there called ) are being fitted and increasing seat config to 144 on the A319 and another 12 seats i believe on the A320

New routes are being announce to the Med shortly from LGW and they are def. continuing to be a full service carrier i.e. drinks , bags etc

BA 319s/320s
 

Presumably at some time in 2014, BA are going to quit T1 (schedule published for other airlines to transfer out, mostly to new T2 but BA not mentioned).
Would guess most BA T1 destinations might move to T3 but Belfast & Dublin would presumably have to go to T5, with some existing T5 routes moving to T3?
If remaining ex BMID 319s move to LGW & ex BMID 321s being fitted with ULD, then (with addition of new 320) LHR fleet is 100% ULD.

BA will likely end up with a Gatwick A320 fleet that's around 10 years newer than the current B734s.

BA 319/320s
 

BA at LHR do not want to handle bulk loaded aircraft, so all bulk loaded 319/320 aircraft are being sent to LGW where bulk loading is more common and still used on the 737.

Or you could say they will be 10-12 years old - No spring chickens.

Also to have the narrow light weight seats and more of them than mainline about 174 as opposed to 162 .

British Airways look to be expanding the A320 fleet at Gatwick and as usual some just can't let it pass with out a little negativity. The planes may not be brand new but still a step in the right direction. I am sure that all the aircraft will undergo full maintenance and interior refit. As for the denser seating ,that is due to be applied to all the airbus fleet over time (Heathrow and Gatwick) as announced by British Airways at a recent results day/capital markets today conference.
On a more positive note does anyone have any ideas about forthcoming route announcements as alluded to by MARKEYD? I would imagine that routes will need to be released soon to ensure healthy bookings for Summer 2014.




V.