The article states that they plan to use a A321NeoLR to serve LGW and the aircraft will be able to fly for between 8 to 9 hours and that the new route will require a stop en route.

I wonder if if they are planning to use airports already served by indigo in the Middle East for the en route stop. For instance LGW-DXB-DEL. If they did this how easy would it be for Indigo to be granted traffic rights for the LGW-DXB portion of the journey?

You have answered your own question, lack of yield. Cheap fares is a sign that they couldn’t get enough bums on seats to make it profitable.

I can’t omagine BA going back on Colombo yet again. It’s not that long since they pulled the most recent effort.

A Dubai move would not be surprising which may allow the third Heathrow frequency to be redeployed to Islamabad given the ongoing rumours about a return. I doubt that ISB would be a Gatwick route although do recall the old LGW-MAN-ISB routing with the BCal 747s...

Without coming across as ignorant to the subject but can you elaborate on those 3 BA/AA remedy slots on LHR-JFK?

JetBlue will find it very difficult to expand at LHR and obtain expensive slots which they will need to do if there going to compete on LHR to USA and in particular to JFK so I personally don't think that LHR is the best option for them. LGW or even STN would be better served by JetBlue perhaps joining up as a partner to Easyjet.

I've always enjoyed my domestic flights within the USA with JetBlue so hopefully we're see them eventually launch transatlantic flights to London at some point as they are an excellent airline in my opinion.

With the level of frequency on LHR-JFK and EWR together with the Norwegian service at LGW for JFK, it looks very unlikely that a remedy slot release for LHR-JFK will arise. It’s not easy to say for certain unless you know whose slots are whose, but I would really doubt this would provide an avenue for jetBlue into LHR.

fligŵhtrider - if an airline applies for the remedial slots and meets the required terms set for qualification and necessary financial standards for their release then BA are obligised to comply.

Other routes covered by remedial slot releases include Boston and Miami , plus former bmi routes to Cairo, Riyadh, Nice, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Moscow.

Virgin used and returned some for their Aberdeen and Edinburgh “little red venture” but shuttered that offer due to remarkably dire performance and returns - the only winner being IAG fellow carrier Aer Lingus me thinks ! Manchester wasn’t a remedial slot route however Virgin were required to use ALL of their own slots to meet the qualifying requirements set for the award of the remedial slot allocation.

Flybe are now trying those same routes with remedial slots and qualifying as a new entrant.

Delta use a remedial slot award for their Boston flights whilst Miami was also tried and returned whilst they now use their UK arm and slots for that route today.

So there remains a number of BA slots that can be demanded under the remedy slots systems to qualifying carriers if any want to try their luck.

By the way Heathrow isn’t necessarily a guaranteed gold mine and BA retain many of the jokers in the pack because they can determine what slot times and pairs they provide from their very extensive pack - more than 50 % of all available slots at slot constrained Heathrow today.

That’s not the case here. If you read the remedy slot document then the number of frequencies provided by non IAG parties on London-New York has to drop below 10 before the remedy slots are unlocked. My point was that with the level of frequencies on the route with UA, VS, DL and DI, I doubt this is sufficiently low as to require the remedy slots to be made available.

Flightrider wasn’t disagreeing just pointing out the availability .

True the LON-NYC market is hardly short of capacity or indeed competition at the moment.

In fact the rear end cabins are massively over subscribed trending heavy discounting and dumping via the consolidators by the major incumbrants at times of year.

Indigo with slots ex LGW to India W18/19? Will be surprised if that comes to pass for this coming winter.

New TUI route to Rijeka, Croatia starting May 2019.