I thought that too about Flying Colours x

I think there’s been some confusion with the Flying Colours situation, which was I believe known as ‘AML’ that operated some longhaul leisure routes ex LGW with the B777 either late 90’s or early 00’s?

our BA flight to Montego Bay in 1999 was definately JMC crew x

The most people I ever flew was an AML config 772 from Gatwick - including crew and pax/ babies it totalled 412 :eek:

I can imagine! 3-4-3 in M and no W cabin if I remember correctly?

compton3bravo

Bit awkward, have you seen Gatwick recently?! That's exactly the market they should be chasing instead of the previous management's delusion they were 'competing' with Heathrow!

Charley B

To be clear, flight deck was mainline BA, cabin crew was JMC.

thanks,it was cabin crew we chatted to who said they were JMC..they were looking forward to a week in the sun😉

Only some of the cabin crew were Flying Colours and at least three of the flight deck team were also trained from Flying Colours.

The best move IAG could ever do, is buy Wizz, job done at Gatwick! Job though done on the BA staff - take it, or leave it!

If this goes ahead, presumably BA will go back to having two sets of cabin crew doing long haul and short haul flying at LGW, before they were brought together as a single fleet 15 odd years ago.

Could it instead be the case that LGW LH would be crewed by LHR, and LGW SH would be separate?

well there'll be 2 sets of crew but they won't both be called BA

For a Low Cost operation work it has to be a low wage, long hours operation and without any connection to the management & unions at BA

It wouldn't surprise me if it was HQ'd in Madrid or Dublin just for that reason

With Vueling doing the Spanish routes at the moment I wonder if those will come under that umbrella, best hurry up before Wizzair gets fully going

I believe some of you are overthinking this situation. It will be a BA subsidiary probably registered with a name like British Airways Gatwick. Passengers will probably notice very little difference. I can’t see Club going as that is one thing that differentiates it from others at Gatwick. I have been reading several other articles and the general opinion tends to be BA looking for a lower cost base rather than just lower fares.
As for long haul and short haul cabin crew I am not certain. it may well be that long haul cabin crew will be mainline and short haul contracted to the new subsidiary. Not really that difficult to manage. Both long haul and short haul parts at Gatwick can easily share check in area, lounges, maintenance etc… as before.
As said above this will be another company(albeit in name only) within the BA brand. It is this brand that will be recognisable to the 6 million plus passengers who pre-covid use BA at Gatwick.
Of course I could be radically wrong but am fairly confident it will be something similar to what I have said above.
When agreed it will interesting to see the proposed network. The email sent to staff spoke of a domestic and European network of some scale. I suspect aircraft will A319/A320 to allow flexibility for different routes. Maybe some A321s in the summer peak. Remember IAG has been moving towards a common aircraft specification to allow fleet flexibility within the group.
Overall I see this as a positive move. It keeps BA at Gatwick in both long haul and short haul and ensures that they don’t give the market totally to easyJet and others.

How about BA European Operations at Gatwick, that's a catchy title.

BEA & BOAC would be nice!

Unless BA “proper” is prepared to sell check in, ground services, maintenance etc to the new EOG at rates comparable to those offered by third party providers, it won’t work. There’s a lot more to “low cost” than just pilot and cabin crew Ts and Cs.

checkin and ground services are all with GGS now, wholly owned by BA but a handling agent with handling agent salaries and contracts, all done a year ago so that’s already been done. Anyone working above or below wing now is in new pay, contract and Ts and Cs and Last year saw all BA staff who worked on their ticket desk, arrivals baggage desk in the arrivals hall and flight control agents leave the business so huge savings have been made already on the ground.

bear in mind BA LGW short haul was profitable pre covid with the legacy costs of many still in the business at the time, all gone now, and with proposed changes to crew pay and working conditions, I see no reason why this won’t work, as long as they keep the BA branding.

From information I have read from elsewhere one of the changes being negotiated is contract seasonality.
BA short haul at Gatwick is incredibly busy in the Summer season plus Christmas and New Year, less so November and February. Winter Sun and Winter Ski have in the past been useful at filling some of the gaps but not enough. For example Summer 2019 up to 90 daily departures, Winter 2019 45 to to 50 including the long haul. Although there may be scope for more winter destinations if costs allow.
It is similar for EasyJet who have about 30 to 40 seasonal destinations at Gatwick. I think they use those months to do a lot of aircraft maintenance too.