Not disputed however in their defence BA are having to comply with the reintroduction of slot usage controls at Heathrow initially 70/30 so something has to be done to protect that whilst continuing to manage resources .
LBA I am not advocating for NO recruitment period and neither do I think we will be back in lockdown however simple economics certain recession and spent vouchers will mean a pretty lean winter and indeed likely 2023, so massive recruitment is far from a good idea , it’s call management and sweating of recourses and an important business tool especially for a company recording huge losses !

Those assets are parked rather cheaply at the moment whilst the company is bleeding red recording massive losses and they simply aren’t needed, crews or no for the foreseeable . Finnair have crews current and fully up to date and frames a plenty going spare . It’s an accidental marriage of convenience right now both parties making ( loosing less money) in the process !

The thing is they need to recruit more permanent staff otherwise they end up cancelling flights as the resource isn't there to crew the flights. Remember, especially when it comes to crew/flight deck, the number should/probably does include plenty of sickness and leaving. There is simple facts. They have cut harsh and harder then required without taking into account the furlough scheme (government failure). They now have the rebound of travel going on without the resource required. You cannot and will not attract people to work for the national airline/BA and move to London without offering permanent contract as your competitors will win - Virgin. BA know this and therefore it's the right thing to do.

I bet they've even taken into consideration a pessimistic scenario and worked out they need to recruit and permanent. BA do not suffer as much seasonality as other airlines so it's not like you can work the crew harder in Summer and let them take it easy in winter. BA need those numbers more or less year round.

At present, yes, but IAG is forecasting a return to profitability in the near future....

https://www.travelmole.com/news/iag-...m_medium=email

On another note, a (proper) British airline, Jet2, announced a few days ago that they will operate more flights in S22 than they did in S19, and that they see no let-up in demand.

It's not all doom and gloom out there!

They are needed, they just can't be crewed. There's be no need to lease in other airline's assets at market rate if BA could crew their own operation like certain other competitors.

Druk and Whbm
Thanks fir your replies, it did not help passengers being bussed to a stand and then introduced to a ANZ aircraft for a trip to the USA. At least my informant has been told it’s Finnair, when he promotes BA as a businessman.

I remember that happening as well, including the bussing to a remote stand (even then). In fact there was an FA at the foot of the DC-10 steps whose principal task seemed to assure passengers that this was the BA flight to LAX. This was despite using those old steps which had a display of flight number and destination on a pole attached to them. Of course, to the airline, there was nothing to say. It was a BA flight, not a code share, on the BA AOC, wholly staffed by BA crew. The paint scheme was incidental. The current arrangements are different.

The ANZ aircraft previously laid over at LAX from Auckland during the afternoon/evening, and as the round trip LAX-LHR-LAX takes just over 24 hours, the eastbound aircraft set off about 2 hours before the westbound one arrived; it was thus a different aircraft every day so they were not badged up as such. It was also the longest sector BA operated at the time, when they still only had the original -100 series 747s. The US carriers operated them at the extremes, but for BA procedures LAX was fractionally too far until the -200 747s came along, when this was their first route.

Didn't the ANZ arrangement carry on after the 747-200s arrived at BA in 1977 ?

As the OP who asked about cancellation lead times, I've read all the replies with interest.
What I still do not understand, is why BA management, with their knowledge of staffing levels, aircraft availability etc, cannot produce a rolling four week flight schedule, that allows customers sufficient time to rearrange hotels, car parking etc. rather than waiting until three or four days prior to departure before announcing cancellations.
I am also mystified as to why I am getting numerous emails from BA, encouraging me to fly with them, when the media is full of news about flight cancellations. Do the marketing department live in some parallel universe, where every flight is operating as normal ?

In a very wide range of companies, the number. Of people going off with Covid is still high. I hear this also in my extended family and in Facebook contacts. You feel fine on Thursday and wake up on Friday feeling terrible. Take a test and that could be you off work for 7 or 10 or more days. No software or human planner can work accurately with that level.
No, I have never worked in the airline world.

1978 I think. I was by chance on the first week of the 747 back from LAX (though not outward).

The DC-10 interchange did carry on, because BA had a several-years commitment to it. It continued to serve LAX twice a week to exchange aircraft with ANZ as before, but on other days served from London, in varying proportions and seasons, Boston, Miami, and one or two other points. I'm sure the crews, after several years of doing nothing but a single route, appreciated it.

I was a passenger on the last ANZ flight which was LHR-JFK on 26/10/80.I believe it then picked up spares and continued to LAX for hand back.
Passengers wouldn't have known it was an ANZ aircraft as boarded via a jetway.

Combination of sources inc "Speedbird" - the BOAC history - and the 1999 British Airways Airlife book.

BA entered into the ANZ DC10 exchange as neither the 747-100s or 707-436s had range to operate non-stop to LAX, but BA was facing competition from Pan Am and TWA who were flying 707-300s non-stop.

Operations were on LHR-LAX from May 1975.

For Summer 1978, the arrival of the BA 747-236s provided aircraft which could fly LAX and this was the first route on which the -236Bs were flown. There was a further year on the interchange agreement still to run, and the ANZ DC10s were flown on five Miami and three Montreal flights per week plus two LAX to feed aircraft back into the ANZ network. The agreement ended in April 1979.

Can't vouch for any of that from personal experience but that's what the history books say!

I have dug out a 1980 summer timetable.
The DC-10 is listed as operating to Montreal,Los Angeles and Boston on various days..

IAG confirms order for 737Max - BA & Vueling?
 

Boeing has confirmed that IAG has firmed up the 2019 LOI for new 737Max 'frames...

https://www.flightglobal.com/airline...148714.article

Not really news these days, but 120+ shorthaul BA flights cancelled f/t Heathrow today.

All the British Airways flights cancelled today from UK airports | The Independent

Yes the Independent keeps going on about these. In reality, as they do mention in passing, most of these flights were removed from the schedules weeks ago now. Therefore most people have been rebooked etc… Of course there are still some last minute cancellations(not unique to BA) but thousands of people are not turning up to find flights cancelled every day.
I’m not sure what the Independent is trying to achieve here.

I assume The Independent is doing this because it helps them perform well on Google's search engine - which drives a lot of what online news sites do.

Or could it be a free-lance travel correspondent by re-writing 'old news' in an attempt to boost their income?

Is anybody able to advise as to until what date tickets being on sale on the website can be considered a reliable sign that a flight will take place, with no more cancellations ? (Yes, subject to things like weather). Is it just 2 weeks ahead ?

I'd like to make a booking, but I know if BA cancel the flight I want to book with 2 week's notice it will be very expensive to find an alternative flight. It's important to me that if I book, I actually get to fly. I don't want to risk paying for other things (e.g. hotels) and then getting an email in a week's time saying "Terribly sorry, but your flight doesn't look sufficiently profitable to us so we have decided to cancel it and we will give you your money back when we feel like it"

It varies. They did cancel a batch but then every time something happens it knocks the flights back out for a few days. Where is the destination? Routes with multiple services seem to get some cancelled but still able to get people there.

Long haul also less likely to get last minute cancellations.

BA have put through a lot of frequency reductions well into the summer (JNB & MIA cut to daily for example) and brought in wet leases from Iberia and Finnair. There may be more to come, but they seem to have decided to just get a lot of cancellations out of way.

How the actual winter season schedule compares to the current timetable is a different matter altogether.

According to Head for Points, Iberia have decided they can do ground handling at LHR better (cheaper???) than BA.

I don’t think they’re doing it themselves?!

I have noticed that red handling who look after Norwegian and TAP at LGW is on a major recruitment drive for LHR. Hiring everything from pax to ramp and dispatch. My money is on them.

My bad, I meant Iberia can source it better..

Isnt sourcing of handling done through the IAG brand rather than individual airlines. Therefore Iberia won’t be deciding they can do anything differently it would be IAG leading that workstream.

I think those decisions are made at airline and not group level, I think it's an operational decision for Iberia.

Sourcing is done by IAG for things like aircraft orders, but for operations it's all done by individual airlines. According to HfP.

Looks like strike action is potentially on the horizon at BA due to pay and conditions:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/othe...omMaestro=true

Sean Doyle learning from Accenture Alex if this is true? The reason they're in operational meltdown is that good people can be paid more elsewhere for friendlier hours.

IAG stock getting seriously shorted on the London and New York stock markets by hedge funds, who are normally the first spotters of poor management

City investors betting on fall in price of British Airways owner IAG (msn.com)

The division between the operational airlines, and the investor-focused overlords at IAG seems to be turning out a poor structure, especially as they concentrate management ever more in Spain, whereas the bulk of the European investment is through London, where the operational details are more extensively reported.

Apparently the recent AGM was only in Madrid, unlike the dual AGMs of previous times on sequential days in Madrid and London, and BA were offering only C class fares priced around £700 for a day return for any City of London analysts who wanted to go and represent their investor clients. Somebody at IAG probably thought this was funny.

BBC News - British Airways Heathrow staff back summer strikes over pay https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61906236

From the article:

Good for them. They're aren't even asking for a pay rise, just a restoration, which I believe management received!
And the CEO of BA is paid an additional £250k a year to maintain two homes - one in London and one in Madrid.

Not quite right.
 

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....12c73c8512.gif

Is it me or is the jet in the background sitting on it's tail?

It’s a scale model

Used to be a scale model of Concorde. Changed to an Emirates A380 since 2008 I believe. Plenty more pics of it if you google it.

Not quite right ??
 

Are you suggesting that BA staff at Heathrow haven't voted to strike ?