BA MAN-JFK...How profitable?

[concorde001]

Just wanted to know how profitable you think the daily BA MAN-JFK is? I've heard that it is regularly full, in fact when I have checked the loads for Business / Club World, the cabin is, if not regularly fully booked, very full, and the same in economy. I have asked some people and they estimate it makes BA about £1 million , (£1,000,000) a year - (apparently this was published some years ago in Manchester local press.)
Agree/disagree?
Also, to the BA crew here, are the flights full when you operate them? Is it mainly British passengers or American?
Thanx

[gps117]

made about 2 million profit last year

[concorde001]

"made about 2 million profit last year"

Wow! May I ask what/who your source is?
Also, am I right in thinking most of the passengers are simply doing MAN-JFK, not connecting onwards - not like CO MAN-EWR with many passengers connecting onwards?
If passengers are only going to JFK (i.e. that's their final destination), its brillaint that BA can make that profit from MAN. Makes me think why BA doesn't offer more services from MAN!

[jabird]

How many people are connecting at MAN though?

I've heard something like 70% of CO's UK regional to EWR is onward, whereas upto 80% of EK's at DXB is.

I can see how DXB still has a long way to grow in terms of its own tourism market, but isn't NYC enough of a magnet in its own right?

[concorde001]

NYC may be a big enough market itself - BUT, if CO has passengers, of whom 70% are not even staying in NYC, it shows that BA has the advantage by carrying the most passengers from MAN who want NYC as their final destination.
But from what I have seen, MAN-JFK with BA is frequently full and apparently BA staff in MAN go to London when they are using their staff tickets (ID90) because MAN-JFK is very difficult to get on!

[concorde001]

Just look at loads for coming days...for alot of the time Business is completely FULL as well as economy!
Its like that for 7 days from 28APR to 7MAY. Pretty good going for MAN, considering most, if not all is A to B traffic only, not connections like on CO from MAN.:ok:

[HZ123]

I have no idea of how much the service earns and having been with BA for 30 + would not believe anything I was told. A full a/c means nothing it is what was paid for each seat (yield). Balanced against this may be that a per centage of pax would have flown from LHR, the mAN-LHR sector been effectively a free ticket. It is still pleasing that the a/c is full. BACX keep the good work up.

[The SSK]

I have been out of BA for almost as many years as HZ123 has been in there. When I was there, I was responsible for the commercial planning of the US routes, including the ‘Provincials’.

They have some particular features. Basically a daily East Coast rotation can be flown with a single aircraft, giving a very high utilisation (good thing) but if anything goes wrong, mechanical problems or other long delays, you’re in big trouble. Also, the aircraft has to be returned to mainbase periodically for routine maintenance. Ferrying aircraft and crews backwards and forwards between LHR and MAN can wreck the economics of the service.

Also, in my day, the provincial routes were much lower yield than LHR. Story was that BA was forced to maintain a wholly-uneconomic FC product at the insistence of Sir Harry Pilkington (the St Helens glassmaker) whose company provided the airline with a lot of business worldwide, and who insisted on his creature comforts on MAN-NYC.

[5415N]

BACX keep the good work up.

Just a few minor points , mainline route , mainline a/c , mainline pilots , bacx cabincrew , money goes back to lhr


5415N

[concorde001]

I think BA would have dropped MAN-JFK long ago if it wasn't making enough money. With BA so focused on cutting costs (rightly so), if MAN-JFK was unprofitable it would have been scrapped. From what I have heard, BA would rather had all longhaul at LHR/LGW, not in the regions, but because the route does so well for BA, they have decided to retain it.

[Bigpants]

Flew the service for a couple of years recently and although pax. yields are hard to guess the aircraft regularly carried 7 tonnes of freight both ways. The survival of the route despite a fortress Heathrow mentality within BA suggests it is a good earner.
BP

[Hotel Mode]

Its probably also worth metioning that JFK is a serious "base" for BA and the aircraft spends more time on the ground there for engineering purposes.

[Crazy Fists]

Mainline Aircraft with mainline crew, wet leased by BACX to operate their route. It is BACX route now and they take the profits. About the only thing keeping them afloat right now.