BA Back2Backs? Who knows

[Birds2perches]

Strong rumours going round that BA about to stop B2B's in March. Anyone else know anyting about this? It's been going round the mill for ages but seems to keep surfacing. If true, can't see it happening as soon as March.

[OzzieO]

Where did you hear that from? I haven't heard that one. But from the companies point of view I would have thought B2B's are to there benefit.

[Carnage Matey!]

Apparently not. Even Mike Street said that B2Bs were not producing the savings they wanted. The question is whether the cost of a B2B payment, full UK allowances and a hotel room exceeds the cost of employing another crew member for three days. With a large number of new contract people going over to long haul and the company paying peanuts into BARPS I suspect its now cheaper to hire more people than to pay the B2B payment.

[purr777]

BA b2b's are quite costly for the company, but do make scheduling slightly easier. It would appear that talks are ongoing as to whether scrapping them would cause other problems, but initial data does not point to any immediate decision. Over the last 5 years the cost of crewing the daily East coast b2b operation has increased considerably. Scrapping them will provide serious savings in terms of finances, accommodation and out of hours agreement/limitation "headaches".

Another area being looked at is MBTs and counting the day of arrival as the 1st MBT - except for arrivals after midday.
Optimum use of longhaul a/c is equally being monitored, with for example the JNB likely to go a 4 day trip - daylight return. It has already been announced that BA is to withdraw from MEL, with the ONEWORLD alliance being central to the future changes in the BA network, ie if X airline can do the route on BA's behalf, BA can serve another destination without having to invest in more a/c.

What should be noted is that numerous "crew saving" initiatives are taking place behind the scenes, with the LGW - One Fleet announcement being the first ready for formal consideration.
Crew will also be aware that the move to T5 will impact on certain areas of the current agreements, in BA's financial favour.

[OzzieO]

But surely if you de-link all of the current B2B'S there is going to be a real shortage of crew to cover the operation?

[Skylion]

Beware the idea that another ONE WORLD partner can do any route " on BAs behalf". If they fly it they do it for themselves,- not BA and BA has in reality withdrawn from that particular market. BA will receive a small percentage commission if they code share it but that's it. It's " game over" for BA in Melbourne and their network in Australia has shrunk to just one city- Sydney. In the Far East it has also shrunk very considerably despite it being the fastest growing market in the world. BAs problem is that, with no additional long haul aircraft on order, the only way they can serve the new destinations or increase frwquencies to others is either by tightening up of aircraft rotations to avoid long layovers and deleting other destinations entirely, or reducing frequencies.