The End of Legacy Shorthaul ?

[goerring]

easyJet (U2, London Luton) Chief Executive Officer Carolyn McCall says her airline has held discussions with various mainline longhaul operators over the possibility of interlining agreements.

"Many airlines have approached us about feeder flights," she told the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung. "If it's workable and pragmatic, then we are absolutely ready to go ahead."

While McCall did not disclose their names, she described the talks as "very interesting and constructive".

The announcement echoes a similar disclosure made by Ryanair (FR, Dublin Int'l) CEO Michael O'Leary last month in which he confirmed the Irish LCC had held talks with a number of carriers to feed Ryanair shorthaul traffic into their European longhaul hubs.

Among the carriers approached by Ryanair include Aer Lingus concerning feed into its Dublin Int'l hub, TAP Portugal and its Lisbon hub, and Norwegian and Virgin Atlantic concerning their London Gatwick base operations

CH-Aviation Newsletter No. 182

Veuling for BA at LGW ?

[Hotel Tango]

I'd like to see how they would plan to cater for C and F class pax connecting onto long haul.

[Swissflyer]

Well.. I suspect the short answer is they won't cater for them..

[canberra97]

Why does everyone assume that Vueling will eventually take over British Airways short haul flights from LGW, in my opinion it won't happen.

[Hotel Tango]

Well.. I suspect the short answer is they won't cater for them..

In which case it won't work for a variety of reasons. Whilst not actually offering a Business Class cabin they would have to offer something akin to what KLM CityHopper provide for pax connecting to/from long haul. This includes, among other services: Dedicated check-in, standard C class cabin and hold baggage allowances, allocated seats at the front of the cabin and the middle seat unsold.

[easyflyer83]

Whilst I have no real view on this, having no business class doesn't have to be an issue if the airlines don't want to make it an issue. BA manage on domestics.

[Skipness One Echo]

Vueling are a point to point loco serving predominantly leisure routes.
BA are a legacy hub operator serving a huge worldwide operation at LHR.
They also serve point to point leisure from LGW.
They also canned their in house handling and are moving out of the North Terminal. They also said they'd buy new A320s for LGW and instead went for second hand lease jobs from Wizz Air.

I can't think for the life of me why IAG might think LGW might be a better fit for Vueling given paid use of Club out of LGW is comparably poor versus LHR......
I don't think it will actually happen but the threat of it will stop BASSA and frankly BALPA doing much. It's what Iberia did, "Accept these inferior ts&cs or every single new aicraft goes to Iberia Express and over time we close mainline down and roll it over into I2". #worked

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/sep/06/gatwick-ba-cabin-crew-face-big-pay-cuts-or-redundancy

[Exasperated]

The deadline for applying for the remedy slots given up by Little Red at Heathrow expired two weeks ago with a decision later in the year. The same rules apply as before for up to 12 pairs of slots starting S16.

Suddenly the locos are talking interlining.

Ex

[RAT 5]

Years ago 'GO' was going to takeover all BA short-haul. Transavia & City Hopper were going to take over all KLM short-haul. Iberia Express was going to ...IB...Germanwings was going to......LH. It didn't happen and they were semi-inhouse operators. If there are interline agreements I expect through-baggage will be a must, and also the barrier to it working. No pax is going to want recover baggage and check in again. They want a seamless procedure, or why bother. They also want some cushions incase the feeder misses the connection to the inter-continental, and vice versa. The long-haul operator will no doubt want control over the whole process. LoCo CEO's telling Jurgen or Willy to F off might not survive negotiations. I suspect the cultural differences between the 2 business models might be deeper than between Tehran & the West. Not to mention the LoCo's changing heir routes and schedules at hat dropping time.
And which half of the equation s floating the idea? Who's to benefit. I suspect the various large unions will want a strong input. They've seen the continual slide in the industrial T's & C's. This might be the straw...........

[whitelighter]

Ba short hall Business (Club) is now exactly the same seat and pitch as economy in the refurbed A320/321 fleet. So the only advantage of flying club Europe now is a nicer breakfast/dinner (lunch is sh!t and not worth the money) and a lounge to sit in.


EZY or FR can offer the lounge (NO.1, Signature or even Legacy if they are connecting) and its not too difficult to order different catering. If you have to add a movable curtain as per the BA fleet it wouldn't be to hard...

[anothertyke]

What will the deal be when something goes wrong? MOL said recently inter-connection would be feasible provided the long haul carriers bear all the risks. I wonder if C McCall feels the same. Surely one of the good things about on-line connections is that it is crystal clear whose job it is to sort it out. I think the business class traffic will be more worried about that than about having to travel cattle class for the first or last hour of their trip.

[Hial Flyer]

Vueling are a point to point loco serving predominantly leisure routes.

Vueling don't just do point to point as i have connected with them through BCN several times with through ticketing and baggage transfer. On recent flight From LHR to ACE via BCN, flight was all on an IB flight code with LHR to BCN with BA and BCN to ACE with VY.

IB Express also do flight connections with through ticketing and baggage transfer, and aren't just a point to point carrier.