BA's long-haul cutbacks at LGW

[Joe Curry]

Snippets from an article in today's
Scotsman Online.

"Eddington said capacity on short haul flights at Gatwick would be reduced by
using smaller aircraft, but said the number of routes served from the airport
would remain the same, at 53.

The move is part of a restructuring of operations at Gatwick, which BA has
previously tried to build up as a main transfer hub to compete with Heathrow.

Eddington said BA was now focused on serving passengers in the airport’s
immediate catchment area, with the number of long haul flights being cut back
from 43 to 25 over the next two years."

I wonder what long-haul routes will be "chopped"?
:(

[brabazon]

BA announed on 6 December 2000 the results of its Gatwick review including:

"The current 43 longhaul destinations(ie not flights) will be reduced to around 25. Services to around half a dozen destinations will be suspended, and another ten or so destinations will transfer to Heathrow, where there are prospects for substantially improving their profitability.

"The remaining Gatwick longhaul routes will be served by a longhaul fleet rationalised from 33 Boeing 747s, 777s and 767s to around 20 Boeing 777s"

in addition the Press Release goes on to say:

"The first of the longhaul transfers announced today will be Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Seychelles, which will move from Gatwick to Heathrow in October next year" (ie this year 2001.

This new strategy backs up the fact that airlines are able to get a higher yield per passenger from routes from Heathrow compared to Gatwick - no wonder the US airlines are keen to get their slots at LHR.

Any nominations for the other routes to be transferred by BA from LGW to LHR and those to be dropped?

[ 18 July 2001: Message edited by: brabazon ]

[Joe Curry]

>>"The remaining Gatwick longhaul routes will be served by a longhaul fleet rationalised from 33 Boeing 747s, 777s and 767s to around 20 Boeing 777s"<<

The 744 currently operating MCO will eventually be replaced with 777? :confused:

[Psr777]

I only know of Havanna, Cancun and Montego Bay which stop at the end of March 2002.

[TakeTheCup]

Almaty is being transferred to Bmed as of October 2001 - in typical Bmed style it will go from a 3 class nonstop 767 to a 2 class A320 with a stop - as with previous routes transferred from BA there will be alot of unhappy passengers used to a level of service they will no longer be getting.

[topman]

That's only if you actually believe all the c**p about BA being better than everyone else.

[Rolling Stone]

Is this on top of the AOL? AOM? or what ever it was called, (BA/Flying Colours operation) which stops this year or on top of that?

[Flightrider]

Take the Cup,
BA operated twice-weekly 767 services to Almaty throughout 2000 and, according to the CAA stats (which you can obtain yourself from www.caaerg.co.uk) (http://www.caaerg.co.uk)) carried the sum total of 20,364 passengers last year between Gatwick and Almaty.

52 weeks x 2 roundtrips x 178 seats per sector x 2 sectors per roundtrip = 37,024 pax. 20,364 pax = load factor of 55%.

Bear in mind that the market has deteriorated in the last few months. It's probably the case that the route was unprofitable. What would you rather, BA keep flying something and lose bucketloads on it, or stop it and hand the route over to a franchise which might be able to make money on it?

I wouldn't bother anyway - it probably won't be too long before BA start out to buy BMed.

In terms of other long-haul cuts at Gatwick, some of the AML routes are stopping (as referred to above). Nairobi, Seychelles are reverting to Heathrow this winter(and I think Dar es Salaam and Entebbe as well, but I could be wrong). You may also see one or two routes being stopped completely.

Before anyone asks, I don't work for BA.

[Mode7]

HRE, LUN, EBB and LLW also moving over to the 777. DAR is moving to LHR with the NBO, MRU and SEZ. BA's last 747-400 leaves LGW in November