BA set to resume direct flights Gulf...

[gulf_slf]

Looks like the "Cabin Crew Union" have given a thumbs up to return to nights stops in the Gulf!! Very noble of them!! Even though the FCO travel advice remains at high alert level...higher than when BA decided to introduce the LCA stops to the Gulf....

I dont think I shall bother after the appalling way that the corpoartion have treated the travelling public down here ....every other airline has pulled out the stops to look out for their travellers and providing attractive discounts to travel ...nothing of the sort from BA ...no wonder they are suffering....Looks like I am travelling Lufthansa next time I go to the UK!

In oreder for BA to win back custom and favour in this part of the world there is going to be an enormous charm (marketing) offensive !!

Gulf Daily News Vol XXVI NO. 21 Thursday 10 April 2003

BA set to resume direct flights

By TARIQ KHONJI

MANAMA

BRITISH Airways will re-introduce non-stop services between London and Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Dubai this weekend, it was announced yesterday.

The changes are part of the airline's plans to resume its full flight schedule to the Gulf.

From Saturday, direct flights between London and Dubai will operate 11 times a week.

Services to and from Abu Dhabi will now operate daily and continue to Doha. Services to and from Doha will increase from three per week to a daily service.

From Sunday, flights between London and Bahrain will operate daily and will continue to Muscat.

Services to and from Muscat will increase from two per week to a daily service.

British Airways area general manager Harvey Lines said the airline is delighted to re-offer the flights.

"Our priority has been and continues to be to resume our full flight schedule as soon as possible. This is the first stage towards achieving this," he continued.

Flight BA109 will depart London Heathrow on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 9.45pm, arriving in Dubai at 7.45am the following morning.

Flight BA108 will depart Dubai on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 9.30am, arriving into London Heathrow at 2.15pm.

Flight BA073 will depart London Heathrow daily at 9.50am arriving into Abu Dhabi at 7.55pm.

It will depart Abu Dhabi at 8.55pm and arrive in Doha at 8.50pm

Flight BA072 will depart Doha daily at 10.45pm arriving in Abu Dhabi at 12.40am. It will depart Abu Dhabi at 1.40am and arrive at London Heathrow at 6.20am.

Flight BA125 will depart London Heathrow daily at 10.15am arriving into Bahrain at 6.55pm. It will depart Bahrain at 7.55pm and arrive into Muscat at 10.25pm.

Flight BA124 will depart Muscat daily at 11.05pm, arriving into Bahrain at 12.35am. It will depart Bahrain at 1.35am and arrive into London Heathrow at 6.50am.

[crewmeal]

You seem to forget what happened last time when G-AWND was hi-jacked and blown up in KWI, and the Crew was forcably taken into Iraq and mentally tortured by the authorities. One of my close friends was on that trip and came back a 'changed' person.

With all the political threats that were prevailing at the time, BA should be congratulated for taking all these precautions, even at the cost of sales to the airline.

[Notso Fantastic]

As Crewmeal said, considering the history of the last conflict and the dreadful effect on the crews involved (many lost their nerve subsequently and left the business), and the fact the the US & the UK have had a very high profile in trying to solve the internal problems of Iraq once and for all, I think it was a diplomatic and prudent course of action taken by BA. Perhaps you could be a bit more understanding if not sympathetic!

[Angus Meecoat]

Well said crewmeal, BA should be congratulated for the action they took to protect crew safety even if it did hurt them financially in these very difficult times.

What would you have prepared them to do gulf slf. Unlike the Germans, British forces were active over there in Iraq and British crews could very easily have been targeted by extremists.

I am sure most sensible people appreciated that and will now return to flying an excellent airline like BA.
Enjoy flying Lufthansa they need your custom!!

[Shadowpurser]

At the end of the day I think losing another 747 is probably more important to BA than losing a few passengers who feel hard done by because their journey is going to take a few more hours.

A little more understanding might be in order gulf slf, you might change your tune next time an opressive regime takes you hostage and decides to make you life a misery.

[M.Mouse]

every other airline has pulled out the stops to look out for their travellers and providing attractive discounts to travel

With virtually every airline in the world losing money that seems like an excellent move.

[Tandemrotor]

gulf_slf

I guess you really don't like BA (fair enough.) Because your logic falls down in a number of areas, and your understanding of the reasons for the re-routing is rather prejudiced!

As far as every other airline providing attractive discounts for travel is concerned, perhaps that is all you are after!

Can't afford BA's prices? Ah well.

Did it ever occur to you that, in this hard nosed business world we are in, if BA had to drop it's prices to compete with competitors, it would have?

As far as flying Lufthansa is concerned, Good airline. Fly to FRA, and sit around for an hour or two waiting for a shorthaul flight to LHR!

Wait a minute, just remind me, I thought you were annoyed because BA stopped the direct service to LHR? Which meant you had to spend 40mins in LCA?

Strange logic!

I guess eventually, you will calm down and choose whichever airline suits your circumstances the best. Who knows, it may even be BA (especially if they drop their prices eh?)

[Vizsla]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but didn't BA management land the Hostage Flight in Baghdad when they knew the '92 conflict was about to start that day. Was it more of a fear of paying out high compensation to passengers who might sue, as last time, if the same thing happened, rather than looking after the crew?

[gulf_slf]

Shame that the FCO didnt come clean about the activities in Kuwait at the time and the situation might not have arisen with G-AWND...always another agenda for the government which includes & affects plenty of innocents....
my sympathies to those who were caught up in the situation at the time..

Plenty of other British institutions/employees here in the UAE including schools ..... but no mass evacuations or panics.....just the discreet subtle low profile that long term ex-pats know how to conform to in the area
....In many ways I believe that the threat is less here than it maybe in other parts of the globe especially Asia/Africa......where a radical group may take action against the flag carrier & representatives as the security is not as tight...

Even though the war maybe drawing to a close in Iraq, there are are plenty of fanatics of one sort or another out there.......

Maybe the best PR for BA is to sell the retiring Concordes to Emirates...I am sure that Mr Flannagan could find a few good revenue routes from here....

[Notso Fantastic]

No mass evacuation or panic in BA either! Just a prudent decision to keep 'a low profile' for the duration of the conflict, just like you expats! Not much to discuss really is there? Unless of course you want to bang your drum about fares and how you are going to travel other airlines from now on..........
(Give it a rest man!)

[gulf_slf]

Tamdemrotor

Price has little to with it....I have been a loyal BA (GF/BOAC) flyer to this part of the world for many(40+) years! I would still fly with them if they were not so inept on their communication and PR in this part of the world!

Whilst I appreciate & accept many of the points that you made BA let themselves down by applying a blanket policy across the board to the Gulf States.....The situation KWT/BAH/DOH is very different to that in AUH/DXB/MCT......

The first few weeks of the year reflected a very healthy load factor ex-LHR with SLF's coming down ...it has only been since the conflict that the traffic has slowed ....& i expect numbers will spkike up again as the Easter week comes upon us ....

If you are interested there are excellent rates to be had in all the best hotels in DXB .... we hope to see all the tourists return soon!
OHH!! and BA staff at the usual hotel (unless there are better discounts to be had elsewhere!)

[Notso Fantastic]

I think you'll find loads did not have a lot to do with it. I wouldn't presume to know BA planning procedures, but the action taken probably had a lot more to do with security than anything else. It would seem the atmosphere is less threatening now, and normal service is being resumed. Your first paragraph's exact meaning is not totally clear, but it seems to go into new areas, so an equally vague reply: BA is a 'full service' airline trying to compete in an increasingly discount industry. Inevitably this results in staff cutbacks and sometimes a perceived shortfall in expectations. The recent profit figures from BA show this is a tightrope tread- sometimes corners are 'trimmed' maybe too much. Glad I don't have to plan for those sort of things!

[huw stunn]

BA moved out on advice from the UK Dept for Transport and UK Security agencies that their crew were under threat while slipping at all these stations. As they aren't all 'gulf veterans' like you SLF, they can't be expected to know how to blend into a local environment - just one of the 120 world-wide.

I think BA took the only decision they could in circumstances and it's nice to see the situation has allowed them to return.

[Goldstone]

It's amazing that BA did that ... route its flights via Larnaca ... all due to a bunch of whingeing dinasaur union has-beens. They should send the bill for the lost business direct to the union.

I sincerely hope they do not get any of the traffic back, but that passengers stay with the airlines that continued to offer a reliable service right thru this unfortunate mess.

[crewmeal]

Oh dear goldstone - you know so little about it all. What have the unions got to do with it??? As it was said BA acted on the advice of the Government not the Unions. The Unions deal with what goes onboard not where the airline fly to.

Perhaps it should be said that an extremist group tend to attack the nationalility of the airline (or Comapny) and not the nationalities of the people who work for it. If they see a 'Union Jack' Company they are not going stop and bother to see if their 'own' people work for it.

[Shuperstar Loadie]

I totally agree with the BA decision and think that they have been very wise in what they have done. The only thing that companies and security organisations don't seem to take on board is that if the fanatic is well trained and supplied (weapons and intelligence) no matter what proceedures you put in place if they want to get at a target bad enough they will get it.

Obviously the UK measures are high on the list of countries that have good security but this cannot be said to countries in the middle east. So BA took the advice and did the right thing. But as some of you have said they will have to win back their customers because as you know gulf slf the Arab is an emotional and fickle creature.

[DCS99]

I can't believe people are on here slagging off BA for slipping Gulf flights in LCA.

I was working for BA and on duty the morning in August 1990 when BA149 got held in Kuwait. It was a tremendously busy and to be honest frightening time, not knowing what was happening to colleagues out there. Many of the stories that did come out later were shocking and peoples' lives were deeply affected.

Slag BA off for other reasons, but in my book, they deserve credit for the actions they've taken in the Gulf.


Vizsla: "didn't BA management land the Hostage Flight in Baghdad when they knew the '92 conflict was about to start that day"

Errm, you've lost me there totally!

[reverserunlocked]

The stranding of the BA 747 in Kuwait was an extraordinary piece of bad luck, aided by the fact that even though the invasion had begun, and ATC were aware of that, they still cleared the 747 to land!!!

If they'd gone around, firewalled the throttles they'd have been safe and sound within what, ten or fifteen minutes?