British Airways Cityflyer

[Ray Finkle]

Some encouraging words below from the BA General Manager.

After a fairly slow start the loads appear to be getting much healthier but I do wonder just how well BA could do if the flight timings were not so abysmal. Based purely on timings they lost out on my business to Malaga in October and most likely to Ibiza next year. I wonder how many others are the same.


Luke Hayhoe, British Airways’ general manager, says: “We’re really excited to be back at Birmingham, which is such a good location for the whole of the Midlands.

“It’s got great train and road links, improved infrastructure and really strong year-on-year passenger growth, which all gives us confidence that British Airways can drive similar numbers.

“Our new destinations will hopefully do well, and as long as they do we’ll look at future opportunities from Birmingham. With the forthcoming HS2 high-speed train, growing exporters and the whole region generally up, it all feels positive when we’re looking at future expansion outside of London.

“British Airways is constantly looking at future opportuntities, and Birmingham is very much in the frame for growth. The airport already has a great relationship with our owner IAG and has worked really well with us on launching these new routes.”

http://www.bqlive.co.uk/midlands/2017/07/05/news/improving-airport-attracts-british-airways-26352/

 

[58terminus]

What am i missing here Ray.The article is goes back to the route launches.Why has it become relevant today?

 

[Ray Finkle]

“Our new destinations will hopefully do well, and as long as they do we’ll look at future opportunities from Birmingham. With the forthcoming HS2 high-speed train, growing exporters and the whole region generally up, it all feels positive when we’re looking at future expansion outside of London.

“British Airways is constantly looking at future opportuntities, and Birmingham is very much in the frame for growth. The airport already has a great relationship with our owner IAG and has worked really well with us on launching these new routes.”

I have only ever seen one interview with Luke Hayhoe and it was just two paragraphs of the usual 'we are happy to be back' etc.

I think that the snippets highlighted above are totally new to me but I do apologise if they have already been posted?

 

[58terminus]

Did not mean to sound rude.Thought i had missed something about current loads.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Did not mean to sound rude.Thought i had missed something about current loads.

No problem

I wasn't sure if the article was new or a rehash but I don't remember seeing those words, maybe I missed it?

 

[thunderchild]

A grand total of 9 passengers on PMI-BHX last night!

 

[Brum X]

A grand total of 9 passengers on PMI-BHX last night!

Awful numbers. Planes should be full this time of the year.

Again as another forumer has suggested, mabe not the right routes to operate as so much choice by other operators and BACF late to the party. Maybe regional France/Spain would be better suited to these aircraft and frequencies but what do i know ?

 

[Ray Finkle]

Palma looks to be struggling, I think there were only 30 odd on the next leg. The other three routes are doing well though with some very decent loads. Don't know why Palma is doing so poor.

Florence has probably been the strongest so it'll be interesting to see how it does next year up against Jet2 to Pisa, especially as they will be 3x weekly with much better timings.

 

[jfy1999]

Next year it would be good if they could fly to Mykonos as they're already doing from Manchester. Nice would also be welcome if Monarch aren't planning to restore it to 4x weekly.

 

[BHX492]

I don't think ba cityflyer would because they made Manchester a focus city but you nether know they might add more routes

 

[Brum X]

I don't think ba cityflyer would because they made Manchester a focus city but you nether know they might add more routes

Its too early to say that BA Cityflyer have made MAN a focus city, yes they have some winter charters and the LCY route but that is more down to there location further north which makes a London route more viable.

Lets see what next summer brings or doesn't for BA Cityflyer at BHX

 

[Ray Finkle]

Next year it would be good if they could fly to Mykonos as they're already doing from Manchester. Nice would also be welcome if Monarch aren't planning to restore it to 4x weekly.

They would make much more sense than yet another operator on Palma, Malaga etc.

 

[jfy1999]

BACF are due to start MAN-FLR next summer per timetables posted on "the other forum" and the speculation is that it could be replacing BHX-FLR as the flight times are similar.

With Jet2 dropping their Tuesday Pisa this could mean the flight options from BHX to Tuscany next summer being halved from what was originally available

 

[Ray Finkle]

could mean the flight options from BHX to Tuscany next summer being halved from what was originally available

But still a 100% increase on what was available in 2016 and I'd much rather have Jet2 at a better frequency and more importantly, decent flight times.

Unsurprisingly BACF have dropped Ibiza for next year. If the timings had been better I'd have already been booked on it but there is no chance of me arriving at that ridiculous time of the morning.

Palma and Malaga are still bookable but with daily Primera on both, again with much better flight times, I wouldn't be surprised to see them go too.

 

[thunderchild]

IBZ has already been dropped so if FLR is also cut I’d imagine everything else will go. Hardly surprising, the flight times were awful for most people and if these flights had been operated by anyone other than BA there wouldn’t have been half as much fuss made about them.

Once again our loss is MANs gain but a few token E-jet flights isn’t much of a loss in the grand scheme of things.

 

[nwoody2001]

Well their flight schedules are far from finalised and they were pretty late in announcing their routes last year... who knows what BACF have in store?!?!?

 

[Brum X]

Exactly, i have given up on predicting what any airline are planning.

 

[jfy1999]

IBZ has already been dropped so if FLR is also cut I’d imagine everything else will go. Hardly surprising, the flight times were awful for most people and if these flights had been operated by anyone other than BA there wouldn’t have been half as much fuss made about them.

Once again our loss is MANs gain but a few token E-jet flights isn’t much of a loss in the grand scheme of things.

I think it's a shame really, they could have got a nice selection of weekend breaks going.

In my opinion problem with the BHX operation has been the fact they've tried to split operations between BHX and BRS while I believe MAN has had an aircraft or two all to itself from Thursday to Sunday. At MAN they can operate a couple of flights per destination per week allowing passengers the option of a long weekend.

 

[Coathanger16]

I think it's a shame really, they could have got a nice selection of weekend breaks going.

In my opinion problem with the BHX operation has been the fact they've tried to split operations between BHX and BRS while I believe MAN has had an aircraft or two all to itself from Thursday to Sunday. At MAN they can operate a couple of flights per destination per week allowing passengers the option of a long weekend.

Not trying to make excuses for it, but I think the BHX/BRS split played a big part in how successful these flights were. Would be interesting to see if BHX had the daytime flights and BRS had the evening/night flights if they'd have worked any better.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Not trying to make excuses for it, but I think the BHX/BRS split played a big part in how successful these flights were. Would be interesting to see if BHX had the daytime flights and BRS had the evening/night flights if they'd have worked any better.

You must have been reading my earlier post in the BRS BACF thread:

I'm sure that the problem that BHX had was the awful late-night timings of the flights. BRS was very lucky to have more agreeable flight times.