British Airways

[User0001]

Would be interested to know passenger figures for todays flights if anyoine has them.

LbaYorkie

Not exactly packed to the rafters if the 2nd and 4th south bounds were anything to go by. Odd as someone quoted the final southbound of the day as being booked at nearly 90 about 8 weeks ago.

Early days though

 

[empire]

The 4th southbound will always be the weak sector. Connection opportunities minimal and questionable point to point at that time of night. It is pointless to make any judgments based on the first days operation especially on a winter Sunday and without yield data is impossible.

Interesting to note, the last northbound made a practice CAT II approach despite the wind being WNW at over 17kts.

 

[EX9]

1341 - 39 pax
1347 - 12 pax
1343 - 21 pax
1345 - 18 pax

 

[empire]

Lets hope those figures are not indicative of the ongoing performance. Yield would needs to be stratospheric.

Truly awful. Those slots will become much more attractive elsewhere.

 

[michael]

They aren't good figures at all but with the 'official' launch being Monday let's hope for better things. To me though even though the publicity/advertising has been there I think to expect the first day -on a Sunday and a fortnight before Christmas - to be good figures is pushing it a bit. Lets give it a few months, get some averages, and hope the business community make use of the service. It'll have been a good practice day if nothing else!

A short snippet on Look North tonight, hopefully the cameras will be in place tomorrow for the official launch.

 

[Galaxy]

What time is the official launch? Will there be a water cannon ceremony? Or was that today?

 

[ridgeback]

You can't read anything into the Day 1 figures. They look better already this midweek but BA are well aware that a Dec 9th launch is far from ideal. Most travelling business people are staying home for a start. As someone said a couple of the sectors will always be quiet but some look to be well timed and demand will be there. It needs a good few months into the new year to truly assess it but ultimately it's down to the people. BD were regularly full and BA are not charging a lot for rhese flights so lets hope people realise the importance of supporting it.

A/C change for the first 2 today G-BCDF

 

[LBAYORKIE]

Very disappointing considering that there have been several months since the announcement of the service in which bookings could be made. Sunday afternoon should be a prime flight for people setting off on business trips and making connections at LHR, so why haven't they? Maybe BA are just too expensive on the connecting flights compared to the Gulf and Continental carriers. I agree however that the mid-week flights are the ones that will really indicate how well things are going.

Remember that because of the timings, you are not going to get anyone going to London and back in a single day- as I used to, and would still like to. Im going down on Wednesday evening but am having to stay overnight to make by 10:00 meeting the following day.

Will let everyone know what numbers were like when I get back.

LbaYorkie

 

[JakeS]

I think it’s safe to say tonight’s Calendar News report covered the BA new story very well with multiple interviews, VT’s of the apron and inside the terminal touching upon recent investment in facilities. All in all positive news coverage!

 

[cmj]

Very disappointing considering that there have been several months since the announcement of the service in which bookings could be made. Sunday afternoon should be a prime flight for people setting off on business trips and making connections at LHR, so why haven't they? Maybe BA are just too expensive on the connecting flights compared to the Gulf and Continental carriers. I agree however that the mid-week flights are the ones that will really indicate how well things are going.

Remember that because of the timings, you are not going to get anyone going to London and back in a single day- as I used to, and would still like to. Im going down on Wednesday evening but am having to stay overnight to make by 10:00 meeting the following day.

Will let everyone know what numbers were like when I get back.

LbaYorkie

I think these things take a while to 'take off' (if you'll excuse the pun). The lack of an early morning LBA-LHR and later LHR-LBA isn't great and does restrict the usefulness of things a bit.

I suspect from LBA, for intra-europe KLM will be the better option, with their early (06:00 LBA-AMS) outbound and later (arriving 22:00 winter, about 21:00 summer) connections, but for long haul maybe BA will be the way to go.

Especially to the USA, where with KLM you fly for an hour in the wrong direction then take another plane almost back over where you started!

 

[lbaspotter]

BBC NEWS report as follows. Also video report on there website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-20664682

London flights from Leeds Bradford Airport resume

It is the first time direct flights have left from West Yorkshire to London since March 2011.

British Airways has begun operating flights from Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) to Heathrow.

It is the first time direct flights have embarked from West Yorkshire to the capital since Flybe dropped its Gatwick service in March 2011.

Eight flights a day on 160-seater jets will operate between LBA and Heathrow with single fares starting at £42.

BA decided to make its move following what was described as "hard lobbying" by local businesses.

Leeds lawyer Chris Booth was one of those who led a campaign for the flights.

Fingers crossed
He said: "Everybody hopes this will work because if it does we all stand to gain - not only those in the Yorkshire region but those who are visiting the area as well, whether on a business or a leisure basis.

"So fingers crossed that it will work, and I genuinely think it will."

Tony Hallwood, the commercial director at Leeds Bradford Airport, said: "We believe there will be lots of support from our local businesses in the region for this.

"We have every intention of growing the number of flights. And British Airways have said that if the business is here they will deliver it."

The airport's chief executive John Parkin added: "This new service is a significant milestone for Leeds Bradford Airport.

"I urge businesses to take advantage of British Airways' global network to stimulate further economic growth for the Leeds city region."

Analysis

Danni Hewson
Business correspondent, BBC Yorkshire

Water cannon, champagne and plenty of back slapping marked the arrival of British Airways' first flight into Leeds Bradford airport for 32 years.

The return of links to the capital has been warmly received.

The flights will provide a real alternative to the East Coast Main Line, though the added time of getting to and from airports does give the train the edge in the speed race.

The real worth of these flights will be felt by exporters and businesses looking to attract inward investment into Yorkshire. After all, companies that fly halfway round the world don't want to have to trudge through the rest of Britain to get to their destination.

There are real possibilities here but other companies have tried to run this route before and given it up because of a lack of use.

It's estimated the BA flights could be worth £10m a year to Yorkshire's economy, but only if the planes that follow have more passengers than this morning's rather empty flight.

 

[User0001]

Lets hope those figures are not indicative of the ongoing performance. Yield would needs to be stratospheric.

Truly awful. Those slots will become much more attractive elsewhere.

Well, 20 on the final southbound today, so an improvement of 2 on yesterday.

Intuitively, you'd expect it to do much better- they're a big airline operating into a huge-hub. I suppose time will tell whether this is early days syndrome or a case of poor scheduling. A connecting service needs to hit the connecting banks and at the moment it looks too late in the morning to hit the westbound wave and too late in the evening to hit the eastbound wave.

 

[ridgeback]

BA fly westbound with deps all day and the 0915 ex LBA will facilitate that. Similarly the 1555 ex LBA will be ideal for any 1900 or later Africa/Asia conx. Some of the the schedule is clearly less than ideal however and the very late LBA-LHR looks like it will be permanently quiet along with the early northbound. Just bad timings although I suspect BA know this & it's just a way of not nightstopping the a/c in Leeds.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

If load factors continue to be this bad I can see BA pulling the route after a single season, if not sooner. Must be losing a fortune each day. I agree that avoiding a night stop seems to be BA's goal, but this is going to adversley affect load factors.

I used to travel to LHR and back every week on BMI visiting our office in Colnbrook. In fact there were quite a few of us who used to use the flights just to commute to London and we got reasonably friendly. Neither I or any of these other people can use the BA flights for this purpose because the timings preclude it. I suppose BA might be thinking that the timings will suit people commuting from London to Leeds- and you could have a full day in Leeds based on their flights, but in reality far more people travel from Leeds to do business in London that the other way around.

The other issue of course is that leading up to, and after the BMI withdrawal from the route Middle Eastern carriers have become far more prevalent at Manchester and their fares put BA's in the shade.

I really hope things improve rapidly, but BA should not give up until they have customised the service to suit people travelling to Heathrow and back within a day. I am sure they can do this without affecting those pax who are transferring to onward connections.

LbaYorkie

 

[wawkrk]

Very few business travellers will be be setting off on a long haul trip at this time of the year.
January will have better figures.

 

[lbaspotter]

Can't believe we waited all this time to get the London Heathrow route back and already the some locals are righting British Airways off after just 3 days off operation.
Give it sometime guys I’m sure the passenger figures will pick up in the New Year when business folk will start to travel in mass again....

You know a few months ago everyone was pleased that the route was returning even though the current non over-nighting schedule dose not allow for a days work in London. It has always been said that they were mainly aiming the service for Connecting passengers for there long haul routes.
I'm sure British Airways and the Airport would have known that with a mid December start date just before the festive period is not the best time of year to commence a business route like this.

 

[White Heather]

It does beg the question as to why the route was started at a time of year when the business community traditionally stop travelling, but presumably it was to capture any passengers travelling away or back to Leeds for Christmas. BA know how bookings are going into the future and hopefully the numbers will be up over Christmas and into the new year.

I think that the timings, lack of a based a/c (so no early flight southbound), and use of terminal 1 will all reduce take up, but I think it is certain that LBA will continue to talk to BA with a view to resolving all of those problems during 2013.

 

[Aviador]

The run up to Christmas is traditionally a quiet time for business passengers but airlines operating interlining traffic usually always maintain services to ensure maximum connectivity.

What I have noticed so far is many of the passengers who are using the new flight to Heathrow are Oneworld Executive Members who probably used the Manchester flight prior to the Leeds flight becoming available. I've also seen passengers who used to use the BMI Heathrow service before they withdrew the flight. "It's great to have it back" one person said.

There seems to have been a good amount of interest with people making enquiries so I am still hopeful the flight will do well come the new year.

One thing the airport could do to assist British Airways is to offer Fast track Security to all their passengers throughout the summer months to ensure business passengers aren't deterred by long queues during the busy summer rush.

 

[The Pole]

With regards to the timings of the flights and BA not wanting to night stop at Leeds, could the first flight not leave London earlier? so it lands at 7 quick turn round on first leg and back off by 7.30?

 

[Aviador]