British Airways

[Kestrel321]

The load factors on LBA have only improved in the last year as a consequence of the yield and capacity decreasing. BA are making no money on tickets priced at £41 each way (with around £30 of that being taxes).

Slots at LHR are limited and valuable and the routes that they are being deployed on will deliver a greater return to BA than LBA does.

 

[White Heather]

The load factors on LBA have only improved in the last year as a consequence of the yield and capacity decreasing. BA are making no money on tickets priced at £41 each way (with around £30 of that being taxes).

Slots at LHR are limited and valuable and the routes that they are being deployed on will deliver a greater return to BA than LBA does.

That may well be the case, but surely the same applies at Manchester too with regard to yield. The fact is that BA have a long term commitment to MAN, NCL, GLA and EDI that clearly doesn't exist for LBA. We have constantly had to put up with flight times that are less than ideal, no night stop and endless cancellations, so BA have done relatively little to encourage people to use the service. Despite that the passenger figures have steadily increased with the vast majority being passengers booked on to longer distance routes at T5.

 

[Britannia94]

Must admit this change has totally messed my travel plans up for June next year. I was planning a trip to Gibraltar and was going to fly from LBA with BA via Heathrow. Would have meant I wouldn’t had to handle the stress of the M62 and would have been able to stay in bed longer, Now with this change it doesn’t make it possible for me to do so with the lack of connections now between LBA and LHR it means I will instead have to travel from Manchester.

Now with this being the case I won’t be choosing BA from Manchester to go via LHR when Easyjet operate a direct service, so in that aspect BA have lost my custom, I obviously know one person custom won’t affect them but if others have similar situations like mine it will mean they will travel with competitors and BA will lose out.

I’d of rather flown from LBA with BA via LHR than fly direct from Manchester with Easyjet, much prefer LBA over MAN. Just a frustrating it is.

 

[KARFA]

The load factors on LBA have only improved in the last year as a consequence of the yield and capacity decreasing. BA are making no money on tickets priced at £41 each way (with around £30 of that being taxes).

You are just looking at the lowest selling class price though. If you have flights reasonably full there will be plenty of people paying fares in higher selling classes where the fare element is considerably more than ~£10.

 

[Kestrel321]

Incorrect, the majority will have been sold in the lowest fare classes. Yes, suggesting £10 ew was a exaggerating a little, but the average yield won’t be all that higher.

 

[KARFA]

Incorrect, the majority will have been sold in the lowest fare classes. Yes, suggesting £10 ew was a exaggerating a little, but the average yield won’t be all that higher.

The majority? You'll have to provide some more information on that. What selling classes are you grouping together as "lowest classes"?

Btw the lowest one way fare is in O selling class is the OV2RO fare which has a fare component of £37. O goes fairly quickly (usually weeks if not months out) and then the Q selling class fare is £49 fare component, N is £61, V is £73, L is £85, M is £97, K is £121, H is £157 etc. until you get to Y which is £241.

 

[dmrodgers]

Very interesting to see, as I note the flight has been cancelled Sunday lunchtime

He has been told that he has now been booked onto tomorrows lunchtime flight, as it happens he is stranded out in Dusseldorf firstly by the flight being delayed out of Heathrow but also due to heavy snow in Germany closing the airport so would have missed the flight if it operated as planned. Just heard from my son that Dusseldorf airport has reopen and the flight back to Heathrow has now been scheduled for 17.30 tonight (originally 10.20) and will operate into Gatwick.

 

[KARFA]

The load factors on LBA have only improved in the last year as a consequence of the yield and capacity decreasing.

These are my rough load factor calculations for 2016 and 2017 are based on number of flights (obtained from thebasource) and CAA passenger numbers. The A319 operates as 143 seats in one class configuration. Since the introduction of domestic business class from April 2017 the A319 never operates as 143 seats config. Instead for business there is a blocked B and E seat. When I have tried to work out some rough figures I have assumed 5 rows of business (which seems reasonable in my experience) so a 133 seat config.

If you have more accurate numbers that would be great to see.

2016
January 52%
February 54%
March 56%
April 60%
May 54%
June 61%
July 60%
August 60%
September 73%
October 62%
November 60%
December 65%

2017
January 55%
February 66%
March 58%
April 66%
May 60%
June 63%
July 61%
August 65%
September 73%
October 70%

 

[White Heather]

Those figures would be significantly higher if it weren't for the affect of the lightly loaded final southbound of the day that always drags down the percentages.

 

[Finger66]

Perhaps BA should open up routes to ATH, MUC and KBP lol seeing as though they have basically now had enough of LBA - LHR. Great to see those inbound divs. And to think this was the snow we were expecting

 

[KARFA]

Those figures would be significantly higher if it weren't for the affect of the lightly loaded final southbound of the day that always drags down the percentages.

Absolutely. I have mentioned this before (although it may have been on another forum) but forgot to do so in that post. The last southbound is always fairly lightly loaded (maybe around 40-50% in my experience) and this is the same for MAN too. The problem is it represents one out of six flight for the lba route whereas for MAN it is one out of 14-16, so the drag on the average load for lba is more significant.

 

[dmrodgers]

My son just informed by BA that tomorrows lunchtime Heathrow northbound flight already cancelled, so I assume our other flights have gone the same way. Arranging him rail travel up to Leeds for tomorrow after putting him up in a hotel tonight in London due to major delay of Dusseldorf Heathrow flight and today's LBA cancelled flight.

 

[lbaspotter]

Good to know we still been used by British Airways. The 3 inbound diverts make up for the loss of this afternoon and evenings shuttle cancellations.
Guess the airport will be happy with 3x extra night stoppers along Hollins Hall Hotel will with 3x lots of crew.

 

[BarnsleyHolidays]

The Three Divs

I hope this is not the title of a new boy band!!

Only A320 G-EUYU was a first visitor last night. A319 G-EUPV has visited many times on the LHR services. A320 G-EUUK previously made a guest appearance on 10 August 2015 operating the evening SHT20C/21X schedule.

Barnsley Holidays

 

[Bigman]

Maybe BA should be looking at LBA-LGW instead of LHR. We would still have lots of connections available, and it would give us all those lovely old BMI A319's back!!!!

 

[KARFA]

Two of the diverts are due to depart at 1000. They are actually have open availability and are bookable - perhaps of use to those who were on BA1347 and BA1343 which are cancelled.

No plan for the third aircraft yet, although I imagine that will leave at some point too.

EDIT; actually see here for info, seems the third is due out this afternoon http://www.forums4airports.com/threads/53/page-245#post-125465

 

[Finger66]

The Three Divs

I hope this is not the title of a new boy band!!

Only A320 G-EUYU was a first visitor last night. A319 G-EUPV has visited many times on the LHR services. A320 G-EUUK previously made a guest appearance on 10 August 2015 operating the evening SHT20C/21X schedule.

Barnsley Holidays

Any suggestions for the three members of The Three Divs? I can certainly think of a few but in the spirit of political correctness will keep those to myself!

 

[oldendays]

Norman, Stanley and Fletcher.

 

[SNOWMAN]

faith hope charity
mustard custard and b******
sm1

 

[White Heather]

At today's LBA Consultative Committee meeting, and in response to a question I raised with LBA in advance, Chris Sanders confirmed that BA will reduce their flights out of LBA from next summer by 50%. There will be a daily southbound departure at 1115, with a 2nd departure at varying times on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. LBA are undoubtedly very concerned at this move which appears to result from a change in the business model of BA and new people managing their operations. IAG are also now heavily influencing the decisions taken by BA.
Despite the fact the route has increased passengers year on year, the route is a loss maker due to the requirement to deduct Air Passenger Duty and London Heathrow landing fees from each fare - so the decision has been taken to use the valuable slots on routes that will make money despite the loss of interlining passengers.
LBA have held meetings with BA and have enlisted the support of local MPs, but it doesn't sound as though any reversal to this decision is likely. It was stated, that in the circumstances, LBA have done well to retain the route at all and that BA have changed the timing of flights to try and maximise passenger numbers and revenue. Even so, LBA are not convinced that the timings are the best and are in discussions with BA who are 'open to discussion'. What seemed clear though is that the route is now very much at the 'Use it or Lose it' stage.
On a more positive note, it was stated that the contract with BA has been improved to ensure that they do not cancel our one (or two) flights to LBA other than in exceptional circumstances, so if that is the case then at least we should keep what we have and not find our only flight cancelled.
The other positive is that it was stated that BA now offer bookings from LBA to the USA on their website, using the Aer Lingus Regional option from LBA via Dublin, so I presume there is some partnership there which will encourage people to use that service as an alternative. It may be therefore, that passenger numbers may climb on the Aer Lingus flights. We may eventually see a 3rd daily flight or a switch to Aer Lingus mainline equipment with higher capacity? It was also noted by Chris Sanders that he would now be exploring options with KLM to increase passenger numbers further using AMS as the hub rather than LHR.