British Airways

[KARFA]

Judging by the bad press due to over booking from Manchester to Heathrow which has hit the news today, when a high profile celebrity was denied boarding and put on a train they are not doing themselves any favours at all.

The LBA flights this evening are clearly not overbooked though. You can typically spot potentially over booked flights when it is down to Y1 only in economy.

And just to add the seat blocks wouldn't be maintained if it meant someone being denied boarding.

 

[leedslad]

For the record, in terms of what I wanted, then given the options presented then BA can F-off

 

[Bigman]

Even the Leeds to London train service is in trouble now. Another franchising mess. Maybe we could get Virgin to fly to Leeds rather than use trains!!

 

[KARFA]

Maybe we could get Virgin to fly to Leeds rather than use trains!!

Virgin did do MAN-LHR for a short period a few years ago. Despite the complaints from BA customers on that route of high fares due to the monopoly BA hold since the demise of BMI, the loads on the Virgin flights were shocking (less than 30 most flights) and Virgin threw in the towel after 18 months.

 

[Tarn Spotter]

Even the Leeds to London train service is in trouble now. Another franchising mess. Maybe we could get Virgin to fly to Leeds rather than use trains!!

Cant see any chance of Virgin (Branson) doing private work like undertaking domestic flying routes.
Virgin UK Holdings his main u.k. holding company is set to join what is known as the "Corporate Welfare State" as 80% of u.k. revenue now comes from operations dependent on public funding mainly rail and NHS.
Virgin Care his NHS vehicle made £8M last year, but has never yet paid any company tax.
No point in taking a risk undertaking private work when the state paying you in excess of £400M per annum and you channel all your earnings off shore and make sure no u.k. company tax paid.

 

[Bigman]

...I was joking by the way!!!

 

[Aviador]

...I was joking by the way!!!

 

[Seasider]

To me, it looks like BA wants to be seen to be competing at MAN...it's not just 3 KL flights a day to worry about out of LBA which means they can decide to play around with the LBA schedule. It's the 3 EK A380s, 2 EY 777s, up to 6 KL, 5 LH to FRA and 3 to MUC, 7 combined AF/BE to CDG etc. To cede completely the market from northwest England would not go down well with the relatively high frequent flyer base they have nearby (who they have referenced previously in relation to the BACityflyer ops that have started) and they might switch allegiance to other carriers. If there were no LHR services, I wonder if they really would decide to hop on Virgin Trains to Euston and connect to LHR Express or drive down if "time is money" for them as doing one-stop via AMS/FRA/MUC is just as easy as the current one-stop via LHR.

I've done a look at the numbers but I'm not too sure what the frequency was in November but I've gone with 10 return flights Monday to Friday and 8 at weekend. That makes something like 568 sectors flown. They carried 58,600 passengers so averaging around 103 per flight (That's 4 passengers per flight fewer than in 2016).

For Yorkshire traveller, they may have determined the frequent flyer base is already making use of KL and there's not enough prospects to get people onto their service to make it worthwhile to maintain schedules (which leads to the chicken and egg conundrum in that a 6am to 7am departure ex-LBA with a return arriving around 9pm to 10pm probably would see some more passengers switching from KL allegiance to BA)

If BA were that concerned about their frequent fliers why don't they put on flights from MAN?

 

[Sam b]

Hi forum members. Very interesting news. I am booked on a ba flight on november 14th. They moved it from lunchtime flight(cancelled) to early morning. Leaving only 1 hour from arriving from miami to get connection. Now BA have cancelled that early flight aswell without notification... Are they pulling out of LBIA? On phone now to find out why!!!

 

[lbaspotter]

Hi forum members. Very interesting news. I am booked on a ba flight on november 14th. They moved it from lunchtime flight(cancelled) to early morning. Leaving only 1 hour from arriving from miami to get connection. Now BA have cancelled that early flight aswell without notification... Are they pulling out of LBIA? On phone now to find out why!!!

British Airways are most likely altering you flights due to the forthcoming schedule changes which come into effect this weekend.
Sadly its been known for a while now and reported widely on here and elsewhere that the Leeds/Bradford-London Heathrow schedule is being reduced from the current 20x weekly operation to just 10x weekly rotations. This consisting off 2x daily Mon, Thu & Fri and 1x daily Tue, Wed, Sat, Sun.

Winter 2018/2019 schedule
Mondays
BA1346 = LHR 09:20 LBA 10:20 / BA1347 = LBA 11:05 LHR 12:20
BA1344 = LHR 16:00 LBA 17:05 / BA1345 = LBA 17:50 LHR 18:55
Tuesdays
BA1346 = LHR 09:20 LBA 10:20 / BA1347 = LBA 11:05 LHR 12:20
Wednesdays
BA1346 = LHR 09:20 LBA 10:20 / BA1347 = LBA 11:05 LHR 12:20
Thursdays
BA1346 = LHR 09:20 LBA 10:20 / BA1347 = LBA 11:05 LHR 12:20
BA1344 = LHR 16:00 LBA 17:05 / BA1345 = LBA 17:50 LHR 18:55
Fridays
BA1346 = LHR 09:20 LBA 10:20 / BA1347 = LBA 11:05 LHR 12:20
BA1344 = LHR 16:00 LBA 17:05 / BA1345 = LBA 17:50 LHR 18:55
Saturdays
BA1346 = LHR 09:20 LBA 10:20 / BA1347 = LBA 11:05 LHR 12:20
Sundays
BA1346 = LHR 09:20 LBA 10:20 / BA1347 = LBA 11:05 LHR 12:20

 

[Sam b]

No morning or lunchtime though!

 

[Sam b]

Thank god for that. We just had time change not total cancel. 09.20 dep from heathrow. Into leeds at 10.20 arr.

 

[Finger66]

And looking for a positive in all this, at least we keep the service, albeit a token one, for a further season. I remain as disappointed as anyone around the times and frequencies involved but still better than no LHR service at all

 

[jason1-11]

Just checked in for tomorrow’s Heathrow - Leeds flight and per previous flights it appears to be heavily loaded.

 

[jason1-11]

Just checked in for tomorrow’s Heathrow - Leeds flight and per previous flights it appears to be heavily loaded.

Added bonus on tomorrows flights is there could be other F4A members on board. Lets see who turns up.

 

[KARFA]

Added bonus on tomorrows flights is there could be other F4A members on board. Lets see who turns up.

It was a pleasure to meet you at last. Hopefully won't be too long before we cross paths again

 

[jason1-11]

It was a pleasure to meet you at last. Hopefully won't be too long before we cross paths again

Likewise KARFA. We’ll have to do it again if schedules permit.

For information, there were very few free seats on Sundays BA1341 with a large number of passengers connecting onto USA flights. It will be interesting to see what BA’s next move is on the route.

 

[dmrodgers]

Likewise KARFA. We’ll have to do it again if schedules permit.

For information, there were very few free seats on Sundays BA1341 with a large number of passengers connecting onto USA flights. It will be interesting to see what BA’s next move is on the route.

My son was on BA1341 on Sunday connecting onwards to Europe and said exactly the same to me, very few empty seats on the fllight. His unscientific reckoning was in the region of 95% load factor. Just shows the potential if this was not just a slot sitter and also had the night stopper that everyone is calling for.

 

[Aviador]

It was a pleasure to meet you at last. Hopefully won't be too long before we cross paths again

How did you know who was who, I'm intrigued ?

 

[KARFA]

How did you know who was who, I'm intrigued ?

We were in touch beforehand so arranged to meet up in T5 before the flight.