British Airways

[rmac]

Heathrowflyer… I too am sad but who is to blame? Could it be the people of Yorkshire, especially the business community, who did not overwhelmingly rush to use the service. BA need to, more than ever make money... and it was not doing this operating from and to Leeds.
Ok, BA did not start an early morning service which would have enhanced passenger numbers but then an overnighter costs money...so!
Chicken and egg scenario.....That's the commercial world we live in. Use it/buy it or lose it.
Then again you could blame Leeds City Council for being far too slow in improving surface links to the airport. For example - 3rd biggest city in the UK and the city by-pass is still not dual carriageway entirely. Incredible ! Other cities are way ahead.
Is there a lesson in all this -probably not. If everyone is not careful someday they will say -"there used to be an airport there", then they will say "so why are we all trekking over to Manchester then?"

 

[Crashgate]

It will be interesting to see what the local MP has to say on the matter. Considering the links it provided both for business and the leisure/tourism traffic though going by other recent comments I don't expect much.

 

[XEROX]

So BA's parent company, IAG gets a UK bailout...at the expense of UK taxpayers....and this is what we get in return. Pathetic.

The North of England got Boris Johnson into No.10,....with this kind of news.... where does Leeds sit for his northern powerhouse strategy when we dont even have the flag carrier.

#all_about_the_shareholders

 

[craigston_tom]

Absolutely gutted. Flew on this 4 or 5 times a month when commuting to LHR for work. Guess it’s now back to either driving or the train.

 

[Bigman]

But haven't they just screwed Gatwick as well? Everywhere is getting stuffed at present so we are not alone. I can see a lot of small regional airports being set back to where they were in the 90's, with the big players concentrating on the bigger airports. If Gatwick can be totally screwed by BA and Virgin, what hope for the likes of LBA, CWL, SOU etc?

 

[cmj]

The North of England got Boris Johnson into No.10,....with this kind of news.... where does Leeds sit for his northern powerhouse strategy when we dont even have the flag carrier.

You think he cares one bit about Leeds or the "Northern Powerhouse" - he's got what he wants.

It will be interesting to see what the local MP has to say on the matter. Considering the links it provided both for business and the leisure/tourism traffic though going by other recent comments I don't expect much.

I am not sure where he stands on the airport generally, but he's my MP so perhaps I should contact him.

Then again you could blame Leeds City Council for being far too slow in improving surface links to the airport. For example - 3rd biggest city in the UK and the city by-pass is still not dual carriageway entirely. Incredible ! Other cities are way ahead.

I get the impression Leeds City Council just views North Leeds as a cash cow. Allow more and more developments to overburden the already overloaded infrastructure. The ELOR is more about opening up land for development than moving people.

 

[paully]

A while back, when we could, I priced up a flight to Cape Town with BA. The price from London was good as it was going to be a fly drive. The price from LBA was insane but the price to fly from Manchester was just £11 more. Go figure

 

[ChurchFenton]

Very disappointed, but not entirely surprised. The timings were never perfect and then when frequency was cut to 10 flights per week it never really stood a chance. I did manage to use it to connect to long haul for leisure purposes, but I needed to to be quite flexible and sometimes have long connection times, which I was prepared to do to support the route, but for many people this would have been unacceptable.

I don't feel BA really ever gave it 100%, even in the early years when the frequency of flights were higher, the timings were never optimal, particularly for those using the route for business in London. It might not have even needed a night stopper, if that was considered too expensive, as a morning and evening service with timings similar to the Aer Lingus Dublin flights could still have been more useful to a lot of people.

To be honest, after Bmi dropped the LHR route I thought it was gone for good, so 7+ years of BA has almost been a bonus. I still have BA companion vouchers to use (once Covid passes), but will likely use from Newcastle than give Manchester my custom.

 

[Britannia94]

Such a sad thing to see them go, but it’s honestly not a surprise. But in reality if I had a choice of travelling BA or KLM I would always choose KLM even if it was £100 more. I personally feel you get more value you for your money with KLM compared to BA and the service I’ve always received from KLM has been superb, with BA I feel like your paying a premium for a low cost service, which I know I’m not the only one who feels like this is how they have become. Obviously all this doesn’t help LBA, let’s just Aer Lingus and KLM show their commitment to LBA for the long term.

 

[RobT]

My firm (via a business travel provider) uses BA a lot but they never book us from LBA, they always choose MAN. I know some will say "that old chestnut" but the road link to LBA is appalling and that channel of thought (as well as cost) says MAN every time.

Sad, but true.

 

[AirBingley]

I'm gutted its gone as have used it a few times but as others say it has had its ups and downs and in the early days numerous schedule changes that did undermine confidence coupled with a sub optimal timetable. I'd rather do LNER to London than give MAN my business also as that TPE line has all sorts of issues and assuming the electrification goes ahead it will be 5 years disruption. At LBA we're very lucky we have Jet 2 as so far (touch wood) they have not announced a major cut back unlike Easyjet, BA and Virgin so LBA is in much better (albeit not ideal) position than many smaller airports. Slightly off topic I've just booked a Jet 2 holiday to replace one that BA have just cancelled!

 

[XEROX]

The irony of Brexit Britain. If your coming to Leeds for business...it will be a European airline bringing you here.

 

[Bigman]

It strikes me that Gatwick will be very quiet with BA and Virgin leaving, so how about Easyjet doing an LBA-LGW? Certainly better for connections to the South/South East, and still only a 30 minute train ride to London.

 

[LBA4EVER]

Very sad news about BA, but once again its all down really to the lack of infrastructure at LBA and how the airport has always lagged behind which in turn gives the airport a bad stigma, bad passenger confidence and of course MAN over the hill. Its the usual case of lets just get them all to fly out of MAN! Hopefully things will change with the AMP plans (at the hands of LCC) and we will have a brand new airport where we can change peoples image of LBA.
Just out of interest im aware BA are cutting back bigtime but what other routes have they cut or reduced? I must say though this industry sure does have its ups and downs!

 

[lbaspotter]

It strikes me that Gatwick will be very quiet with BA and Virgin leaving, so how about Easyjet doing an LBA-LGW? Certainly better for connections to the South/South East, and still only a 30 minute train ride to London.

But easyjet flying into Gatwick would be no good for onward connections, for which most people were using the Heahrow service.
I suspect we wont see a replacement London link this time around as a point to point Leeds - London route just wont work against the competing half hourly LNER service from Leeds to London and now the 2 hourly link from Harrogate.

 

[LBA4EVER]

It strikes me that Gatwick will be very quiet with BA and Virgin leaving, so how about Easyjet doing an LBA-LGW? Certainly better for connections to the South/South East, and still only a 30 minute train ride to London.

I must say if we think our BA cut is bad, look at Gatwick, they have lost the entire BA and virgin network, crazy times! Good point though bigman reg easyjet, so now we could have 2 daily to Gatwick and 3 daily to Belfast with easy!

 

[Bigman]

That's what I was thinking. This might give the orange boys more of a reason to come in. However, overall I agree with lbaspotter that LNER are pretty much sorted now with the new Azuma fleet, and with more direct services from Harrogate, they are a much better prospect now.

 

[lbaspotter]

Looks like LBA have released a short statement to BBC reagrds the BA Heathrow link

https://t.co/lwr9dEXcMR?amp=1

Airport 'disappointed' over loss of BA flights to London

Leeds Bradford Airport says it's "disappointed" British Airways has decided to cancel all its flights between West Yorkshire and Heathrow.

View attachment 16686

The airline's decision to stop the 10 flights a week comes after reports it it was cutting up to 12,000 jobs because of a collapse in business due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement, British Airways said it was "sorry" to be suspending its flights from Leeds Bradford.

"We regularly evaluate our routes based on where our customers tell us they want to travel," it added.

View attachment 16687

An airport spokesperson said: “We are disappointed British Airways has taken the decision to cease its route between Leeds Bradford Airport and Heathrow.

"Domestic and international connectivity remains critical to support business and the region’s economy and we hope to welcome BA back in the future.”

 

[TheLocalYokel]

This might give the orange boys more of a reason to come in.

The BBC is reporting today that easyJet is to make 4,500 redundancies, which is up to a third of its workforce, with the airline's CEO saying they "can't exclude base closures".

 

[White Heather]

So they won't be coming here any time soon.