British Airways

[White Heather]

But that is its name officially - you even have it as your initials!

4 flights daily is fantastic. Initially when the airport reported that they felt they were making some progress with this, they expected no more than 2 flights daily, morning and evening. Looking at the schedules, we could have two BA aircraft on the deck early afternoon, or am I having another blonde moment and reading it wrong?

 

[Aviador]

Didn't BMI peak at over 200,000 per year?

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

 

[pug]

I will have a stab in the dark and go for 150-200,000. Certainly a growth year in 2013, with or without Thomas Cook IMO. However I still think there will be more to come regarding Monarch and Thomas Cook.

 

[cmj]

The lack of a night stop and using T1 not T5 are probably the only negatives.

For me, I will probably stick with KLM as the schedules line up better with them, at least for now. I understand tho it's impossible to match all the options all the time. There are a load of places where LBA-AMS-xxx doesn't work well, and LBA-LHR-xxx would be better.

 

[lbaspotter]

As user001 points out British Airways wont be night stopping an aircraft at Leeds-Bradford when the new London-Heathrow (T1) route commences from December 9th.

Here is the full published schedule as on the http://www.ba.com website

Monday to Wednesdays
BA1340 = LHR 07:00 - LBA 08:00
BA1341 = LBA 09:25 - LHR 10:25
BA1346 = LHR 11:20 - LBA 12:20
BA1347 = LBA 15:15 - LHR 16:15
BA1342 = LHR 13:50 - LBA 14:50
BA1343 = LBA 16:05 - LHR 17:05
BA1344 = LHR 18:50 - LBA 19:50
BA1345 = LBA 20:50 - LHR 21:50

Thursdays & Fridays
BA1340 = LHR 07:00 - LBA 08:00
BA1341 = LBA 09:25 - LHR 10:25
BA1346 = LHR 11:20 - LBA 12:20
BA1347 = LBA 15:15 - LHR 16:15
BA1342 = LHR 13:50 - LBA 14:50
BA1343 = LBA 16:05 - LHR 17:05
BA1344 = LHR 20:00 - LBA 21:00
BA1345 = LBA 21:40 - LHR 22:40

Saturdays
BA1340 = LHR 07:00 - LBA 08:00
BA1341 = LBA 09:25 - LHR 10:25
BA1342 = LHR 13:30 - LBA 14:30
BA1343 = LBA 16:05 - LHR 17:05
BA1344 = LHR 16:50 - LBA 17:50
BA1345 = LBA 18:40 - LHR 19:40

Sundays
BA1340 = LHR 07:00 - LBA 08:00
BA1341 = LBA 09:35 - LHR 10:35
BA1346 = LHR 11:20 - LBA 12:20
BA1347 = LBA 15:15 - LHR 16:15
BA1342 = LHR 13:50 - LBA 14:50
BA1343 = LBA 16:05 - LHR 17:05
BA1344 = LHR 19:25 - LBA 20:25
BA1345 = LBA 21:00 - LHR 22:00

 

[User0001]

When you make a booking on the BA website, LBA is called 'Leeds Bradford International' - talk about making LBA sound like a global international hub...!!

Bit OTT?

Why does 'international' make it a Global international hub?

Its not Heathrow International, Paris International, Gatwick International.

I think the word 'international' is a bit irrelevant in the UK anyway, as pretty much every UK airport is international now anyway.

 

[airforced]

This is great news and I wish BA well and hope that it eventually leads to an even more comprehensive service.

I, like many others from the Regions I suspect, dislike LHR with a vengeance due to the long lines at almost every point through which you have to pass, however I will use the service despite this to reach European destinations not served directly from LBA currently.

Time for a caveat methinks. BA will need to stay sensible with prices which is something KLM, via AMS, don't always do.

Well done LBA management and BA. Keep up the good work.

 

[lbaspotter]

There no way that will work there needs to be a early morning flight from LBA to LHR for it to work so the night stop is a must it seems that BA already want it to fail.

[ Post made via Android ]

I don't really think British Airways are that concerned about the point to point Leeds to London traffic to be honest at the moment.
By looking at the press release and the timings (They feed into most flight waves at Heathrow) they are more interested interlining passengers who will use the service to feed onto British Airways worldwide routes and its Oneworld partners routes.

Anyway its a good start, And I've got to say It's a-lot better than nothing at all, Which we had since bmi pulled Heathrow in 2009 and flybe pulled Gatwick last year.

 

[LUFC Jonno]

I'm wondering if the timetable will be used just for winter season and then for the summer season they'll make changes by having an aircraft night stop and move the flights from T1 to T5.

 

[cmj]

There no way that will work there needs to be a early morning flight from LBA to LHR for it to work so the night stop is a must it seems that BA already want it to fail.

[ Post made via Android ]

I don't really think BA are that concerned about the point to point Leeds to London traffic to be honest. By looking at the press release they are more interested feeding Interlining passengers who will use the service to connect onto worldwide service using BA and its oneworld partners routes.

The early flight into LHR and late flight back from LHR are important for the short-haul connections. They enable you to have at least half a day at your destination. However for long haul it may not matter so much as you're going to be spending 8 hours flying anyway, and that may be the market BA are aiming for here.

I don't think it's so much that BA want it to fail but they are doing what they can with the ex BMI Manchester slots. Hopefully they can get a night stopper in, but that probably means some more timetable rearrangement.

 

[Jordan-34092]

Yeah but what about the morning flights to America With this passengers won't be able to fly out to america until lunch time earliest

[ Post made via Android ]

 

[masere]

Fly down the day before and stay in one of the many hotels around LHR or in London itself, that's what I did. No worries about the consequences of delayed flights from LBA then.

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

But that is its name officially - you even have it as your initials!

4 flights daily is fantastic. Initially when the airport reported that they felt they were making some progress with this, they expected no more than 2 flights daily, morning and evening. Looking at the schedules, we could have two BA aircraft on the deck early afternoon, or am I having another blonde moment and reading it wrong?

25 minutes. Wonder what the airport will do give on the airbridge and the other not?! It's only winter so shouldn't matter but peak summer ... hehehe! And we have BA crew on LBA deck for 3 hours, i will love speaking to the pilots & crew!

I will have a stab in the dark and go for 150-200,000. Certainly a growth year in 2013, with or without Thomas Cook IMO. However I still think there will be more to come regarding Monarch and Thomas Cook.

Can't we leave TCX, a yet to be comfirmed negative in your opinion, out of a very very positive discussion?!

 

[pug]

Can't we leave TCX, a yet to be comfirmed negative in your opinion, out of a very very positive discussion?!

I wont take this discussion off track, as the BA news is clearly a positive. However I was refering to the passenger figures, I think you need to read my full post before suggesting I'm being negative. :nea:

 

[lbaspotter]

Well this evening ITV Yorkshire Calender programme spent less than a minute reporting about the new British Airways service. They showed a short 20 second interview with Tony Hallwood and thats about it.

Meanwhile the BBC's Look North programme spent about 10 minutes reporting on it to me it was miles better effort compared to ITV.
The BBC had there Business reporter Live on site, had interviews with both British Airways director of operations, Andy Lord & LBA's chief executive, John Parkin.
They then did a short piece about the airports 80th anniversary which included an interview with Ken Cothliff. And not to be comp-tent with that, the presenters in the BBC Look North studio did a live link up with the BBC's Studio in London to interview Simon Calder as well.

 

[The Pole]

Yes Look North's programme was very good. My Brother works for BAA at Heathrow and the M1 drive does my nut in when I pop down, even though I love driving, so you ever know, might pop on the Airbus!

 

[JakeS]

I realise what I will say may receive criticism (hence the reason I don’t post much as I don’t want to stir confrontation) and don’t get me wrong I appreciate it’s great that BA have returned and utilised a good number of spare slots originally at Manchester to LBIA when they could have gone elsewhere or not bothered at all however I feel they are missing a trick.

Granted the route primarily is to attract LBA passengers to fly from BA’s wider routes and the Oneworld network at LHR, but with no nightstop therefore the first flight not arriving into London until 10:25 (considering KLM’s service gets you into Schiphol for 08:50) this is not as appealing as it could be to business customers who frankly will be the largest users of this service and need to race to the capital for that 9-10am meeting. (Leeds being the largest financial district in the UK outside London). Yet instead with these circumstances and this timetable I see no other alternative but that they will continue to use the train.

 

[White Heather]

All the interviewees today on BBC TV and Radio Leeds made it clear that these flight are not aimed at the business traveller going to London for one day for a meeting and it is envisaged that in all probability they will continue to use the train. It is aimed at the interlining traffic worldwide and the timings were stated to be excellent for that purpose, both by BA and LBA. That said, it is hoped that in time, BA will switch to a night stop at LBA which does at least give the day trip users the option of arriving early in London. The down side would be that doing so would leave inbound interlining passengers at LHR having to wait longer for their connecting flight to LBA. Whichever way they do it has its advantages and disadvantages. I imagine though that after a 32 year absence, BA have not come back to LBA without seriously doing their homework first and they must feel that the schedule will work.

The interview with Andy Lord also suggested that flights will end up at T5 before too long as he referred to flights going to T5. I believe User001 said previously that they would transfer to T5 eventually. However, I flew with BMi via LHR in 2010, and the transfer from T1 to T5 on the transfer bus was dead simple, took only 10 minutes, and ( as a bonus) took me on a nice little airside tour of the airport. There were some great views of A380's etc just a few yards away, so any slight inconvenience was outweighed by the chance to look around the airport en route.

 

[LBAYORKIE]

This is goods news for LBA, but without an early arrival in London my plans to use it are dead in the water.

As the first flight is northbound it benfits pax travelling to Leeds for business i.e point to point. Surely there can't be many of them. Maximum benefit would be to have the first service as a southbond, that way the get LBA originating pax on a point to point (like me) as well as feeding in to the early morning BA connections from LHR.

It worries me that the service will not maximise its profits with such a late first southbound departure each day. Let's face it, they should be giving it their best shot from day 1.

Alan

 

[User0001]

I would just like to add my 2 cents to the forum.

Whilst its great news for LBA in the short term (certainly on a roll with new routes lately), I do think this is a slot sitter for 18-24 months.

Put it this way, even with all these new slots to play with, if anyone thinks BA has spent all this money on buying bmi for its slots, just to use them on a 4 daily LBA service (amongst others), then people are sadly mistaken.

I may well be proven wrong, but the plan was to make this a slot sitter, putting the old MAN slots to more constructive use than running flights less than 30 minutes apart from each other.
The main issue BA has, is that new longhaul aircraft (and subsequent routes) will not be available for around 1-2 years (B787 and more B77W), so, it brought bmi while it had the chance, but nothing to use its new slots with.

Like I say, I honestly hope to be proven wrong, but when UK domestic in general is in decline, and despite the global connectivity through LHR, I just cannot see LBA lasting that long (and for the record, I also expect most other domestic routes that have had increases today, including MAN/EDI/ABZ to shrink once the new long haul toys arrive. The call is just too tempting for BA)