British Airways

[Aviador]

Absolutely and if it does fail it wont be due to lack of effort on the ground to make it succeed. The advertising is good, the customer service is good and the product is good. There's not a great deal anybody can do about the slots unless BA relinquish some of their Manchester slots possibly. If it doesn't work, we still have KLM for interlining and to be honest I suspect we'll be seeing more and more interlining flights in the years to come which will only lead to a further reductions in domestic flights to Heathrow with it's capacity constraints.

 

[leedsman]

Thanks to both user001 and ridgeback for the load information provided recently, it makes interesting reading - appreciate the time you take in sourcing the details.

It's promising that things are already showing signs of picking up, considering the route is still not even a fortnight old yet. I am hopeful that once Christmas and the NY are past us, the loads will improve further and be more representative of the underlying demand.

Any 100+ loads on the horizon - maybe a celebratory firework moment when we get there !!

Any likelihood that one of the MAN early morning slots being relinquished to LBA, and a larger aircraft operated on an adjacent MAN service to cover the reduced rotation ? BA use 767s on some of the EDI and GLA rotations - just wondered if that was a realistic option for LBA to get the all important early morning departure into LHR.

Seasons greetings to all.

 

[Jordan-34092]

Would it be ideal to have LBA and MAN work between one another? that way they wouldn't always be arriving or departing at similar times?

 

[ridgeback]

There's a 79 on Sunday but no 100's looming!

Out of interest this weeks loads in total for the day (excluding the 43 staff going in both directions on Tue) are increasing at 20/day approx.

I haven't included Sat which only has 3 services but while not earth shattering its a steady increase and this is an awful time of year to be doing this. Everyone I know in Leeds is at work parties rather than flying to London for meetings/holidays.

For anyone doubting BA's commitment to this the 43 staff on Tuesday were a Waterside based sales team who arrived BA1340 0800 and spread out around Yorkshire in a fleet of hire cars to visit a massive amount of travel agents 'spreading the gospel'

The proof will be in the New Year when we need to start seeing regular 100+ loads I feel.

Need a kind winter without too many diversions also.

And need rid of the 0700 northbound which is hopeless and a drag on the figures. That gets sorted in S13 when 0700/1100 merge into an 0940.

All IMHO!

 

[cmj]

I saw a BA advert on the side of a bus at the weekend. It was a Centrebus, but not sure if it was an Airport one.

 

[SNOWMAN]

hi all

just seen this on prune LEEDS 5, POST 1777 on17/12 /12 by offint from ILKLEY,any thoughts on this.
SM1

 

[ridgeback]

Yes

His point isn't remotely LBA specific.

Someone from MAN wld have the same option to use Qatar to get to HKG and yet BA fill 11 flights a day from MAN. Ditto NCL where EK fly daily to DXB.

 

[White Heather]

Sorry guys, but what are we talking about here?

 

[lbaspotter]

Sorry guys, but what are we talking about here?

Heather I think this is the post SNOWMAN1 and Ridgeback are talking about which appeared on the PRUNE website forum a few days ago.

Source: http://www.pprune.org/airlines-airports-routes-85/

I have just booked 2 Business Class seats to HKG in March and living in Ilkley would have liked to use LBA however BA price was £6679.30 for us both and Qatar from Manchester was £3267.90.......no brain'er really, far better airline, far far better food and service with a modern fleet and only 1 hour longer, how BA expect the LBA feeder route be be successful when their prices are twice the price of much better airlines is beyond me.

I hope I'm wrong but that route cannot sustain 4 daily flights and I can see them suspending it in 12 months.....as I said I hope I'm wrong.

I've got to admit I would be put off from using BA out of Leeds at them fares prices quoted. I would also be heading off to Manchester and using Qatar...

Hope that helps....

 

[ridgeback]

So would I!

My point is just that BA do fill a heck of a lot of domestic flights up from MAN/EDI/GLA/NCL/ABZ and at most of those places there is an Emirates/Qatar/Etihad option also. In fact you might argue that LBA has a benefit in that it DOESN'T (and probably won't ever) have that option which might sway some people to use BA rather than trek to MAN. I doubt it would sway me when the price differential is £4,000 but it probably would if it was £150 less to go to say SFO from MAN rather than the 15 min ride to LBA.

 

[HOLLIDAY1]

I have used the BA shuttle this week.....

On Wednesday 19th on BA1345 - 11 pax on board

On Friday 21st on BA1340 - 23 pax on board.

The crew were fantastic - two rounds of drinks and snacks on the BA1345 and a hot sausage and tomato roll with two rounds of tea/coffee/juice/water on BA1340.

A great service which I will be using again soon.

 

[White Heather]

With passenger figures like that I only hope that you get the chance Holliday, but thanks very much for your post.

 

[Seasider]

I'm doing my bit to make it successful (although I doubt they will make money), already booked to go to Marseille in March and now booked to got to Franfurt in May.

 

[White Heather]

Every little helps Seasider so thank for supporting the route and LBA. My sister flies in on the afteroon flight tomorrowo and out again next week. I feel sure that in the weeks after Christmas, when people traditionally start booking their summer travel, the bookings will start to pick up, particularly as the business sector will start to travel more again - and they tend to book quite late. Very few business meetings are planned months in advance!

 

[Jordan-34092]

Every little helps Seasider so thank for supporting the route and LBA. My sister flies in on the afteroon flight tomorrowo and out again next week. I feel sure that in the weeks after Christmas, when people traditionally start booking their summer travel, the bookings will start to pick up, particularly as the business sector will start to travel more again - and they tend to book quite late. Very few business meetings are planned months in advance!

Well i know the company i work usually use MAN to connect with BA. As from Feb there moving it all over to LBA. Any bookings in Feb onwards will go via Leeds. They use the service at MAN at least 15 times a week, they do a lot of business in America and Asia, So hopefully this will help boost capacity.

 

[ridgeback]

It's worth noting that Holliday1 used the 2 most disastrous sectors on the route, the early northbound and the late southbound. There are no good figures to spin on those flight numbers, the 0700 north seems just too early, one reason I am more enthusiastic about S13 than others, 5 out of the 6 sectors shd perform OK unlike now where we have 6 out of 8 doing OK.

 

[User0001]

A big bold billboard advert at or very near the train station would be desirable.

 

[ridgeback]

Just seen the loads ex LBA for 26 & 27

2 in the 90's, 1 in the 80's, 2 in the 70's, 2 in the 40's

Really encouraging, that first 100 load can't be too far off....

Happy Christmas

 

[ridgeback]

BA1346 today operated by A320 G-MIDX

due to A319 unserviceability.

Booked loads south 89/98/100/49 today

 

[channex 757]

The loads are starting to look healthier which is good news.

Will this be the 1st 100 load?