British Airways

[ridgeback]

Just as user001 says really. It's expensive.

Pros:

Parking overnight at LBA probably very cheap and spares some tarmac at T5

Stops the 1345 a/c positioner

Enables retiming of 1341 to a better time for even better performance

Cons

Hotel costs of 8 cc and 4 fc every night

Transport costs

Engineering costs - these are significant as the a/c needs a daily check every night

I think one thing in favour of LBA is that the current BA1345 costs a lot of money and wld offset a fair bit of the costs but only if they consider the revenue of the other services to be worthwhile.

For all the figs are increasing it will take another significant leap of faith in LBA for BA to nightstop an a/c. I hope people can try and understand that just coming here was a sizeable commitment and that it is going well. If people stick with it (despite the T1 probs we suffered) and support it then the n/stop is the obvious next step but it really is quite a big decision.

Fwiw i think the route is now out of the "this is costing us money" phase and into calm waters. Hopefully it will continue from where it is now to the full service "nightstop" phase over the next 2/3 seasons

All of the above is simply my opinion and not gleaned from anything within BA.

 

[channex 757]

Thanks for the responses about the night stopper. It makes a bit more sense now.

 

[dmrodgers]

Just flown up on this mornings BA1340 07.55 flight from Heathrow (G-EUPJ) and was pleased to see that numbers on this early morning flight in Leeds seem to be also picking up. A non scientific headcount of passengers on board suggest a load factor of 45+ including a number of business people. Shows that if BA gets it's marketing right they may be in for the long haul. One disappointing aspect appears the bacon baguette is now off the menu as we were served hot ham and cheese roll, very nice, but had been looking forward to the bacon for over a week.

 

[leedsman]

Flew southbound on the 0930 from LBA this morning. Second time I have used the service (first time back in Jan) and the loads are definitely improving. Today's first southbound had a load of 81.

 

[Moo2009]

Am I seeing things but is the BA waiting on the taxiway for a free airbridge

 

[Aviador]

Am I seeing things but is the BA waiting on the taxiway for a free airbridge

But Leeds doesn't need any more air bridges remember. If LBA want to play with the big boys they really need to invest in some big boy toys. All the other airports are doing it.

 

[White Heather]

Can't see it happening Aviador - they claim that a new air-bridge costs around £2m. If they were going to do it, the time to do so has just past.

 

[Aviador]

Yes I know. The aviation scene has changed so much in recent years. Low cost travel may have brought Europe to Leeds but it hasn't done much to help our little airport grow and develop in the way many of us would have liked. I was once told the airside part of the terminal was designed to allow four air bridges to connect directly to the terminal before the need for any new walkways to the east. How things change. Still, at least we have BA for the time being.

 

[rmac]

I do think that if in the future the airport wants to attract the likes of Lufthansa, United etc then an east pier, with a walkway from the main terminal will need to be built along with a couple of airbridges. Even if initially it only catered for two gates with seating for 300 -400+ and with the capability of adding on extra room as needed or as funds allowed. How much does it cost? Other airports seem to be planning on spending millions over the next few years.

 

[White Heather]

The walkway has been constructed in a way that allows it to easily be changed to double deck, so all that to the East is likely to change over time. Re the airbridges, LBA's view is that there is currently insufficient demand for them to warrant the additional cost. If they pay to have one put in (£2m was quoted a couple of years ago, so probably more now), they have to be sure airlines will pay to use them, in order to recover the cost. Currently there is insufficient demand to warrant more than 2. That could change if the airport did attract more of the premium carriers. If LBA starts to lose potential airline partners because they cannot guarantee them an airbridge, it won't take long for another one to appear. I suspect that first, they need an airline to sign up to use the airport for an extended period and to use the airbridge if constructed.

 

[ridgeback]

1344/5 on Wed had an A320 G-EUUV operating it.

First time since the T5 switch that a 320 has been used as far as I know.

 

[Aviador]

Do you know if the upgrade was due to demand?

 

[User0001]

No. I was on it and there were 91 checked in (northbound)

 

[LBA787]

Just flow down on the BA1341 to LHR. The service was great with a flight time of only about 45mins, load was 87 with 95% connecting onto other destinations.

:crazy:

 

[ridgeback]

The route gets a very high % of transfer traffic which is a really good thing.

 

[cmj]

How well is the route doing? Certainly on one other forum some folks seem to think it's still an under performing basket case.

The last LBA-LHR was/is never going to do that well (it's more to get the plane back to LHR) but are the other rotations holding up?

 

[ridgeback]

Needs to do better - definitely.
Basket case - definitely not.

I saw that comment, also aimed at RTM which is also not doing as badly as that.

Some people seem to think that a new route like this will perform like MAN from day one.

 

[kirkwoods]

Maybe it needs to be advertised better? A friend of mine lives in Barnsley, and asked me today how come there's flights from LBA-LHR. Told her it's been going a few months, she was a bit annoyed to find this out after booking a connecting flight from MAN!

Come to think of it, if I didnt see the plane passing by I'm not sure I'd know of the route.

 

[channex 757]

Looks like this mornings BA 1341 to Heathrow has been affected by this morning emergency landing incident by a BA a319 this morning at Heathrow which caused both runways to be closed for a short period.

Its showing est Departure of 13:42

 

[lbaspotter]

Just posted in the BA worldwide thread my thoughs regarding this morning incident at LHR.

As to be expected some flights are been cancelled due to the knock on effect. The morning BA1341 now has a new earlier slot and will depart LBA shortly while the afternoon BA1342/1343 services have been cancelled. Hopefully this evenings BA1344/1345 will be operated though....