Route Development & Rumours

[jfy1999]

Have Brussels, PIA and SAS actually increased their services or have they just applied to do so?

 

[Brum X]

Mmmmmmmmm interesting and I have a sneeky feeling that Air India will focus on BHX-DEL and let the other carriers serve ATQ

 

[Matt995]

Have Brussels, PIA and SAS actually increased their services or have they just applied to do so?

ACL shows Brussels flights have increased from 878 (2018) to 1010 (2019) - basically the peak summer reduction in flights is not happening. PIA increasing from 180 to 230, however current schedule still shows only 3 flights a week, so extra 50 slots not being used?
SAS increasing from 629 to 706, again looks like less reductions in peak period!

 

[finchy168]

Virgin/Delta adding services from Gatwick to Boston/New York looks like a move to hinder JetBlue's announcement next week.

Hey JetBlue 140 miles up the road we are waiting with open arms to welcome you to Birmingham

If only

 

[RichL]

British Airways CANCELLED Malaga, Florence & Palma Mallorca services.

I didn't know they had pulled these again already...

 

[Brum X]

British Airways CANCELLED Malaga, Florence & Palma Mallorca services.

I didn't know they had pulled these again already...

Yes BHX and BRS pulled and a reduced service at MAN.

 

[mullion]

Manchester reduced by 2 flights a week

 

[TheLocalYokel]

British Airways CANCELLED Malaga, Florence & Palma Mallorca services.

I didn't know they had pulled these again already...

The summer 2019 services were pulled last September. The Bristol routes were also axed at the same time.

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there the localyokel, so why did ba pull those flights from bhx for.. Andyc

 

[jfy1999]

The BA operation at BHX suffered from some very poor flight times and passenger load factors.

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there jfy1999, so who's fault to blame for the crappy flight times then.. Andyc

 

[jfy1999]

I suppose only the BA schedule managers know why, but part of the reason for the bad times was that they had BHX and BRS sharing aircraft between them.

They also had no crew base at BHX or BRS which resulted in aircraft flying out from LCY to the likes of Palma and then flying back to BHX with arrival times between 0100 and 0400. The last departure of the weekend from BHX would have a similar arrival time at the destination.

They have kept their weekend flights at MAN/EDI and I think that might be because they have crew bases there.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I suppose only the BA schedule managers know why, but part of the reason for the bad times was that they had BHX and BRS sharing aircraft between them.

They also had no crew base at BHX or BRS which resulted in aircraft flying out from LCY to the likes of Palma and then flying back to BHX with arrival times between 0100 and 0400. The last departure of the weekend from BHX would have a similar arrival time at the destination.

They have kept their weekend flights at MAN/EDI and I think that might be because they have crew bases there.

I don't know about BHX but last summer the Florence-Bristol-Florence service terminated at BRS on a number of occasions instead of returning to Florence owing to the crew being out of hours on the late-running service and no-one at BRS to take over. Outbound passengers were therefore stranded at BRS and lost their holidays.

The other BRS routes last summer had their own 'dedicated' aircraft that flew in from Malaga in the early hours of Saturdays, operated three sun rotations (I think they were Ibiza, Palma and Malaga) before returning to Malaga on Sunday mornings. The positioning flights were revenue-earning but the timings poor.

 

[Ianbutty]

I don't know about BHX but last summer the Florence-Bristol-Florence service terminated at BRS on a number of occasions instead of returning to Florence owing to the crew being out of hours on the late-running service and no-one at BRS to take over. Outbound passengers were therefore stranded at BRS and lost their holidays.

The other BRS routes last summer had their own 'dedicated' aircraft that flew in from Malaga in the early hours of Saturdays, operated three sun rotations (I think they were Ibiza, Palma and Malaga) before returning to Malaga on Sunday mornings. The positioning flights were revenue-earning but the timings poor.

I am still not sure what BA were up to with their BHX, BRS and MAN summer offer. Seemed half hearted and your story shows that to be the case Yokel. But what does London Airways know about the regions?

 

[GliderPilot]

it was a set of routes born to fail really, they were aiming at family markets with ridiculous flight times with fares that wouldn't compete with other operators even at peak times. Basically trying to evade paying a whole weekends ground fee's at LCY.

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there all, so I thought that Mr Paul Kehoe had agreed to have those e190 based at bhx from London city Airport, due to no flying after 12pm noon on Saturday, by flying them to bhx, to refuel, then load all passengers, then fly to those destinations and then back, but by flying them from London city Airport to those destinations, then back to bhx at those ridiculous times would never work, so who wants to depart for a two to three hour flight from 10pm or 11pm,for malaga and land there at 2am the next morning, what a total waste. This was ba way of failing the service routes as a disaster from the start, because although a sort of agreement with Kehoe, this was a failure from the start and ba knew what they were doing from the start, but didn't want to admit it at all, so a red herring from the start to fail, because ba is not interested in bhx at all.. Andyc

 

[Ray Finkle]

Hi there the localyokel, so why did ba pull those flights from bhx for.. Andyc

This was the reason given.

A BA spokesman said that the airline is not resuming its flight programme at BRS and BHX next summer, "due to the complexity and cost of operating from airports where we have no crew bases".

He went on to say, "This doesn’t mean we are withdrawing from these airports permanently. We will continue to review alternative ways of operating from both Bristol and Birmingham airports in the future.”

 

[andrew.clarkson]

Hi there all, yes, we have heard this all before from ba, they then pulled out from bhx with there excuses, then ten years later decided an ill fated plan that wasn't going to work, but have now said that e190 used were shared between bhx and Bristol, but also now crews based at either airport, we'll what a surprise, ba pulled out ten years ago, there's your answer, so unless they decide to Base crew and aircraft at bhx, very unlikely, then I'm not very hopeful within the next 2,3,4 or even five years for ba at all. Just need to concentrate on what we have a grow.. Andyc

 

[Ray Finkle]

BHX may soon have a lot more to worry about than losing a couple of weekend BA sun flights.

In any case Palma, Malaga and Ibiza are well covered and we now have Jet2 with much better frequencies to Pisa than BA ever had to Florence, so all that's really gone is the 'prestige' of a BA tail which I certainly won't lose any sleep over.

 

[IanFarquharson]

BHX may soon have a lot more to worry about than losing a couple of weekend BA sun flights.

In any case Palma, Malaga and Ibiza are well covered and we now have Jet2 with much better frequencies to Pisa than BA ever had to Florence, so all that's really gone is the 'prestige' of a BA tail which I certainly won't lose any sleep over.

We should find out soon Ray