Had a day down in London on Thursday - down on the 06:45 Shuttle (A319 G-EUPG), back from City 19:40 (E190 G-LCYU).
Slight delay southbound due to weather-related arrival restrictions at LHR (entirely understandable). The A319 cabin was smart in appearance but seat pitch felt very tight (29in?) similar to a no-frills carrier. Catering is entirely buy-on-board "and we don't accept cash". Nobody greeted the passengers on boarding, though there was a friendly goodbye when disembarking at LHR. Flight adequate in every respect, but indistinguishable from a Ryanair or an EasyJet sector from a passenger perspective.
In the evening, London City Airport was in meltdown mode. Weather-related flight delays and cancellations had backed up throughout the day leaving the terminal heaving with passengers. All seats taken. Their flight display monitors are actually large TV screens which show about eight flights per page. Pages 1 and 2 (of 3) displayed historic flights which were either cancelled or delayed ... all of these should have left already. Only page 3 was displaying forthcoming flights. It was just 50 minutes before scheduled departure time (and 20 mins before boarding) that my Manchester flight made it on to the display monitor for the first time. And miraculously ... it showed as 'ON TIME'.
I would estimate that just over 40 pax (42, 43?) boarded G-LCYU, really impressive when one considers that the flight is realistically an ad-hoc one-way service only. I was immediately struck by how impressive the cabin-interior looked. Really spacious, generous seat-pitch (31in?). Very smart cabin attendant welcomed everybody as they boarded. During the flight we were advised that all catering was complimentary. Everybody received a drink and a snack ... but there was no sense of rationing. Many people received a second pack of biscuits, an extra bag of savoury snacks etc. This was service above and beyond and it gets noticed. I noted that the two ladies sat in the row ahead of me showed onward boarding passes to the cabin attendant during the flight. "Oh yes, that looks like us. It will probably be this aircraft again." So it looks like they were connecting on to the Ibiza service. Perhaps several of the customers aboard were redeeming Avios, but there were plenty with suits and briefcases too. Four of the passengers were actually the spare BACF crew ... their intensive weekend schedule requires additional staff at MAN.
It was notable that this flight left LCY right on time on such a disrupted day. Some other BACF flights were cancelled. But I suspect that it is top priority to get the MAN flight away punctually, as their weekend schedule ex-MAN is so intensive that a delayed start would cause an entire weekend of knock-on EU261 liabilities. So they make sure that this MAN-bound aircraft gets away on time come what may.
The whole BACF experience really impressed me. But BA mainline - whilst adequate - really didn't. No wow-factor at all there. Quite simply, BA Cityflyer cabin service is a league ahead of that aboard BA mainline short-haul. Nothing wrong with Ryanair-style service per se, but is that what passengers are expecting when they pay a BA fare? Meanwhile, BA franchise carrier Sun-Air of Scandinavia (MAN-Billund J328's) offer quite simply THE best short-haul cabin service I have ever come across (and I fly alot). So in the BA stable at least, the apprentices have truly surpassed the master. By an extraordinarily large margin. Those in-the-know will be actively choosing the BA franchise / subsidiary operations where a choice is available.
Final thought: if an ad-hoc standalone once weekly flight like this attracts 40+ pax, could BACF consider the potential for a 2 or 3 daily E170 LCY-MAN schedule offering a business-friendly predictable day-return option? It appears that there is a market ... nobody from East London is going to head to LHR to get to MAN. But maybe the proposed Stobart / FlyBe Southend-MAN service will tap into some of this latent demand?
Interesting trip. And you can redeem Avios on it. Recommended.
