Can anyone explain why so many BA domestic flights from Gatwick are either cancelled or delayed? I have had two cancellations in three weeks and four delays of 30min+. I notice today that there are 2 cancellations today from LGW to MAN, and two bad delays. Is it lack of interest? It only seems to be the domestics that get hit. Maybe a bit of competition would help.

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I have heard from a good source... sorry, cannot reveal this, that in the near future, BA is to sell off its domestic operation at LGW to FlyBE and keep its long-haul routes flying using the cheaper new fleet.

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Would that source be BASSA?

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I just can't see BA selling off its domestic operation. Although BA's LGW services rely far more on O&D loads they still play witness to relatively significant transfer traffic, particularly from the likes of EDI, JER, MAN etc. I remember flying BA EDI-LGW during the heavy snowfalls when the captain detailed all the various transfers taken place from this particular flight onwards at LGW. The vast majority of passengers were transferring long-haul AND short-haul! Furthermore I remember a couple of onward connections being made with Malev to Budapest.

I understand the flybe/BA codeshare could be extended through such a sale but I think downgrading the domestic flying product to buy-on-board would diminish the appeal of their regional proposition.

Can you confirm Alasdair if you are refering to all short-haul services or solely domestic UK routes?

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The source would indeed be BASSA, who have been prattling on about this for a while now.

Quite why they would have any interest in Gatwick, a base they have all but abandoned, and whose cabin crew demonstrated this by refusing to back the strike, I am not sure .

While I don't really see a future for MAN exLGW, which is indeed likely to go the way of all flesh, I think that a cut down version of BA shorthaul is likely to be sustained exLGW but I don't see CE as part of that plan, sadly.

Having said that, London City shorthaul services are increasing every year, including Cityflyer's shorthaul Business Class.

Any removal of CE at LGW would indeed be a real shame, especially on the more business focussed routes, and indeed the JER run, which is heavily trafficked by those on business. It would be a shame to let that entirely into the hands of FlyMaybe; I really hope BA sees sense on that one.

The only way to ensure CE is sustained is to ensure people like ourselves keep booking that cabin, and make it clear that we value the service.

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In fact its because 1 of the aging 737s has gone tech - 24 hour delay coming back from Sicily I believe.

Fact is there is little slack at LGW now, so when one of the aircraft breaks down there is serious schedule knock on implications.

With no CapEx identified for LGW SH in the near future, one can only assume this problem will get worse as the 737 breakdowns get more common.

You raise the idea that competition might help - on the contrary, there is plenty of competition from easyjet which is why there is not a nice new fleet of airbus flying the flag out of LGW. Though its interesting to note that LGW is currently Easyjet's sickly child, with performance feedback hitting their PR significantly.

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This is an example of how competition is not always good for the consumer. It has shown that airlines can bring down fares and improve services but it has also precipitated a race to the bottom: 'do it cheaper and to hell with the quality'. A BA LGW crew member I chatting to on a recent flight said that she took a pride in trying to do everything better than the competition but felt that many people just wanted everything cheaper.

As I've said before, with convertible seats and good yield management, 1 person in CE makes it worthwhile. So I would probably be unpersuaded by the 'can't make it viable' argument., which is often a cover for'don't want the hassle.'

Back on topic: here is a link to puncuality stats that travellers may find useful:

http://www.flightontime.info

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Another bad day at BA! Sun 30th Aug the 17.10 MAN-LGW cancelled, the 17.20 MAN-LHR arrived one hour late and the 19.40 MAN-LGW arrived at LGW one hour and twenty minutes late. I overheard a BA conversation that the main reason for all this was 'cabin staff ''sickness'' ' ...bank holiday and nice weather! The desk agent at LHR who gave me my bus ticket to Gatwick said that there were ''so many missed connections from short haul flights to long haul''. Is anybody at Board level going to take BA in hand and get to grips with this appalling state of affairs, or has it got way beyond any effective remedy?

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It's easy to quote isolated stats seemingly caused by a problem on one sector which affected all subsequent sectors on that route; BAdboys is obviously not one to let the FACTS get in the way of a good rant.

Shall we actually examine the on time stats for BA at Gatwick, rather than a subjective, isolated Bank Holiday sample?

Official figures prove that BA is the MOST PUNCTUAL of all airlines at Gatwick this summer. You can read all about it here:

www.fhr-net.co.uk/travel_news/2713/british_airways_is_most_punctual_airline_at_gatwick_airport_figures_show/

So much for these supposed on time performance issues....

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Well, that is what one can expect with the New Fleet... they are now proving to be tired and fed up with their positions at LGW!

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And yet despite these seemingly related delays which all occurred on 30 August (Sunday or Monday, depending on your perspective), BA retains its title of best on time performer at LGW...

Interestingly, there is no seat 2K on any BA service flying from Venice to Gatwick.

BA really has upped its commitment to longhaul at Gatwick, with Cancun in Mexico, Male in the Maldives and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic recently added, alongside the stalwarts of Barbados, Bermuda, Tampa and Orlando.

Possibly even Fort Lauderdale in the not too distant future....

With destinations like Sharm El Sheikh available all in for just £848 rtn in Club World from Gatwick in the current fare sale, there's little encouragement needed to sample Gatwick's great destinations:

www.britishairways.com/travel/flights-sale/public/en_gb

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Yet again VK cannot accept true criticism of BA. It is all getting rather boring.

He can quote all the stats in the world. Like many other business travellers I am suffering unacceptable delays and cancellations when flying on BA.

And I dont get free tickets either!

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As a regular traveller from LGW on BA in Club Europe, I have to say that punctuality has vastly improved over the last year. In the main the service is good and meets expectations.

There are occasions when staff don't perform as they should and if you feel strongly about that performance then complain to the airline. As a supporter of BA there are times when things are not quite as they should be. HBHLondon you criticise VK unfairly, and perhaps it is you that needs to get a life and leave people in peace by not leaving complaints on this forum but direct them to the airline.

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I will continue to post when I see blatant inaccuracies.

HBHLondon stated seat 2k, most experienced CE travellers would realise there is no such seat.

You apparently never get escorted to your seat, I and many others have this happen consistently every time we travel FIRST.

In your first ever thread, you accused BA of being institutionally racist, when nothing is farther from the truth.

You suggest BA is consistently running late at Gatwick, when my experiences (about 30 inbound/outbound sectors so far this year) would simply not back that up, nor would the official on time stats.

I think you have an axe to grind against BA, that's fine. Where any firm falls short, as BA does from time to time, then criticism is justified.

But in this case, and on the topic of this thread, it is simply ludicrous to suggest that BA is consistently afflicted with chronic, endemic systemic delays on its LGW services as in fact the very polar opposite is true and BA was the best performing carrier for timeliness at LGW during June 2010.

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NTarrant

You say that HBHLondon criticises Vintage Krug unfairly.

Let's de-personalise this and just say that any contributor on a forum who very strongly advocates a particular company and robustly defends it does leave themselves open to comment from a bias perspective.

I am a great supporter of Air Malta and recognise that I have a bias in that direction, so would not take offence if people criticised me for that.

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And now more insinuations about me, as ever.

I am not nor ever have been connected in any with BA or the travel industry more generally, except as a shareholder, Gold Card holder (as well as top tier in Star and Skyteam) and frequent traveller.

Criticism is valid and encouraged when borne out by facts, and this thread is simply cobblers as BA is being criticised for tardiness, while at the same time winning the prize for the most on time performer of all airlines at Gatwick.

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Vintage Krug

By your advocacy (which you are perfectly entitled to undertake, for your own reasons) you 'de facto' connect your comments to British Airways, in my opinion and probably of a few others, judging by comments on various threads.

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Disgusted

In the normal run of things this forum is polite, friendly and helpful. The likes of VK, particularly and a few other have provided help and advise which has saved many other forum users, my self included, many thousands of pounds.

Sadly there are a few posters who are inconsistant with their postings and forget what they say and attack people like VK for being pro a particular company. HBH for example has been "deleted" before. Recently he said that he was taken to his seat in First, but now says he never gets shown his seat. He also comments on the alleged troubles of BA at LGW, but then says he is not a regular traveller. As a regular traveller from LGW I am not aware of these "troubles"

I say this with respect to you Disgusted as a relative newcomer

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Quoting a companys' stats, that a company has published about itself, should seldom be believed as reliable. I have spent many a fun hour constructing borderline stats within my company, just so that people like VK fall into the trap and believe them...and obviously it works! People are paid to do just that, to improve an image. All I know is that my personal experience is of delays and cancellations.

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NTarrrant

I appreciate your input.

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@ NTarrant I do support your views 100 %.

I may not have the time to get involved in all the discussions, but VK is/and has been a very knowledgeable source of information for me as well.

I really marvel at his expertise and the many sources and links that he always accurately includes.

I may not always agree on his views, but at least he sticks to his opinion and he does back up most of his postings with outside "evidence"- not just some hearsay.

For the benefit of all, I would suggest to be a bit more respectful of eachother's opinion and views. Most of us travel extensively and we all have different experiences. Let's share them with other frequent travelers in a civilized and respectful manner so we can all benefit.

Andrew

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Wow. There's a lot of anger in the world today - and not actually directed in the right direction. Perhaps a few forum posters might want to calm down, have a cup of green tea, take a long look in the mirror and then perhaps get back to basics - which is providing a helpful, informed resource for swapping tips and good ideas. Or people could continue to direct far too much aggression in the direction of near-anonymous forum posters.

Note: I don't work for BA or Business Traveller. I just travel a lot.

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Dear HBH London,

If you would like to stop receiving notifications of posts on forum threads, then please visit your account (in the top right hand corner of the website), and click on "Change your public profile and account settings", then untick the box "Notify me when a user replies to my posts on the forum".

If you would like to fully delete your businesstraveller.com account, please email mailto:editorial@businesstraveller.com">editorial@businesstraveller.com with the email address you use to sign in, and we'll sort this for you.

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BAdboys: in fact, BA's leading on time performance stats in June to which I was referring were indeed independent and performed by Gatwick Airport NOT British Airways.

I cannot however find a link to this data.

What I can find is data for H1 2010 which places BA just a tad behind flybe, with BA 82% on time performance (the leader having 86%) and considering this period covered the modest initial strike cancellations (and snow in January/ash in April which affected all carriers), proves that BA is one of the leading on time performers at Gatwick amongst the high volume users of the airport:

www.flightontime.info/scheduled/airports/lgw10.html

Either way there is no evidence that BA suffers systemic delays at Gatwick.

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For clarification, HBH London has removed all posts from this forum string, and requested for his account to be deleted.

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Thanks for all your input and the stats VK. I am most grateful.

Obviously I am totally deluded and did not suffer three cancellations, and delays of one hour plus, in August. I just imagined them. Your stats say so.

Off to the docs..........

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Certainly interesting personal experiences there, BAdboys, although the figures really do support the overall fact that British Airways' on-time performance at Gatwick is currently in the top tier of all carriers operating to and from the airport.

The one thing that stands out from your most recent experience is that the common denominator is actually Manchester and not Gatwick. I've no idea if there are any issues in Lancashire, but I am aware that bmi has also been suffering lengthy delays in that part of the World.

Indeed, from an operational point of view, the upgrade of the West Coast Mainline has seen rail's market share on the MAN-LON route rise from c30% to approaching c80%, which has had a devastating effect on loads, yields and, now, airline schedules.

Whether that's relevant or not will always be open to speculation; I doubt that bmi or BA would publicly confirm or deny that their Manchester services are prioritised to a lesser extent than, say, their Edinburghs, Glasgows, Aberdeens or over-waters.

The point is that it may in fact be that competition (from rail) is the cause of the problem, not necessarily the solution.

Anyway, looking at today's live status, British Airways Gatwick flights have all departed on-time, with a few scheduled delays noted for the later in the day: Bologna and Venice by about 40 minutes and, interestingly, the two later Manchesters by about 50 minutes.

Again, this would potentially suggest an issue down-route rather than at Gatwick. Other carriers are showing many more delays and cancellations btw.

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Slightly of subject in terms of delays but at least at Gatwick you might be lucky enough to have a short haul flight on a 777.

BA have used the same 777 on a number of routes from Gatwick including a flight yesterday to Rome and on the 24th August they did a Manchester and Edinburgh rotation from Gatwick

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Just arrived Gatwick from GLA 30 mins late and international parked so bus in. Luggage took another 30 mins so not a great way to start the week. No BA explanation......

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Just arrived Gatwick from GLA 30 mins late and international parked so bus in. Luggage took another 30 mins so not a great way to start the week. No BA explanation......

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TominScotland......

...........or apology, I bet?? !

Even Virgin Drains have the courtesy to apologise for a delay.

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