BA route changes….

Well it seems the rumours I mentioned on the Cape Town 787 thread are true.

BA confirmed today:
– Dar Es Salaam dropped from end of March
– Almaty non-stop on 767 from LHR.
– Tbilsi ended.
– Leeds, Zagreb and Almaty moving from T1 to T5.

It is a surprise sparkflyer! It’s strange that BT doesn’t mention DAR being dropped in its ‘BA schedule changes’ feature. It has however been confirmed by BA,

I think the Gulf carriers are taking a lot of the Africa – North America transit traffic from the european carriers just as they did with the India – Nth American traffic. My last trip to Lusaka I went and spent a couple nights at a lodge instead of at the crew hotel – I was on a three night slip. This lodge was fantastic and was owner-operated by an elderly couple of cypriot decent, the husband being quite a well known writer in Zambia and involved in quite a lot of it’s recent history. They were gracious hosts and at dinner every night they went from table to table chatting to the guests. The first night they asked me what I did. I told them I worked for BA. Believe me – they did not hold back about their feelings about BA. they had been loyal customers for near fifteen years on their thrice annual LUN-LHR-JFK trips in J & F to see their children and grandchildren. Their opinion was that BA treated it’s Zambian passengers ‘with contempt’. Plying the route with the oldest 767’s with the oldest cabins. Small rations of food as it has to be return catered from London. And the constant disruption and cancellations that comes with the 767. The last time they flew BA after the flight had been delayed three days they were eventually flown to JNB and from their to LHR. Firstly the plane went tech in LUN and a spare part was due to arrive from JNB the next day. The spare arrived but it was the wrong one. They were then to wait for a replacement aircraft from LHR which never came. Etc etc. This delay caused them to lose four days of their vacation and it wasn’t an isolated case.

Enter Qatar. I had revolutionised their thrice annual trips. At the time I remember them saying that QR didn’t fly to LUN but they would fly to JNB then pick up QR JNB-DOH-JFK. ‘All their friends are using Qatar now’ they told me. I believe QR do now serve LUN direct to DOH. I know they certainly do DAR-DOH.

Rfurguson your post on Zambia was most interesting on a number of levels. QR do not go there yet, but EK and KL do now. ET & KQ must get most of the traffic via their hubs. I can see TK being there soon as well.

But as you say, I have heard MANY complaints on this forum and elsewhere about the BA catering on the return flights from DAR & LUN.

Maybe BA are pulling becuase of the VS rumour last year, which the great LeTigre mentioned.

Dar is in the 10 fastest growing cities in the world. The only thing is that much of the investment is coming from other emerging markets and little from bankrupt Britain. Presumably that’s why BA has thrown in the towel as EK flights to places like Dar and Lusaka/Harare are always packed.