Poor Little Red loads
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at 13:59 by Speedbird_ABZ.
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AMcWhirterParticipantWell Little Red will be dropping one of its LHR-MAN flights next month as we reported in November. But the other two routes remain unchanged – for now.
http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/little-red-to-reduce-manchester-flights
2 Mar 2014
at 21:51
MarcusUKParticipantMay not seem relevant to BA also when EK up the flights to an A380 If they do, and Etihad start serving EDI. Scotland will have the cream of The Gulf carriers, cheaper fares, more convenient transfers than several hours to and in and out of the con gested and often delayed LHR. And Quite different standards, and chauffeur cars for Business passengers, free stopovers etc.
Eventually, BA’s monopoly on taking passengers from Scotland will also dry up. Give it a year-18 months from now.
2 Mar 2014
at 21:54
BusinessBabbleParticipantBA don’t have a monopoly on flights from Scotland, travellers have a load of options, including your favourite KLM 😉 The gulf carriers provide great options if travelling Asia direction, they don’t if travelling to the Americas, Europe and there’s a big back track for Africa, I don’t see BA getting particularly worried!
2 Mar 2014
at 23:21
SergeantMajorParticipantQuite right, Business Babble.
BA couldn’t be less worried; Heathrow simply isn’t the overcrowded horror story some posters would have us believe.
Virgin is operating a blatant slot sitting exercise on its Manchester service, and to a lesser extent the same is true exEDI.
With new partner Delta very much scrutinising expenditure, Little Red will tick along for the (two? three?) more years it is required to use the slots domestically, apply for a change of use, and hey, presto just about the time Virgin begins ramping up deliveries of its 15 much postponed new longhaul 787-9 fleet (which is supposed to start September 2014) will start more longhaul services exLHR.
I’d be surprised if these will actually be operated by Virgin, though.
Note Virgin ordered its A380s almost fifteen years ago (in 2000), and deferred their delivery yet again from 2017 to 2018 just last year. All talk, no action as usual.
3 Mar 2014
at 08:09
canuckladParticipantI think the trouble with these flights is that VS chose the wrong alliance, albeit by being bought by Delta.
I’ve always maintained that Star was a better fit ,and I wonder how much influence Delta has when it comes to organising interline agreements through LHR ?
Is it really in Delta’s interest for VS to arrange codes share with AC & NZ for example. I’m actually going to agree with SM, sadly VS hasn’t worked hard enough to promote themselves out of EDI !
And UA f& AC fly west from EDI already !
3 Mar 2014
at 08:28
SergeantMajorParticipantAnd I’d agree with canucklad *pig’s fly overhead* that Virgin would have been a much better fit with previous part-owners Singapore’s Star stable of airlines.
Being aligned to Scaryteam does it no favours in the long term.
I’m waiting to burn my last few hundred thousand Flying Club Miles on their new 787-9 hopefully sometime in 2015 (if they ever get delivered…) and then it will be curtains.
A shame, really but the only upsides are their pneumatic cabin crew and superb Heathrow lounge.
3 Mar 2014
at 08:31
IanFromHKGParticipantIt’s funny, we tend to talk about airlines much more than alliances on here, but I have seen so many positive comments on here about KLM that I am surprised by this negativity about SkyTeam. Yet isn’t it the case that SkyTeam provide better international coverage from the UK than the other alliances? Or am I mistaken?
4 Mar 2014
at 00:41
MarcusUKParticipantI was referring to BA’s monopoly from Scotland to London, with BMI pulling out, and recently Cityjet Cancelling their route prior to being sold off. BA double their flights from LCY to Scotland and now have a hold, with increased prices to match.
Travelling from a Scottish Airport via LHR, even with a close 1 hour only check in there, flight time, and transfer time (if your luggage makes it as many have reported on transfers at LHR), means at least 4 hrs+ to ensure you make it comfortably.
The Gulf carriers, (and KLM or LH, AF – needing longer at CDG), have the advantage of 1 hrs transfer) they do also hold connecting flights for transfer passengers unlike other Airlines.
At the least, the Gulf Carriers are providing a better range of choice, excellent in flight and ground services, and prices are less. Good for Scotland to have a better choice.
4 Mar 2014
at 06:12
BusinessBabbleParticipantMarcus – what are you talking about? To get from Scotland to London you currently have a choice of BA, Little Red, Easyjet, Flybe, and Citijet (Dundee only from LCY, not sure if this is continuing), to / from a variety of Scottish airports and 6 London airports. That is not a monopoly, how much more choice do you want!
4 Mar 2014
at 11:56
AMcWhirterParticipantBusinessBabble – Cityjet will drop LCY-Dundee from the end of March.
I believe Marcus is referring to the monopoly that BA has on the Scottish LCY routes and on the GLA-LHR route.
He does make a valid point that with the Gulfies expanding in Scotland there will be fewer passengers using connecting flights into LHR.
And yes, it is true there is a backhaul for Africa when flying via the Gulf … but Europeans still take this routing.
One thing that must be noted is that the Gulfies are expanding their African networks (fuelled by growing traffic between China and Africa) and now serve some points which are not covered by European airlines. So this gives them another selling edge.
4 Mar 2014
at 12:10
canuckladParticipantHi BusinessBabble
Actually the EDI-LON route is dominated by 2 carriers, BA & EZ with VS acting more like a bumblebee than a wasp in its attempt to threaten BA’s LHR market share.
And although you could definitely say there is competition using LON as a destination code it changes dramatically if you use LHR/LUT/STN/LCY as the code, EZ & BA only compete head to head on LGW.
Since BMI’s demise the fares have crept up on the LHR route, specifically return fares at business friendly timings. Although if you’re canny you can get some great deals. And oddly this sometimes means booking one way and using different carriers and or a different London Airport to depart from, with the usual restrictions.
No use to me I’m afraid as LHR is my local airport when I’m in the big smoke., so I’ve got a straight choice of BA or VS, and it’s the lack of Wee Reds frequency that works against them. And I wonder if their reductions on the MAN flights mean that they will consolidate all their eggs into the EDI basket, taking on BA by increasing that frequency.
If I remember back, BD changed their departure time by a mere 30 minutes on one of their flights and its popularity dropped significantly. So time sensitive is business travel.
Whatever happens they really need to become more aggressive in their marketing!!
Oddly, the flying feardie cats benefit from all these flights too, as is drives much cheaper rail deals between the Waverly and Kings Cross!
On the Dundee front, The Metro had a FlyBE advert promoting a twice daily service to LCY costing from £74.99
4 Mar 2014
at 13:08
SimonS1ParticipantBusinessBabble
Cityjet is pulling off the Dundee route.
Flybe is closing down at LGW so AFAIK will only have one route to Scotland (Stansted – Dundee, hardly a bone shaker for BA)
Virgin Little Red are cutting backReally only Easyjet and BA that are making a fist of it.
4 Mar 2014
at 13:48 -
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