[AMcWhirter]

Carajillo2Sugar – Just a small point. As we explained in today’s news piece this BA service is not “the first service to operate from Europe direct to the city …”

BA is simply restarting a route it used to operate previously.

[Carajillo2Sugar]

AmcWhirter – that comes straight from the email received today from BA.

Don’t shoot the messenger…. 😉

[AMcWhirter]

Carajillio2Sugar – Sadly, not all airline staff are aware of their company’s history. And it seems BA’s “fact checkers” never spotted the error either.
It’s the same with a recent SIA news release claiming it was opening a “new route” linking Jakarta with Sydney whereas in fact that was a route it used to operate in the B707 days.

[conshaldow]

A fantastic route that the industry has been crying out for quite some time. Expect this to be a very popular route given mix of tourism and Oil/Gas related travellers this will attract. I’d also agree with previous remarks about Nashville and Austin as possible successful routes. BA currently operate to Austin and I hope it continues to be a success. Nashville and St Louis would follow closely behind and BA could corner ex-European travel to a niche part of the US.

[Bath_VIP]

Given BA’s history of building up routes e.g. Austin, how long do you think it might take for this route to go daily? I am a bit surprised there is no Sunday flight.

[TCSH11]

[quote quote=769709]Carajillio2Sugar – Sadly, not all airline staff are aware of their company’s history. And it seems BA’s “fact checkers” never spotted the error either.
It’s the same with a recent SIA news release claiming it was opening a “new route” linking Jakarta with Sydney whereas in fact that was a route it used to operate in the B707 days.

[/quote]

I do feel your being a little pedantic … yes ok these routes were maybe oparated a few decades ago, but maybe BA are using the word ” new ” to mean ” not on our network at present ”

Just a thought

[rferguson]

[quote quote=769823]Given BA’s history of building up routes e.g. Austin, how long do you think it might take for this route to go daily? I am a bit surprised there is no Sunday flight.

[/quote]

I’d say probably not too long. AUS went from 5 x weekly on a 787-8 to daily on a 787-8 to daily on a 777 so demand just increased and increased.

I believe that the new MSY route will use the slots left from the soon to be discontinued CTU route which was also four times a week. I guess BA will look at future bookings and if the route can sustain it transfer some short haul slots over.

[greyhawkgeoff]

conshadow, I was interested in your promotion of Nashville (BNA) to be the BA next US destination.

4 years ago I advocated New Orleans and Memphis, chiefly on account of their AA route presence, as this was the apparent source of a strong local data base of existing AA Advantage customers for AA/BA code shares. This data mining was claimed to be the justification of launching San Diego ( and since San Jose CA, plus Austin TX ), all routes to LHR that appear to be thriving without serious dilution of transfer traffic through another AA/BA hub.

Never underestimate the power of direct flights to the average American, or if travelling beyond London to only hub once into western Europe. BA’s new schedule for New Orleans does seem to be focused on connectional possibilities – depart LHR at 1540, and arrive back at 1200.

A quick perusal of some stats for 3 secondary airports-
New Orleans 5+million pax p.a. AA market share c 16% – well behind Southwest and Delta, much of a par with United. AA serve 8 routes out of 56 direct destinations. Instinctively I feel the new route is aimed at stealing traffic from Delta at Atlanta.
Nashville 12 million pax p.a. AA appear to be 3rd in the market behind Southwest and Delta again, serving c 12 destinations direct out of 50 or so.
Memphis c4million pax p.a. AA appear to be the market leader for this ex Delta hub serving 8 direct destinations out of c30.

I would agree that Nashville does seem to have a larger market possibility for BA/AA than Memphis but then I don’t know the music scene well enough to be swayed about incoming pax, but outgoing and focused on BA’s extensive european network suggests that Nashville must be in with a shout so long as it does not hurt AA’s transfer traffic thru Charlotte or Philadelphia. Again the target must be Delta’s mega hub transfer traffic at Atlanta.

But the big question is where do BA find another aircraft hull from to make the route – again starting at 3 or 4 per week with a good hefty promotional budget/incentive on handling fees from the airport operator – believed to be local county/state controlled in all cases. My belief is that BA do not have much new metal coming in before 2018 so what route can have a Chengdu haircut or will it be by service reduction somewhere?

[rferguson]

greyhawkgeoff totally agree. The temptation for BA to launch new direct routes to the US instead of eastwards must be immense. As you say, a huge part of that is down to the JSA with AA. Without that I don’t think we’d ever see direct BA flights to destinations like AUS or MSY. As you say the bulk of american originating passengers (and I can’t say for SJC as I never operated that route but definitely in the case of AUS) it was a big deal for them to have a direct flight and the majority of the passengers were AA card holders.

AA does the bulk of the marketing and promotion on the US side. It has the brand awareness and the frequent flyer pool. It usually does the ground handling. Add into that incentives from local governments and the routes are pretty much a guaranteed success.

[AMcWhirter]

BA has to keep ahead of the competition. Not just from its European rivals but also from the Gulf carriers who, although expanding their North American networks, still serve only a small number of destinations compared to BA. And it is the Gulf carriers who are tapping into the India/Africa-N American market and enticing travellers to route via the Gulf rather than via Europe.

[Chiantikid]

For the history buffs BA used to fly a Tristar -500 to New Orleans and then onwards to Mexico City in the 80’s

[Author]

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