[MarkivJ]

Knowing BA, “network expansion” = “where else in the USA can we fly to?”

So, I call in no particular order:
1. Kansas City
2. St. Louis
3. Sacramento
4. Indianapolis

Also, when did they expand capacity on Portland? It seems to have gone quietly from 788 to 772!

[AndrewinHK]

Sparkyflier, the 6 firmed up orders for the 787-10’s will join the fleet in 2025/26, and they added options for a further 6. Yes I agree a strange decision not to have crew rest especially when they are operating on such long sectors. Markiv I think the 772 started to PDX at the beginning of the summer schedule.

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MarkivJ

[BackOfThePlane]

@sparkyflier – In response to the issue regarding flights to Cuba, it is a very difficult country to do business with and, for passengers, if you visit there now you can no longer travel to Cuba on an ESTA. That won’t bother everyone, but it will put off a fair few. Also, there is pretty no trade between the UK & Cuba (unlike between Spain & Cuba) so pretty no business travel and almost no freight. With Virgin Atlantic, they used to fly to Havana from Gatwick but, having pulled out of Gatwick, I guess there are more profitable routes to fly to from Heathrow.

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sparkyflier

[AndrewinHK]

Euroflyer will expand at LGW, on the earnings call BA CEO said 8 additional aircraft will be added (not sure where they are coming from). That will result in 26 aircraft being based at LGW and likely will expand on the current 40 Europflyer destinations offered.

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sparkyflier

[onajetplane]

Some new (/re-launched) short haul destinations announced for NW23/24 = ex-LHR: Belgrade, Cologne, Riga and Turin.

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sparkyflier

[sparkyflier]

onajetplane – thank you for that. Some good short haul additions and surely a better use of aircraft and crew than IMO overcapacity on some Scottish routes. Earlier this year I popped up to Edinburgh and on the return there were 3 flights heading to London within 30 minutes (2 x LHR and 1 x LCY), and on my A321 there were no more than 30 people on the plane. Flight up from LCY was also pretty quiet.

AndrewinHK – thank you for that news re LGW operations. Will be interesting where the aircraft come from indeed – maybe new IAG orders into LHR and then the older ones go to LGW fleet?

BackofthePlane – interesting about UK/Cuba insight and makes sense not to have Havana as a standalone route. Maybe as a shuttle from Nassau or Providenciales?

MarkivJ – I like how you “capture” terminology. You are pretty close to the truth I suspect.

Re long haul routes, some slack may be coming from example Rio and Buenos Aires becoming one route may free up some 788s.

My guess is next new long haul/USA slot is Kansas and next resumed route would be Jeddah – only 6 hours away so more easy to fit in while they are short of aircraft.

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[Olneyflyer]

I was always curious why BA have never targeted Delta’s heartland of Salt Lake City, Detriot, Cincinnati, and Minneapolis. Surely there is enough point to point traffic to make these routes pay plus you have the feed coming in from Europe.

[AMcWhirter]

BA already serves Cincinnati as we reported in November 2022.

British Airways to launch Heathrow-Cincinnati route

[Olneyflyer]

Good spot. I forgot that they have just launched that service.

[BackOfThePlane]

@Olneyflyer – BA did fly to Detroit for many years but I guess it is very much in decline while destinations, such as Austin, are on the rise.

[AlanOrton1]

Prior to 9/11 BA used to fly 747-200s to Detroit.
I think these were then retired shortly thereafter when global air travel shrank.

[Olneyflyer]

Looking at the Delta website in the seat selection page. Most of the daily Detroit servies are running full in business and PE and very heavy in economy as well. Detroit is a recovering city post the recent decline in automotive so I would think that there is enough business for several flights per day between Delta and BA. However if they are lacking equipment then this could be a distant dream.

[AndrewinHK]

RE: Detroit, BA’s focus for new routes is focused on one’s that are either not served by others, so they grab incentives and first mover advantage, and on destinations with decent point to point and feed. Detroit has little in the way of feed for BA as it’s a Delta hub and is well served ex Europe, whilst Detroit has improved from its worst days it is the poorest major city in America with median income of just $27,000.

[sparkyflier]

Given BA’s ongoing operational challenges with frequent service cancellations (due to plane and staff shortages and hanger issues too) I do not predict new LH routes are likely to be announced. Indeed I read elsewhere today that many short haul routes will have reduced schedules this winter which I guess is to help have a schedule which can actually be fulfilled.

However I wonder if there might be some tweaking – perhaps to their LGW operations. I was surprised when Aruba was announced as a tag and if any of the ABC islands were to be served Curacao I thought would have been first on that list.

Do readers have any insight as to how Aruba is performing?

Years ago BA announced San Juan as a tag but I remember they were very unlucky with their timing, when serious political and economic turmoil unfolded, no doubt making Puerto Rico not high on the list of traveller’s priorities.

Perhaps San Juan could be worth another look, as well as Santo Domingo from LGW to complement their Punta Cana service.

Do readers have any other thoughts or insight?

[BackOfThePlane]

With LGW being largely leisure focused (as far as BA are concerned), and Curacao not really being on the UK radar, I would be surprised if they started flights there. At least with Port of Spain (Trinidad) and Guyana there is a fair degree of freight traffic.

On the subject of Trinidad, it was a tag-on to St Lucia for many years but is now served in isolation 3 x weekly. I’d be interested to know how that is going.

Realistically, BA can only operate at scale flying west out of Gatwick which pretty much means the Caribbean, Mexico and the US (plus Guyana). If they were going to fly east, they might consider somewhere like Phuket although I’m not sure if the 700-200 has the range?

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sparkyflier

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