[HedgeFundFlyer]

BA also have three 747s still in storage, plus two more 777-300s arriving in the next few months.

[LeTigre]

The market for wide-body aircraft is pretty hot at the moment and I can’t imagine that leasing 767s would be a good option because they are just so expensive to operate, might as well get a few of Virgin’s A340s!

As I see it, the only aircraft really on the market for short-term lease are A340s, 767s and 747s. None of these aircraft are economical enough to make new routes (particularly to non-premium, emerging destinations) economical. Just the cost of fitting-out these aircraft is mind-boggling. The best aircraft that could possibly be used right now, I think is the A330 because they are cheap, plentiful and economic. Perhaps they could extend the leases of BMI’s ones and find some other ones elsewhere, perhaps Cathay and Qatar, who are both disposing of their A330s?

Also, moving routes from Gatwick is quite simply not feasible because Gatwick at present caters to quite a different market that is primarily low-cost, leisure or premium-leisure orientated. While some routes would be more popular from Heathrow, it is simply a waste of good slots!

[Hippocampus]

BA will not be leasing long haul aircraft as a stop gap measure.

New routes to Asia and The Americas will only come when the 787s come online in 2013 (and most likely they will be used on some of the shorter East Coast routes initially).

The long haul expansion touted by IAG will a gradual process over the next five years. It will not happen overnight, and I’d expect quite a few extra AMS rotations in the interim!

[Bucksnet]

The 767 has got the lowest trip cost of any wide body airliner, so are not ‘just so expensive’ to operate, and would be perfect for starting new routes.

BA would save a lot of money by leaving Gatwick regardless of the routes flown, but flybe can takeover the lowest yield ones.

[RichHI1]

I do Not see 330’s in anything but very near future. They would add
Complexity to maintenance and crew training, they are Not generally liked by passengers and could damage BA brand image in new markets. I think some 747’s will come back, some european 767’s will move across and we may see some 763’s or 764’s short leased if certain airlines financial woes continue.. Whether they will be upgraded to latest cabin styles or tidied ip with cascaded fittings, I leave to you.
I think BA will leave Gatwick leaving an allied brand their for certain european boliday flights. This will be medium term not short term.

[LeTigre]

If BA will only be introducing new long-haul routes as per plan A of its fleet growth plan, what will it do to fill the slots? If it doesn’t use them, they will get confiscated…

Those are all good points about the 767s guys, because technically the euro configuration 767s cover the same range as A320s right? So, couldn’t BA just increase A320 fleet utilisation to transfer the routes to narrowbody aircraft?

[rferguson]

At the end of the day changes to the route network will occur over years not months.

If BA does not want to lose its 42 new slots it needs to operate them 80% of days. Thats 42 flights per day. There is no way we are going to be see the launch of 42 new daily long haul flights immediately.

[RichHI1]

I believe the etops are different. Not an expert on BA fleet, perhaps Others know. All business jets to US are one thing not sure Chinese would choose a BA 320 over a widebodied Chinese carrier.

[RichHI1]

They said Belfast is back and I think here will be an effort to reassure domestic flyers in the short term.

[LeTigre]

Rich, I was referring to using A320s to Europe/North Africa/Israel, like Euro 767s (when appropriately used, not randomly slung on Jeddah routes, etc.), not China. Easyjet use A320s to Amman in Jordan.

So Rfergurson, will BA be launches 42 sets of short-haul flights once BMI has been buried, starting from Autumn?

Also, does anyone actually know about BA fleet utilisation?

[Bucksnet]

BA do of course need to operate all their new slots as soon as they get them, which is one reason I think they should move some flights from Gatwick. BA will probably keep some of the BMI routes as well.

BA fly wide body planes on short haul European routes for capacity and cargo. They could increase frequency with smaller planes to use up more slots, but then they cannot carry cargo.

BA could keep the BMI A330s and put them on short haul in place of the 767s. They can be flown by the same pilots as A320s and can take full size cargo containers, whereas the 767 can’t.

[CXDiamond]

RichHI1 – 30/03/2012 21:31 GMT May I ask where you get the information from that the A330 is generally not like by passengers from?

IMO you couldn’t be more wrong, it’s my favourite plane by a huge margin, so quiet and pleasant to travel on. CX report it’s the most popular aircarft in their fleet from a passenger perspective.

[LeTigre]

This is hilarious:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/9177356/British-Airways-eyes-Asian-routes-after-owner-IAG-given-green-light-to-buy-bmi.html

Willie Walsh is being forced to offer Virgin Atlantic feeder traffic but uses this swipe to inform Sir Branson that his doing so will only bring dishonour. Clever!

“However, in a side swipe at his rival, Mr Walsh said: “Quite honestly I think it must be almost humiliating for Branson and Virgin to have to rely on the British Airways network to feed traffic into their operations at Heathrow.”

WW is way more intelligent than I thought, this is a very clever psychological tactic to deprive VS of feeder traffic.

[Bucksnet]

Virgin Atlantic needs to join an alliance and get feeder traffic off of them. Star Alliance is the perfect choice as there are far more flights to LHR from their carriers than there are from Skyteam carriers, plus there are 2 Skyteam hubs very close to LHR.

[RichHI1]

CXDiamond, comments based on conversations with friends/acquaintances in Marketing with some foreign carriers in Latin America and Asia. It appears that passengers are highly motivated by A380, B787 as they are new and B777 are also seen as positive. In the narrowbody class Airbus seem to have it in their favour with the A318-321 series. The jury s out how neo and the next generations from Boeing and Airbus will compete.
Should stress this was consumer reaction and airline adoption for A330 has been good though it effectively finished the A340.

[Author]

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