[SimonS1]

Jetplane is totally correct on this one. The freight as well as the passengers are now to/from the Gulf and into the EK engine,

I believe EK also service Lusaka and Harare as a round trip whilst traffic is built up.

[sparkyflier]

Bucksnet is right about the scheduling. Changing this would capture ex-North American traffic and ensure high aircraft utility.

I am not sure about how J class performs on the LHR-LUN flight, but another option couild be to have LUN as the stop to Maputo – lots of oil & gas executives who would want to go there, flying J class, and not wanting to change planes in Joburg, Nairobi, Addis or Lisbon.

[dutchyankee]

Losing this route is a real shame, and I feel is just another example of the EK effect. It is hard to beat them on the route. All others involve a stop en route and change of plane as well, so the EK advantage is clear. Truly unfortunate. BA with an aging 767, even nonstop, but only 3X a week, just couldnt cut it.

[Bucksnet]

BA changing the schedule as I described and flying on the 4 days of the week that KLM doesn’t fly, with the 787, would improve the fortunes of the route.

[dutchyankee]

@Bucksnet

Let`s hope then it is just a suspension of service, to be relaunched in the near future with a better product and schedule!

[canucklad]

Without getting political ,considering how rich Zambia is in natural resources I’m sure I’m sure a lot of those EK flights are scheduled to connect nicely with onward flights to mainland China !

And UK PLC looses out again !

[dutchyankee]

@canucklad

Whats`s wrong with being political, especially when stating what is most probably fact. UK Plc definitely loses out here as you so rightly state, to the gain of China and others.

[canucklad]

Hi dutchyankee….

I greatly believe that although there are many factors involved in UK PLC’s decline in the global market…..
Successive governments short term (life of a single parliament) attempts to woo the floating voting proletariat populist vote has severely and possibly damaged irreparably our standing in the global village…..

Including joining the – EEC…ehhh sorry…the Common Market under T&C’s imposed by our Franco-German..Supposed partners….which forced us to abandon what should have been our focus…the Commonwealth

It isn’t co-incidental that Kenyan roads were once full of British made trucks, after joining Mercedes and Fiat became more prevalent!

And then to compound the issue we then remove the overseas university bursaries to our developing country friends… So bright students from Nairobi or Malaysia or Ghana or indeed ZAMBIA , rightly accept free University education from the US ?Russia ,Germany , France and China …Then we wonder why when they return home to become Finance Director or CEO or purchasing manager they choose to invest in countries they have an affiliation tooo….

So to get back on topic, it doesn’t surprise me about BA’s decision…in fact I wonder when they will give up Africa totally and start flying to safe destinations like BOISE.

As I mentioned in another topic, BA management are so risk averse that choosing to fly to yet another Texan city just proves that they lack the foresight or creative thinking to build custom into future expanding markets….

Sadly ….Boring old BA……

Edited to add….I feel sorry for BA because wherte they are is down to governments in ability to see the bigger picture…Very frustrating !’

[sparkyflier]

Canucklad that was an excellent and quite profound post.

[sparkyflier]

I tend to think the BA route planners & strategy dept’s view of the world comes from reading The Sun, Star, Mirror, Mail & Express etc.

[rodders]

Having done Lusaka/Dubai a few months ago it was a 777 and was rostered Dubai/Lusaka/Harare/Lusaka/Dubai and was pretty much full in F and J.

[Bucksnet]

Excellent canucklad, another reason to leave the EU.

[sparkyflier]

I am not for leaving the EU, but I do think UK PLC has turned its back on some close friends. . .

And now that the UK Govt is looking much more at international trade, BA is being a hindrance, and certainly not looking at where the big (and much more than EU 1% ish ) growth is : –

Colombia 4.6%, Chile 5.6%, Cameroon 4.7%, Panama 10.7%, Peru 6.3%, Tanzania 6.9%, Zambia 7.3%, Vietnam 5%, Cote d’Ivoire 9.5%, Mozambique 7.4%, Rwanda 8% etc etc.

Meanwhile these countries seek partners, want to buy products and without easy connections and direct flights they are more likely to look elsewhere.

[SimonS1]

Sparkyflyer – To play devils advocate that economic growth is being driven by other emerging markets such as UAE and China. It isn’t really involving the UK.

If it was I doubt BA would have trouble filling a 3x a week 767.

Not for me to defend BA, I’m surprised they can’t make it work and with a bit more imagination maybe they could (Dar and Lusaka together for example). However BA and UKPLC are two different things and the airline isn’t providing some sort of social service.

[sparkyflier]

The network coverage for both BA and Oneworld in East and Central Africa is pretty poor, and I wonder if a way to capture these growth areas would be to bring Rwandair into the Oneworld grouping.

The major carriers in or serving Africa are already in alliances:-

Skyteam: Air France, KLM, Kenya Airways + Korean serving Nairobi
Star Alliance: SAA, Egyptair, TAP, Ethiopean, Turkish, Brussels, Swiss and TG & SQ in Asia.

But oneworld has no airlines in the region with who they can partner with. I understand they are a decent airline, with a very modern fleet, and the nation is outward looking.

BA, QR, S7, CX & MH could fly into Kigali ( a growing economy also attracting premium leisure) to then connect with growing network of Rwandair to east, central and even west African economies.

Rwanda is very well located for such activity and means that ex-Europe or Ex-Asia traffic is not just routed through Skyteam and Star hubs.

[Author]

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