[Anonymous]

[ivornomates]

http://www.anna.aero/2011/07/13/british-airways-losing-ground-against-european-rivals/

[VintageKrug]

And yet group premium traffic is up a whopping 25% in the latest stats, which is excellent news particularly for BA:

http://www.iairgroup.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=240949&p=irol-newsArticle&id=1582140

JUNE 2011 – GROUP TRAFFIC AND CAPACITY STATISTICS

§ In June 2011, Group traffic measured in Revenue Passenger Kilometres rose by 9.2 per cent versus June 2010, capacity measured in Available Seat Kilometres was up 6.8% per cent.

§ Group premium traffic for the month of June grew by 25.2 per cent compared to the previous year, with 6.7 per cent growth in non-premium traffic.

§ Traffic statistics for the month are once again impacted by the positive comparison from disruption at British Airways last year and the network restructuring in Iberia.

§ We believe underlying revenue trends are in line with previous months, with demand continuing to show firm underlying growth particularly in the long haul premium segment.

July 5th, 2011

STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENTS

Iberia launched its new twice weekly route between Barcelona and Sao Paulo and resumed its summer only flights from Madrid to Dubrovnik which operate three times a week. The airline also started two new cargo routes – a twice-weekly service between Madrid and Brussels and a weekly service between Madrid and Nouakchott (Mauritania) via Gran Canaria.

[Age_of_Reason]

Says it all … recycled mantra and old excuses, not addressing the points raised, which were:
How does BA compare with Air France and Lufthansa in terms of growth during the last decade? How does its network reach compare with its European rivals? And which country markets and routes generate the most ASKs for the airline? What route enhancements have been made in the last 18 months?

I believe ASK are Available Seat km – some buff please confirm?

The only point answered is the last one – new routes from Barcelona and Madrid. I’ll bear that in mind ….

Bye Bye BA. I’m flying AF tomorrow on a route served (less conveniently and more expensively) by BA. It’s clear whose shares ‘ll hold.

[Hippocampus]

At LHR BA has, in spite of no expansion at LHR, been quietly growing its slot portfolio over the past 10 years.

Summer 2003: 3603 weekly slots
Summer 2011: 4040 weekly slots

The growth of BA’s slot portfolio is more than the entire slot portfolio of Virgin Atlantic.

It has also grown significantly at LCY.

On the flipside, it has ended UK franchise agreements with GB Airways (acquired by EasyJet), BMED (acquired by bmi) and Logan Air and also cut capacity significantly at LGW and from the regions.

The long-haul network has grown in recent years at LGW and LHR (Maldives, Cancun, Haneda, San Diego, Las Vegas, Beunos Aires direct). Some long-haul destinatios (many tag-ons) were dropped as part of the “Future Size and Shape” programme at around 2002. More long haul routes should be added as new long haul aircraft arrive over the next couple of years.

ASKs are only one part of the equation and it should be remembered that LH and KLM in particular are different from BA in that they are much more heavily dependent on feeder traffic to support routes whereas BA has a large, and very high yield, O&D passenger base in London. BA may also have a smaller long haul route network than some of its rivals, but many of the major TATL destinations it does serve have a very good choice of frequencies for business travellers (which is important for competing against Virgin).

No airline (perhaps with the exception of Ryanair) is in the business for growth for the sake of it. In terms of capacity growth BA also had particular problems it needed to address in reducing debt on its balance sheet (some £6bn in 2002) and the pension deficit.

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

Hippo

Interesting numbers on the slots.

Do you know how many of those came from the termination of the franchises?

[Hippocampus]

I don’t have detail of exactly where all of the slots came from, but BA did acquire a decent tranche of slots from BMED when it was acquired by bmi.

[Senator]

Hippo makes a very valid point. BA has a large, wealthy, captive audience in the Greater London Area to market its network to. LH does not have the same in FRA. Whilst the Greater Paris area is big, I believe the feeder traffic is important to AF.

Add to the focus on NYC market, BA is positioned for premium travel.

Some of the slots they also aquired from BMI if I recall correctly.

[Age_of_Reason]

So BA will abuse its position as the national flag carrier, with attendant benefits, o favour 20m well-heeled Londoners, and the remaining 40m can fend for themselves. Increasingly well, if only BAA could be dumped out of Scotland.

The govt will fork out 3 bn to bring the BHX trade to LHR in HS2, the northerners will use the feeder-oriented KLM-AF and Lufty.

But I still suspect the BA dinosaur is doomed to become the junior partner in IAG.

I ‘m glad I’m not Cornish

[Hippocampus]

Last time I looked BA was a public company that had to stand on its on two feet.

As for BA being the junior partner in IAG, the next results should be interesting. If the traffic numbers are anything to go by, post-recovery, the performance of BA and Iberia seems to be diverging with BA experiencing a much stronger recovery.

[Bucksnet]

Sadly it’s not £3bn, but a whopping £33bn for the HS2 project, an obscene waste of money.

Cornwall has been f**ked over on purpose by the last Labour government, probably because it’s not really Labour supporting and 99% white British. David ‘Common Purpose’ Cameron shows no signs of changing this outrage.

http://ourscotland.myfreeforum.org/archive/the-killing-of-cornwall__o_t__t_4586.html

[GoonerLondon]

Not sure about the quality of this: “British Airways carried just 30.5 million passengers while Air France carried 47 million and Lufthansa 56.6 million”

The latter refers to Lufthansa Group figures, for example, as does the PRK growth figures.

The destination examples are skewed by short-haul destinations, many of which BA serve from Gatwick.

A different analysis is useful as context – check the wiki overviews of LHR / CDG and FRA here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Heathrow_Airport
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris-Charles_de_Gaulle_Airport
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_Airport

13 routes at LHR carry over 1m pax p/a, compared to just 1 at CDG and none at FRA.

Its why BA can use its limited slots on a more concentrated basis, while LH and AF have to be a little more creative and find new routes it can serve without competition.

You also have to take into account that BA has only very recently benefitted from open skies – whereas LH with UA and AF with DL have had an advantage for many more years.

Anyway – just thought I’d add some balance

[Author]

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