[SimonS1]

I agree it would make sense for BA to let Qatar service the Doha route.
I was there earlier this week and the BA check in is in a grotty corner of the ‘other airlines’ terminal. Quite hard to get on the radar so it might be better to stick to Bahrain although I wonder whether with ongoing political instability that would pay.

[first_class_please]

Bahrain – LHR is majority filled with people going to / from Eastern Saudi Arabia by the causeway. Thats the only thing that keeps BA there. Not enough business in Bahrain / Doha alone.

[dutchyankee]

I remember flying nonstop to Dhahran from JFK on Pan Am years ago when family of mine moved there due to ARAMCO. Are there still international flights into Dhahran or is it a military base now? Is that why Bahrain is used for the causeway traffic into KSA? Are there still international carriers flying into Dhahran/Dammam?

[sparkyflier]

Bucksnet/rfurguson you raise interesting points on BA in and out of Doha.

As I see it, QR has superior products in Y, F and on 787 & 777 J, although there would be debate about the 330/346.

So BA cannot compete really with these, so either they should either leave it all to QR, or put their best offering on the route, in 77W or 380, the latter being a good idea by Bucksnet, and be nonstop.

If Bahrain is not sustainable on its, own, then maybe this could be the stop en route to Muscat, enabling Abu Dhabi to be standalone.

IMO however, Muscat needs to be nonstop, as the Oman Air offering is nonstop and far superior in all classes than BA.

[rferguson]

Qatar/Sparkyflyer – totally agree with your points regarding BA’s DOH operations and the fact that QR has superior products in all classes.

However, BA won’t be COMPETING with QR in the future. They will be working with QR. The two airlines (and indeed the two CEO’s) already seem to have formed a close relationship. BA is QR’s sponsor in joining OW. I would imagine the two CEO’s have already discussed how they can work together and which form any ‘special’ alliance they can have.

Just my personal opinion, but I would imagine a fair deal would be for both airlines to sell seats on their own LHR-DOH flights (perhaps with BA increasing flights, perhaps not) with BA feeding QR’s multitude of destinations from DOH. BA benefits from an increase in it’s virtual network and a higher demand LHR-DOH. QR benefits from the increased bums on seats BA will provide.

Although there are definitely superior products on QR I don’t think that would be too much a factor. At the end of the day the passengers both airlines REALLY want are the ones on high yielding corporate contracts where the traveller does not make the choice of carrier anyway. We saw this when we had a JSA with QF on the LHR-OZ routes. QF had superior products in pretty much all classes on their shiny new A380’s while we were plying the route with our old banger jumbo jets. Never had an impact on filling our premium cabins and BA certainly was not about to ‘give’ QF the route.

It will all be interesting anyway with maybe a few curve balls thrown in.

It is always hard to predict what BA will do. For example on my 787 training course we had one of the most senior managers come in to give us a Q&A and when asked about 787 routes insisted that the initial routes will be solely ex-767 routes. A few weeks later, Austin is announced.

As an email from the scheduling manager stated yesterday – ‘Further route announcements and schedule/aircraft changes are expected before the start of the Summer 2014 season’. So watch this space I guess!

***These are my personal opinions only and not those of my employer***

[Edski777]

Dutchyankee, KLM operates to Dammam. Pretty busy flights and not cheap.

[AMcWhirter]

Re: BA’s A380 deployment on LHR-DOH

I doubt this will happen because QR will be using this route to launch its own A380 which is expected to have very good seating in first and business class. Maybe BA will code-share on QR’s flights ?

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/qatar-confirms-london-and-paris-as-a380-launch–

[sparkyflier]

And BMI used to serve Damman before the BA purchase. Maybe this could come back and be part of the Bahrain route?

Good points raised by rferguson just now, I did not think they were competing, but just that BA coud “hold its own” with the 777s and 380s. I liked your reference re “old banger jumbo jets”.

Something KLM does very well, which BA just does not seem into, is the triangle route. I wonder why BA does not look at these as it can keep costs of serving two desinations down when only using one slot. It saves money on crew, fuel and landing charges.

KLM does this in Africa – for example AMS-KIG-EBB-AMS, AMS-JRO-DAR-AMS, AMS-HRE-LUN-AMS and also on Caribbean routes and Gulf routes.

I really think this could work, especially when the carrier is not really worried about applying for local traffic rights.

[Bucksnet]

If BA and QR are in partnership then they could do a deal on the LHR-DOH route to share all costs and revenue on each others flights. Then you could have a mix of BA and QR flights and it wouldn’t matter who you fly with.

[rferguson]

RE: Lusaka. Confirmed it’s getting the chop.
Last LHR-LUN flight departing 25OCT
Last LUN-LHR flight one day after.

[FormerlyDoS]

DutchYankee

“I remember flying nonstop to Dhahran from JFK on Pan Am years ago when family of mine moved there due to ARAMCO. Are there still international flights into Dhahran or is it a military base now?”

Military only, these days, which is quite frustrating when you need to go to the Dharan/Khobar area and the realtively new Dammam airport (DMM) is many kilometres away.

“Is that why Bahrain is used for the causeway traffic into KSA? Are there still international carriers flying into Dhahran/Dammam?”

Some people prefer to use the causeway to enter KSA, as DMM can be chaotic for international arrivals and you hear stories of people taking 4 hours plus to clear.

Note that you can only enter KSA via BAH and the causeway on a single visa (or for the first time on a mulitple) if it allows for land transportation; The Saudi consultate in London tends to issue ‘air’ visas and the border police can and often will turn around the unfortunate individual, who then has to endue the 15 min hop from BAH to DMM.

[Cwyfan]

With Qatar airways joining, how long will it be before the routing Doha will show up on the options?

[sparkyflier]

With Philippine Airlines announcing their entry to the UK market, can any of you see that BA would consider using their own metal, even using 787?

PAL have lots of confidence in this route, using 5 x 777-300ER, which I think is very ambitious indeed, especially as they are not in an alliance.

This I suspect would be great for ex-Philippines traffic, but not getting buckets of airmiles and tier points would be a concern I think for the UK based business and premium leisure traveller. The 3-4-3 seating would also not be attractive on a 14 hour flight, especially those who are not male or femail waifs!

But a bold move on their part, the cost of these slots must have been massive, as as Alex McW. indicated in his news article, who the previous occupant of these would be interesting. Maybe Delta who could be juggling their schedules post Virgin deal?

[AMcWhirter]

According to the figures produced by Routesonline, the Manila-London route is by far Europe’s busiest.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/all-systems-go-as-pal-returns-to-europe

[sparkyflier]

So more than one month on from this discussion, and still no news about other new long haul routes from BA.

Still no Jakarta, which was meant to be imminent and starting in November!

Anyone heard of any developments which are in the pipeline?

[Author]

Posts