BA Winter 2013 +, new aircraft, new routes:- your predictions & wish list

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Viewing 15 posts - 46 through 60 (of 161 total)

  • Str8Talking
    Participant

    My wish list (and this is a very dreamy one for that matter) would be:

    Yangon, Myanmar
    Thimphu, Bhutan
    Mahe, Seychelles
    Windhoek, Namibia
    Maputo, Mozambique
    Antananarivo, Madagascar

    Reality check – these won’t happen anytime soon. I believe it is quite difficult, and hence why such slow progress is being made, to introduce new routes! I seriously don’t think that BA or any airline for that matter would pass up on a route that would bring them money. However, with so many restrictions working against them, it will take years before they can add anything more than a route here and a route there.

    I expect to see a new Club World cabin introduced, before seeing a large number of new routes get launched over the next three years!


    SimonS1
    Participant

    Well if BA can’t survive on a route like Dar (one of the 10 fastest growing cities in the world) then I wouldn’t see the prospects for places like Mahe and Antananarivo as very high….


    Cloud-9
    Participant

    Of those, I would most love – and again, dreaming! – Antananarivo. Yangon and Thimphu can be accessed OK on oneworld via KUL/MH.
    But I would love to visit Madagascar! However, AF is currently the best option (and that is not great).
    We all know it will not happen, but!


    rferguson
    Participant

    @ greg75 – BA launched a daily LGW-JFK 777 service about three years ago. It lasted literally one season. For whatever reason the route just didn’t work out of LGW. Probably because of the plethora of flights, connections and accessibility to London via LHR. The route was pulled and CUN and MLE launched using the aircraft instead. Both these have proved to be hugely successful, again demonstrating that leisure routes seem to work best for BA at LGW.

    @ Str8talking – it would be great to see BA launch a new CW product. But IMHO I can’t see it happening for another few years at the earliest. I could be wrong but I would have thought BA would take the opportunity of launching a new CW product on it’s new A380’s and 787’s as they are delivered. Then retrofit the remainder of the fleet. But this isn’t happening. Just my opinion but I think the priority should be refreshing the economy cabins on the older aircraft that are not being retired in the next five or so years. Some of them are plain embarrassing.


    Str8Talking
    Participant

    rferguson, I completely agree about the economy cabins – I do sometimes get the feeling that, since BA relies so heavily on the premium cabins for their profits, that they almost don’t care about economy and have just allowed it to be a cabin that gets you from A to B, end of!


    rferguson
    Participant

    Stra8talking spot on.
    I recently flew on a QF 747 which was of a similar vintage to many of BA’s. Yet when I got oboard it was like being on a new aircraft. And it was spotless.
    BA’s can be a disgrace. Padding on the seats so worn that parts of the seat metal are beginning to protrude through, worn carpets, sidewalls almost yellow with age, seat pockets hanging off. Like I said in my earlier post, sometimes it’s just embarrassing.
    I know a QF style solution is not so easy for BA. It’s much quicker (and cheaper) to refurb a fleet of 14 or so 747’s than 50-odd. The other problem is that the state of aircraft we have now is largely based on decisions made many moons ago. For example, the 767 fleet should have been no more at BA (starting two years ago!). And at least six of the oldest 747’s should now have been retired. But due to the delays with the introduction of the A380 and 787 these old birds have had to continue on, well beyond their sell by date. But surely some new carpets, new seat padding and a deep clean wouldn’t be too much to ask of these old birds.


    Cloud-9
    Participant

    VN economy class seating is extremely comfortable, with far thicker seat covers than on BA.


    Cloud-9
    Participant

    I would like to see BA fly anywhere currently served only by IB


    rferguson
    Participant

    Mind you cloud-9 the hard product on the new A330 IB aircraft is great!

    Fully flat beds in J all with direct aisle access. A great new IFE system and soon to also be wifi equipped. Some could even say it’s a better hard product than it’s sister airline 😉

    If only they could sort the customer service part out….


    VintageKrug
    Participant

    IB A330 looks great; the service issues should begin to be resolved once the strategic review is completed by IAG.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alXvRk-BrFo


    BlackTower
    Participant

    BA744fan and others

    Jakarta and perth are both big mining and oil and gas destinations so I don’t see many empty seats on that leg. Not flying straight to a country with 300 million people is a bit sad

    For similar reasons East African destinations should work but I guess competition from gulf airlines is stiff?

    I think Latam expansions as explained sound good. Brazil, Colombia and Chile are great business destinations

    380s on both Cape Town and Joburg would be good. That is a horribly expensive route. Perhaps BA like it that way?

    US? Honolulu is the one we all want but how do you fill a plane with revenue flyers? 3 class only for sure?


    VintageKrug
    Participant

    HNL should become economic with a 787.

    As to the prices on the SA routes, you should look to the agreements between the CAA and the SA government limiting capacity, this gives a flavour of how tightly it’s controlled (though from 1999) by the UK South Africa Bilateral Air Services Agreement:

    http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/213/ald9904.pdf


    SimonS1
    Participant

    The number of rotations is constrained but the size of aircraft isn’t. Presumably the answer then is to use bigger aircraft when they become available.

    In the same way that EK is constrained to 5 slots a day at LHR but has an A380 on each I believe.


    rferguson
    Participant

    My guess is an A380 will be announced for JNB very soon.

    As excited as I am about the A380, I think it will be the 787 that will offer the most interesting new destinations. Although the first routes it will operate will be current long haul 767 routes, the aircraft is designed to operate very long range routes economically. And with fewer seats to fill, and fewer crew operating costs the options for new destinations are massive.

    Blacktower I can definitely see Jakarta coming online soon. Willie Walsh himself mentioned the city on his emerging markets ‘wish list ‘ a few years ago along with Seoul (commenced now) and Vietnam.

    Perth, I can’t see it. It is a mining boom town BUT QF and EK pretty much have the market there tied up. And OW partners CX (who BA have joined in an oz partnership) and MH both fly there. And not to mention QR with their direct DOH-PER flight.

    I think one of the first route changes we will see is the current LHR-BAH-DOH flight de-linked and a non-stop LHR-DOH flight being introduced to offer one stop flights to many of QR’s destinations to the likes of Iraq, Perth, Melbourne, Myanmar, Cambodia etc.


    gregd75
    Participant

    IB should be great…in theory

    An example of the problems that they have-

    I flew MAD to MEX recently and there was NO IFE. No explanation, no apology- nothing. When I contacted customer services, it took well over a week to get a standard reply saying essentially, nothing.

    A 12 hour flight without IFE- now then, I know it’s not the end of the world, but when you pay high prices for a services that is ADVERTISED as having entertainment – then you should receive it, shouldn’t you?

    I am shocked at IBERIAs very poor service and worse, the staffs attitude. So again, I repeat. It’s time for BA to offer a daily service to MEX.

    The demand is there, the premium cabins are full and there’s money to be made!

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