[travelworld]

Sparkyflyer- you refer to what I think is a three times weekly BA service to Dhaka, but this seems to have stopped in 2009 with no restart publicised?.

[sparkyflier]

Opps you are right, a typo on my part. I should have said a Biman 77W operates this – thanks for picking me up on this!

[travelworld]

No problem!

[Cloud-9]

A direct SGN flight would be welcomed, as the current MH timings are extremely poor: they insist on at least 3 hours between flights, and this can mean an overnight stay in KUL, adding not only to time but also expense.

[sparkyflier]

Remember though there are non stop and direct flights from LGW on Vietnam Airlines, a member of Skyteam. The flights however arrive in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi at about 6 in the morning, so not that attractive as an afternoon/early evening arrival. Also KL is a bit further south, meaning you then have to go back up!

[Yorgo51]

Would be happy to see less number of flights between LHR and ATH but wide bodied planes be put in place of the A320’s
e.g. 3 daily 767’s or 777’s would be far better than the 3 A320’s and 1 single 767 / day!

[Cloud-9]

There are only two flights to Warsaw per day: both on A320s! With such a large Polish population in the UK, this is quite surprising…

[sparkyflier]

They can also be served by LOT and to the main cities, Ryanscare, Easy jet, Wizz etc.
Athens may even have been reduced. I think they used to offer 4 flights a day, 1/2 767s and the rest A320, so if its 3 per day for this summer, then this is a reduction.

[MarkivJ]

I don’t see BA resuming Bangladesh or Pakistan anytime soon!

[sparkyflier]

I have seen that BA is increasing capacity on the Mumbai flights next winter, moving from what I think is currently 2 x daily 772 (or sometimes 77W?) to 2 x 747.

Quite an increase in capacity! The A380s arriving are releasing 747s form LAX and HK duties, and BA has decided to allocate these to a route that. . . . .Virgin has quite recently re-started.

I would not be surprised if there were some very keen fares on that route to see if they can persuade people not to try Virgin, and to force them off the route!

[JordanD]

sparkyflyer – I think for W13 it was original due to be 1 x 744 and 1 x 77W on the LHR-BOM route; I know it was at least 1 x 77W as I was scheduled to be on that aircraft rotation and recently got notification through Manage My Booking that it had been switched to 744. A personal disappointment as I wanted to travel on the new WT+/WT product (and associated IFE) which is not available on the 744 fleet.

In terms of capacity, it is normally the “Hi-J” aircraft to BOM during the Nov/Dec/Jan period (14F/70J/30W/177Y), so one assumes that the switch from 77W to 744 is for more premium passengers (the 77W is configured 14F/56J/44W/183Y). Again, not surprising as seats to/from India at Christmas (especially BOM) are often hard to get and pricey as expats travel back for the holidays.

[Edit – I appreciate that W13 season is more than just Nov-Jan period, but that’s normally peak demand to India and can thus influence the rest of the season]

[MarkivJ]

BA always flies 747s or a mix of 747/777 to Mumbai and Delhi during the winter period and then switches to 777 during the summer. On the flip side, they fly 747s to Bengaluru for most of the year except during the winter! There is a huge expat market and with Emirates recently becoming India’s top international airline (120 weekly flights overall to about 10 Indian cities?), BA and Lufthansa are the ones feeling the pinch. KLM and Air France were hardly big players in the Indian market (well, they neglected it for days) and are now paying the price.

[rferguson]

Just regarding the A380 short haul training flights –
FRA has long been rumored, along with MAD.
Interesting to see that BA has retimed the current daily BA902/903 767 service LHR-FRA-LHR as well as increasing it’s turnaround time in FRA from 1hr10min to 1hr45min from end of June/beginning of July. 😉

[sparkyflier]

Great idea to use FRA to “model” the aircraft and BA’s long haul products to the German market.

Only 5 months to go before Winter’13 and still no announcements on new long haul routes & 787 deployment!

[BA744fan]

@sparkyflyer – I’m sure BA have a good idea of where the 787 will be deployed, but until such time as they have a confirmed delivery schedule for the first 2-3 planes, they will not be making firm commitments on routes.

That said, wasn’t there an announcement recently that IAD would be the first route?

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