[sparkyflier]

They are also probably waiting for a “clean bill of health” from the other 787 operators before announcing the destinations.

I think the 787 4th July IAD may be an BT forum rumour but not an official announcement!

I have heard that the newish LHR-Freetown/Monrovia is doing very well indeed, and is often oversold. Perhaps this could lead to an ungrade to 772.

Also rferguson mentioned earlier about GIG being served by a 77W by the winter, which would free up the 772. One of these could do both lets say Bogota 3 x weekly and the Freetown/Monrovia route.

[FRANCESCABARNES]

Does anyone know if BA are returning the LGW-MAN route which is so desperately needed?!!!!

[sparkyflier]

As rferguson indicated may be happening, it looks like LHR-GIG (Rio) will become a 77W later this year.

A contact of mine in the energy sector is making a boking in First, which previously was not available as they used 772 3 class. On ba.com of course they do not indicate which series are used for 777, but this combined with rfergusons insight, indicates the upgrade in equipment.

This of course releases 772 for other routes. . .

[SimonS1]

FRANCESCABARNES – 30/05/2013 14:12 GMT

Has there been a sudden increase in demand then? I thought it was dropped because the demand wasn’t there and the route wasn’t viable.

[FRANCESCABARNES]

Not sure about the increase in demand, but when I fly up there which is regularly the flight was ALWAYS at least two thirds full…….and when last speaking to the crew they mentioned that the break was a trial and may be returning from LGW in the Autumn……but oh how badly the airlines feed Domestic routes here, after living in the States for 6 years you can get anywhere far and near be it jet or prop.

[sparkyflier]

I hear that such is the demand for the LHR-Freetown (Sierra Leone)-Monrovia (Liberia) route, that BA is increasing the flights per week from 3 to 4 from the winter timetable onwards.
Tripoli is also getting an extra schedule.

I wonder if the fast growing economies of Senegal and Ivory Coast are on BA’s radar now? Or if government agreements would permit a Port Harcourt service, perhaps twinned with Douala, Cameroon, also fast growing but a more ideal crew rest station.

[JordanD]

Indeed – 4th weekly flight to Freetown/Monrovia starts with the Winter Timetable; extra flight to Tripoli starts sooner at the start of September.

http://airlineroute.net/2013/06/14/ba-tipfna-sep13/

[sparkyflier]

And the slot from LHR moves time as well, to a morning departure, releasing 3 late night 22:20 slots. . .I wonder how these will be used up. . .

[NameRemoved-18/12/14]

Good to see that Sierra Leone and Liberia are doing well.

sparkyflyer – Cameroon is well served from BRU and CDG and a direct flight from London would not go amiss.

[sparkyflier]

Hi Alexpo, sorry for late reply.

Cameroon is growing well, but I see Douala as being well twinned with Port Harcourt in Nigeria, perhaps as a triangle route, but in any case so that crew do not neeed to rest in Port Harcourt, for security reasons. AF & LH serve Port Harcourt via Abuja, with crew resting there, but BA fills its Abuja flight well enough without extending a tag. So I feel a LHR-PHC-Douala-LHR routing would do well.

Well we now know that the initial 787s will be destined for Toronto and Newark, but there has still be no announcement on other new long haul services.

We also know that some slots that BA have, which have become available due to shuffling, have yet to be dedicated to a new service, for example the BKK moving to a daytime departure ex LHR, and the LHR-FNA-ROB route moving also to a daytime departure.

So will these go for new routes about to be announced, or will BA still not realise what opportunities there are out there, and instead lease the slots out for other airlines to make money on?

[sparkyflier]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-05/british-airways-787s-to-fill-asian-holes-using-12-heathrow-slots.html

I saw the above link on Bloomberg, which includes a short interview with Keith Williams, indicating Asian expansion for their 787s.

[sparkyflier]

News today is that Avianca will start direct nonstop flights between LHR & Bogota, 4 times a week using A330.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/100204/avianca-to-launch-direct-route-from-bogota-to-lhr

This is excellent news for both countries, and will capture increased business/trade, tourist & O&D traffic between the two countries, as well as cargo.

So this means that BA will not feel the need to go there, if they ever did, and can let Avianca proser instead.

Columbia’s economy grew by 4% in 2012, FAR more than any EU country or the USA.

BA in my opinion is missing out, as is UK PLC.

I think BA should have started this route 2-3 years ago, using 772, perhaps with a tag to Lima to enable BA to see how these markets performed and how best to capture them going forward, for example with 787,772, 747 or A350 etc.

Bogota is also a LAN one world partner hub, providing feed and connections, so I really think this route would have been a no-brainer.

But maybe BA will surprise us and has something up their sleeves.

I am not raising my hopes!

[BusinessBabble]

From what I’ve read, all the speculation seems to suggest Santiago being the next route once 787 availability permits. Not sure why, Colombia has a far higher GDP than Chile (third largest in South America after Brazil and Argentina, both of which already served by BA) so would seem to be more potential in Bogota?

[AMcWhirter]

sparkyflyer – BTW I believe Avianca is resuming its LHR service. As far as I know it used to serve London for a short while until a few years ago. I wonder why it believes the route will be more economical now ?

[rferguson]

Businessbabble you are right the Santiago on a 787 rumour has been doing the rounds within BA.

I guess the choice of SCL over say Bogota would be due to OneWorld partner LAN having an extensive hub there for onward feed. Qantas also decided to switch their South American destination from Buenos Aires to SCL to take advantage of the feed. As LAN doesn’t serve the UK I’d imagine they would also code share with BA if the route was to start.

Nothing is certain in BA in terms of new routes though. Some like Chengdu and Seoul materialise after doing the rumour mill. Others like Austin come out of nowhere. They also seem to change their minds fairly rapidly on new route launches – for example Jakarta. Jakarta was long rumoured and actually appeared in our bid system! Then, without word as to why it just disappeared.

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