[Anonymous]

[seasonedtraveller]

An ‘insider’ who works at LHR has today publicly disclosed that BMI will operate their last flight between EDI & LHR at the end of October 2011.
This individual has also claimed that the aircraft used on this route has already been rostered for new North African routes.
He closes by saying that BMI have an official announcement already lined up for release in August.

[Bunnahabhain]

Oh most likely.

Why doesn’t BAA just put us all out of our misery and abolish the last remaining (as they say) domestic flights at LHR humanely instead of subjecting us to this long and painful demise.

There’s a bus from LHR central to Croydon, where there are frequent trains to LGW for your connecting LCC flight up north. Interlining, what does that mean guv?

[TominScotland]

Sounds credible to me…. Its more of the drip, drip, drip death of Scottish routes that is so depressing

The sooner BAA have to go through with the sale of either GLA or EDI (probably GLA) the better so that we can start to see real competition for routes, better access options (there is currently no direct bus from Glasgow to Edinburgh Airport or vice versa from Edinburgh to Glasgow Airport) and more creative pricing.

The most sensible long term option is to close both GLA and EDI and build a new facilty as Falkirk International Airport, serving both cities with high speed rail……

[CallMeIshmael]

Since the LHR-LGW helicopter transfer ceased many years ago the safest transfer time wise is a Virgin Limo Bike. But this only works if you have carry on luggage only.

National express have a regular direct link taking 80 mins but the vagaries of the M25 make Coach or Cab times more hope than expectation. Going via Croydon I believe would take longer.

[FrequentTraveller]

Thanks to BA, this has happened a long time ago to LHR routes to Isle of Man, Inverness and Jersey. Also Guernsey lost its LHR connection thanks to Air UK. For now you are lucky to still have BA on the EDI and GLA routes. Otherwise even more passengers will suffer extended journey times thanks to the addition of a ground transfer between LHR and LGW. Unfortunately the above first mentioned places don’t have viable regular alternatives via places like Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt etc.

The loss of the LHR route affects the economic situation in this places. Loss of flights reduces the number of business people prepared to travel. For example Jersey saw a sharp drop in travellers after BA dropped the LHR route. Not everybody was prepared to extend their journey via LGW.

[Swindoneric]

Really disappointing news – not because BMI are any good but because without competition, fares will only go one way. Plays into the hands of the European transfer hubs. You wonder whether BA have a long term commitment to Edinburgh – their service at the airport has collapsed since they outsourced their local handling staff. Bad for Edinburgh and bad for Scottish based travellers.

[Alasdair]

I know, it is a disaster. Typically, we will be faced with shocking prices and their notoriously poor ground services. I have a feeling what is happening in Edinburgh will follow elsewhere, in their insistent drive to cut costs (oh, and ensure raises & bonuses for management).

[Binman62]

The simple truth of this is that without a 3rd runway at LHR domestic operations are dead and buried. I could be political and point out that the Tory government have no interest in Scotland and never have had, that is why the Scots do not vote for them. Their shortsighted policy of scrapping the 3rd runway plan, without a credible alternative in place, is simply evidence of this governments lack of vision or policy on growth.
The airlines will simply use the slots they have at LHR for routes on which they can make money and it will not be long before BA joins them and removes operations from either Glasgow or Edinburgh.
Indeed it is clear that BA have no interest in anything north of Watford, their focus is entirely on corporate traffic generated by the city ( look at both actual and planned expansion at LCY) or traffic generated from the most affluent area of Europe, namely the souteast of England. Aside from this, BA are focused on Europe and the USA as well as developing Madrid as a hub. They have long since abandoned the UK regions to the likes of SQ LH KLM EK QR and others who have all found the traffic to generate daily operations none of which comes near Heathrow

Tominscotland….love the idea of Falkirk International….perhaps it could be Cumbernauld as there is already an airstrip there and frankly that town needs help. All joking aside, a single airport between the cities is a very good idea but like BAs ethnic tailfins it is an idea too ahead of its time and ceratinly beyond the imagination of this government.

[CallMeIshmael]

There is also the green agenda.

– Short haul flights are the least fuel efficient / most expensive per mile even though they carry a far smaller fuel load.

– High speed rail is an effective alternative….. once they are built 😉

[Bunnahabhain]

I recall FKK International – Scotland’s equivalent of Boris island in a way – was an option, or at least a thought, when BAA published its report a few years ago. There was the plan for a 2nd runway at EDI – recently put on indefinite hold, and no wonder if BMI and presumably soon BA continue to say farewell (rather than haste ye back!). Then there were the rail links at GLA and EDI, both soon pie in the sky so the only way to access them by rail continues to be to pull the communication cord as the train passes the respective runway threshold. So given they couldn’t get low speed links to either of the current airports, both of which are annoyingly close to existing lines, what hope for HS2 to Falkirk or Cumbernauld.

Leeds / Bradford and MME (whatever it’s called this week) are already LHR free zones and Newcastle hold on precariously to its BA service. These areas do have rail connections to London, but King’s Cross is equally as awkward as Gatwick if connecting to a flight from LHR.

Just hope there’s plenty oil and gas left in the North Sea to keep ABZ immune for as long as possible…

[Cedric_Statherby]

I remember a long time ago being told by someone who worked for BA that they only made money on the domestic routes out of passengers transiting at LHR – ie using the domestic leg to join an international flight. Almost all pure domestic travel was loss-making for them o/a having to pay 2 lots of BAA airport charges and APD on a local flight (and no in-flight sales to mention either).

It is not very surprising therefore that BA have struggled to justify domestic routes in an era when LHR is so crowded and the slots there can be better used.

What does surprise me is that BA have not set up more flights direct from EDI, GLA, MAN and so on to European destinations. You would have thought these would be popular, and they avoid congestion at LHR, extra costs, APD charges and so on. Yet incredibly, the only place you can fly with BA from Glasgow is London (all three of LHR, LGW and LCY, as it happens, but that is it). As for Manchester, which used to have a full roster of direct flights, there are now just 4 left other than London.

I know others have commented on this before but I suspect the end game at BA is to have just 3 airports in the UK – LHR, LGW and LCY. And no domestic flights at all. A sort of BOAC (or Pan Am) reconstituted …

[batraveller2]

i dont see BA pulling out of aberdeen and I am sure if BMI withdraw out of Scotland that BA will stay for sure. After all BA is by far the best airline domestically and BMI never compared. Newcastle is always an interesting one though but I guess they will keep it!

[VintageKrug]

One has to remember that BA did indeed use to provide regional services to Europe (and indeed had a “EuroHub” at Birmingham).

These premium services became unsustainable precisely because of the advent of competitor low-cost point to point services from the likes of Ryanair, EasyJet and Air Berlin coupled with increasing strength of European and Middle Eastern carriers offering hub and spoke services from the regions through airports which had the capacity to offer such services.

It should be remembered that BA does own a 15% stake in flybe, so retains a modest interest in such services and is planning to develop regional European services (albeit not from the UK) via Iberia.

[EdTraveller]

Being Edinburgh based myself, I am ambivalent about London-Scottish routes. If BA want to feed their hungry Term 5 hub then they will continue Scottish routes, if not we already have major hub options in Amsterdam and Frankfurt with regular connections, as well as direct International flights from Edinburgh and Glasgow. BMI dont have the commercial imperative to fly to Scotland and dont share the lucrative Scotland-LCY business, so if they announce that they are pulling out of Edinburgh then it wont be a surprise. Citing lack of commercial competition as a consequence of any withdrawl of routes is largely a red herring as the price of flights do not behave in any way that would appear to be normal to an average consumer.

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