[RichHI1]

You have AA out of RDU but that is 160 miles away.. CLT is very much US and UAL (*A) territory at present though there are some American Eagle puddle jumpers (used to fly a lot connecting into New Bern as I have friends in the Outer Banks.)
This means that any BA service would sevre the CLT market but not get much connection traffic.

What about MSP?

[pixelmeister]

BA used to serve Charlotte when it had a stake in USAir IIRC. Would be a natural addition.

A death of a thousand cuts is a painful way to go for BMI. Sadly the current economic outlook is not going to help keeping the airline together. Asset stripping by LH is more likely to yield a better overall price than selling it off wholesale.

[VintageKrug]

New Orleans MSY would stack up; it’s underserved by connecting traffic and tricky to get to (though I’m not a fan of the place myself).

As an aside, the rather confusing MSY moniker emerged because airport was originally named after daredevil aviator John Moisant, who died in 1910 in an airplane crash on this land (which was devoted to farming at the time).

Its IATA code MSY was derived from Moisant Stock Yards, as neighbouring Lakefront Airport retained the “NEW” code, which might have been better used for the international airport.

[RichHI1]

I was going with Minneapolis St Paul.

[Scandinavian]

PIT, CLT and Detroit are all Eastern US routes that have been served by BA and withdrawn in the last years. Difficult to see them returning given that AA is weak in all three markets and if there was sufficient and profitable LON traffic then I think they would still be operated by BA. They are they type of P2P routes that probably do well from June to September but are tough to fill year round.

MSP is Delta country. Difficult to see BA operating there.

Much rather see BA using the BMI and QF slots to increase traffic to China and Far East. BA needs to add to its portfolio here since its network pales in comparison to LH and AF/KL.

Otherwise Lima is a market that is bubbling with an excellent LAN network (domestic and intra-South America) or maybe a return to ex BMI routes such as Baku and Beirut.

[RichHI1]

ICN?

[Tete_de_cuvee]

Walsh appears to have a preference for China –

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/8700077/Willie-Walsh-Government-is-clipping-the-UKs-wings.html

though Walsh’s rationale is in reality far more self-serving than UK serving as he would have readers believe.

UK Plc is already extensively exploiting Chinese relations. According to Chatham House, which regularly surveys China’s investments worldwide, the UK is already the destination of about 40% of all Chinese FDI in Europe. the closest competitors are France and Germany with about 15% each.

[Travellator]

Is a slot – time specific – if so that would influence the route options to some degree ?

[Bucksnet]

BA would have lots of CLT feed at the London end. MSY is a non starter as it’s mainly low yield.

[Scandinavian]

Side issue but…

Maybe rumoured LGW long-haul expansion in S12 did not happen since BA need the aircraft at LHR to expand with new slots.

[Hippocampus]

Travellator – Yes, the slots are time specific but BA can easily juggle its schedules to accommodate new routes.

[RichHI1]

Bucksnet there is a lot of *A loyalty around CLT (Corporate UAL and US deals). I agree on MSY for now. My money would be on ICN (Seoul) I think. growing market and Aisana is *A and Korean Air is SKy Team.

[FlightDoctor]

Does anyone have thoughts on the urgency of redeeming BMI Miles? I’m a Gold DC member with 200K miles and the thought of them all possibly going down the drain is not great!

[Bucksnet]

BA has a lot of loyalty around LHR Rich, plus connections from all over Europe and further afield. AA codeshare will help also.

[RichHI1]

Bucksnet, BA have strong Brand Equity in UK and Europe and strong Corporate client base in UK. Just making the point UAL have been very effective at using Global Services and corporate pricing to build corporate loyalty. Corporate travel policy that favors UAL and *A and the fact that AA is based at RDU with just some AE into CLT limits the US based traffic opportunity. Let’s see, I think the Far East is probably bigger opportunity for slot allocation and equipment usage.

[Author]

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