[AMcWhirterParticipant]

I ask, because I’ve been checking flights to Madrid from LCY (London City) and it would appear this route is being dropped at the end of January.

According to Ba.com the last date of operation is Sunday January 29. BA itself has yet to make any official announcement.

It’s the sort of business route that LCY would be sorry to lose.

Currently BA holds a monopoly on the LCY-Madrid route and it’s unclear whether or not another carrier would take over … bearing in mind that only specified aircraft would be able to fly LCY-Madrid.

[MartynSinclairParticipant]

Are the LCY slots route or airline specific & do they have a value like at Heathrow (despite the limited range of aircraft that can use it)…?

[rjhcambsParticipant]

I have used this routing a few times on BA8756 which I think is the last flight scheduled to arrive at LCY before the 22:30 curfew. So it is possible that there may have been a few late night diversions to Stansted or Southend. However if there is a slot problem it may be at MAD and not LCY. The LCY-MAD seems to arrive on time or early but the return can leave 20-30 mins late due to peak departures at MAD.

[AMcWhirterParticipant]

Since starting this thread BA has now confirmed the route will be dropped at the end of the month. Final BA flight will operate on January 29.

As far as I know, Martyn, this route is not slot or airline specific.

[Cloud-9Participant]

It appears BA is also dropping the LCY summer season flights to Alicante this year…

[FDOS_UKParticipant]

AMcWhirter wrote:

Since starting this thread BA has now confirmed the route will be dropped at the end of the month. Final BA flight will operate on January 29.

As far as I know, Martyn, this route is not slot or airline specific.

Alex, completely unscientific exercise – I took random days (Jan 20th, returning Jan 22nd) and priced BA (LCY) v BA (other airports), FR et al – took the lowest fare of the day, using Skyscanner.

BA – LCY – £213

IB – LHR – £108

BA – LHR – £105

IBX – LGW – £87

DY – LGW – £79

U2 – LTN – £73

UX (Air Europa) – LGW – £65

FR – STN – £39

BA – LGW – no BA operated flights

Makes for interesting reading. I hadn’t realised how many options existed on this route.

[AlanOrton1Participant]

Taking Cloud-9’s post, there are a similarly large number of options in travelling from the south east to ALC, perhaps why BA are ditching their LCY route. (None from LHR).
Though BA did open a LGW-VLC route last year.

[AMcWhirterParticipant]

FDOS – I too never realised there are now so many options for LON-MAD. Must really affect the yields.

[Martin36Participant]

Changes to flight timings were made on this route in November 2016. These flight times had been largely unchanged since the route commenced in 2006. It is not clear why, just two months on, a twice daily route, which has operated since 2006 has suddenly been scrapped.

LCY is unique, in that it is the only airport actually in London, so whilst there may be lots of other flights out of the other ‘London’ airports,which perhaps contributed to BA’s decision to axe this route; it takes almost 3 times as long to reach central London from them. Perhaps another carrier at LCY will eventually decide to take over the LCY/MAD route and capitalise from it’s unique selling point.

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