[Anonymous]

[Panda01]

BA have announced flights from Stansted using City Flyer. This might be a sign that BA wants to expand outside of London. Could this be a new start in operating outside of London? If so, I reckon Scotland or Belfast could be next.

[dutchyankee]

Panda01, is Stansted not considered one of London’s airports?? I always thought the big 5 were Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted and City, or was your post made in jest? I don’t live in London and have only ever used LHR/LGW/LCY.

[RichardB]

All the flights are done with one plane visiting the four cities in rotation, at a time when London city airport is closed (saturday lunchtime -> sunday lunchtime). So hardly a major shift in direction for BA.

[FDOS_UK]

I think Panda01 could be on to something.

To be fair, BA only operates from one airport in London and the others are located in the regions:

Heathrow (Middlesex)
Gatwick (Sussex)

This foray into Essex is exciting and could be a new trend.

[conshaldow]

A great idea from BA and I have to agree with RichardB. I believe BA have done this before with the summer service from Edinburgh to Ibiza. Not sure if it is still in operation but when it was launched in 2013 the airline was quoted as “making use of underutilized aircraft and crew”.

The airline may have failed in pulling Edinburgh travellers away from Jet2/Ryanair/Easyjet and have set their sights now on Stansted Airport. With more loyal travellers in the greater London area it could be seen as a more successful operation.

This being said, I can see BA using such routes as dipping their toes into these markets to try and gauge ideas for similar future routes.

[PeterCoultas]

Other than for Malaga those flight times are absolutely no encouragement for a holiday jaunt

[SimonS1]

I thought it was just a way of using CityFlyer planes that do not operate out of LCY at the weekend. In the past they have done charter work, maybe this is a change of tack.

[FDOS_UK]

Come on SimonS1, credit where credit is due.

Stansted is well north of Watford and BA will operate from there to outside the UK.

BA international flights are back in the regions, crack open the Krug!

[JohnHarper]

My goodness, whatever next?

LBA-SIN twice daily on an A380 anyone?

[Daytripper]

A sensible use of BA resources in my humble. I regularly I fly on BA’s LCY to Palma and Ibiza services. During the summertime they are always full and for those for whom City is a convenience, Stansted is similarly useful.

My burning question though. Lounge access? Unlike at City.

Although I’m not expecting a BA lounge, Stansted has a third party facility. No excuses this time BA.

[rferguson]

BA have always said they will deploy their resources where they can generate the most return. Although as many have said in the past BA has a London (or Heathrow) centric approach, routes outside London are being continually reviewed.

If BA identifies that a 777 can generate more revenue and yield by operating say MAN – YYY than LHR – YYY they will launch the route.

BA is also in a position at LHR where it does not have to seek alternative origins for their aircraft – at the moment. The likes of Virgin etc launch seasonal flights out of other UK airports because they are so slot restricted at LHR. Without cancelling or suspending an existing route they can’t launch another. BA on the other hand with the purchase of the ex BMI slots was able to expand their LHR longhaul network which generates the most revenue and yield for the airline.

I don’t think BA have ever had a policy per se of never launching flights from non-London airports. It’s just that the numbers will need to add up for them to do so.

[ViajeroUK]

BA UK regional services, there used to be a good range of BA Euro routes out of Birmingham which all ceased in (I think) 2003, one route I used to use frequently was to Madrid.

BA have not returned to BHX other than code shares with Flybe, but other IAG airlines are, Vueling started a service to BCN last year, March will see Iberia Express start a service to Madrid, using a two class A320, the latter has been heralded as a feeder service to Iberia’s routes to Latin America and Africa, as well as Spanish domestic routes, although it will only operate four days a week. Maybe IAG have decided to expand UK regional services to tempt more pax away from LHR?

A few other airlines are increasing frequencies or launching new routes from BHX, Emirates will roster a two class A380 from March as one of their three daily BHX flights, Qatar will launch a two class 787 service to Doha in March, Czech will relaunch flights to Prague in April. Icelandair started to Reykjavik last February and plan to increase this to four flights a week from this month.

An increased choice of carriers/routes can only be good news for the Midlands, even less need to head south of Watford.

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