[Anonymous]

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Virgin in addition to the Flybe regional connections is launching a 3 x weekly service from MAN to SFO as well as BOS. So growing the Manchester offering already including Atlanta, Barbados, Las Vegas and Orlando.

[AMcWhirter]

Hello Tim

We covered the story earlier today.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/virgin-atlantic-launches-new-manchester-flights

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/virgin-atlantic-launches-flybe-codeshare

[FDOS_UK]

Thanks for sharing, Tim. The development of MAN continues.

LondonCity – are you a BT staff poster?

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Sorry – missed that posting!

Excellent news for VS and MAN airport. It means that VS serve more longhaul routes from UK airports than BA if you take into account the GLA seasonal operations. If VS can find a market for it, it begs the question why BA can’t, especially as capacity at LHR is full. Still growth opportunities at LGW – but you would think they could look at markets from MAN / BHX and EDI or GLA at the very least?

[AMcWhirter]

Tim – Maybe BA will look again at international flying from the regions. After all, isn’t that what its B787s were intended for ?

MAN’s advantage (over the airports you mention) is its huge catchment area which extends south to the West Midlands and north to southern areas of Scotland.

[rferguson]

I remember that a discussion came up on an internal BA forum regarding other UK airlines expanding from ‘the regions’ and BA ignoring them. Staff like posters on here were asking ‘why aren’t we?’

What BA said
– other airlines such as Virgin are slot restricted at LHR. Therefore they have to look for other opportunities where they can exploit their resources. It’s also worth noting that Virgin only operate these routes SEASONALLY so in other words they cannot offer a year round service profitably. BA on the other hand (mainly via the purchased of BMI) is not slot restricted at LHR. It does not need to seek alternative revenue sources for it’s aircraft.
– BA would never rule out the opportunity to launch long haul direct flights from other UK cities and they do monitor options regularly. However, it would have to be shown to BA that the revenue and profit gained on launching for example MAN or BHX – JFK would exceed what that same aircraft could earn on a flight from the ‘golden runways’.

[ba747fan1]

Do BA have the planes to expand into the regions based on the use of Titan Airways, Jet Air (or whatever it is called) in the summer? Seems that Virgin / Delta alliance is showing some benefits. At the rate BA is going, I may give Virgin another chance soon.

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

BA are slot restricted at LHR. If they want to launch a new route then they have to chop another route. BA can’t just say hey presto I’m launching LHR to SCL tomorrow and there not be any “give”. Something else would go (in recent times the Africa network).

VS at MAN are now year round for ATL and the other routes if they work will probably go year round as well. BOS could work very well feeding the DL network in addition to ATL.

[FaroFlyer]

LondonCity

Not sure if the BT link is correct. I just looked at SFO-MAN on 23 Oct and there are no flights showing.

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Faroflyer

You’d need to look for 2017 – won’t show anything for 2016. So won’t be able to see the flights for a while yet.

[FaroFlyer]

Oooops!

[rferguson]

When I say BA isn’t slot restricted I mean BA has enough slots to accommodate any new profitable routes it feels it can launch from LHR. It’s true, BA doesn’t have slots idly sitting around – under the ‘use it or lose it’ rule it isn’t possible. But it does have plenty of slots that are being used on multiple daily short haul frequencies. It has the advantage of not having to cancel any routes to launch a new one. All it has to do is take out a rotation of multiple daily flights to AMS/BRU/MAD etc etc. So aircraft availability is the real thing that limits it. But with new 787’s coming regularly BA is able to expand its long haul network from LHR. Virgin on the other hand – short of cancelling a long haul route altogether or reducing a profitable long haul frequency does not have the slots to be flexible with at LHR. As their fleet grows or they adjust their LHR timetable they need to look for alternatives outside LHR.

It still amazes me they didn’t make a bigger play for the ex BMI slots.

Since the DL stake virgin had definitely turned its fortunes around. It hasn’t come at a cost to its worldwide network though. It’s flights going east have pretty much disappeared and it is very much going back to its ‘Atlantic’ routes.

[LetsFlyNow]

@rferguson
‘All it has to do is take out a rotation of multiple daily flights to AMS/BRU/MAD etc etc.’

No BA really can’t do that. Slot allocation very much differentiates between long haul and short haul. Meaning that an airline can’t automatically switch a short haul for a long haul on a given specific slot. That may be possible at certain times of the day but it’s not 100% the case on all slots.

And those are feeder flights anyway, why bite the hand that feeds you?

[AnthonyDunn]

Interesting: KPMG reported their annual survey of the costs of location across the world’s leading cities on this morning’s BBC Radio 4 “Today” programme. Manchester topped the list in the UK owing to the substantially lower cost of property be that residential, commercial or industrial. Could this be entirely coincidental?

Separately, I read that BA’s 787’s delivery programme is being held up by problems in the supply line of its …seating.

[Author]

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