British Airways long haul network changes: Summer 2014

by BA Staff

London based full service carrier British Airways has already begun to announce changes to its long haul network for the Summer 2014 season. Bangalore Aviation has prepared a summary of those changes below.

London Heathrow

• Accra - 10x weekly service introduced for Winter 2013/14 continues and sees capacity increase from daily Boeing 777 + thrice weekly Boeing 767 to daily 747-400 plus thrice weekly 767.
• Austin - NEW nonstop route to be served 5x weekly with Boeing 787 Dreamliner beginning 3rd March 2014, and up-gauged to daily from 4th May. 
• Entebbe - Service increases from 3x weekly to 4x weekly
• Jeddah - Upgraded from 3-class 767 to 4-class 777
• Johannesburg - Frequency decreased from 17x weekly in Summer 2013 to 14x weekly in Summer 2014: 8x weekly 747-400, 6x Airbus A380
• Los Angeles - Capacity decreased from 3x daily 747-400 to 2x daily A380
• Seattle - Frequency increased from 10x weekly introduced for Winter 2013/14 to 12x weekly: now daily 777 plus 5x weekly 747-400
• Tel Aviv- One of 3x daily flights up-gauged from 3-class Airbus A321 to 4-class 777

London Gatwick

• Antigua - Punta Cana - Increases from 2x weekly to 3x weekly 777
• Kingston - Increases from 3x weekly to 4x weekly
• Orlando - Increases from 10x weekly to 13x weekly
• St. Lucia - Increases from 6x weekly to 7x weekly

All changes are Summer 2014 vs. Summer 2013 unless otherwise noted

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Routes: easyJet to begin services between Jersey and London Gatwick

British low cost carrier (LCC) easyJet has announced new thrice daily service between Jersey and its hub at London Gatwick commencing 30th March 2014 utilizing 156 seat Airbus A319 aircraft. Find out more details below.

28th August 2013

easyJet, the UK’s largest airline has today announced it is increasing its Jersey network with the introduction of a year-round service to London Gatwick.

From 30 March 2014 easyJet will operate three flights per day between Jersey and London Gatwick offering the choice of a morning, afternoon and evening departure in each direction. The new service will go on sale in September 2013 and means easyJet now connect Jersey with five UK airports – London Gatwick, Southend, Liverpool, Newcastle and Glasgow.

The announcement follows a deal secured by easyJet earlier this year to purchase 25 additional slots at Gatwick Airport from Flybe. Since this time, the airline has worked closely with the route development team at Jersey Airport to expand its operation in the Island and enhance connections to London Gatwick. The new flight will be operated by an Airbus A319 aircraft with the capacity of 156 seats.

Group CEO for Ports of Jersey, Doug Bannister, is delighted by the announcement and says the confirmation will offer an excellent and affordable choice for both leisure and business passengers.

UK Commercial Manager for easyJet, Ali Gayward, says: “easyJet is pleased to confirm it will introduce new flights between Jersey and London Gatwick from spring 2014, which underlines our continued commitment to serving Jersey.

“The new early flight will allow business travellers to reach London in time for meetings while the evening departure enables them to travel home on the same day. The introduction of low cost seats will also help to boost tourism to Jersey.

“In developing our plans for London Gatwick we have listened to all the points made by Economic Development and Jersey Airport. Their enthusiasm to work with easyJet has been clear from the start and we hope this support will continue to make the route a success”.

Minister for Economic Development, Senator Alan Maclean, says: “Today’s announcement once again demonstrates easyJet’s continuing confidence in Jersey, which has continued to flourish since it first established services from the Island in 2008. The airline has the capability of delivering in excess of a quarter of a million passengers per year on the Gatwick route alone, which will be of great benefit to the vitally important tourism and business economy”.

Provisional schedule for summer 2014 – timings to be confirmed in September.

London Gatwick – Jersey             Jersey – London Gatwick
Depart Arrive                     Depart       Arrive
07:00 08:00                      08:30       09:30
14:30 15:30                      16:00       17:00
17:30 18:30                      19:00       20:00

The introduction of a London Gatwick service brings the total number of routes the airline serves from Jersey to five. In addition to its exiting year-round services to Liverpool, Glasgow and London Southend, the airline also introduced a summer service to Newcastle earlier this year.

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British Airways commences Colombo route and enhances Hyderabad

British Airways has commenced a new route to Colombo and enhanced its existing Hyderabad service to six a week.

The airline yesterday announced the start of a three days a week service from London Gatwick to Colombo, Sri Lanka, via Male, Maldives.

To Hyderabad, British Airways appears to be trying to fill the vacancy created by Lufthansa's withdrawal of service. In case of Colombo, Srilankan Airlines is an applicant member to the oneworld alliance of which British Airways is a founding member. The airline will be looking to strengthen alliances in this part of the world.

The Hyderabad service will be operated by a three class Boeing 767-300ER, while the Male/Colombo service will be operated by a three class Boeing 777-200ER.

To Hyderabad

Courtesy British Airways

BA 277 departs London Heathrow at 14:30 except Sundays, and arrives Hyderabad at 4:55 the next morning.
BA 276 departs Hyderabdad at 6:50 except Mondays and arrives London Heathrow at 12:50.
On Wednesdays, flight 276 leaves and arrives 10 minutes later.

To Colombo

BA2043 departs London Gatwick at 19:30 on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, arrives Colombo at 12:35 the next afternoon.
BA2042 departs Colombo Monday, Thursday, Saturday 14:05 and arrives London Gatwick at 22:50 the same night.

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AirAsia X ceases operations to New Delhi, Mumbai, London and Paris

AirAsia X, the low cost, long haul, affiliate of AirAsia, today announced a suspension of flights between its Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia hub and Mumbai and Delhi in India, London, UK, and Paris, France.

AirAsia X Airbus A340-300 at London Stansted airport. Photo copyright Devesh Agarwal.

• Mumbai - Four weekly services will be suspended with the last flight on 31 January, 2012
• New Delhi - Daily services will be suspended with the last flight on 22 March, 2012. Flights in March will be reduced to four weekly services.
• London - Six weekly services will be suspended with the last flight on 31 March, 2012
• Paris- Four weekly services will be suspended with the last flight on 30 March, 2012

AirAsia X has indicated it will offer guests who hold bookings after these dates an alternative travel option at no additional cost to mitigate the inconvenience caused as a result of these route withdrawals.

All affected guests will receive an e-mail stating options that are available to them, including a full refund, a reroute to another AirAsia X destination (e.g, in Australia and North Asia), or a move to an alternative carrier where available.

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Air India selling a London-Heathrow slot is a smart move.

Yesterday, Air India chief executive Rohit Nandan announced that Air India would be withdrawing one of its two daily Delhi-London-Heathrow flights from February 2012 and auctioning off the slots. Currently, Air India competes on the sector with Kingfisher, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and Jet Airways; all of whom offer more consistent products and command higher fares than Air India.

The Delhi-London market is over-supplied and hyper-competitive; so this capacity cut actually is a very sensible move. In fact, Bangalore Aviation has learned that revenues generated on the Amritsar-Delhi-London segment (AI 115) do not even cover the cost of fuel for the flight (performed on Boeing 777s). While most of Air India's flights are unprofitable, AI 115 reaches a special level of incompetence because the revenue it receives cannot cover 60% of the cost of the flight!

Furthermore, Air India's well timed Heathrow slot is a highly coveted asset amongst world carriers. Numerous airlines such as Air China, Vietnam Airlines, and Korean Air have been forced to shift their London expansions to the less convenient Gatwick Airport. These companies would likely pay princely sums for Air India's peak-hour slot; similar slots have sold for as much as US $58 million (Rs. 303.5 crore). Thus Air India's slot auction would serve two purposes; raise at least Rs. 100 crore for a cash-strapped airline, and terminate a highly unprofitable route; one of the few solid business moves Air India has performed in the last year.

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Air India delay in Gatwick - Indian media should learn from Ben Mutzabaugh, USA Today

Without a doubt, passengers of Air India had a harrowing time at London. Inside information seems to suggest that they airline's precarious financial condition has played a role.

While most Indian media outlets were on their usual high pitched drum-beating reporting, one might say rants, about the incident, I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of reporting by Ben Mutzabaugh in his column Today in the sky. In his article Ben calmly reports the incident.

In addition to his own vast knowledge, he relies on and cites the reports of news media from across the world to produce a complete and calm report of a what can be only described as a nasty incident thanks to extreme indifference and illogical thinking of an airline and its employees, exaggerated by its pathetic financial condition.

Many members of the Indian media read Bangalore Aviation, and I most humbly request them to take the time to study and take ques from Ben's article and methodology.

Thanks Ben for showing the way.

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AirAsia X to shift from London Stansted to Gatwick

Malaysian low fare carrier AirAsia X has announced that it will shift its six times a week Kuala Lumpur to London flights from Stansted airport to Gatwick airport from October 24, 2011.

AirAsia Airbus A340-300 9M-XAC in Oakland Raiders livery at London Stansted. Click on image for high resolution view.

The move will afford AirAsia X passengers better onward connectivity both by air and surface. The Gatwick Express will provide passengers quick connectivity to London's Victoria station and the London Underground.

AirAsia X launched its flight into Stansted in March 2009 and offers a good low fare connection across the "Kangaroo Route" between the UK and Australia and New Zealand. The carrier also leverages the strong regional network of its affiliate AirAsia for passengers between Europe and south-east Asia.

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Virgin Atlantic unveils new Clubhouse at London Gatwick airport

Virgin Atlantic has unveiled a new and completely refurbished 795 sq. mtr. (8,500 sq. ft.) clubhouse at Gatwick airport featuring a luxurious Cowshed Spa.

The Cowshed Spa and Internal Rock Garden provide a new focal point for the Clubhouse. With its porcelain slates, natural stone mosaic floors and black glass mosaic tiled walls, the Clubhouse provides passengers a feeling of tranquillity and luxury with its extensive use of natural daylight and vintage Cole & Son wallpaper.

The Cowshed Spa also offers a variety of treatments to passengers, including a gentle massage or a luxurious manicure or pedicure, all using Cowshed’s acclaimed 100% natural products, or more traditional showering facilities.

The lounge has been created by London based architectural practice FDArchitecture in collaboration with the Virgin Atlantic in-house design team.

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Oman Air to shift from London Gatwick to Heathrow

Oman Air will switch its Airbus A310 Muscat London flights from Gatwick to Heathrow from January 15, 2009.

The flight schedule will also change from January 15 once the flights switch to Heathrow.

Muscat departure at 12:55 arrival London Heathrow 17:40, London Heathrow departure 21:30 arrival Muscat 09:00+1 (the next day)

For more information visit www.omanair.aero.

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