British Airways

[LBA787]

According to the daily flight schedule today's LBA-LHR loads were as follows:

BA1341 67 pax
BA1347 39 pax
BA1343 45 pax
BA1345 15 pax

There could have been some additional last minute bookings but nothing spectacular to report.

:crazy:

 

[lbaspotter]

According to the daily flight schedule today's LBA-LHR loads were as follows:

BA1341 67 pax
BA1347 39 pax
BA1343 45 pax
BA1345 15 pax

There could have been some additional last minute bookings but nothing spectacular to report.

:crazy:

Do you also happen to have access to the passengers figures for today's Northbound flights as well LBA787?

 

[LBA787]

Do you also happen to have access to the passengers figures for today's Northbound flights as well LBA787?

Sorry lbaspotter the daily flight schedule only lists the departing passenger volumes.

Interestingly the flight crew of BA1343 elected to lineup and depart from the alpha taxiway entrance to the runway. I've seen it happen with the Dash 8's, ERJ's and even a Fokker 100 but It's quite rare to see this type of departure with a larger a/c like A319's.

:crazy:

 

[whoshotjimmi]

I made a very similar post a couple of weeks ago having seen the A319 perform the same take off procedure. Very impressive take off performance.

Just looking at those figures, it is clear to see that the late southbound departure time is just completely wrong. I can't help thinking that, if the flight times were optimised, the numbers on the route would be very positive. However, theoretically, when the service reverts to 3 daily, the midday departure should have a reasonable figure.

 

[Galaxy]

Just been looking at booking LBA - FRA via LHR in November on Skyscanner, and the morning flight seems to have disappeared altogether, is it being cut?

 

[EX9]

Last nights BA1345 had 44 pax.
Tonights Ba1344 (LHR-LBA) had in excess of 90.

 

[lbaspotter]

Just been looking at booking LBA - FRA via LHR in November on Skyscanner, and the morning flight seems to have disappeared altogether, is it being cut?

I wouldn’t worry too much about the schedule that’s on offer at the moment as I would hazard a guess that the airlines winter 2013/14 schedule is still a works in progress and by no way near complete. I would normally expect the schedule of an airline the size of BA's to be altered and revised several times between now and November. Surely it can’t be an easy task to work out which route and aircraft gets which slots at Heathrow, seen as they have that many to fill on a daily basis.

Also just look at the summer 2013 schedule as it stands. If I remember rightly it’s been changed, chopped and revised about 3 times over the winter months before been eventually finalised last month with the confirmation of the terminal change.

I suppose are members Ridgeback or User001 maybe able to add a bit more to this?

PS: Now be sarcastic the route was only given 12 months at best by some people on here and others elsewhere when it was originally announced. As they said it was just a slot sitting exercise. So I’m just happy it’s still on sale for the winter....

 

[Aviador]

Slot retainer or not, those passenger numbers will need to start rising at some point otherwise it will go. My worry is if the airport doesn't allow all BA passengers to use the security fast track during the busy summer months it will hinder customer retention.

 

[User0001]

The flight times for winter should be changed in the next few weeks. Its using a combination of the skeleton schedule for winter 12/13, and the new 3 daily schedule.

The 0930 will be back, its one of the better performing rotations due to the capability to connect to more longhaul flights, especially now LBA flights are at T5.

Its going to be a tight squeeze for Domestic flights now though. Whilst the domestics can leave from any 'A' gate at T5, they all have to arrive at gates 1-5 due to them having the domestic channel. On a MAN flight the other day, we arrived at gate 20, but had to leave the aircraft from the rear door, be bussed to gate 1 and arrive there. With another flight in the mix, this issue could get worse and cause delays for connections.

In terms of LBA flights, the loads are picking up, but are below the forecast targets BA had set. The route is not under threat, but it is being monitored. They are allowing for the fact it is the winter season, but given the flights have been give ample 'lead in' time for sales, they were still expecting slightly better loads. Yields are not too far off target, but still the lowest of the domestic network.

 

[ridgeback]

I would echo user0001's thoughts exactly.

The route is doing OK but only OK.

Yields I believe are acceptable.

Transfer traffic is very good, some flights have 80-90% connections which will please BA. (And I'm talking 80-90% of the flights with good 70-100 pax figs)

The problem sectors load wise are being addressed in S13 ie BA1340 retimed to 0755 and now going from T5 shd do so much better than currently. BA1341 & BA1344 are doing well and improving all the time. The middle 2 rotations are crying out to be merged and they are being - so long as we don't lose pax accordingly then the revised middle day rotation shd be much more viable.

It is a work in progress but given the awful start date and the notorious winter weather at LBA I think that in Jan/Feb it has done OK. 8,000 pax in Jan no bad thing but it needs to e higher.

I don't think BA are anywhere near axing it personally but I do think a lot hinges on how it fares in Summer.....

Much better schedule
T5
Core customer base now established
Pre-Xmas sales blitz wil start to show (holiday wise)
No real weather issues

If all the above don't push the route forward then it may become a little bleak.

Load wise another record week by a considerable margin. Only one week have the numbers remained flat compared to the previous week. I am disappointed that BA1341 isn't remotely full on Sunday however given that Bradford City are playing at Wembley.

 

[ridgeback]

PS it's worth noting that the CAA stats released this week show awful year on year figs for some other domestic routes. NCL-LHR, MAN-LHR & EDI-LHR all posted big drops. eg LHR-NCL-LHR down 5,000 on last Jan.

That is the state of the domestic market largely down to APD along with the never ending recession I guess. I make this observation not to start a load of pointless region-region debate/willy waving but merely to suggest that this is truly a tough time to launch a new domestic route and to try and establish it.

 

[User0001]

PS it's worth noting that the CAA stats released this week show awful year on year figs for some other domestic routes. NCL-LHR, MAN-LHR & EDI-LHR all posted big drops

Whilst this is an LBA thread, its worth pointing out MAN in particular will be down due to loosing up to 5 daily LHR flights from the bmi sale, that's obviously going to have a large effect.. They could well go up again when Virgin Atlantic start their 3 daily MAN-LHR flights.

 

[ridgeback]

Agreed. The only figures I put on it were for NCL however which hasn't lost any such airline.

BA ran their schedule and the BMI one that they then owned for all of S12 and then came up with a W12 schedule to, presumably, match demand and the figures, for Jan at least, are well down.

I really didnt want to go down this partisan route and I was at pains to say this isn't meant as a contentious point. Simply pointing out that domestic traffic across the board is depressed an this is the market BA are trying to nuture from a standing start at LBA.

NCL and MAN are really high performing routes, more so than LBA ever will be but I remain convinced that there is room for LBA in BA's domestic portfolio.

Now if only someone could convince HM Treasury to reduce APD to real world levels we might all benefit.

 

[User0001]

Now if only someone could convince HM Treasury to reduce APD to real world levels we might all benefit

Preaching to the choir. The sooner this abomination of a tax is gone, the better!

BA ran their schedule and the BMI one that they then owned for all of S12 and then came up with a W12 schedule to, presumably, match demand and the figures, for Jan at least, are well down

Yeah, its how BA came up with the LBA flights. There really was no point operating the MAN schedule that they had, for example 3 flights within 20 minutes was never going to continue under BA rules. Might as well split them up and go for a new market while they had the slots and aircraft.

Its also worth pointing out that part of the reason LBA has moved over to T5 is due to 5 bmi A319's heading to LGW for the summer. This left a deficit in the LHR T1 fleet, and LBA was one of the benefactors of moving to the 'legacy' BA fleet.

 

[ChurchFenton]

Thanks for the updates user001 and Ridgeback, I hope I speak for many that it's great to get a feel from those with access to a few facts of how BA likely perceive the route's performance to date. To be honest, it's more encouraging than I expected to hear that yields are seen as so-so at this stage. I'm currently sat in Heathrow awaiting an onward connection having flown down on 1347 which had around 40 on board. Spotless service, even arrived at LHR 25 minutes early!

 

[User0001]

No problem Churchfenton.

I think the thing to take away in its most basic form, the route isn't a stellar performer, but not the worst either.

The good thing about BA at the moment is, that it genuinely does give its routes a chance, which is something low cost operators tend not to do.

Whilst it's not at risk and Im certainly not saying it is, be rest assured, if LBA (or any other BA route) does ever get pulled, its for a fully legitimate reason after a lot of decisions, rather than the 'didn't give it a chance' excuse.

 

[LBA787]

Today's BA figures were as follows:

BA1341 125pax
BA1343 76 pax
BA1345 20 pax

A nice high load on the morning rotation.

:crazy:

 

[adam]

good load on middle too id say. maybe to do with the football today people staying down overnight

 

[Aviador]

There were a fair few Bantams on board!

 

[Moo2009]

A321 this afternoon G-MEDG