British Airways

[a300boy]

BA1345/6 operated by A320 G-EUUG tonight.

 

[lbaspotter]

BA1345/6 operated by A320 G-EUUG tonight.

Might be worth keeping a close eye on the shuttles over the next couple of weeks before the T5 move. As some of the British Airways G-EUP & G-EUO aircraft will be operating out of T1 for a short while due to the fact that the ex bmi A319's are now starting to leave Heathrow for Gatwick.

G-DBCJ has already moved over and will be followed shortly by more ex bmi A319's for the start of the summer schedule to replace the older Boeing 737-400's..

 

[ridgeback]

What we need is 2 weeks with no vis issues.

BA320's can't autoland at Leeds and as per the above there will be several rotations operated by 320's until the service moves to its new home in T5.

Could do without any snow tonight as well while I'm at it !!

 

[a300boy]

This is Leeds Airport we are talking about. You may get that scenario in August.
Any idea when this mornings flight was cancelled ? It would probably have made it in as all the other arrivals did after holding for a little while. However probably the best decision if in doubt. For my future plans what is the normal option for the passengers to travel southbound other than a re-book on the lunch time flight ?

 

[lbaspotter]

Good news as the British Airways, Winter 2013/14 schedule for the London Heathrow Leeds/Bradford shuttle flights has now been revised and retimed. The service will continue to be 3x daily except Saturdays which is 2x daily and will operate to the following timetable. The bad news is that we still don't get that night stopper as yet.

Monday
BA1346 = LHR 07:45 LBA 08:55 / BA1347 = LBA 09:30 LHR 10:40
BA1342 = LHR 12:50 LBA 14:00 / BA1343 = LBA 15:20 LHR 16:30
BA1344 = LHR 19:05 LBA 20:15 / BA1345 = LBA 21:15 LHR 22:25
Tuesday
BA1346 = LHR 07:45 LBA 08:55 / BA1347 = LBA 09:50 LHR 11:00
BA1342 = LHR 12:50 LBA 14:00 / BA1343 = LBA 15:20 LHR 16:30
BA1344 = LHR 19:05 LBA 20:15 / BA1345 = LBA 21:15 LHR 22:25
Wednesday
BA1346 = LHR 07:45 LBA 08:55 / BA1347 = LBA 09:50 LHR 11:00
BA1342 = LHR 12:50 LBA 14:00 / BA1343 = LBA 15:20 LHR 16:30
BA1344 = LHR 19:05 LBA 20:15 / BA1345 = LBA 21:15 LHR 22:25
Thursday
BA1346 = LHR 07:45 LBA 08:55 / BA1347 = LBA 09:50 LHR 11:00
BA1342 = LHR 12:50 LBA 14:00 / BA1343 = LBA 15:20 LHR 16:30
BA1344 = LHR 19:05 LBA 20:15 / BA1345 = LBA 21:15 LHR 22:25
Friday
BA1346 = LHR 07:45 LBA 08:55 / BA1347 = LBA 09:30 LHR 10:40
BA1342 = LHR 12:50 LBA 14:00 / BA1343 = LBA 15:20 LHR 16:30
BA1344 = LHR 19:05 LBA 20:15 / BA1345 = LBA 21:15 LHR 22:25
Saturday
BA1346 = LHR 07:05 LBA 08:15 / BA1347 = LBA 10:35 LHR 11:45
BA1342 = LHR 15:15 LBA 16:25 / BA1343 = LBA 17:15 LHR 18:25
Sunday
BA1346 = LHR 07:05 LBA 08:15 / BA1347 = LBA 10:35 LHR 11:45
BA1342 = LHR 14:30 LBA 15:40 / BA1343 = LBA 17:05 LHR 18:15
BA1344 = LHR 19:05 LBA 20:15 / BA1345 = LBA 21:15 LHR 22:25

 

[ridgeback]

The a/c was tech this morning.

The T1 fleet is decimated due tech issues and all T1 destinations are suffering but that notwithstanding the damage being done to this route due to unserviceable a/c is considerable. It simply has to improve. Pax are backing the route in ever greater numbers and need a reliable operation.

I am putting all my eggs in the T5 basket and praying it will deliver an improvement.

 

[White Heather]

Ridgeback, not sure if you can answer this, but why so many tech aircraft? I thought the Airbus family were supposed be a reliable aircraft? Is it that when an aircraft goes tech, whichever route it is due to operate, BA pinch the LBA aircraft to operate on a longer sector? If so, then its easy to see that we will lose a lot of flights as almost any A319 or A320 going tech could result in the LBA flight being cancelled.

 

[ridgeback]

Not sure re the tech a/c, I also thought they were pretty reliable machines but as I mentioned elsewhere on here recently LBA suffers at the hands of a policy of canx domestics first when short of a/c. LBA being the only domestic in T1 means when they're short in T1.....

That said this week other services than LBA hv been canx too so it isn't all being centred on Leeds.

T5 has probably 85-90% of BA's airbus fleet so hopefully that will yield a noticeable improvement. It needs to.

 

[Seasider]

I used the 1347 to Heathrow on Monday (90min delay) which was caused by late arrival of aircraft and de-icing requirement. The female captain told us that LBA has only one De-icing rig and that was having problems - she certainly wasn't impressed! I was just glad to get away and my connection to MRS was in Terminal 1. I counted 54 passengers on board. Coming back in the 1344 on Wednesday I had a 5hr wait but the BA Domestic hub in Terminal 1 looks out on to 27R so I was a happy bunny taking pictures. The problem was that the weather was lousy.
When they announced the flight, they said there was change of aircraft and as soon as they had refuelled, we would be boarding. We were then told we were to be bussed to a new gate. There were only 25 on the bus and I thought we were to be taken to T5 for a Manchester flight. I was wrong, we were taken to board 'CE which already had passengers on. I can only assume they had been notified of the change of gate. There were 87 passengers on board.
The Service on all flights (incl LHR-MRS) was first class, friendly efficient cabin crew, clear and informative flightdeck announcements and the Captain saying goodbye to you on disembarkation.
Thank you very much BA (I have emailed them) and I am looking forward to my trip to Frankfurt at the end of May. :good:

 

[a300boy]

Another morning flight cancelled today ! Can our insiders let us know why ?

 

[dmrodgers]

This service is getting so unreliable, cancellation after cancellation and not all due to weather conditions. BA have to show more commitment to the route, why would long haul passengers use this route when KLM operate a very reliable inter connecting service through Amsterdam. Lets hope once the route switches to Terminal 5 in April things improve otherwise passengers will seek alternative ways of travelling on business and leisure to London and beyond.

 

[LBA787]

FFS!! There were over a hundred booked onto the BA3141 LBA-LHR sector too...

I really hope T5 brings the reliability back at least on a par with PIA!!

:crazy:

 

[ridgeback]

You cannot defend the indefensible and I won't try. The dispatch reliability of the (primarily) BA1340/1 has been absolutely appalling of late.

Reason?

Not enough serviceable Airbii especially at T1 where several 319's have already headed for their new homes at LGW leaving a wafer thin fleet.

LBA suffers way more than it should although all T1 routes are suffering to an extent - this morning a DUS was canx also, last week TLS and HAJ took a hit. But LBA seems to get the most.

No excuses from me it's simply not good enough and the Yorkshire public deserve better. As some one above stated over 100 booked this morning southbound and a great deal of connections. This route recently had its first 100 genuine load and this week there are several of them. The loads are really gaining traction but the operation must deliver and it just isn't.

BA have very few tech canx in T5 and for me Sunday cannot come soon enough.

I really like the new schedule
I am very impressed with the way customers have backed the route
I think T5 will improve the product and (hopefully) the reliability also

I just pray we haven't done irreparable damage with the reliability over the last few weeks in particular.

Regards

 

[a300boy]

I think most of us on this forum are happy to know the loads are still improving and I would like to thank you for your candid response. We all hope for a more reliable T5 revamped service.

 

[EX9]

Lets just say we are the first to get pinched when one is needed elsewhere, as our designated a/c had nothing wrong with it.

 

[ridgeback]

Correct

I have explained previously why that tends to happen.

Doesn't make it any more palatable however.

 

[lbaspotter]

More Codeshare's added onto the British Airways Leeds/Bradford-Heathrow shuttle.

I know that American Airlines have had the AA flight code on the service since it started in December. It now appears that Qantas Airlines have there QF flight code on it as well. Leeds is now a bookable as destination on the Qantas website. http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/home/gb/en .

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

Really i thought they were ending their codeshares, and QF were going to EK to get a great share of the european market. This seems a bit of a odd decision.

 

[The Pole]

I see the callsigns for BA's LBA service has changed, it was SHT20A inbound this morning and the return was SHT21Z to Heathrow, is this due to the change to terminal 5?

 

[ridgeback]

More likely that someone filed an ASR due to callsign confusion TP.

BA shuttles traditionally all had alphanumeric call signs but there has been a move away from this in recent times for some reason.

BHD & LBA started with "Shuttle flt no" callsign but this has created SHT1340 & SHT1430 for example which has probably led to the new callsigns.

I've heard a load of shuttles on freq at LHR and thought it was less than ideal from an RT pov.

On a broader note the T5 move seems to have gone well and I did a very pleasant T5-T5 conx yesterday. Just need the pax figs to continue the upward trend on the new schedule now.