BA responds to future airport needs debate

Yes in order for them to take the lead on CDG then they will have to open up regional services! They are already expanding terminal capacity with T5, but they need another parallel runway which should be built north of the M4. In my view its becoming more of just an airport than a hub.

The problem with the crosswind runway is:
a) It restricts use on both the other runways when operational
b) BA have to move all their parked aircraft at T4 before they can use it!
It is only ever used in severe crosswinds. There was a more in depth look at it in the Airliner World that had the Heathrow feature.

A small runway at LHR seems to be a great idea. Let’s see it happen first though!

By the way – what is the deal with the existing short runway at LHR? It seems to hardly ever be used.

No, I agree BA would like more regional destinations. It is just because of current circumstances that BA cannot continue to operate the routes and much has been has been made of it i.e. “London Airways”. If more slots were available then BA could assign more to regional rather than to long haul that are profitable compared to some domestic.

Yeah, thanks for that Mongu.

I think you got it spot on Mongu.

But back to the regional runway at LHR, just think of the possibilities. Plymouth, Inverness, IOM, Exeter, the list goes on, all having connections to Heathrow.
This new runway wouldn’t just help London, but it would benefit the rest of the country greatly.

I’ll have a go :

Bermuda II is a bilateral treaty between the UK and the USA. It sets out the framework for commercial flights between these countries.

One of the points is that transatlantic flights ex-Heathrow may be served by only 4 airlines – 2 from the UK and 2 from the USA (BA, Virgin, American and United at present, although TWA and Pan Am previously represented the US).

Bermuda II also has a clause over the number of destinations which can be served from Heathrow. It’s not a huge number, so generally if someone like BA wants to add an American destination they either have to drop an existing one or transfer to Gatwick.

The main sticking point for BMI is that the UK already has 2 airlines, so there can’t be a 3rd, at least from Heathrow. Hence BMI started transatlantic flight from Manchester.

That’s why so many US airlines fly to Gatwick (US Airways, Delta, Continental, Northwest)

Some airlines (like Air India) have the right to fly LHR-USA and are exempted from the Treaty by special agreement, but this only accounts for a very small percentage of all traffic.

Technically I believe (though I’m not a lawyer) that Bermuda II is illegal, as the “2 airlines from the UK” bit should refer to “2 airlines from the EU” due to the Treaty of Rome and also the EU-wide open skies policy.

As a sidenote, there is constant talk of tearing the Treaty up in favour of open skies, but there seems to be a beurocratic turf war preventing this (the EU wants to handle negotiations, but so does the UK).

Someone in the business could probably sum it up more succintly, but hopefully I got the basics in there.

Could someone explain the Bermuda II treaty to me please ? I’ve never heard of it.

these flights are probably good for them – they park a F100 up at LBA instead of LHR, with the E145 using a smaller stand, so probably a reduced cost, and at that time of night they aint likely to have too many pax for connections – so mainly day tripping buisnessmen! A very profitable buisness

Exactly, if they don’t use the slots there is a risk of losing them.

I’m not saying that such flights can’t make a return for BMI though.

hell yea bmi would – i’m sure the only reason they operate a lat night LBA-LHR and an ealry morning LHR-LBA is to use the slots, it’s only an E145 overnight whereas the rest are the F100 thats parked up overnight in Leeds!

Not really – I think BA would genuinely like more UK regional flights into LHR, if only for the feeder value.

But all businesses will try to maximise the return from any limiting factor. Slots in this case are the limiting factor, so £ return per slot is an important indicator for BA. You just can’t make as much money flying to Jersey or Leeds as you can by flying to New York or Delhi.

As for BMI, I’m sure they’d love some long hauls from LHR but they have struggled to obtain the necessary permissions, especially transatlantic where the Bermuda II treaty stands in their way.

regional air routes from LHR – Leads me to think BMI over BA! What a joke!

“New short runway at Heathrow for between 30 and 60 take-offs and landings each day reserved for extra flights to more UK regional airports”

Is this BA talking? Hahaha. Nothing really new there, we know these are needed. The new third runway has always possessed the hope that the regions will get back their regional air routes, I am not too sure if this would be the case though it is good news that they acknowledge this. Essentially going through the EU for assistance in securing vital regional airlinks would be the preferred option for many regions (I know this is the way the Channel Islands are going via the UK government).

Very interesting. A third runway might help Citiexpress off it’s feet. Or is that just wishful thinking!