Why do so many BA establishment types start accentuating what’s posted and plonk aircraft and routes which those in the regions have not a cat in hell’s chance of starting?

Well the four routes that I mentioned are some of the most high profile and high yielding routes that BA fly from London, so would be prime candidates for MAN links if any route ever was.

A lot of people seem to think that they are the ones with access to all of BA’s finances and also an extensive market research and strategy department. They are not. BA are and they use this.

BA have no commitment to the regions. They also have no commitment to NOT serve the regions. They have a commitment to their shareholders to maximise the use of the resources made available to them, to raise shareholder value and shareholder earnings.

Anything else is just superfluous.

The European 757 programme is codenamed “Project Lauren” and is a thoroughly dynamic project that has quite a bit of freedom in deciding how to make best use of the resources available to it, namely a subfleet of 757s and Open Skies.

JFK was originally the group’s main focus point, however numerous problems at the JFK end have seen that relegated in favour of further opportunities still being evaluated. The main issue is the fact that JFK is heavily congested and the US government is looking at ways of reducing traffic rather than increasing it.

As for Manchester, this point gets raised on various forums every week and on this forum every couple of months.

There is no economic case for BA to operate long haul flights from Manchester to anywhere but New York.

Flights are operated from London where there is heavy proven, premium, high yielding demand. BA’s business model is then to funnel traffic onto these existing services to make up the gap in numbers where the O&D ex London traffic isn’t absolute.

This is the same as any airline in the world operating a hub and spoke system, as well as numerous European national carriers, like Air France (who are not called Air Paris despite not operating long haul services from the regions)

BA do not operate routes to please spotters or conform to some social vision that they should operate services from the regions, or otherwise lose their brand name. This is 2007 not 1957 and Britain not Zimbabwe.

Yes, by and large they are not the brightest lights on the Christmas tree.

But if you know how they work you can sail past them every time.

Hold your boarding pass at all times you are in the queue and passing through the metal detector. They get really really annoyed if you don’t do that.

Is a snow plough even the right answer to the type of weather we experience in the winter?

I don’t think it is. Most of the snow we get causes slush at worse, but more normally slippery, icey conditions that make operating aircraft rather dangerous.

With a heavy snow squall you can just plough the snow out of the way in one fell swoop. Ice and slush, at only borderline freezing temperatures, is much more dangerous and much harder to clear away.

Nice to read an in depth report about AA, thanks for taking the time to write it all out Michael!

I must say that pretty much everything you’ve written about AA matches up to my experiences on them this year (110,000 miles flown in 11 months and counting 😮 )

The uniforms across the entire airline are an embarrassment, passengers and staff alike detest them. I so wish they would get a new design. 🙁

As for your catering on the LHR-LAX flight that was done incorrectly for some strange reason. The three times I’ve flown AA137 this year it has been main meal, then after a couple of hours the snack pack, followed by the pizza an hour or so before landing. The return breakfast just gets worse too. They used to at least serve a tub of yoghurt with the croissant, but this got dropped in April 🙁

As for your baggage that was always going to be hit and miss. Baggage tracing is always a nightmare and I SWEAR AA relegate all their worst staff who have had the most complaints to baggage tracing, they are truly useless and downright rude too!

Overall I’m not sure that £5 would have got you anything better on BA. You would have faced the truly awful TBIT in LAX as opposed to the wonderful T4 AA use. I honestly find the service identical between AA and BA in Economy these days too. Food is made by the same people to the same specifications so you can’t differentiate on that. The only noticeable difference is the uniforms and the average staff age!

Oh, one thing you mentioned but didn’t elaborate on was public transport to LAX! I’ve done this a couple of times and it is a fantastic cultural experience. I am assuming you were staying in WeHo or somewhere like that and took the bus eastbound to connect to the subway?

Not for the faint hearted! :p

200 built, 5 confirmed write offs, one unconfirmed write off, 194 aircraft in service or presently undergoing Passenger -> Freighter conversions.

🙂

The CAA officially call them Islanders as well, not Defenders.

I have two down as belonging to the RAF and not the AAC, ZF573 and ZH536 but I think they are the type of aircraft that don’t actualy exist if you get my drift… 😉