The airline had only just merged with China Eastern too, they only operated 5 of the type. Very sad news.

I believe that most if not all US airlines’ international(i.e long haul US-UK) routes are profitable, which are what are in question here.

Yes many of their trans-atlantic routes are profitable, however BA would incur extra costs if they were to compete on services from GLA, EDI, BHX, BFS, or BRS. The costs basically stem from the standalone aircraft required. In the case of BNWH at MAN the costs are covered because BA make significant amounts of money from the JFK route.

If BA could ensure they can make significant amounts of money from other airports then they would fly from there. They have flown from the regions in the past, and when the services stopped generating BA money then they were withdrawn. CO has the advantage over BA in terms of a lower fixed cost base, and as such will derive more revenue from their services than BA can from theirs.

Cheers 1L 😉

Everyone bickers and moans that there are not more services from the regions to the USA, but as 1L says BA is not a charity, and is not obliged to run routes from the regions (Although I think it does run some routes under PSOs but thats a different story). If BA think they can run services profitably from the regions to the USA then they will, if they don’t then they won’t. The MAN-JFK service makes a money in its present set up so thats why it operates how it does.

CO and other US airlines are operating services to the UK regions, but that is because they are operating from hubs of their own in the US, where the aircraft are supported by a large operation. It is more expensive for BA, or any other airline, to base one or two aircraft independantly at an airport and operate to the USA, than it is for a US airline to operate from their hub to a UK airport.

BA are not a charity, and do not fly planes for the benefits of spotters, purely for the benefits of their shareholders. If they cannot make money on a service they will not fly it.

1L are you sure the 767s don’t have a First cabin? BA.com is more than happy to sell me a First ticket on 767 routes?

BA appears to operate their B767s in 4 different configurations:

Club Europe/Euro Traveller
Old Club World/Euro Traveller
First Class/Old Club World/World Traveller
New Club World/WT Plus/World Traveller

No 767s operate in a “shuttle” configuration; infact even the long-haul 767s have recently flown the odd domestic service.
I guess that BNWH falls into category 2 and few other a/c share this seating configuration.

As far as I am aware they just have 2 different configs:

Club Europe/Euro Traveller
First/Old ClubWorld/World Traveller

It will be done when BNWH goes down to LHR next for maintenance I assume. It hasn’t been down for a little while so I imagine it will go down soon.

When they take BNWH down to LHR then they usualy take up another BA 767, either as a shuttle or a positioning flight. The reasons BNWH does the route predominantly is something to do with its configuration, specifically related to ZFW I believe?

yes , They have no facilites at Manchester so it would have to go to Heathrow for a wash, but is usually tied in with maintance, they would’nt just take it out of service just for a wash

I don’t buy that, as it would mean that none of the BACX planes would get cleaned as they don’t go through the bases that have the washing facilities, therefore there must be some facilities available at MAN for washing?