Category: New & Noteworthy

London Air Travel » New & Noteworthy

Today, Thursday 4 October 2018, marks 60 years since the first passenger jet service from London to New York.

One of British Airways predecessor airlines, BOAC, flew two de Havilland Comet 4 aircraft between London and New York International Airport, Idlewild.

This was a mere 24 hours after the Port Authority of New York granted approval for passenger jet services following concerns over noise. It was also less than a month after the aircraft had been delivered to the airline and it had received its certificate or air worthiness.

The westbound flight left London at 09:55 local time and landed in New York at 15:15 local time after a refuelling stop for one hour and ten minutes in Gander, Newfoundland. The total journey time was 10 hours and 20 minutes

There were 31 passengers out of a capacity for 48 on the aircraft. They included Sir Gerald D’Erlanger, Chairman of the board of BOAC. He carried a letter from the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Denis Truscott to Mayor Wagner of New York. There were 12 paying passengers, many of whom had made reservations in anticipation of passenger jet services years ago and were only called to travel at very short notice. There were two classes of travel, First and Deluxe.

The aircraft carried 15 crew members, instead of the usual 8. One of the cabin crew members was Peggy Thorne who made a return visit to British Airways yesterday.
Continue reading “60 Years of the Transatlantic Jet Age”

London Air Travel » New & Noteworthy

There’s an interesting feature on the cover of the latest edition Bloomberg Businesweek.

It concerns Marriott’s acquisition of Starwood Hotels Group. It happened in 2016. However, it has taken nearly two years for Marriott to combine its frequent guest programme with that of Starwood. The new combined programme will launch later this month.

It seems that the thorniest issue behind the transaction was not both sides and their armies of lawyers agreeing the terms of the deal or combining reservation systems, but their respective frequent guest programmes. Every single development in this regard has been carefully scrutinised by members on tenterhooks that their beloved benefits may be lost.

Put simply, who should be entitled to a free breakfast under the new programme!?

The article gives a good understanding of the workings of hotel loyalty programmes and the sometimes absurd lengths, known as “mattress runs” (it’s nowhere near as interesting as it sounds..), some members will go to climb the ranks of the programmes.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have been a member of some frequent guest programmes and enjoyed their benefits, principally late check-outs. But none have compelled me to be slavishly devoted to one hotel programme and I have been happy to let membership lapse.

Airline and hotel loyalty programmes are not the same

When it comes to flying, there is a logic of choosing to align yourself with one of three airline alliances to accrue frequent flyer benefits.

There is an assurance of flying with an airline in an alliance that there isn’t with booking large hotel groups.

In air travel, there is much scope for things go wrong. As customers of Primera Air and Norwegian have learned, for small airlines there are little means to recover from aircraft availability issues. When flying on a large airline, there is the assurance of the back-up it has through the size of its fleet, its network and its joint-venture and alliance partners. This isn’t so much the case with hotels. The only time I could genuinely see a need to stick with a large chain is when staying in a destination where you need to be confident of hotel security and its support should you have problems.
Continue reading “Why I Ignore Hotel Loyalty Programmes”

London Air Travel » New & Noteworthy

Some ten years ago, air travel between London and the United States was governed by an archaic treaty known as Bermuda II.

Signed in 1977 as successor to an agreement signed after the Second World War, it placed restrictions on who could operate flights between the UK and the US, and from where.

Flghts from London Heathrow to the US were restricted to two US airlines. These were American Airlines and United Airlines, who had acquired traffic rights from Trans World Airlines and Pan American World Airways respectively. What were then Continental, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines and US Airways were forced to fly from London Gatwick.

From the UK, only British Airways and, from 1991, Virgin Atlantic could fly to the US from London Heathrow. Not only that, certain routes could not operate from London Heathrow. So BA had to fly to Atlanta, Dallas Fort Worth and Houston from London Gatwick. bmi which, at the time, held approximately 15% of Heathrow’s slots sat in deep frustration at being unable to fulfil its ambitions to fly to the US from the airport.

Some 30 years later, with negotiations no longer between London and Washington, the EU negotiated an Open Skies agreement the US. It officially came into force on 30 March 2008. Heathrow was opened up to all US airlines. And EU airlines could fly to the US from any airport in the EU.

However, access of European airlines to the US market and US airline ownership rules were untouched. They were officially parked into Phase II and remain so today.

So what has been the impact of EU-US Open Skies?
Continue reading “10 Years of EU – US Open Skies”

London Air Travel » New & Noteworthy

A very Happy New Year to all our readers around the world.

There’s a lot to look forward to in 2018, so let’s start by taking a look at what new routes we can expect this year. No doubt many more announcements will follow in the coming months.

London Heathrow – Perth Non-Stop

This big headline is of course the launch of non-stop flights between London Heathrow and Perth from Sunday 25 March 2018.

With a flight time of nearly 17 hours, this route will test passengers’ appetite for “Ultra Long-Haul” travel. It may also presage, subject to aircraft technology, more direct flights between London and Australia in the 2020s.

Qantas has made much of the fact that it is looking to adapt in-flight service to the length of the flight so it will be interesting to see what emerges.

Ultimately, the success of the route will hinge on its technical reliability and financial profitability. The latter depends on sufficient year round demand from business class passengers who will be prepared to pay a premium for a non-stop flight.

This route will replace Qantas’ existing London Heathrow – Dubai – Melbourne flight. At the same time, Qantas will also replace London Heathrow – Dubai – Sydney with London Heathrow – Singapore – Sydney.
Continue reading “London’s new routes for 2018”

London Air Travel » New & Noteworthy

As we prepare to say farewell to 2017 and look forward to what will no doubt be a very eventful and exciting 2018, we take a customary look back at the year just gone. Here’s what we predicted might happen this time 12 months ago.

We should of course thank readers for your support over the past twelve months and hope you will continue reading over the next year.

1. The world of aviation is anything but predictable.

Who would have thought this time last year that a conciliatory Michael O’Leary would agree to recognise pilot unions in order to head off a Christmas strike at Ryanair?

Or that Qantas would reinstate London – Singapore – Sydney?

Or that someone could (allegedly) ground an airline by pulling out a plug?

Well, it all happened in 2017.
Continue reading “2017 – The Year In Air Travel In Review”

London Air Travel » New & Noteworthy

The world of air travel is never dull.  For an industry in a near permanent state of revolution there is no shortage of new developments for passengers.

Here is a run through developments we can expect in 2017 in terms of routes, airlines, airports and in flight service.

It’s a bit of long one, but here we go:

2016: The year of “Low Cost Long Haul” at Gatwick

Continue reading “What aviation trends & developments can we expect in London in 2017?”