London Air Travel

London Air Travel » Page 19

Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 24 May 2021.

BA Short Haul Additions

The relaunch of international travel last week was, in spite of a co-ordinated PR effort between BA and Heathrow, a fairly muted affair.

This was not helped by mixed messages from government ministers on the relative status of amber and green list countries. At the weekend Transport Secretary Grant Shapps confirmed that people should not be taking holidays to amber list countries, but is confident that the green list will be extended throughout the summer.

This weekend BA is due to restart short haul flights from London Heathrow to a number of destinations in Greece including Chania, Kalamata, Kefalonia, Preveza, Rhodes and Zakynthos.

BA also launches flights from Manchester and Newcastle to Faro. BA CityFlyer also starts services to Faro from Edinburgh and Southampton. BA will also operate a large number of flights this weekend from Heathrow and Manchester to Porto.

Breeze Airways

A new airline takes to the skies in the US this week. Breeze Airways will launch its inaugural route from Tampa to Charleston this Thursday, 27 May.

Founded by serial airline entrepreneur David Neeleman it aims to operate unserved city pairs across the US. Additional markets will be progressively added throughout June and July with the aim of operating 39 routes between 16 cities.

Flights will be operated by Embraer E190 & E195 aircraft. The airline also has 60 Airbus A220 aircraft on order which will be delivered from later this year.

Breeze has styled itself as “seriously nice” airline with fare classes branded “nice” and “nicer”. It will also introduce a dedicated premium cabin “nicest” on Airbus A220 aircraft.

In case you missed it:

JetBlue finally confirms its plans to launch flights to New York JFK at Heathrow from 12 August and Gatwick from 30 September. Time will tell whether it’s really worth the effort splitting such a small operation between two London airports. (London Air Travel)

Heathrow Airport is to open a dedicated arrivals facility at Terminal 3 for passengers arriving direct on flights from “red list” countries from 1 June 2021. This will eventually transfer to Terminal 4. (London Air Travel)

London Air Travel » Page 19

Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 17 May 2021.

Travel Restrictions From England Lifted

Today, Monday 17 May, marks the lifting of restrictions on outbound international travel from England. Passengers no longer need a legally permitted reason to travel.

Many will still find the prospect of a holiday a long way off and, to the frustration of airlines, the UK government continues to dampen expectations.

At BA, there is a modest increase in short haul flights from London Heathrow.

Reinstated routes from this week – assuming no last minute cancellations! – include Ibiza, Lanzarote, Madeira, Malta, Marseille, Mykonos, Naples, Palma de Mallorca, Pisa, Santorini, Tenerife and Toulouse. BA also returns to Chicago O’Hare this week.

At London City airport, BA CityFlyer returns to Glasgow from today and Faro later this week.

Virgin Atlantic is due to return to Montego Bay from this Wednesday.

Full details on the new rules and the traffic light system for arrivals in England are available on gov.uk

Dedicated Heathrow Terminal For “Red List” Flights?

There has been considerable controversy over the past week on the UK government being slow to impose mandatory quarantine on flights from countries with relatively high rates of COVID-19 infection.

It has been suggested in the past that Terminal 4 could be designated as a terminal for “red list” flights so arriving passengers do not mix with those arriving from amber and green countries.

Yesterday’s Sunday Times reported that Ministers are proposing that Terminal 2 could be designated as an arrivals terminal for “red list” flights.

This will introduce considerable complications. It would require Terminal 3 to reopen first. Airlines such as BA and Virgin will not relish having to split operations between terminals. A large number of other airlines currently operating from Terminal 2 would have to relocate to Terminals 3 and 5. Given the pressure a heavily indebted Heathrow is under to contain operating costs, it will not want to reopen additional terminals unless it has to.

Wide Body Short Haul Flights

Back to short haul travel in Europe, one of its few reliable pleasures is a flight on a wide body aircraft.

Due to limited scheduled passenger flights, airlines are operating selected flights with wide body aircraft for their cargo capacity.

Yesterday, BA started operating flights BA559 & BA560 between Heathrow and Rome Fiumicino on Sundays with Boeing 777-200 aircraft.

Other BA wide body short haul flights at Heathrow this month include:

BA430 & BA431 to / from Amsterdam on Wednesday & Thursday;
BA636 & BA637 to / from Athens on Friday & BA626 & BA627 on Sunday;
BA621 & BA622 to / from Larnaca on Monday & BA664 & BA665 on Thursday;
BA776 & BA777 to / from Stockholm on Friday; and
BA712 & BA713 to / from Zurich on Wednesday.

As ever, these are indicative and subject to change at very short noice.

London Air Travel » Page 19

Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 10 May 2021.

BA launched its first major advertising campaign in two years last Thursday, one day before the UK government announced its “green list”. If you’ve not already seen it there’s a dedicated landing page on ba.com

These campaigns are planned well in advance and it is likely the airline thought it would be offering a more substantial schedule in late May than several flights a day to Faro. Speculation that the US was about to reopen to UK travellers was clearly wide of the mark.

IAG Keeps Its Options Open On Gatwick

When IAG’s management team were asked at its quarterly results presentation about BA’s plans to return to Gatwick airport, CEO Luis Gallego gave some rather cryptic comments.

Gatwick airport was described as having “strategic value” but IAG needed “to be flexible and competitive there” with the demand profile said to have changed post COVID-19 – BA is no longer competing against Norwegian and Virgin Atlantic at Gatwick. Luis added that the group is analysing the different options available to it.

When flights restart will depend on whether there is a further dispensation on “use it or lose it” slot rules for the winter season where the UK can now set its own rules.

If not, then IAG, and it’s clear that these decisions are being made above BA, will have to decide on its future at Gatwick as preserving slots at Heathrow will have to take priority for BA.

It is hard to see IAG replacing BA at Gatwick with another brand in the group. Vueling, which has had a somewhat scattergun approach to launching routes in the UK, and has not really gained any traction. LEVEL is also an unknown quantity and has retreated from short haul markets in Amsterdam and Vienna. There would also be much less synergy with the BA Executive Club and BA Holidays.

History has shown that when slots are ceded to rivals at slot constrained airports it is very hard to regain a presence. 20 years ago easyJet had next to no presence at Gatwick. By downsizing at the turn of the century and allowing easyJet to acquire its former franchise partner GB Airways and Flybe’s slot portfolio, BA played a large part in enabling it to become the dominant airline. Only until relatively recently did BA seek to regain momentum by buying Monarch’s former slots.

There were already some signs of a change in approach. The planned transfer of routes to Accra, Doha and Islamabad from Heathrow to Gatwick do not fit with BA’s historic approach of focusing on point to point leisure traffic.

BA May Restart Airbus A380 Flights Later This Year

It has been known for some time that BA has no plans to follow many other airlines and retire the Airbus A380 aircraft early.

IAG did indicate last year that up to 4 of its 12 strong fleet could be put in to storage for the medium term. At last week’s results announcement, BA CEO Sean Doyle said the aircraft could return to service later this year when demand recovers.

Whilst we won’t be seeing BA’s A380s flying to Hong Kong or Singapore anytime soon, with a high premium seating configuration, it clearly sees the aircraft as a necessary part of its fleet now the Boeing 747 has been retired.

London Air Travel » Page 19

Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 3 May 2021.

UK Travel Restrictions

More than six months have passed since the UK government announced restrictions on international travel.

It is a near certainty that these will be lifted two weeks from today on Monday 17 May.

According to yesterday’s Mail On Sunday the government could announce as soon as this Friday the first “green list” of countries that UK citizens can visit without the need for quarantine on return. This will be under the slogan “Travel Safely; Plan Ahead”. It is reported this will be updated very three weeks. This does not provide for that many updates during the peak summer season.

The Sunday Times reported that the final list of countries is yet to be decided. Though there is speculation that Gibraltar, Iceland, Malta and Portugal will be on the green list. France, Greece and Spain are likely to on the amber list.

BA seems confident in travel restarting. It has refreshed its YouTube videos from last year on travel post COVID-19 and is running promoted social media posts.

Tourism Ministers of G20 members will also meet virtually this Thursday to discuss the restart of the travel and tourism industry.

Virgin Atlantic Results

Virgin Atlantic is often coy about publishing its financial results. True to form, it quietly slipped out its results for last year on a Friday before a bank holiday weekend.

The airline reported a loss of £659 million before tax and exceptional items for the year to 31 December 2020. Unrestricted cash fell from £353 million to £115 million.

Like all airlines at the moment, the accounts do include a going concern warning. Virgin considers that the actions taken earlier this year such as the sale and leaseback of Boeing 787 aircraft and securing further support from Virgin group will support the airline during a very gradual easing of travel restrictions in the third quarter of this year. Virgin does aim to be profitable in 2022.

IAG will also announce its first quarter results for 2021 this Friday.

South African Airways Exits Business Rescue

South African Airways has formally exited its business rescue process after nearly 18 months.

The Business Rescue Practitioners filed on Friday a notice of “substantial implementation” of a business rescue plan with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission in South Africa.

The airline is now claimed to be solvent and has been handed over to an interim board. The Department of Public Enterprises issued a statement that the government is in negotiations with a preferred equity partner and a sale and purchase agreement should be agreed within the next few weeks.

There is currently no timetable for the airline to resume flights.

London Air Travel » Page 19

Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 26 April 2021.

How Has BA’s Fleet Changed Post COVID-19?

BA published its annual accounts last week. We read these things so you don’t have to. This was the first time the airline has published its own updated aircraft fleet plan post COVID-19.

It is well known that COVID-19 prompted the immediate retirement of the Boeing 747 fleet, almost five years ahead of schedule. The Airbus A380 fleet also remains grounded.

Here’s a breakdown of BA’s fleet as at 31 December 2020:

In summary, COVID-19 has cut the size of BA’s fleet by more than 10% with aircraft reduced from 305 to 277.

Long haul aircraft decreased by 26 from 137 to 111 aircraft. This was primarily accounted for by the retirement of 32 Boeing 747 and some older Boeing 777-200 aircraft. This was offset by new deliveries of 5 Airbus A350-1000, 4 Boeing 777-300 and 2 Boeing 787-10 aircraft.

At 31 December 2020, BA still had 10 Airbus A350-1000 and Boeing 787-10 aircraft and 18 Boeing 777-900 aircraft to be delivered. In all likelihood these will be delayed. Options to acquire a further 36 Airbus A350-100 and 24 Boeing 777-900 are unlikely to exercised. The airline has previously allowed options to acquire a further 9 Boeing 787-9 aircraft to lapse.

The movement in short haul aircraft is more modest, with the fleet decreasing by just 2 to 166 aircraft. The airline continues to retire Airbus A319 aircraft and withdraw the Embraer E170 at London City.

At 31 December 2020, BA had just 9 Airbus A320neo and 3 Airbus A321neo aircraft left to be delivered. It still has options to acquire a further 10 Airbus A320neo aircraft, having allowed around 20 other options to lapse.

There are of course huge unknowns as to how many remaining aircraft will actually be brought back into service. In its base assessment on the planned return to service capacity in the first quarter of 2022 is expected to be 17% below the first quarter of 2019. A given plausible alternative scenario is a 61% reduction in capacity.

In the medium term, there is the question of whether the airline sees the Airbus A321 LR and XLR aircraft having a role. BA’s fellow IAG subsidiary Aer Lingus had ordered 8 A321 LR and 6 A321 XLR aircraft. Iberia had also ordered 6 A321 XLR aircraft.

Back to the numbers, to give an indication of how much the airline’s financial position has changed in 12 months, cash and cash equivalents fell from £2.6 billion to £1.3 billion. Meanwhile net debt increased from £3.7 billion to £7.5 billion. This includes a loan of €1.65 billion from its parent company. $750 million raised last year through the mortgaging of aircraft was repaid in December.

London Air Travel » Page 19

Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 19 April 2021.

Flybe Pilots Its Return

Shortly before it collapsed into administration, Willie Walsh delivered a withering verdict on Flybe: “That’s a business model that doesn’t work with shareholders that have suddenly cottoned on that they’ve bought a dog.”

That has not deterred its new owners, behind the company known as Thyme Opco Ltd, from buying the Flybe brand, intellectual property and its airport slots. Many assets such as aircraft parts and engines still rest with the administrators.

An appeal to the Secretary of State for Transport against a decision by the Civil Aviation Authority to revoke Flybe’s operating licence is underway.

It’s not clear whether the new Flybe intends to fly from Heathrow. When the former bmi remedy slots were re-advertised last year, there was a warning that the ownership of these slots is subject to a legal challenge. A subsequent report from the administrators of Flybe advised that they were challenging IAG’s appropriation of these slots after Flybe went into administration. There has been no update on this for some months.

At present, the only indicator of Flybe’s plans is fairly nondescript “Coming Soon” on the Flybe website. Whether it is operating marginal regional routes or providing feeder traffic to long haul airlines, neither have proven to be financial rewarding, let alone in the aftermath of a pandemic and aviation’s biggest crisis since the Second World War.

Archive Footage From KinoLibrary

The Kinolibrary archive hosts a vantage range of 20th century film footage.

It has in the past week uploaded to its YouTube channel, in three parts, very early 1920s films of a Handley Page G-EASN aircraft flying between London and Paris. You can see the passengers were certainly dressed for the occasion!

Also, the library has uploaded rare colour footage of Pan American World Airways from 1948 at what was formerly known as New York International Airport.

London Air Travel » Page 19

Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 12 April 2021.

“Summer Route Roulette”

When the UK government announced its proposed traffic light system to reopen international travel this summer, airlines made their views known very quickly.

BA extended the cancellation of short haul flights at Gatwick until 31 October. The only clue as to its summer schedule at London City, traditionally packed with flights to Ibiza and Mykonos, are two new routes to Jersey and Gibraltar.

In yesterday’s Sunday Times the challenge facing airlines was cited as analogous to a game of Russian roulette. Spend huge sums of money preparing to return aircraft and crews to service to no avail, or miss out on significant pent up demand. “We’re gambling — will we meet demand? Is there a chance we’ll lose capital?” said Shai Weiss CEO of Virgin Atlantic. Another airline CEO, speaking off the record, put it more bluntly “You might as well use the dartboard to do your strategic planning”.

Border restrictions are not the only concern of airlines. In his first media briefing as IATA Director General Willie Walsh made it clear that airlines should not have to manually process passenger documentation at airports, nor should pre flight testing become a permanent feature of international travel.

Following recent events, this week is expected to be a light week for official news in the UK. Government announcements will be limited to essential news only and most UK businesses will hold back PR activity. That said, on Wednesday the Transport Select Committee will take evidence on the Global Travel Taskforce from representatives of ABTA, BALPA, Heathrow and IATA.

easyJet will also give a half year trading update on Wednesday.