Coolum Beach, Queensland, Australia, Qantas Sightseeing Flight Saturday 10 October 2020 (Image Credit: Qantas Airways)
Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 12 October.
The Qantas Flight To Nowhere
When it comes to inventive ways to raise cash during COVID-19, Qantas has been leading the pack.
Having sold off amenity kits and fully stocked storage carts to frequent flyers, on Saturday Qantas operated a “flight to nowhere” from Sydney to Sydney. Passengers on board the Boeing 787-9 aircraft for the 8 hour plus time were afforded views of New South Wales, Queensland and Uluru in the Northern Territory.
Qantas has released B-Roll footage of Saturday’s flight, a clip of which you watch here.
Whatever the interest may be for similar flights in Europe, airlines will have to resist pressure over environmental concerns. There would have been huge demand for final BA Boeing 747 flights from Heathrow before their withdrawal from the airport, which the airline did not offer.
Australia: Come Fly With Me
Staying with Qantas, next month the airline will celebrate its centenary which also marks the birth of civil aviation in Australia.
A new three part series “Australia Come Fly With Me” begins this week on SBS Australia charting the course of civil aviation in Australia and how it has reflected cultural and societal change. Judging by the trailer above, there’s no shortage of archive footage. Sadly, there’s no sign yet of this series being shown in the UK.
BA Long Haul Route Updates
A familiar pattern of some steps forward and some steps backward, as far as BA’s long-haul route network is concerned.
At Heathrow, BA restarted flights to The Seychelles on Saturday. BA launches a new route to Lahore today. BA will also transfer its route to Male from Gatwick to Heathrow on Friday. The restart of Riyadh, originally planned for early October, is postponed again.
Meanwhile at Gatwick, BA returns to Grenada, via St Lucia, on Wednesday. The return of a number of other routes including Cancun and Mauritius is postponed again.
BA has also postponed the planned launch of its new route from Gatwick to Montego Bay from 13 October to provisionally 12 December.
British Airways Long-Haul Network, London Gatwick & Heathrow, October 2020 (1 October 2020 version) (Image Credit: British Airways)
Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 5 October 2020.
COVID-19 Airport Testing
There was a course for optimism for last week as Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye indicated that a trial of government supported, but privately funded, COVID-19 airport testing could begin “within weeks”.
According to a report in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph, Stephen Barclay, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said a decision would be made “in the coming days” and an announcement is expected from Grant Shapps and Matt Hancock.
The article goes on to say ministers are considering forming a “taskforce” to examine options for international travel. If so, this should have been established months ago and does not instil confidence. Not least given the UK government’s track record on over-promising and under-delivering.
Stephen Barclay appears to favour the approach of Germany where arriving passengers can receive a test result within hours to avoid quarantine. The government’s scientific advisory panel, SAGE, appears to favour “dual testing” where arriving passengers must test negative twice within five days to leave quarantine.
Last week American Airlines announced the start of pre-flight COVID-19 testing on select routes in the Americas. There is no doubt it wants to extend this to transatlantic flights with some urgency.
Dutch newspaper de Volksrant reports a trial has been underway at Helsinki airport where four sniffer dogs were trained to detect COVID-19. Whilst apparently successful in Finland, trials elsewhere have yielded less positive results.
Back to Heathrow, the airport will appear before the Supreme Court this Wednesday to appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal that the decision by the UK government to approve a third runway was unlawful.
BA October Schedule
A little over a week ago, we published BA’s planned route network for October.
This has been updated since publication as BA issued a revised route map, pictured above. The restart of flights from London Heathrow to Riyadh has been pushed back to 15 October.
Interestingly, BA has removed Cancun and Mauritius from its October route map even though they are currently showing as operating from 17 and 15 October. BA’s new route to Montego Bay, which is due to launch on 13 October is also absent.
Although some airlines are reported to have cancelled flights to South Africa, BA’s flights to Cape Town and Johannesburg appear to be operating as planned.
Alex Cruz To Speak At FlightGlobal Event
BA CEO Alex Cruz will speak as part of a virtual FlightGlobal event “Airlines 2050” next Monday, 12 October.
The event starts at 09:30 BST. A full agenda which includes a wide range of speaks from airlines and government is available at FlightGlobal and registration is free here.
British Airways Long-Haul Network, London Gatwick & Heathrow, October 2020
Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 28 September 2020.
Aviation Hopes For An October Surprise
As the US election approaches, journalists and pundits are waiting for what is known as the “October Surprise” – this being an event, planned or unplanned, that may change the course of the election.
Airlines must be hoping for something, anything, next month to break the current impasse on travel restrictions.
In the US, airlines are likely to begin very significant redundancies as federal support under the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act comes to an end.
According to a report by York Aviation commissioned by Airlines UK, Heathrow, IAG and Collinson Group, the UK economy is losing £32m a day due to the lack of a transatlantic air bridge.
Sir Richard Branson has, according to The Telegraph, had what would be described in diplomatic circles as “a frank exchange of views” with Matt Hancock over the government’s failure to secure a transatlantic air bridge.
Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Air New Zealand CEO Greg Forum said that eliminating COVID-19, something New Zealand had aimed to do until it experienced a second wave, was no longer realistic. Taking into account the likely efficacy of a vaccine and the time it will take to distribute globally to those that are prepared to receive it, countries must learn to live with the virus.
IATA has called for a global standard of systematic testing before and after departure as in interim solution to eliminate the need for quarantine measures.
Airline industry bodies are adamant the airline travel is safe. According to a briefing by the EASA reported by Reuters only seven of three million passengers in recent weeks have displayed symptoms of COVID-19 on board aircraft. (Of course, many with COVID-19 are asymptomatic.)
BA Publishes October Route Network
BA has, for the first time in six months, published a definitive list of the destinations it will be flying to in the coming weeks.
At Heathrow, BA restarts daily flights to Cape Town and Johannesburg on 1 October. Three times weekly flights to Bahrain, Riyadh and Tokyo Haneda also start on the same day. Three times weekly flights to Montreal and four times weekly flights to Kuala Lumpur start on 2 October. On the same day, BA returns to Barbados at London Gatwick.
All UK domestic routes benefit from at least daily flights with Edinburgh having 45 return flights a week.
Short-haul routes which benefit from the equivalent of more than three daily flights include Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin Tegel, Dusseldorf, Faro, Istanbul, Larnaca, Lisbon, Malaga, Munich, and Rome Fiumicino.
Virgin Atlantic Appoints New CFO
Virgin Atlantic has, according to filings at Companies House, appointed a new Chief Financial Officer.
Oliver Byers, formerly Senior Vice President (that’s Delta’s influence for you) of Data & Customer Loyalty was appointed to the role last week. Oliver replaces Thomas Mackay who has held the role for the past three years.
On a related note, Virgin has yet to file its annual accounts for last year. It does benefit from an extension to the filing deadline to the end of the year. Observers will be interested to see what comments are made about its ability to continue as a going concern.
British Airways Airbus A350-1000 G-XWBA Aircraft, London Heathrow (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways has officially confirmed its route network from London City, Gatwick and Heathrow airports for October 2020.
Note: This article has been updated throughout the month as further changes are confirmed.
The airline has issued maps of its short-haul and long-haul networks, with associated flight frequencies. Full details are below. You can also download PDF versions of BA’s long-haul and short-haul route networks.
At London Heathrow, BA has in recent months added flights to Bahrain, Barbados, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur, Lahore, Male, Newark, and Tokyo Haneda.
As far as short-haul is concerned, BA resumed flights in October to Brussels, Gothenburg, Luxembourg, Milan Linate, Stuttgart, Reykjavik and Valencia. Many summer seasonal routes come to an end.
Many Gatwick short-haul route continue to operate at Heathrow in October. These include Bilbao, Jersey, Kos, Lanzarote, Madeira, Naples, Porto, Seville and Tenerife.
At London City, BA will serve Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast City, Dublin, Amsterdam, Berlin Tegel, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Zurich, Nice, Florence, Palma de Mallorca and Ibiza.
The UK government has introduced restrictions on international and domestic travel from 5 November until 2 December. A very substantial number of flight cancellations for November and December are highly likely. BA is expected to all flights at Gatwick until December and operate a skeleton schedule at London City and Heathrow. BA will also close all of its London Heathrow lounges and the First Wing from 5 November.
Passengers who are flying must also ensure they comply with pre-departure and entry requirements. Links to country-by-country guidance and relevant forms are on ba.com
Long-Haul Network
British Airways Long-Haul Network, London Gatwick & Heathrow, October 2020 (1 October 2020 version) (Image Credit: British Airways)
All routes are from London Heathrow unless otherwise stated. Many routes, particularly at Gatwick, do not operate for the whole of October.
CANADA Toronto – 7x weekly Montreal – 3x weekly (suspended during November)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA New York JFK – 14x weekly Chicago O’Hare – 12x weekly Boston – 7x weekly San Francisco – 7x weekly Los Angeles – 7x weekly Miami – 7x weekly Washington Dulles – 7x weekly Dallas / Fort Worth – 7x weekly Seattle – 3x weekly Houston – 3x weekly Atlanta – 7x weekly (frequencies reduced during November) Philadelphia – 2x weekly Newark – Daily from 25 October.
CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA Sao Paulo – 7x weekly Buenos Aires – 3x weekly Mexico City – 4x weekly Santiago – 1x weekly from 7 November
CARIBBEAN Barbados – 7x weekly (Gatwick from 2 October & Heathrow from 17 October – frequencies reduced during November) Bermuda – 4x weekly (Gatwick) St Lucia – 5x weekly (Gatwick) Antigua – 5x weekly (Gatwick) Kingston – 3x weekly (Gatwick) Cayman Islands – 0.5x weekly (Heathrow)
The planned launch of a new route to Montego Bay from Gatwick is postponed to 12 December.
AFRICA Accra – 7x weekly Abuja – 7x weekly Lagos – 7x weekly Nairobi – 5x weekly Cairo – 7x weekly (flight number changes from 25 October) Johannesburg – 7x weekly Cape Town – 7x weekly
BA’s franchise partner in Africa Comair has suspended flights until December 2020 at the earliest. For passengers with domestic connections from Cape Town and Johannesburg, BA has secured a rebooking agreement with Airlink.
MIDDLE EAST Tel Aviv – 7x weekly Dubai – 7x weekly Kuwait – 3x weekly Riyadh – 1x weekly (delayed to 2 November) Bahrain – 3x weekly Amman – 1x weekly (from 25 October with short-haul aircraft)
SOUTH & CENTRAL ASIA Mumbai – 5x weekly Delhi – 7x weekly Bangalore – 4x weekly Hyderabad – 4x weekly Chennai – 3x weekly Islamabad – 7x weekly Lahore – 4x weekly (new route from 12 October)
INDIAN OCEAN Seychelles – 2x weekly (from 10 October) Male – 3x weekly (transfers to Heathrow from 16 October)
FAR EAST Hong Kong – 7x weekly (flight numbers change from 25 October) Singapore – 4x weekly (flight numbers change from 25 October) Tokyo Haneda – 3x weekly Shanghai – 2x weekly Kuala Lumpur – 4x weekly
British Airways has confirmed that it has suspended all short-haul flights at London Gatwick until Wednesday 30 June 2021 at the earliest.
BA will continue to operate many Gatwick short-haul flights at London Heathrow for the winter season.
This was expected as many Gatwick short-haul flights were showing as operating at Heathrow throughout the winter season. Following a relaxation of “use it or lose it” slot rules for the winter season, BA can cancel flights at Gatwick without forfeiting slots.
At present, there is little visibility on short-haul flight schedules. BA Gatwick routes expected to operate Heathrow throughout the winter include Alicante, Bordeaux, Gran Canaria, Grenoble, Jersey, Lanzarote, Malta, Naples, Porto, Salzburg, Tenerife, Turin and Verona.
These flights will retain their original Gatwick flight numbers which begin with a 2. This means they may show on some websites as having been diverted.
BA will continue to operate some long-haul flights at Gatwick. At present, BA is operating limited flights to Antigua, Barbados, Bermuda, Kingston and St Lucia. Many routes are expected to return in October, including Cancun, Providenciales and Punta Cana. BA will also launch a new route to Montego Bay in October.
British Airways Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner (Image Credit: Heathrow)
British Airways will reinstate more long-haul routes in October as it gradually rebuilds its network at London Heathrow.
Routes that are confirmed as returning in October include:
Bahrain – 3 times weekly from 1 October Cape Town -Daily from 1 October Johannesburg – Daily from 1 October Kuala Lumpur – 4 times weekly from 2 October Montreal – 3 times weekly from 2 October Riyadh – 3 times weekly from 1 October The Seychelles – 2 times weekly from 10 October Tokyo Haneda – 3 times weekly from 1 October
BA will also operate one-off flights to Grand Cayman on 1 and 15 October.
Passengers must comply with entry restrictions and route specific procedures which can include:
Restrictions on entry based on citizenship and purpose of travel.
Evidence of a negative PCR COVID-19 test.
Completion and submission of a medical declaration before travel.
Advance registration with overseas authorities.
Some routes closing for sale up to 7 days before travel.
Restrictions on transit passengers.
Links to country-by-country guidance and relevant forms that must be completed before departure are on ba.com
Some countries require forms to be completed and submitted to relevant authorities 24-72 hours before travel. Passengers who do not comply may be denied boarding.
As far as domestic routes are concerned, Belfast City and Inverness are performing relatively well at Heathrow with year-on-year declines of “only” 60% and 67%. A respectable 4,510 passengers flew between Heathrow and Newquay, which indicates around 90 passengers per flight.
At London City, domestic routes have been very slow to recover with Edinburgh and Glasgow down 94% year-on-year.
A mere 100 passengers flew between London City and Teesside, indicating single digit passenger numbers per flight. The route has since transferred to London Heathrow and will clearly need codeshare partners to support it.
Turning to short-haul in Europe, some routes benefited from BA switching all Gatwick short-haul flights to Heathrow. Heathrow routes to Greece registering increases in scheduled passenger traffic included Chania (100%), Corfu (11%), Mykonos (15%) and Zakinthos (10%). Heathrow routes to Italy also performing well include Brindisi (81%) and Palermo (28%).
Many other routes from Heathrow to Spain also registered relatively softer decreases with Ibiza down only 15% and Malaga down only 13%.
More business heavy routes still registered substantial falls including Brussels down 93% and Frankfurt down 80%.
On transatlantic routes, unsurprisingly almost all routes actually operating registered falls in excess of 90%. Just 1,192 passengers flew across 13 return flights between Heathrow and Seattle in August.
Alex Cruz Appears Before Transport Select Committee
Alex Cruz appeared before the Transport Select Committee last week.
In his evidence Alex advised BA has processed 2.1 million refunds and issued 1.6 million vouchers to passengers. BBC Radio 4’s “You and Yours” has picked up that some passengers have received vouchers thinking they were entitled to a refund. Given the complexity of the voucher scheme, this could run. The airline may have to settle claims from passengers who believe they were misled.
Comair Business Rescue Plan Approved
Comair’s business rescue plan was approved by creditors on Friday.
Whilst Comair still has some way to go yet – it still needs to secure new debt of R600 million – the airline expects to restart flights in December.
Subject to last minute changes, BA is due to resume scheduled passenger services from London Heathrow to Cape Town and Johannesburg on Thursday 1 October. Durban is suspended until late March 2021.
Virgin Atlantic has a provisional start date for Johannesburg on 18 October and Cape Town on 10 December.
Staying in South Africa, there are doubts as to whether the government will be able to secure funds to recapitalise South African Airways after a deadline of last Thursday was missed. The Department of Public Enterprises and National Treasury issued a statement on Friday seeking to assure trade unions that it will provide funding of R10.5 billion and that the airline will not be liquidated.
In case you missed it:
The European Commission grants a waiver of the “use it or lose it” slot rule for the winter season. (London Air Travel)
Alex Cruz, British Airways CEO & Chairman, June 2020 (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways CEO & Chairman appeared before the House of Commons Transport Select Committee today, Wednesday 16 September.
Alex’s former boss Willie Walsh appeared before the Select Committee in May. IAG formally rejected the findings of the committee which criticised the airline for planning large scale redundancies and proposing changes to staff terms and conditions. Willie Walsh later branded their views “completely irrelevant” to The Sunday Times. Alex Cruz also criticised their report as based on rumours and emotions and not fact.
Alex was the sole witness in the hearing. Those who are familiar with Select Committee hearings will know that there can be a fair amount of grandstanding by MPs. Today was no exception.
Alex was clearly well prepared for the hearing. This was, perhaps, in the knowledge that not only MPs, but also his new boss Luis Gallego, would be watching. At times it seemed like he was venturing from answering MP’s questions into advocacy. At the start of the hearing he was clearly trying to get ahead of their questions and criticisms. Alex was also far more politically attuned, with references to the airline’s role in a post-Brexit UK.
If you were to sum up the differences between the performances of Willie Walsh and Alex Cruz, Willie sounded like he had been briefed by IAG’s lawyers whereas Alex sounded like he had been briefed by BA’s PR team.
In terms of some of the main points:
Staff Redundancies
Alex criticised the decision by the GMB and Unite trade unions to wait some 73 days before engaging with the airline on negotiations on redundancies and changes to terms and conditions.
Alex was keen to emphasise the airline has gone far beyond the minimum statutory consultation in order to secure an agreement with the unions.
As of last Friday, 7,200 staff have already left the airline. The total number of redundancies is expected to be approximately 10,000. Unsurprisingly, the threat to “fire and rehire” has been lifted, which Alex maintained was there as a legal technicality to cover all possible outcomes.
Quarantine and COVID-19 Testing
Lack of passenger confidence in flying is considered a serious impediment to the recovery of flying.
Last week, BA flew 187,000 passengers compared to nearly a million in the same week of 2019. The airline is currently burning through £20 million of cash a day.
Alex criticised the government’s approach to imposing mandatory 14 day quarantine on arriving passengers from high risk countries at short notice without taking into account regional considerations. This is not only disrupting passengers’ plans but also its own operations.
BA has called for a trial of different COVID-19 testing regimes on the London – New York corridor to reduce the mandatory quarantine period to the minimum possible.
British Airways Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner (Image Credit: Heathrow)
British Airways is to reinstate a number of long-haul routes at London Heathrow in the coming days.
The airline will also launch a new four times weekly service from London Heathrow to Lahore from Monday 12 October 2020, complementing its existing service to Islamabad which has also increased in frequency.
The following routes will also return from mid-September onwards:
Africa Abuja – Daily from Wednesday 16 September
Central & South America Buenos Aires – Initially only on Friday 25 September Mexico City – Twice weekly on Thursday 24 September
North America Atlanta – Daily from Saturday 19 September Grand Cayman – Only on 17 September, 1 October, 15 October Houston – Three times weekly from Sunday 20 September Philadelphia – Twice weekly from Sunday 20 September
Flights to Chicago O’Hare will also benefit from twice daily passenger flights on some days in late September.
Please see here for a full list of where BA will fly to in September.
Passengers are of course subject to entry restrictions. BA has provided a list of links to country-by-country guidance and relevant forms that must be completed before departure on its website.
Like other long-haul routes that have been reinstated at Heathrow, these have already been served by cargo-only flights. With airlines adopting a laser like approach to cash conservation, BA is likely to reinstate scheduled passenger flights where there is sufficient underlying cargo demand. There are few long-haul routes left where at Heathrow BA is operating only cargo flights such as Bangkok, Johannesburg and Kuala Lumpur.
London Heathrow Terminal 5 (Image Credit: Heathrow)
Airport Coordination Ltd, the body responsible for governing the allocation of slots at London airports, has granted an extension of the waiver of “use it or lose it” rules until the end of the winter season.
However, reform of the slot waiver process is proposed by the European Commission to address concerns that it restricts competition.
Ordinarily airlines are required to use their airport slots for 80% of a season to avoid forfeiting them. Following a ruling by the European Commission airlines are currently benefiting from a waiver of this rule. This means they can cancel as many flights as they like without risk of losing their slots.
There had been doubts as to whether the waiver would be extended into the winter season. Indeed, only three weeks ago, ACL advised airlines that they should plan for the waiver not to be extended into the winter.
European Commissioner for Transport Adina Valeăn has today, Monday 14 September, issued a statement announcing the Commission’s intention to extend the slot waiver.
The Commission has published a report for the European Parliament and Council identifying shortcomings with the current process, namely that incumbent airlines are not handing slots back to slot coordinators in sufficient time for others to use on a temporary basis.
Adina Valeăn has made it clear in her statement that as full slot waiver has been granted for the whole winter season, incumbent airlines are expected to follow the spirit of the waiver and hand back slots sufficiently early for other airlines to use them.
