London Air Travel

London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing – 9 December 2019

Welcome to our weekly briefing on air travel in London and around the world, as published every Monday at 06:00 GMT.

South African Airways Airbus A340 Aircraft (Image Credit: South African Airways)

Welcome to our Monday Briefing for the week beginning 9 December 2019.

South African Airways Enters Business Rescue Process

South African Airways has entered a formal process in South Africa known as “Business Rescue”.

This is a pre-insolvency process similar to Chapter 11 in the United States. A business rescue practitioner has been appointed to oversee the running of the airline and a restructuring process with the aim of avoiding a liquidation of the state owned airline.

Given South African Airways’ well documented and long-standing financial problems, this will, at a minimum, inevitably lead to substantial changes (though the process is highly political) particularly to its international network.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission on Loyalty Programmes

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission published a report last week on loyalty programmes in Australia.

These of course include Qantas Frequent Flyer and Virgin Australia Velocity. The headline findings will not surprise those who are well versed in airline frequent flyer programmes, namely there’s no such thing as a free lunch and beware the fallacy of the sunk cost.

It does include specific recommendation such as greater transparency and protection against unfair contactual terms. The report also cites concerns about loyalty programmes acting as barriers to entry for new market entrants.

The report does also include some interesting comments on the psychological aspects of airline frequent flyer programmes, such as the “endowed progress effect” when members feel that as they have started on the journey towards a specific reward, they feel compelled to complete the journey to claim it.

Frequent flyer miles are of course currencies in their own rights. Around 110 billion Avios are issued across participating programmes every year. However, there is very little by way of consumer protection. Airlines can, and have, devalued frequent flyer currencies at very short notice with very little recourse.

Given the increasingly tough line regulators are adopting in favour of consumers in many territories (particularly the Competition & Markets Authority in the UK), do not rule out some form a formal regulation in the longer term.

Qantas & Air France-KLM Frequent Flyer Partnership

Staying on the theme of frequent flyer programmes, Qantas has today announced a new frequent flyer partnership with Air France-KLM.

Members of the Qantas Frequent Flyer programme will be able earn and redeem points across the entire Air France and KLM networks, as well as receive their frequent flyer benefits when flying on Air France and KLM. This follows the establishment of reciprocal codeshare last year.

Also of note this week:

The Civil Aviation Authority has appointed the consultancy Flint Global to advise on a possible break-up of Heathrow, whereby individual terminals would be operated by separate entities. (Sky News)

KLM has opened a new non-Schengen lounge at Amsterdam Schiphol airport. (KLM)

Madrid Barajas airport is planning a series of changes to make the airport more welcoming to Chinese visitors such as accepting payments through WeChat Pay (UK airlines remain deeply frustrated at how the UK’s visa regime makes it much harder for Chinese visitors to come to the UK when visiting Europe). (El Pais In English)

Qantas launches a dedicated microsite to mark its centenary. (Qantas)

London Air Travel’s Atlantic Update – 4 December 2019

A weekly bulletin on transatlantic travel, published every Wednesday at 06:00 GMT.

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Virgin Atlantic, Air France KLM and Delta

Hello and welcome to London Air Travel’s Atlantic Update providing a weekly bulletin on developments on transatlantic travel between Europe and North America. The Atlantic Update is published every Wednesday morning at 06:00 GMT.

Air France-KLM & Virgin Atlantic

What is going on between Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic?

There’s been considerable press speculation, confirmed by Virgin Group, that it will retain control of the airline and Air France-KLM will no longer acquire a 31% stake in it.

The background to this is back in 2017 when Air France-KLM, Delta and Virgin Atlantic announced their attention to operate a combined transatlantic joint-venture, Air France-KLM was to acquire a 31% stake in Virgin Atlantic for £220m when the new joint-venture launched. This would have reduced Virgin Group’s ownership to a mere 20%.

This appears to no longer be the case. The way that this has been framed by Virgin Group is that this was their decision and Air France-KLM buying a stake was no longer necessary, given Virgin’s new plans to become a “second flag carrier” at Heathrow if a third runway goes ahead.

This is something of a non-sequitur. Even if Virgin was granted special status on the allocation of new slots at Heathrow, the degree of expansion proposed would require significant injections of capital, which do not appear to be forthcoming from Virgin Group.

(Virgin’s rivals will argue, with some justification, that given its historical unwillingness to expand through slot acquisitions, it has lost any special pleading for different treatment from other incumbent airlines at Heathrow).

The key phrase in Virgin Group’s letter is “subject to contract”. The details do not yet appear to be ironed out with Air France-KLM. Given this is a material transaction, an announcement should be made to Air France-KLM’s shareholders when the details are agreed. And it is to avoid confusion in situations like this that all parties usually agree to issue joint statements simultaneously.

Delta is also holding an annual investor day on Thursday 12 December 2019, and hopefully there’ll be more details of the combined joint-venture.

Update: Air France-KLM has confirmed to La Tribune that it will not acquire a stake in Virgin Atlantic.

Aer Lingus Adds PressReader

Aer Lingus has confirmed that it has joined BA and many other airlines and hotels, in offering free downloads of magazines and newspapers through PressReader.

Like BA, an e-mail will be sent to passengers in advance of their flight. It is recommended that titles are downloaded at home in advance, rather than at the airport or on board the aircraft. More details are available at Aer Lingus.

Qantas Opens New Singapore First Class Lounge

Qantas has opened its new First Class lounge in Terminal 1 of Singapore Changi airport.

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Qantas First Lounge Singapore (Image Credit: Qantas)

Qantas has officially opened its new First Class lounge at Singapore Changi airport.

Facilities include a la carte dining, an open kitchen and a cocktail bar. There are also 10 private shower suites with lighting through a faux sky light.

The lounge menus are designed by Neil Perry with whom Qantas has a long-standing partnership, and a sample menu can be viewed here.

Qantas has in recent years opened joint business and First Class lounges outside of Australia. However, there has been a need for increased lounge capacity in Singapore after Qantas reinstated Airbus A380 services from Sydney to London via Singapore.

Whilst Qantas’ global lounge portfolio is relatively small, when it does operate a lounge it does do it extremely well. This lounge looks particularly impressive with effective use of different materials to break up the lounge.

The lounge can be accessed by all passengers of Oneworld airlines flying First Class and Emerald members of Oneworld frequent flyer programmes. This includes BA passengers flying First Class to London Heathrow and Sydney and BA Executive Club Gold cardholders flying on Oneworld airlines.

The lounge is open from 14:30 to 00:00 daily. Note the lounge is located away from the current Qantas business class lounge

London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing – 2 December 2019

Welcome to our weekly briefing on air travel in London and around the world, as published every Monday at 06:00 GMT.

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Welcome to our Monday Briefing for the week beginning 2 December 2019.

South African Airways

There has been considerable speculation about the long term health of South African Airways over the past week.

Last week the Financial Times reported that the airline was close to financial collapse. It had only paid 50% of staff salaries for the month having experienced a “sudden detoriation” in its finances following eight days of industrial action at the airline. Some insurers are also reported to have stopped providing insolvency protection for tickets issued by the airline due to fears over its future.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation has since reported that outstanding staff salaries have now been paid. However, negotiations are ongoing between South African Airways and the Government on securing state guarantees for further funding from commercial banks.

Virgin Trains Bows Out

After holding the West Coast Main Line railway franchise for 22 years, Virgin Trains bows out this coming Saturday.

It will be replaced by Avanti West Coast a joint-venture between First Group and Italian rail operator Trenitalia which will operate what will become known as the West Coast Partnership.

This is of course not strictly air travel related, but the upgrade to the West Coast Main Line from London Euston has had a significant impact on passenger volumes between London airports to Manchester. Whilst Virgin likes to take credit for the significant infrastructure upgrade, this should really go to UK taxpayers.

Today, in the air, just BA serves the route from Heathrow with occasional weekly summer flight from London City. Previously bmi British Midland, Virgin Atlantic Little Red and VLM have operated between London and Manchester.

With Virgin Trains’ East Coast Main Line franchise having been terminated early, this does significantly reduce the brand presence of Virgin in the UK. One consequence of the new franchise is that BA may introduce an interline agreement Avanti West Coast, as it has with London North Eastern Railway.

Clive James

The renowned author, critic and poet Clive James passed away last week.

Clive James’ long and distinguished career included the 1991 “Postcard From” series for BBC Television. The edition below is from his beloved home city of Sydney.

Clive was also a contributor to BBC Radio 4’s “A Point Of View”. This is one edition from April 2008, in which Clive revelled in the chaotic opening of London Heathrow Terminal 5.

Travel To London’s Airports At Christmas & New Year 2019

Our guide to travelling to and from London’s airports over the 2019 Christmas and New Year period.

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Embankment Gardens, London (Image Credit: London Air Travel)

As thoughts turn to planning for Christmas, here’s our guide to travelling to and from London’s airports over the Christmas and New Year period for 2019

This is based on known information at the time of publication, which may be subject to change at short notice.

General Guidance

For the benefit of visitors to London, Christmas Day is the biggest annual public holiday in the UK.

Public transport in the UK on Christmas Day is extremely limited. Taxis and coaches will be your only option.

Tube, suburban and long-distance rail services also close down much earlier on Christmas Eve – most by around 20:00. Retail outlets at stations will close even earlier.

Most London Underground / Tube lines in London operate on Boxing Day, as will the Docklands Light Railway. For the first time this year, some London Overground services will also operate on Boxing Day. Suburban and long distance rail services do not operate on Boxing Day.

The Christmas and New Year period is also used for extensive engineering work on the UK’s rail network. Engineering work can overrun and encounter unforeseen problems, so there is risk of additional closures at short notice. The latest and most accurate rail timetable information can be found on National Rail Enquiries.

The big unknown over the Christmas period is of course UK weather. London airports have markedly improved their winter weather resilience planning in recent years. However, due to capacity issues, it is inevitable that any severe weather will cause delays and cancellations.

Gatwick Airport

The Gatwick Express and Southern Railway services are due to operate between London Victoria and Gatwick airport on all days throughout Christmas and New Year, apart from on Christmas Day.

Thameslink services between Gatwick and London stations will operate throughout Christmas and New Year, apart from Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

However, revised timetables for all rail operators will operate on some days.

Heathrow Airport

There will be significant disruption to overland rail services to London Heathrow over Christmas.

Due to engineering work closing lines between London Paddington and Slough, there will be significant to disruption to rail services between Paddington and Heathrow. No train services will run at all into and out of London Paddington from Tuesday 24 December 2019 to Friday 27 December 2019.

The Heathrow Express non-stop service from London Paddington to Heathrow Terminal 5 will not run from Tuesday 24 December 2019 to Friday 27 December 2019.

Trains will run at 30 minute intervals from Saturday 28 December 2019 Monday 30 December 2019. Trains will leave London Paddington at 25 and 55 minutes past the hour and London Heathrow from 12 and 42 minutes past the hour. Trains will also run every 30 minutes at these times before 14:00 on Tuesday 31 December 2019.

TfL Rail’s stopping service (formerly Heathrow Connect) will not run from London Paddington to Heathrow Terminal 4 from Tuesday 24 December 2019 to Friday 27 December 2019. Services will be reduced from Saturday 28 December 2019 until 13:00 on Tuesday 31 December 2019.

As is standard practice, there are no Piccadilly Line services to Heathrow on Christmas Day due to the closure of the Tube. It resumes on Boxing Day.

London Air Travel’s Atlantic Update – 27 November 2019

A weekly bulletin on transatlantic travel, published every Wednesday at 06:00 GMT.

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Air France-KLM, Delta & Virgin Atlantic Joint-Venture Approval

The US Department of Transportation has finally given approval for Delta to combine its two transatlantic joint-ventures with Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic into one.

In spite of fierce lobbying by JetBlue no regulatory concessions have been demanded as condition of the new joint-venture.

No timescale has been given by the airlines for the formal launch of the combined joint-venture but a logical date would be the start of the summer 2020 season at the end of March 2020.

This is likely to presage further co-operation between Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic. This is particularly in the areas of frequent flyer programmes and other long-haul routes outside of North America, where Air France-KLM has significantly greater coverage than Virgin Atlantic.

Also in a largely symbolic, but still historically significant, Virgin Group will give up control of Virgin Atlantic (something Sir Richard Branson once said he would never do) by selling a 31% stake to Virgin Atlantic.

On a related matter, Aer Lingus is still awaiting approval to join the AA/BA joint-venture.

Staying with Aer Lingus, the Canadian Transportation Agency has granted approval for ASL Airlines to operate a scheduled service on behalf of Aer Lingus between 1 and 30 January 2020. This is somewhat curious as Aer Lingus does not currently fly to Canada.

American Airlines Summer Schedule

American Airlines has announced a number of new domestic routes for the summer 2020 season.

Particularly of note for Oneworld transatlantic flyers are new Saturday seasonal services from Philadelphia to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts and from Charlotte to Martha’s Vineyard. Full details are available at aa.com

“WORLD WAY: The City of LAX”

Film maker Chris Pritchard has made an exceptionally well produced and edited four minute time lapse video of Los Angeles International airport, which can be both immensely frustrating but still captivating.

The film was produced over three years with the assistance of the airport and you can read more about the film on Chris Pritchard’s blog.

London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing – 25 November 2019

Welcome to our weekly briefing on air travel in London and around the world, as published every Monday at 06:00 GMT.

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Qantas Project Sunrise (Image Credit: Qantas Airways)

Hello and welcome to our Monday Briefing for the week beginning 25 November 2019.

Qantas Tells Airbus & Boeing To “Sharpen Their Pencils”

After Qantas’ much hyped non-stop flight from London to Sydney a little over a week ago, Qantas revealed at its annual investor day that it is not currently satisfied with bids offered by either Airbus or Boeing for new ultra long range aircraft.

Airbus and Boeing have submitted proposals for the Airbus A350-1000ULR and Boeing 777-8X aircraft respectively. According to comments made by Tino La Spina, Chief Executive of Qantas International, Airbus and Boeing have been told to “sharpen their pencils”.

The business case for non-stop flights between London and Sydney is also described by Tino La Spina as “almost there”. Though, the previous deadline of the end of this year for a decision now appears to be an aspiration.

New Qantas Singapore First Class Lounge

Qantas officially opens its new First Class lounge in Singapore on Monday 2 December 2019.

Qantas has teased some images on social media this weekend. The Qantas website advises that access to the lounge may be available to a limited number of customers ahead of its official opening next week.

Gatwick Slot Trades

A couple of relatively minor slot trades at Gatwick were confirmed last week.

TUI Airways has transferred 27 weekly slot pairs to BA for the summer 2020 season. It has been suggested that this may be to facilitate charter services to be provided by BA to TUI.

3 weekly slots have also been transferred from Thomas Cook to BA. These appear to be the return of slots that were previously leased.

The End Of The Annual Christmas Film?

For the past few years, the release of an annual Christmas film by the world’s largest airlines and airports has been a firm fixture in the calendar.

Aided by direct distribution channels on social media, WestJet was the pioneer of this genre. Heathrow has for the past three years run very successful campaigns featuring the Heathrow “bears” Doris and Edward.

It does now feel that every permutation of the theme of the surprise flight / reunion has been exhausted, and Heathrow has wisely decided to take a break this year.

Disruption Advisory

Disruption is expected to flights to Italy today due to a general strike.

BA has in advance retimed the following return flights to Italy today:

BA2608 London Gatwick – Naples – STD 08:50 New ETD 13:55
BA2609 Naples – London Gatwick – STD 13:30 New ETD 18:30

BA576 London Heathrow – Milan Linate – STD 09:20 New ETD 08:40
BA577 Milan Linate – London Heathrow – STD 13:15 New ETD 12:20

BA2688 London Gatwick – Genoa – STD 10:25 New ETD 14:25
BA2689 Genoa – London Gatwick – STD 14:10 New ETD 18:20

Other flights are likely to be delayed and may also be cancelled at short notice. easyJet has also given warning of delays and cancellations on flights to Italy.

Finnair is also advising of possible disruption today at Helsinki airport due to secondary industrial action called by the Finnish Aviation Labour Union following a dispute at the Finnish postal service, Posti. (Finnair)

British Airways & BALPA Agree Pilot Pay Deal

British Airways and BALPA have agreed a new pay deal for BA pilots at the conciliation service ACAS.

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London Heathrow Terminal 5A (Image Credit: Heathrow)

The Financial Times has reported that British Airways and the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) have agreed a new pay deal for BA pilots at the conciliation service ACAS.

This follows an overwhelming rejection of previous pay offers and two days of industrial action by BA pilots in September of this year.

According to the FT, the new deal includes an improved pay offer and improvements to pilot working conditions on matters such as rostering.

As is expected, BA will also reinstate staff travel concessions removed from BA pilots who took part in industrial action.

However, there does not appear to have been any significant movement on one of the most contentious issues in the dispute which was profit sharing. One of the key reasons for the rejection of previous offers was that BA pilots wanted a much improved pay offer with more significant profit sharing following the dramatic improvement in BA’s financial profitability over the past ten years.

The new deal will be subject to a ballot of BALPA members which a recommendation from BALPA that it should be accepted. This normally takes about four weeks, so the outcome of the result should be known before Christmas. Whether it will be accepted by BA pilots will only be known when the result is announced. However, this does remove the prospect of any further industrial action in the short term.

British Airways Opens Refurbished Geneva Lounge

British Airways has reopened its lounge at Geneva airport following a refurbishment.

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British Airways lounge, Geneva airport (Image Credit: British Airways)

British Airways has today, Friday 22 November 2019, reopened its refurbished lounge at Geneva airport.

The newly designed and enlarged lounge follows a similar design concept to recently refurbished lounges in Aberdeen and Rome.

New features include a lobby bar and craft beer room, as well as improved seating and catering.

London Air Travel’s Atlantic Update – 20 November 2019

A weekly bulletin on transatlantic travel, published every Wednesday at 06:00 GMT.

London Air Travel » Page 47

British Airways Boeing 787-9 First Class (Image Credit: British Airways)

BA To Operate Boeing 787-10 To Atlanta

BA has confirmed it will take delivery of its first Boeing 787-10 aircraft in January 2020.

BA has 12 aircraft on order, and 6 will arrive next year. The first route will be London Heathrow – Atlanta from February 2020, which is currently operated with a mixture of Boeing 787-9 and Boeing 777-200 aircraft.

As expected, the aircraft will be in a four class configuration with 8 seats in First, 48 in Club World, 35 in World Traveller Plus and 165 in World Traveller. The First seat will be the same as is currently on Boeing 787-9 aircraft, as pictured above.

Virgin Atlantic To Operate Airbus A350-1000 to Los Angeles and San Francisco

Virgin Atlantic has also confirmed it will operate the Airbus A350-1000 daily to Los Angeles and San Francisco from April and May 2020 respectively. However, these are not yet showing in online timetables.

Virgin has also launched a new codeshare partnership with WestJet at London Gatwick. Virgin has placed its code on WestJet’s year-round services from Gatwick to Calgary and Toronto, and summer seasonal services to Halifax and Vancouver.

All routes operate with WestJet’s new Boeing 787 aircraft, except Halifax which is currently scheduled to operate with the Boeing 737 Max.

Aer Lingus’ Summer 2020 Schedule

Aer Lingus has confirmed details of its transatlantic summer schedule from Dublin.

Some routes will benefit from increased frequencies. Miami will operate 3 times weekly, Orlando 6 times weekly and Seattle daily. Los Angeles and Minneapolis St Paul and Washington will operate with Airbus A330-300 aircraft. All Boeing 757 aircraft will also be replaced with Airbus A321 Long Range aircraft.

Interestingly, there’s no mention of Montreal. Aer Lingus was due to launch this route last year, but it was postponed due to late delivery of aircraft. This route appears to have now been put on the back burner.