Hudson River Park New York (Image Credit: London Air Travel)
Delta and Virgin Atlantic have announced that the two airlines are to jointly fly from London Gatwick to Boston and New York JFK from 2020.
There’s a curious lack of detail in the announcement. Neither Delta nor Virgin Atlantic have confirmed which airlines will operating the routes, though Delta’s press release intimates that it will operate at least one of the routes. There’s also no mention of whether this will be a seasonal or year-round route, nor which aircraft will be used. In any event, eligible passengers will benefit from Virgin Atlantic ground facilities at Gatwick such as its Clubhouse in the North Terminal.
For Delta, this will mark a return to London Gatwick which it first served on 1 May 1978 flying to New Orleans via Atlanta using a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar aircraft. Virgin Atlantic launched daily flights from Gatwick to New York JFK in September 1989, and Boston in May 1991, before transferring both routes to London Heathrow after securing access to the airport in July 1991.
It is no accident that this announcement has been made ahead of a press event next week JetBlue which is expected to unveil plans to launch transatlantic flights to Europe. JetBlue has made no secret of its plans to launch transatlantic flights. It has been lobbying US regulatory authorities for slots at London Heathrow to be released as condition of Delta merging its transatlantic joint-ventures with Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic into one. However, this has yet to be concluded.
Boston is currently served from Gatwick by Norwegian. New York JFK is also served by BA and Norwegian. Whilst Delta is keen to emphasise its overall strength in Boston, London – Boston is a very important route for BA. Given BA serves Boston four times daily from Heathrow it would be surprising if it did not make a similar competitive response, should JetBlue announce plans to fly to Boston from Gatwick. These moves will of course place significant competitive pressure on Norwegian at Gatwick. JetBlue’s announcement on Wednesday 10 April 2019 is eagerly awaited.
Welcome to the The Atlantic Update for Wednesday 3 April 2019.
The Equinox Hotel New York Opens July 2019
The US gym chain Equinox opens its first hotel in New York’s Hudson Yards on Monday 15 July 2019.
Designed by Rockwell Group, based on CGI images on its website, it certainly looks good. Unsurprisingly, there’s a strong emphasis on wellness in both the rooms and public areas. The hallmark of a good hotel room is that you should not be able to hear a sound from outside your room. Equinox promises complete soundproofing and blackout blinds.
However, the rooms are very handsomely priced with indicative rates from $1,000+ per night. Even by New York standards, this is expensive and puts the property on a par with the likes of the Mandarin Oriental. The service, which many New York hotels struggle with, will certainly need to match Mandarin Oriental standards.
Equinox Hotels is due to open another hotel in Seattle next year, with Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles to follow.
BA Operates Inaugural Heathrow – Pittsburgh
British Airways operated its inaugural flight from London Heathrow to Pittsburgh yesterday.
Pittsburgh has long sought a reinstatement of a direct route to London and the new route has generated a lot of press locally. Red telephone boxes have also been dotted around Pittsburgh. As is customary local business and political leaders were on board the inaugural flight from London Heathrow. The flight will initially operate four times weekly.
Also of note this week:
New York is set to be the first US city to levy a congestion charge, which will be levied on vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th Street. The exact rate and exemptions are yet to be decided. As is the launch date, which will be no earlier than 31 December 2020. (New York Times)
Nigel Havers & Sally Lindsay with British Airways cabin crew (Image Credit: Channel 5)
Welcome to our Monday Briefing for the week beginning 1 April 2019, mercifully free of April Fools stunts.
A “Disruptor” Falls
Last week, WOW air joined eos, FlyGlobespan, Laker Airways, MaxJet, Primera Air, Silverjet and Zoom on the roll call of defunct transatlantic airlines.
WOW air was founded by a technology entrepreneur. Very often when a legacy carrier is being publicly harangued for a customer service failing, the air travel market is cited as being ripe for “disruption”. If only someone could do to air travel what Uber did to the taxi industry. The answer is that the two could not be more different. Uber is a capital light company that has relied on circumventing local laws. Air travel is, for good reasons, the exact opposite.
Aside from the merits of its business model, one significant cause of WOW air’s downfall was pursuing too much growth too quickly. The basic rules remain the same: pursue steady, disciplined growth, and only when it adds to profitability.
WOW air’s failure is unlikely to deter many more new entrants to the transatlantic market. Indeed, next week JetBlue is expected to announce the launch of transatlantic flights to Europe.
“First Class vs Economy”
Nigel Havers and Sally Lindsay compare First Class and economy on British Airways on Channel 5 (UK), at 21:15 Tuesday 2 April 2019.
They travel from London Heathrow to Washington Dulles in economy and First Class as both passengers and cabin crew. For the latter they undergo training at BA’s Global Learning Academy.
The programme is an extension of an “Upstairs Downstairs” format from last year where the two actors explored luxury hotels acting as both staff and guests.
On a related note, a production crew from Title Role productions who made “British Airways 100 Years In The Sky” for Channel 5 last year have been doing more filming for BA in recent weeks at a number of locations around the world, including Toulouse for the launch of the Airbus A350. A production crew is currently filming in Japan for the launch of BA’s inaugural flight to Osaka yesterday.
Asia Pacific Update
There’s been a lot happening in the Asia Pacific market over the past week or so:
Asiana Airlines’ co-CEO Park Sam-koo has resigned from the airline after it had to restate its financial results for 2018 as its auditors could not sign off its accounts. (Reuters)
Cathay Pacific has acquired Hong Kong Express from the heavily indebted conglomerate HNA Group which will remain as a standalone airline. It operates a fleet of Airbus A320 series aircraft to destinations around Asia. HNA Group continues to hold interests in other airlines such as Beijing Capital Airlines, Hainan Airlines and Tianjin Airlines, who all serve London Heathrow. (Cathay Pacific)
Jet Airways has announced a financial restructuring which sees lenders exchange their debts for a majority stake in the airline. Its founder Naresh Goyal will also leave. Jet Airways has been forced to cancel flights as aircraft have been grounded. Pilots have also not been paid their salaries for some months. Jet Airways says it intends to repay outstanding salaries to pilots and return its schedules to normal. As part of changes to its network it has cut London Heathrow – Mumbai from three times to twice daily.
Paul Scurrah has taken up the position of CEO and Managing Director of Virgin Australia. Paul was appointed to the role last month and was previously CEO of DP World Australia. He replaces John Borghetti.
On Monday 8 April 2019, Virgin Atlantic is expected to unveil its new Upper Class suite for its forthcoming Airbus A350-1000 aircraft.
As Virgin Atlantic’s top tier cabin. Upper Class has always featured prominently across the airline’s advertising since its formation in 1984. To use marketing speak, it serves as a “brand halo” for the airline. Virgin Atlantic has consistently marketed the cabin as distinctive from rival airline’s business class, even claiming it offers a First Class service for a business class price.
Although Virgin Atlantic has a significantly smaller route network and marketing budget than BA, the genius behind its advertising and branding has been to position the airline as a comparable rival to BA for both business and leisure travellers.
The early days of Upper Class
Here’s an early TV ad for Upper Class from 1985.
You can see distinctive features it still offers today, an Upper Class bar and complimentary car transfers and as well as a now defunct Upper Class lounge area. Virgin also used to offer free economy tickets to entice business travellers.
Virgin Atlantic Press Advertisement 1984
“BA Don’t Give A Shiatsu”
“BA don’t give a Shiatsu” (Image Credit: Virgin Group)
BA has always been a target in Virgin’s advertising.
Some times indirectly. Some times very directly, as indicated by the above advert. An extremely simple, but highly effective, execution from the early 1990s illustrating Virgin’s complimentary on board massage service. A simple statement of fact that is of course left open to wider intepretation. The onboard massage service was removed around ten years ago.
Flybe is to launch a new route from London Heathrow to the Isle Of Man.
The new daily service launches on Sunday 21 April 2019.
Launching at relatively short notice, this will be the only direct link between Heathrow and the Isle Of Man. Whilst the timings and frequencies are not ideal for long-haul connections at Heathrow, it is a better option than having to traverse across London to take a connecting flight at Gatwick or London City.
This is yet another new route for Flybe at Heathrow. It is due to transfer its service to Newquay from Gatwick to Heathrow, and launch a new route from Heathrow to Guernsey, on Sunday 31 March 2019.
London Heathrow – Isle Of Man
Flight BE2156 Depart London Heathrow 17:05 – Arrive Isle Of Man 18:25 (Daily) Flight BE2155 Depart Isle Of Man 13:50 – Arrive London Heathrow 15:10 (Daily)
Icelandic airline WOW air has suspended operations after it has failed to secure new funding.
The announcement was made on the WOW air website at around 08:00 GMT on Thursday 28 March 2019.
For the avoidance of doubt, WOW air should not be confused with Wizz Air which flies principally from London Luton to Eastern Europe.
WOW air was founded by Skuli Mogensen in 2011. It engaged in an aggressive expansion to capture connecting traffic between North America and Europe, with the ambition to be the “Dubai of the North Atlantic”. It has to be said this never quite made sense. Many of the city pairs it offered were already served by direct flights and there were already ample one-stop connections between Europe and North America.
WOW air was catching up Icelandair in terms of market share at Keflavik airport. However, aggressive fare competition and expansion had hit its yields. It had no fuel hedging strategy. A plan to raise $200-300m in an Initial Public Offering had been abandoned. WOW air has also suspended a very large number of transatlantic routes, some a matter of months after launch.
Last year, Icelandair announced it was to buy WOW air in all share transaction which valued WOW air at around $18m. However, this was abandoned.
WOW air announced last November that it had reached an agreement in principle for an investment from private equity firm Indigo Partners LLC. However, it announced on Thursday 21 March that Indigo Partners had withdrawn its interest. Talks with Icelandair were to resume with a deadline of Monday 25 March. However, WOW air announced on Sunday 24 March that these had been ended without agreement. WOW air issued a second announcement on Sunday that it was to enter into discussions with bondholders and creditors on a restructuring which could include a debt for equity swap. Whilst bond holders had agreed to this, it was clearly not sufficient.
Advice for passengers
The Civil Aviation Authority is not responsible for regulating WOW air. However, general guidance is available on its website.
For passengers who have purchased flights that have been cancelled, the best advice is to contact your credit company for a refund.
In the absence of any official rescue effort co-ordinated by the Icelandic Government, rival airlines may also announce “rescue fares” for passengers who are mid-way through their journeys in the coming days.
After Icelandair walked away from WOW air for a second time, WOW air has confirmed that its bondholders have agreed for a debt-for-equity swap, effectively exchanging the debts owed to them for shares in the airline.
This provides a temporary reprieve for WOW air. However, the airline is still looking for a new investor to provide funding. There is also the question of money owed to other creditors.
Summer Schedule Changes
A quick reminder the summer schedule starts this coming Sunday 31 March, which also coincides with the change from GMT to BST in the UK.
Here are some of the major transatlantic schedule changes:
American Airlines launches its new year-round service from London Heathrow to Phoenix from 31 March.
BA launches a new summer seasonal service from London Heathrow to Charleston on Thursday 4 April 2019 and a new year round service to Pittsburgh on Tuesday 2 April 2019.
Norwegian transfers its services from London Gatwick to Fort Lauderdale and Oakland to Miami and San Francisco International from 31 March.
Virgin Atlantic transfers its service to Las Vegas from Gatwick to Heathrow from 31 March. Virgin will also add an additional frequency to Boston, with a new day flight for the return from Boston to Heathrow.
Virgin Trains USA Plans Orlando Link
Brightline, soon to be rebranded Virgin Trains USA, has set out its plans to expand its existing rail link from Miami to West Palm Beach to Orlando.
The extension, which will be financed by a bond issue, will be constructed on a mixture of existing freight lines and new tracks. Virgin Trains USA also hopes to serve a station at the South Terminal of Orlando International airport and enter into interline agreements with domestic and international airlines. The new link is expected to take three years to construct and the journey time from Orlando to Miami is expected to be 3 hours and 15 minutes.
Virgin Trains USA also plans an extension from Orlando to Tampa, subject to acquiring the necessary land.
British Airways Club World Suite (Image Credit: British Airways)
Welcome to our Monday Briefing for the week beginning 25 March 2019.
Reflections On BA’s New Club Suite
A week has now passed since BA officially announced its much anticipated “Club Suite”. It has generated a huge amount of coverage, both online and in the “mainstream media”.
It will still be some months until anyone is able to fly on it – and you can only really assess an airline seat when spending several hours in it at 38,000 feet. Reflecting on the announcement, a few thoughts spring to mind.
BA First Class still has a future
The announcement of current generation of long-haul business class seats has often coincided with a significant reduction in First Class, or its elimination altogether.
United has eliminated international First Class with its Polaris business class. Qantas does not operate First Class on the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
Although First Class will not be installed in the first deliveries of the Airbus A350-1000, it will on future deliveries. It should also feature on the Boeing 787-10 and Boeing 777-9 aircraft. First Class will still operate on a very large number of routes, albeit with a smaller 8 seat cabin. This is not necessarily a bad thing if a smaller First Class capacity allows for new ground services not previously feasible at Heathrow.
Why is the roll-out taking so long?
BA has previously said that it will take until 2023 to fit the new Club Suite to all aircraft in the scope of the programme.
The answer why is United Polaris. A little over two years ago it ran a huge PR campaign for its Polaris business class. It is now only a third of the way of retrofitting the seat to Boeing 767-300 and 777-200 aircraft due to delays in the delivery of seats from the manufacturer. BA is obviously managing expectations, and the roll-out may be accelerated if manufacturing capacity becomes available.
This is also not necessarily a bad thing. With the best will in the world there will always be issues not anticipated before passengers and crew have to work with the seats. When the current Club World seat was introduced in 2006, the seat had to be modified because passengers complained of a “bounce” effect when their neighbours sat down.
Expectations need to be managed for the first flights
There has understandably been huge interest in the first A350 flights to Dubai and Toronto in October.
One note of caution: It is not only a new cabin but an entirely new type of aircraft for the crew. As is common when new aircraft are introduced it does take time for the crew to get familiar the layout of galleys. The service may be a little slow to start with. Whilst this will be more than compensated by for by the new seat, this something to bear in mind, particularly on overnight flights.
All eyes are now on Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic is expected to announce its new Upper Class cabin for the Airbus A350 in a little over two weeks.
One difference between BA Club World and Virgin Atlantic Upper Class is that the latter is Virgin’s top tier product. It has always featured prominently in advertising and has acted as a “brand halo” for the airline. With a relatively smaller route network and fewer frequencies, Virgin has always pushed hard distinctive features such as its Upper Class bar to compensate. Its announcement is awaited with great interest.
WOW air
Today was the day we were to learn of the fate of WOW air.
Last year, Icelandair announced it was to buy WOW air in all share transaction which valued WOW air at around $18m. However, this was abandoned.
WOW air announced last November that it had reached an agreement in principle for an investment from private equity firm Indigo Partners LLC. However, it announced on Thursday 21 March that Indigo Partners had withdrawn its interest. Talks with Icelandair resumed on Thursday with a deadline of today. However, WOW air issued a statement on Sunday afternoon that these had been cancelled. It is now in discussions with bondholders and creditors on a possible restructuring, which could include a debt for equity swap.
Monocle 24 On “The Golden Age Of Aviation”
Talk of a “golden age” of aviation should always be treated with caution.
Passengers have more choices of cabins and routes on more comfortable aircraft than ever before.
Monocle 24 has started a new series on The Golden Age Of Aviation, which it deems from the 1950s to 1970s. It was certainly a period of significant progress with the advent of the jet age. The first episode covers the branding and marketing of Pan American World Airways and the experience of pilots at Hong Kong’s former Kai Tak airport.
British Airways Boeing 747, Negus Livery (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways has unveiled its fourth and final retrospective livery for its centenary year.
One of its Boeing 747 aircraft, registration G-CIVB, has been painted in the Negus & Negus livery.
The aircraft returned to London Heathrow this morning, Thursday 21 March 2019, having been repainted in Dublin over the past week.
“The new name in aviation”
The original livery was designed by the design agency Negus and Negus.
The livery was intended to combine elements of both BEA and BOAC’s identity. It featured BEA’s signature red and a quarter Union Jack on the tail fin to reflect BEA. The blue and white fuselage and the small Speedbird logo was intended to reflect BOAC. This was to appeal not only to the respective customers of BEA and BOAC, but also their staff.
At the same time, the design was intended to be bold enough to make the new (for BEA & BOAC passengers) British Airways name stand out.
British Airways pre BEA & BOAC merger advertisement, September 1973
The livery first came into effect in September 1973 when the British Airways name was adopted in advance of the formal merger of BEA and BOAC in April 1974. The first aircraft to bear the new livery was a BOAC Boeing 707. It took seven years to fully repaint all BEA and BOAC aircraft, with some aircraft carrying hybrid liveries for many years.
“British airways” was in June 1980 abbreviated to just “British”. However, this was considered outside of the UK to be overtly nationalistic in tone. The quarter Union Jack on the tail fin was of course retained for the Landor livery introduced in 1984.
This Boeing 747 aircraft will retain this livery until its retirement in 2022. It’s due to fly to Cape Town under flight BA43 today. There’s no way of predicting exactly on which routes this aircraft will operate. However, as a 52 Club World seat aircraft, it will also regularly operate from London Heathrow Terminals 3 & 5 primarily on routes such as Accra, Denver, Miami, Phoenix and Vancouver.
British Airways Boeing 747, Negus Livery, Dublin Airport (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways Boeing 747, Negus Livery, Dublin Airport (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways Boeing 747, Negus Livery, London Heathrow (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways Boeing 747, Negus Livery, London Heathrow (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways Boeing 747, Negus Livery, London Heathrow (Image Credit: British Airways)
Naviglio Grande Canal, Milan (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways is to launch a new route from London Gatwick to Milan Bergamo.
BA will fly from Gatwick to Milan Bergamo (Orio al Serio International Airport) six times weekly, excluding Saturdays, from Sunday 1 September 2019. The airport is located approximately 60km away from Milan city centre.
Flights will operate year round. As tends to be par the course for BA at Gatwick flight times vary by day.
BA already flies from London City to Milan Linate and from London Heathrow to Milan Linate and Milan Malpensa. It is of course possible to “mix and match” airports if convenient. Milan Linate airport is due to close for three months from 27 July to 27 October 2019 for runway repair work.
