RDU coming to LHR

[TWAnr]

That Gulf Air/AA rumour is interesting, hope it comes true.

Here is a semi confirmation by David Cush, American Airlines' senior vice president of global sales:

American has bought the necessary slots to provide one of the additional Heathrow flights from Raleigh-Durham or Dallas/Fort Worth. Mr. Cush said that before those flights begin, American will decide how it wants to provide the takeoff and landing slots for the other flight.

The carrier could buy the rights on the "robust secondary market" from other airlines selling their slots, Mr. Cush said, or use one of American's current slots now being used for service into Heathrow from New York, Boston, Chicago, Miami or Los Angeles.

The Dallas Morning News - American Airlines to move Gatwick flight to Heathrow

 

[upsilon]

While transfers between LHR terminals may be inconvenient, I think you're exaggerating a bit to say that intra-EU service on BA and Ryanair or Easyjet or any Euro-LCC is the same. Also I have to wonder how many people would prefer to fly a Euro-LCC out of STN to their final EU destination - since Euro-LCC's serve 2nd and 3rd tier airports. For example - flying to Frankfurt the Euro-LCC's will get you to Hann, Vienna = Bratislava, Milan = Bergano. You save money on airfare and may have an easier transfer and quick check-in, but it may take you longer to get to your final destination.

The pitch in back of a BA airplane is about the same as that on a LCC; and I can take it for the short flights.

I know Hahn isn't very near Frankfurt, and Bratislava is 30 miles from Vienna, and Bergamo is an hour by coach/train from Milan, and Charleroi isn't Brussels. But I usually need to rent a car so it is NBD to get to my destination city which is frequently not the city with the name on the ticket. I need to be in Lübeck more often than Hamburg.

And my business is such that I usually fly trans-Atlantic (TA) on an 'open jaw' ticket into and out of different airports. When my outbound flight was on AA into the UK, to avoid the ridiculously expensive one-way fares on BA and other European airlines when my return flight was from the Continent, I bought a RT ticket and threw away the return voucher. To minimize the chance of problems, I paid cash if possible and would never use a FF number and thus received any mileage awards.

I hope this will change in Europe - as it has in America. Where Southwest and JetBlue fly, the legacy airlines match their one-way pricing policy. For instance in Sep I plan to fly JFK-STN on MaxJet and STN-DUS on AirBerlin and return DUS-STN and then STN-LAS. I can now get back from LAS to JFK with a OW ticket on AA. The TA portions will be in Business, the short hop to/from DUS in coach, and the AA flight in an exit row or upgraded to the front.

Time will be the judge of whether the AA to STN route will be successful. I think it will. But with the Open Skies agreement it will be only after 30 Mar 08 that it will begin the shake out. Just today, AA admitted it was negotiating to buy additional slots at LHR.

 

[Veritas]

In addition, American will begin its new route between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and London's Stansted Airport effective Oct. 28, 2007. American also said it will begin a second roundtrip between JFK and Stansted in the spring of 2008. With express train service, Stansted is convenient to London's growing financial and business districts.

One wonders how long the Stansted service will continue.
Associated Press:

NEW YORK (AP) -- MAXjet Airways ceased operations on Monday -- leaving jets on tarmacs and stranding passengers on Christmas Eve -- as the all-business class airline filed for bankruptcy protection.

MAXjet took what it called a "drastic measure" because of soaring fuel prices and the deteriorating credit market. But analysts suggested competition from AMR Corp.'s American Airlines on one of MAXjet's key routes also played a big role.

"High fuel prices were a contributing factor, but American's inauguration in October of (service between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and London's Stansted Airport) ... was the coup de grace," said Robert Mann, an airline consultant in Port Washington, N.Y.

 

[The Goose]

Wow, excellent news for my union, the twu's finest are going to love to A5 there for vacation.

Not for much longer, hopefully.