Tag Archives for london heathrow.
British Airways has a strangle hold on London’s Heathrow airport. A third runway at Heathrow would expand the airport’s capacity, and BA doesn’t want competition. However if a third runway does get built they believe that the majority of the extra capacity should be assigned to them (in the form of takeoff and landing slots).
American just announced details of their Tokyo Haneda flights at the end of last week. They still have an announcement of new routes with Qantas coming up. But right after losing their LATAM partnership they’ve rushed out an announcement of new service to South America, and packaged it with other disparate scheduling moves – perhaps to make it look more robust.
After all, announcing a move by IAG low cost carrier LEVEL makes little sense when that airline isn’t even a partner.
Virgin Atlantic announced an expansion plan to become Britain’s second flag carrier, adding 84 new routes. They’d fly to 12 domestic destinations in the U.K., 37 European routes, and add 35 long haul routes to places like Delhi, Havana, Jakarta and Tel Aviv.
There is absolutely no chance of their announced growth plan happening. It simply isn’t real. It’s pure posturing to bolster their case for government handouts. In fairness, they’re correct that the handouts shouldn’t all go to British Airways – but they shouldn’t be given to Virgin, either.
The last planned strike was called off but London Heathrow workers were planning a strike for this Monday and Tuesday. Now they say Monday’s strike is off. As of now, though, Tuesday’s is still on.
If your flight does make it out there will be carry on bag restrictions and limited catering on many flights.
Airlines were making contingency plans to keep their employees away from London airports Friday and Saturday, and some were letting customers change their travel plans without a fee. It’s Wednesday and folks didn’t know whether they’d be able to fly in two days because of a strike by airport workers.
Fortunately the strike for this Friday and Saturday has been called off. Workers will vote on a new contract.
British Airways really should invest in re-doing their first class lounge. Recognize that British Airways is never going to provide exceptional service, but they offer decent booze. It seems to me the lounge would be better with more cabanas, and a better process to manage them, at a bare minimum.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
