British Airways franchise partner, GB Airways, will start direct flights from London Gatwick to Innsbruck, Austria this winter.
The airline will fly five times a week starting December 17, 2005 throughout the ski season and continue with two flights a week in summer 2006.
John Patterson, GB Airways’ managing director said: “We have operated flights on behalf of charter customers to Innsbruck over the past few winters and have identified a real need for scheduled flights that allow travellers the flexibility and choice to fly direct and in comfort with a world renowned full service airline. By flying both during the week and at weekends, we are confident that these flights will be particularly popular with the short break market.”
All flights offer a choice of Club Europe and Euro Traveller cabins with complimentary food and drinks and of course more legroom and baggage allowance than many other carriers.
AIR MALTA From Malta, joined Sep 2001, 2365 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 4 days ago) and read 1536 times:
Nice move from GT and BA. Nice to see them adding some exotic destinations. I would like to know if those routes are making a lot of money? BA said at some point they will not open leisure route but will concentrate on business routes...
FlyCaledonian From United Kingdom, joined Dec 2003, 1965 posts, RR: 3 Reply 7, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 1293 times:
Interesting that GT have added Innsbruck while BA have opted to serve Grenoble this Winter, both ski services. Good move by both carriers to increase aircraft utilisation over the Winter.
BA seems to have withdrawn from Spain and Portugal completely at LGW in favour of GT, with the exception of MAD and BCN. In North Africa GT has the leiure routes to Morrocco and Tunisia, while BA operates the oil routes to Algeria and Libya.
In France GT has picked up Montpellier from BA and launched Nantes and Bastia (Corsica) on its own, but BA retains Toulouse, Bordeaux and Marseille from LGW, while Italy is entirely BA.
BA returned to Thessaloniki this Summer, while GT added Heraklion (Crete), so Greece is split too.
Maybe in its shorthaul review BA will look at handing over more routes to GT? Radical move would be to hand over all ops at LGW, bar domestic and maybe MUC, HAJ and LUX, to GT, with BA maybe taking a stake in GT again? Then again, if BA can make money off its leisure operations at LGW, why bother? LGW is the full-service leisure hub for BA now, so good to see they can make it work.
What would be good was if BA handed GT its Italian routes at MAN. A320 to FCO, VCE, BLQ and PSA would beat the Embraer anyday!
Flycro From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2004, 372 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 2 days 17 hours ago) and read 1261 times:
Quoting FlyCaledonian (Reply 7): What would be good was if BA handed GT its Italian routes at MAN. A320 to FCO, VCE, BLQ and PSA would beat the Embraer anyday!
If BA could fill A320's with northerners they'd have done it by now, but truth is they struggle to fill a EMB145
FlyCaledonian From United Kingdom, joined Dec 2003, 1965 posts, RR: 3 Reply 10, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 2 days 17 hours ago) and read 1254 times:
Flycro, I doubt BA would have done it by now. Look at how GT is managing to grow its MAN operation, taking on the lo-cos and scheduled charters. With a lower cost base than BA, so I'd imagine, I think they could probably manage routes to Italy.
BAxMAN From St. Helena, joined May 2004, 671 posts, RR: 3 Reply 11, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 1245 times:
All BA flights at MAN (other than LGW/LHR) are Citiexpress as opposed to BA mainline. I would assume (but do not know for certain) that Citiexpress have a lower cost base than BA mainline.
Chiguire From Venezuela, joined Sep 2004, 2003 posts, RR: 19 Reply 14, posted (7 years 10 months 1 week 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 1093 times:
Didn't the airport Innsbruck negociate with some other LCCs apart of GT, Germanwings, HLX, SkyEurope ?
What happened to those plans ? Any news from Austria ?
INNflight From Austria, joined Apr 2004, 3765 posts, RR: 62 Reply 15, posted (7 years 10 months 4 days 23 hours ago) and read 1040 times:
Quoting Chiguire (Reply 14): Didn't the airport Innsbruck negociate with some other LCCs apart of GT, Germanwings, HLX, SkyEurope ?
What happened to those plans ? Any news from Austria ?
You are right!
SkyEurope announced INN as their new addition to the route network just today!
German LCCs ( Hapag Lloyd Express as well as Germanwings ) are still having negociations with the airport, and may start flights to INN in the 2006 summer season!
Chiguire From Venezuela, joined Sep 2004, 2003 posts, RR: 19 Reply 16, posted (7 years 10 months 4 days 22 hours ago) and read 1019 times:
Quoting INNflight (Reply 15):
SkyEurope announced INN as their new addition to the route network just today!
Hi, you happy INN local !
Don't you think that just AMS and ORY is little ? Aren't there more airports they could have served ? In Germany for example ? I mean, if the airport is OK with SkyEurope, why don't they simply also operate the routes they now expect Germanwings and HLX to serve ?
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