Raffik From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2006, 1646 posts, RR: 4 Posted (6 years 3 months 1 week 5 days 12 hours ago) and read 4169 times:
Just looking at Expedia and notice that the BMED flights to BEY have been replaced by
BA6557 LHR-BEY and BA6506 BEY-LHR operating with A319,A320 or A321 equipment. It usually has an asterix by the airline to denote a service operated by BMED, but on these, it's just BA, and an aircraft type that BMED do not operate- the A319.
Are the A321s of BA really equipped for BEY flights? I thought they were high density.
Also, with BMED being sold to BMI, will BMI fly to BEY or is this the BA replacement? Do you think they will operate the 767 or 757 instead?
AIR MALTA From Malta, joined Sep 2001, 2365 posts, RR: 1 Reply 2, posted (6 years 3 months 1 week 5 days 12 hours ago) and read 4126 times:
Quoting Raffik (Thread starter): Just looking at Expedia and notice that the BMED flights to BEY have been replaced by
BA6557 LHR-BEY and BA6506 BEY-LHR operating with A319,A320 or A321 equipment. It usually has an asterix by the airline to denote a service operated by BMED, but on these, it's just BA, and an aircraft type that BMED do not operate- the A319.
Are the A321s of BA really equipped for BEY flights? I thought they were high density.
Well on Amadeus, flights are still marked as BAKJ even after Oct 2007. Knowing BA's lately passive attitude, I would rather say that all these destinations will be abandoned by the end of the summer timetable and replaced by code sharing with RJ to DAM, BEY, AMM and also SAH and Iraq. Malev is even going to start flights to Ekateringburg, so I would assume BA would share codes on these flights to SVX... But anyway, if you can can use a direct flights with BD/KJ, why bother transferring with BA and MA. This is was a really bad move by BA!
Lan1981 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 4, posted (6 years 3 months 1 week 5 days 7 hours ago) and read 3941 times:
BA simply don't have the aircraft to cover the BMED routes - and as far as I know, the company is currently focusing on routes which are more likely to be profitable...India & China for instance. In addition to this, the BMED slots will go to BMI as well as crew & aircraft...so it's unlikely that mainline will return to selected BMED routes...unless they are operated as shuttles from places such as LCA i.e. LCA-BEY or LCA-THR.
BY188B From United Kingdom, joined Jul 2003, 701 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (6 years 3 months 1 week 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 3892 times:
I was under the impression that even if BA wanted to take several of the BMED routes it couldnt, because the route authority belongs to to BMED and not BA.
BMED currently fly to:
Yerevan
Baku
Alexandria
Addis Ababa
Tblisi
Tehran
Amman
Almaty
Bishkek
Beirut
Ekaterinberg
Dakar
Freetown
Khartoum
Damacus/Aleppo
Ankara
Tashkent
So does anyone know out of the above who owns the route authority? For example i know BA used to fly Tehran and Addis Ababa on their own metal, When BMED commenced the franchise did BA sell or lease or transfer it to BMED?
next flights : BD LHR-TXL J, FR SXF-STN Y, SN BRU-LHR Y, MA LHR-BUD Y, BA BUD-LHR J, BA LCY-SNN-JFK J, BA JFK-LHR J, BA
BEYauty From Lebanon, joined Aug 2005, 162 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (6 years 3 months 1 week 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 3807 times:
Quoting Raffik (Reply 3): That would leave MEA to offer the only direct non stop service to London from Beirut...
If that's the case, then would MEA have to increase frequency and or capacity to London? They currently don't have the metal to do it. Anybody know what percentage of traffic is O&D vs. transit through London? I for one go through London most of the time when I fly LAX to BEY.
Theginge From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2006, 1110 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (6 years 3 months 1 week 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 3713 times:
The BA6557 and BA6506 are the BA flights operated by BMED. These will continue to operate under the BA flight number until October. BA could run Beirut if it wanted to as there is an open skies policy between the UK and Beirut. The BMED Beirut flights will continue after October but with the difference that they won;t be a BA flight.
BMED own all the slots and the route licences to all the routes, not BA. So BA could not operate these flights to some of the destinations where there is no open skies without a change in the agreements between the Governments.
i must be missing something here, but bmi will be taking over this route would they not? so why not just fly them and avoid BA's striking cabin crew, ridiculous baggages policies, and all of the other paraphenalia that comes 'attached' to them?
AceFreighter From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2003, 179 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (6 years 3 months 1 week 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 3642 times:
BMI have said that BMED will continue to operate as a separate entity initially, so the flights will operate on KJ/BD flight numbers. As stated above its BMED who own the traffic rights to the current flights, not BA. Interesting that a lot of the current passengers on the routes are connecting from BA flights from USA. Either they will still arrive by BA or they will be lost to BMED as there is not enough BD/Star alliance feed into LHR. Load factors on some of the flights is poor, so some may not last long without good feeds.
Carledwards From United Kingdom, joined May 2004, 259 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (6 years 3 months 1 week 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 3628 times:
Quoting AceFreighter (Reply 9): Interesting that a lot of the current passengers on the routes are connecting from BA flights from USA. Either they will still arrive by BA or they will be lost to BMED as there is not enough BD/Star alliance feed into LHR
Well maybe BD would consider a VS tie-up instead; this way the routes would have the feeds they need, and result in better profitability for bmi. I think for bmi to succeed on these routes some kind of codeshare is essential anyway on most of them. The Ekaterinburg for example, could be code-shared with Transaero like bmi's Moscow flights?
Hotelmode From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2007, 459 posts, RR: 1 Reply 11, posted (6 years 3 months 1 week 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 3619 times:
Tehran, Baku and Almaty are all BA routes that were transferred to Bmed operation, I would be immensly surprised if the route licences for these are held by Bmed.
AIR MALTA From Malta, joined Sep 2001, 2365 posts, RR: 1 Reply 12, posted (6 years 3 months 1 week 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 3608 times:
Quoting Hotelmode (Reply 11): Tehran, Baku and Almaty are all BA routes that were transferred to Bmed operation, I would be immensly surprised if the route licences for these are held by Bmed.
And BA would really be fool to let destinations go... I know that they only want to serve profitable markets but they have also to serve some other destinations to feed their most profitable destinations. I would imagine BAK feeds the IAH flights and THR the LAX flights, or am I wrong!!!
And from the marketing point of view, loosing 18 routes at once is really bad.
Quoting Raffik (Reply 3): What about the flights that continue to Amman and Damascus from Beirut?All of them cancelled?
Previously the flight operated several times a week on alternate days LHR-BEY-DAM-BEY-LHR and then LHR-ALP-DAM-ALP-LHR so I would assume that even if the flights are no longer continuing through Beirut then they will be through Aleppo, the may even have increased.
Theginge From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2006, 1110 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (6 years 3 months 1 week 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 3368 times:
As stated many times before BMED own ALL the slots and route licences including Almaty / Tehran and Baku, the old BA routes.
BA will still get the feed from the passengers coming from the BMED/BD routes in the future as sometimes BMED will be the only carrier flying there from Heathrow so BA passengers coming across the Atlantic will still connect on to BMED.
BA and BMI have worked together before on routes so there is nothing stopping them again, Infact even under the BA franchise many BMED passengers transfer on to Virgin / BMI and others at LHR and not BA.
Raffik From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2006, 1646 posts, RR: 4 Reply 15, posted (6 years 3 months 1 week 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 3291 times:
I forgot about the openskies agreement in Lebanon. That means BA could come back at a later stage.
Quoting BEYauty (Reply 6): They currently don't have the metal to do it
They currently operate A330s on all but mid week services. They have ordered another 6 aircraft, but we will have to see if the situation in Lebanon permits the need for additional aircraft.
BA used to operate to BEY before BMED, operating 747s & 707s in the 70s and 767s in the 1990s. When BMED took over the routes in 1994-1996 BA was flying with the 767-300.
I am confused with what will happen ... BMED will fly as a individual entity and will retain their destinations? Will BMI slam their codeshare flight numbers on the flights? What livery will the aircraft operate with? The old BMED one or with a BMI colour scheme? Interesting!
Theginge From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2006, 1110 posts, RR: 0 Reply 17, posted (6 years 3 months 1 week 2 days 17 hours ago) and read 3095 times:
No one knows at the moment how BMED will operate once the transition from BA to BMI takes place. This will become clearer in the next few months.
I am sure eventually with the open skies BA may decide it wants to operate to Beirut again but in the short term they can't really do this as at the moment they haven;t got the aircraft to do it without dropping something else.
BEYauty From Lebanon, joined Aug 2005, 162 posts, RR: 0 Reply 18, posted (6 years 3 months 1 week 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 2949 times:
Quoting Raffik (Reply 15): They currently operate A330s on all but mid week services. They have ordered another 6 aircraft, but we will have to see if the situation in Lebanon permits the need for additional aircraft
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