Air India dropped its direct Birmingham-Amritsar flight at the end of last year. It had been hoped the flights would return this summer, but the airline announced last week it would be abandoning Birmingham for the moment to focus on its routes to Heathrow.
Why would they lose slots? Or was it a matter of bilateral agreements?
Although its Birmingham-India route was more profitable than any of the London ones, Air India had to drop the service to avoid losing valuable slots at Heathrow because of the way the London airport is run.
PlymSpotter From Spain, joined Jun 2004, 11125 posts, RR: 63 Reply 2, posted (2 years 11 months 2 weeks 6 days 1 hour ago) and read 3049 times:
I presume they had the slots and had to make an aircraft available to use them. But, I take that statement with a pinch of salt. AF, KL, LH, and especially EK all offer highly competitive fares to India from BHX - especially EK. I think it was an easy face saving way out of hot water for them.
gr8circle From Canada, joined Dec 2005, 2987 posts, RR: 4 Reply 5, posted (2 years 11 months 2 weeks 5 days 8 hours ago) and read 2284 times:
Quoting PlymSpotter (Reply 2): AF, KL, LH, and especially EK all offer highly competitive fares to India from BHX - especially EK. I think it was an easy face saving way out of hot water for them.
Well, first of all, the AI flight was direct to ATQ/DEL.....unlike the one-stops offered by the other esteemed airlines you mention....secondly, the AI service via BHX catered to the huge Indian (read Punjabi) community there.....very price conscious and with a tendency to fly an Indian carrier due to food/language comfort......that's why, as pointed out by the opener, AI was apparently doing well on that sector....there was no question of "face saving"...it was a business decision to discontinue BHX for the time being and use the LHR slots...
PlymSpotter From Spain, joined Jun 2004, 11125 posts, RR: 63 Reply 6, posted (2 years 11 months 2 weeks 4 days 23 hours ago) and read 2001 times:
Quoting gr8circle (Reply 5): the AI service via BHX catered to the huge Indian (read Punjabi) community there.....very price conscious and with a tendency to fly an Indian carrier due to food/language comfort
Yes, there are in the region of 100,000 Punjabis living within the BHX catchment area. But price conscious they are, food and language is not as important - they are not ignorant foreigners living in the UK, they can speak English, so I don't see why the latter is even an issue? The AI service was more expensive, sometimes double the fares on secondary carriers like Turkmenistan Airlines and still a premium to other one stop options. Plus the BHX-YYZ loads were hardly 'thrilling'.
It just makes me think there was an air of convenience - especially considering that BHX has still not returned, despite petitions from the city councillors and influential figures in the community.
jayeshrulz From India, joined Apr 2007, 1000 posts, RR: 4 Reply 7, posted (2 years 11 months 2 weeks 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 1578 times:
Quoting gr8circle (Reply 5):
Well, first of all, the AI flight was direct to ATQ/DEL.....unlike the one-stops offered by the other esteemed airlines you mention....secondly, the AI service via BHX catered to the huge Indian (read Punjabi) community there.....very price conscious and with a tendency to fly an Indian carrier due to food/language comfort......that's why, as pointed out by the opener, AI was apparently doing well on that sector....there was no question of "face saving"...it was a business decision to discontinue BHX for the time being and use the LHR slots...
Well, but the "Time Being" is coming back though....
Quoting PlymSpotter (Reply 6):
Yes, there are in the region of 100,000 Punjabis living within the BHX catchment area. But price conscious they are, food and language is not as important - they are not ignorant foreigners living in the UK, they can speak English, so I don't see why the latter is even an issue? The AI service was more expensive, sometimes double the fares on secondary carriers like Turkmenistan Airlines and still a premium to other one stop options. Plus the BHX-YYZ loads were hardly 'thrilling'.
It just makes me think there was an air of convenience - especially considering that BHX has still not returned, despite petitions from the city councillors and influential figures in the community.
Dan
Well said, And YYZ also has a good load too.
As mentioned, to use the slots at LHR. But dont they have enough aircrafts to fill in both the airports?
how many slots does it have at LHR? and how many at BHX?
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