Irishpower From United States of America, joined Aug 2003, 377 posts, RR: 0 Posted (11 months 2 weeks 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 4113 times:
I was just wondering if BA or VA has added any new routes or changed the aircraft on existing routes for the 2012 Olympics? I'm curious to know where they are adding or subtracting capacity this summer to help ferry people in and out of London.
Irishpower From United States of America, joined Aug 2003, 377 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (11 months 2 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 3242 times:
Quoting Bongodog1964 (Reply 1): Both BA and VS were already operating all their LHR slots and their fleet, the only thing that might change is the load factor.
So they haven't changed aircraft on any of their routes in order to change available seats?
rutankrd From United Kingdom, joined Sep 2003, 1998 posts, RR: 5 Reply 3, posted (11 months 2 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 3182 times:
Quoting Irishpower (Reply 2): So they haven't changed aircraft on any of their routes in order to change available seats?
No
Most foreign competitors from the larger countries are arriving in dribs and drabs over the next month or so and going to their respective training camps around the country.
A number of countries will bring charters into London either to Gatwick or Stansted.
There is provision for a mass DEPARTURE day for the international teams via Heathrow that will see some larger aircraft from some of the foreign carriers.
The international ticket allocations are relatively small, through the media and VIPs will be here in the many thousand and are in need of accommodation and transport. Many will arrive on Business jets and these will go to Farnborough/Luton and southend in the main.
The UK airlines already operate their wide body fleets on the heavy routes over the Atlantic and major South East Asian routes and DON"T have much slack capacity to up lift from other areas, excepting perhaps a few close European routes mid day if needs be.
Frankly i am not with the hype over mass foreign visitations in the coming month or two really.
theginge From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2006, 1110 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (11 months 2 weeks 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 2659 times:
One of the UK Newspapers had in its travel section over the weekend that London hotel bookings are down in July and August against last year, so that could suggest fewer people coming to London than normal.
Irishpower From United States of America, joined Aug 2003, 377 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (11 months 2 weeks 19 hours ago) and read 2067 times:
Quoting TheReckoner (Reply 6): What we might see is some late deals to fill up the remaining rooms if they're not taken.
Off topic-what are your thoughts on ticket availability? I will be there and it has been a Son of a B--ch getting tickets to events. I'm guessing there will be a pretty robust "re-sellers" market?
rutankrd From United Kingdom, joined Sep 2003, 1998 posts, RR: 5 Reply 8, posted (11 months 2 weeks 17 hours ago) and read 1870 times:
Quoting Irishpower (Reply 7): Off topic-what are your thoughts on ticket availability? I will be there and it has been a Son of a B--ch getting tickets to events. I'm guessing there will be a pretty robust "re-sellers" market?
Majority of tickets have been distributed via a lottery system and at prices from £20 to £2012 each.
You made an application in round one twelve months ago with further applications released every few months.
There has been releases restricted to previous applicants that failed before.
There has been an application of first come first served released a few weeks ago of tickets for lesser events.
There is also an OFFICIAL buy back and resale process .
The security measures have been designed to make touting very difficult and illegal - there are ongoing prosecutions already.
You will need a photoid that matches the ticket info on the IT system as well as the ticket before entry accepted.
Irishpower From United States of America, joined Aug 2003, 377 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (11 months 2 weeks 16 hours ago) and read 1761 times:
Quoting rutankrd (Reply 8): Majority of tickets have been distributed via a lottery system and at prices from £20 to £2012 each.
You made an application in round one twelve months ago with further applications released every few months.
There has been releases restricted to previous applicants that failed before.
There has been an application of first come first served released a few weeks ago of tickets for lesser events.
There is also an OFFICIAL buy back and resale process .
The security measures have been designed to make touting very difficult and illegal - there are ongoing prosecutions already.
You will need a photoid that matches the ticket info on the IT system as well as the ticket before entry accepted.
Yeah, I have done all of this. The problem with the lottery is that I know of no one (from many family and friends) who received tickets from the lottery. The additional tickets that have been released have been for events I'm not interested in (table tennis, judo, weightlifting etc...). I was in Sydney in 2000 and it was tough getting tickets ahead of time but once we got there it wasn't too difficult. I can only hope London is the same!
shamrock321 From Ireland, joined May 2008, 1547 posts, RR: 1 Reply 10, posted (11 months 2 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 1518 times:
Its correct to say that BAs slot are fully being used at LHR, however their fleet is capable of more! Just last week ABV was changed to a 744 and this continues proving they have available long haul aircraft for use of the BD slots.
VV701 From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2005, 6624 posts, RR: 17 Reply 11, posted (11 months 2 weeks 12 hours ago) and read 1360 times:
It should also be remembered that an airline like BA has "back-up aircraft" for when other aircraft go tech and, at any one time, will have aircraft undergoing both routine and heavy maintenance. There is also likely to be one aircraft out of service being repainted.
Hence if BA see a heavy passenger demand likely to occur on, for example, the day after the London 2012 closing ceremony, are they not likely to plan for that day or short period to be "no maintenance or painting" for larger aircraft?
Additionally the opportunity to roll flights together to create a temporary new slot has never been easier for BA. Cosider the these pairs of LHR-MAN flights:
BA1382: d. 06:30 am. BA2902. d. 06:40 am
BA1384: d. 07:50 am. BD0582. d. 07:55 am
BD0590: d. 01:20 pm. BA1394 d. 01:30 pm
BD0576: d. 05:30 pm. BA1402 d. 05:40 pm
BD0594: d. 08:20 pm. BA1406 d. 08:20 pm
Similar pairs can be readily identified between LHR and both ABZ and EDI. And some of these flights are being operated by bmi Regional EMB-145s. So, if the slots are needed, combining pairs to temporarily free up LHR slots will hardly be a problem. So the purchase of BD coinciding with the London 2012 games is potentially a fortuneate coincidence for BA.
ual777uk From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2005, 3355 posts, RR: 1 Reply 12, posted (11 months 2 weeks 12 hours ago) and read 1330 times:
Quoting Irishpower (Reply 7): Off topic-what are your thoughts on ticket availability?
More tickets are being released...........only last week more tickets were released for the opening ceremony.....they were a mere £950 each! I would like to think that in the days leading up to the event some good deals on tickets will be offered....I hope!
Back to the topic, as was pointed out above people will be coming in at all airports in the London region and just outside, it will not be all about LHR although its fair to say it will be very busy, but then it always is, lets hope they cope!
Bongodog1964 From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2006, 3018 posts, RR: 2 Reply 13, posted (11 months 2 weeks 11 hours ago) and read 1280 times:
Quoting shamrock321 (Reply 10): Its correct to say that BAs slot are fully being used at LHR, however their fleet is capable of more! Just last week ABV was changed to a 744 and this continues proving they have available long haul aircraft for use of the BD slots.
A one off use of a 744 on LHR - ABV doesn't really demonstrate general availability of extra capacity. Airlnes the size of BA will often have a spare plane at base.
When a 734 was damaged recently in Italy, Titan airways operated numerous flights for BA from LGW as they couldn't cover the loss of the plane from the rosters.
SW733 From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 6072 posts, RR: 10 Reply 14, posted (11 months 2 weeks 11 hours ago) and read 1254 times:
Quoting Vasu (Reply 4): I'm guessing it is more like this:
Number of seats = the same
Price = UP!
I just checked out of curiosity, and to get from Kansas City to LHR just before the Opening Ceremonies and leaving mid-games, the round-trip with taxes is US$1150. While that's probably slightly higher than normal summers (but not much), it's definitely a fair price for the games taking place during that time, in my opinion.
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I would like to think that in the days leading up to the event some good deals on tickets will be offered....I hope!
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