They move a lot of cargo though, so it may well suit them to have less than full passenger decks with very full holds.
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British Airways
- Thread starter Scotrail12
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Being part of the same alliance does not "mean BA can just rebook" pax onto CX. Airlines don't need to be in the same alliance to access industry-rate fares for rebooking.
In fact, even though CX would be a logical choice, BA is NOT rebooking onto CX at all.
Passengers are being rebooked onto one-stop routes on Qatar Airways (Heathrow-Doha can be BA or QR, and the QR plane which is mostly used on DOH-HKG is actually an ex-CX plane) as well as Lufthansa and SWISS.
Before COVID and the 2019 HK protests, BA used to operate an A380 and 777 to HKG daily.
In 2006, they even operated three 747s on some days.
Regarding the flight timings of BA's flights: for HKG-LON, departing HK around midnight and arriving UK early morning arrival is the only practical possibility. Arriving passengers can connect to BA's short-haul morning departures, and the planes can then be used for BA's morning departures to the USA.
The other possible window for HKG-LON is departing HK morning to lunchtime and arriving UK afternoon-evening, however it makes little sense for BA to do this because the planes would have to pay to park in HK overnight while doing nothing and there are fewer connection possibilities.
Butts
Veteran Member
Well BA looked after on Wednesday Night when my Flight from Berlin was late enough into Heathrow for me to miss conformance for my connection to Edinburgh and I was unceremoniously dumped off the last service of the day.
Rang BA Holidays Hotline and was ensconced in The Sofitel at T5 in the shake of a lambs tail and booked onto a LCY Flight the next day. LHR services were busy (Festival?)
Sting in the tail the LCY flight was delayed by nearly 2 Hours with no Lounge to drown your sorrows in.
Ironically I had phoned BA Holidays the week before querying the 60 Min transfer time at T5 but they said it would be fine. This decision ended up costing them more than the £300 I paid for my Berlin mini-break. (Hotel & Expenses for extra night)
Truth be told I was secretly pleased to have a mini holiday extension in London free of charge.
Rang BA Holidays Hotline and was ensconced in The Sofitel at T5 in the shake of a lambs tail and booked onto a LCY Flight the next day. LHR services were busy (Festival?)
Sting in the tail the LCY flight was delayed by nearly 2 Hours with no Lounge to drown your sorrows in.
Ironically I had phoned BA Holidays the week before querying the 60 Min transfer time at T5 but they said it would be fine. This decision ended up costing them more than the £300 I paid for my Berlin mini-break. (Hotel & Expenses for extra night)
Truth be told I was secretly pleased to have a mini holiday extension in London free of charge.
YorkRailFan
Established Member
From 30 March 2025, BA will launch flights to Tbilisi from Heathrow 4x weekly:
mediacentre.britishairways.com
BA last served Tbilisi in 2013.
British Airways announces direct flights to Georgian capital, Tbilisi
British Airways will launch flights from London Heathrow to Tbilisi, Georgia next year, operating four times per week from 30 March 2025.
mediacentre.britishairways.com
BA last served Tbilisi in 2013.
Cross City
Member
From 30 March 2025, BA will launch flights to Tbilisi from Heathrow 4x weekly:
British Airways announces direct flights to Georgian capital, Tbilisi
British Airways will launch flights from London Heathrow to Tbilisi, Georgia next year, operating four times per week from 30 March 2025.
BA last served Tbilisi in 2013.
Good news, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan are bucket list destinations for me and getting to Georgia especially is a bit of a pain.
TravelDream
Member
- Joined
- 7 Aug 2016
- Messages
- 841
Announced on the same day as easyjet announced Luton to Tbilisi flights.
Apparently the Georgian government has given generous subsidies.
Georgia is a fascinating country and I recommend a visit, but I doubt London to TBS can support the two of them.
Wizz previously flew from Luton to Kutaisi for several years, but it never came back post Covid.
BA sort of previously flew to Tbilisi when BMED operated the route, but sold all their flights under a BA franchise agreement. But it's been a pain to get to since and very expensive since Wizz withdrew from flying the UK to Georgia.
Apparently the Georgian government has given generous subsidies.
Georgia is a fascinating country and I recommend a visit, but I doubt London to TBS can support the two of them.
Wizz previously flew from Luton to Kutaisi for several years, but it never came back post Covid.
BA sort of previously flew to Tbilisi when BMED operated the route, but sold all their flights under a BA franchise agreement. But it's been a pain to get to since and very expensive since Wizz withdrew from flying the UK to Georgia.
MalaiseForever
Member
Definitely fancy this one. Would probably do BA as those EasyJet flight times are no good.
Butts
Veteran Member
Is this the same Government that has just revoked a load of LGBQT Laws that afforded some degree of protection to such individuals ?
I, too, can also recommend Georgia. Spent a week there in 2019 when WizzAir used to operate to Kutaisi. Would gladly recommend the tour company I used if anyone is interested.
Back on topic, this is probably very clever utilisation of capacity by BA. Most of BA’s flights at this time of day leaving LHR are widebodies and indeed this is now the latest international short haul departure from Heathrow (there’s only two other narrowbody departures after this both of which are domestic). It also gives BA some overnight usage of the plane - do they ever use their narrowbody fleet overnight? I know there’s a late arrival into Athens or Cairo but none flying throughout the night.
Back on topic, this is probably very clever utilisation of capacity by BA. Most of BA’s flights at this time of day leaving LHR are widebodies and indeed this is now the latest international short haul departure from Heathrow (there’s only two other narrowbody departures after this both of which are domestic). It also gives BA some overnight usage of the plane - do they ever use their narrowbody fleet overnight? I know there’s a late arrival into Athens or Cairo but none flying throughout the night.
Polish Lot are quite good for flights to this region. I used them to get to Baku last year. They have daily flights from Warsaw to Yerevan and Tblisi (the latter twice daily on certain days), plus five flights a week to Baku. Only issue is that all flights to/from the main part of Europe from most of these cities are at awful times, but that seems to be the case with all airlines.
Often the case with mid-distance flights: they're not short-haul where you can easily schedule an aircraft to do multiple flights per day, and they're not long-haul where you can fly overnight and arrive at a decent time. You either have to depart late to arrive at a decent time, or depart at a useful time and arrive at stupid-o'clock in the morning.
TravelDream
Member
- Joined
- 7 Aug 2016
- Messages
- 841
It's because of the length and the time difference (Georgia is GMT+4 despite not being that far from us).
You can leave Europe late after the last flights arrive at your hub, arrive in the Caucasus at the crack of dawn, and then fly back landing in Europe before the first bank of flights departs from your hub. It also utilises a plane which would be sat on the ground overnight otherwise.
LOT - departs Warsaw 9.25pm and lands back in Warsaw at 5.30am the next morning.
Lufthansa - departs Munich at 9.50pm and lands back in Munich at 7.15am.
Aegean - Leaves Athens at 11.50pm and lands back in Athens at 6.40am.
The UK is a bit too far and BA's turnaround a bit too slow to get back to London early, but Heathrow doesn't really have the same level of banking at other European hubs.
Not all airlines do this. There are flights which fly during the day like easyjet's from Luton will. Some airlines also keep the plane on the ground overnight in Tbilisi like Air France.
Snow1964
Established Member
Looks like another of the ex BMI British Midland A320s has gone from BA fleet,
G-MIDS (which is 23.7 years old) has flown to St Athan (where valuable parts are recovered), it did 12 years with BA, few months longer than with bmi
G-MIDS (which is 23.7 years old) has flown to St Athan (where valuable parts are recovered), it did 12 years with BA, few months longer than with bmi
DanNCL
Established Member
The withdrawal of G-MIDS leaves just three ex-BMI A320s flying, G-MIDO and G-MIDT at Heathrow, and G-MEDK at Gatwick (though currently stopped for maintenance in Madrid).
All of the ex-BMI A319s are still going and probably will for a while longer as they’re mostly newer than the A319s that BA ordered themselves.
All of the ex-BMI A319s are still going and probably will for a while longer as they’re mostly newer than the A319s that BA ordered themselves.
Snow1964
Established Member
A319 G-EUPD is nearly 25 years old
A320 G-GATH is 23.5 years old
Some of the B777-200s are now 27 years old, so older than above
Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
...and G-TTSA is the youngest in the fleet, having only just been delivered and put into service.
gazthomas
Established Member
I just did a return from London Heathrow to Tokyo Haneda and back in economy. We arrived early on both occasions, the food was fine as were the staff. The 777 on the way out felt a little tired but the A350 on the way back was good.
I'd score things slightly down on luggage delivery, it was painfully slow on the way back, but I guess that will be as much a BAA issue as anything.
I did pay for emergency exit seats so I had lots and lots of legroom and I consider this a smarter option than going premium economy.
Another bonus was our return flight headed east over Alaska and Greenland, resulting in fantastic views of the Northern Lights.
So my BA experience was vastly improved than my last trip to the US, when on the return leg my partner's pre-ordered email in premium economy consisted of an apple and a banana. O kid you not!
I'd score things slightly down on luggage delivery, it was painfully slow on the way back, but I guess that will be as much a BAA issue as anything.
I did pay for emergency exit seats so I had lots and lots of legroom and I consider this a smarter option than going premium economy.
Another bonus was our return flight headed east over Alaska and Greenland, resulting in fantastic views of the Northern Lights.
So my BA experience was vastly improved than my last trip to the US, when on the return leg my partner's pre-ordered email in premium economy consisted of an apple and a banana. O kid you not!
The Ex-BMI A319s wont be leaving the fleet for a while, they’ve still got at least 5 years left in them. BA has plans to refurbish them with the new cabins, which should be done by March 2025.
DanNCL
Established Member
They’re in dire need of a refurbishment, the old BMI interior is in really poor shape now. Hopefully they’ll be modified to handle containerised baggage at the same time, one of the most common holdups at T5 is an ex BMI A319 needing all the luggage that’s been loaded into containers to be removed and loose loaded once it gets to the aircraft.
Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
Does this mean they will get rid of those horrible rock hard bulky seats that are in them...?
Yes. New seats, new tables, new flooring, new lights, new overhead bins, new everything
DanNCL
Established Member
I’d expect it to be the same cabin as fitted to the latest delivery of NEOs.
RailWonderer
Established Member
They can’t come soon enough. I had G-DBCC recently, which is an ex BMI A319 and had a sore bum after two and a half hours, which doesn’t happen to me on the new style seating. The aisle side armrest doesn’t go up either much to the frustration of passengers, having to do acrobatics to get in and out. The steward apologised to somebody for the aircraft being so old (March 2004) for that reason.
The carpets are a dated stripy blue as well. I’m even more gutted because my return flight is also a booked A319.
The carpets are a dated stripy blue as well. I’m even more gutted because my return flight is also a booked A319.
Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
You might get lucky and get G-EUPJ...
cactustwirly
Established Member
Look at the seat map, if the last row has 2 seats its a proper BA plane.
My return flight on Saturday was a A319 and had the comfy pinnacle seats and the cabin felt fresh despite the plane being from 2000
DanNCL
Established Member
Check the seat map. If it has only two seats in the last row then it’s not one of the ex BMI aircraft, likewise if it has row 13 it’s not one of the ex BMI aircraft.
I had G-EUPD last year, the oldest remaining Airbus in the BA fleet (and the last one left from before 2000), despite its age the Pinnacle seated cabin was in good condition.
The refurb won’t be Pinnacle seating but rather the brand new cabin that’s currently only fitted to the most recent delivery of NEOs, specifically G-TTNV/NW/NX/NY/NZ, G-TTSA, and G-TNED/EE