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Posted June 30, 2010 6:01 PM
By James Mellon

Success in the City

Nine months after British Airways launched all-business class services from London-City to New York-JFK, CEO Willie Walsh has announced that the feedback from customers so far has been fantastic. The long haul operation from London’s downtown airport has always been viewed as an experiment. Now that the airline has reported load factors of up to 75%, there may be good reason to take the experiment to the next level.

Spring 2008. British Airways converted two Airbus A320 family aircraft already on order into a pair of A318’s. They announce plans to fly the aircraft from London City Airport across the Atlantic to New York, pitching a boutique business class service for business clients. It was even touted as the new alternative to flying on Concorde.

 

At the time the future for long haul all-business class travel was beginning to look quite bleak as Silverjet ceased operations, following Maxjet Airways and Eos Airlines into the history books. All three airlines had, with mixed success, operated services from London to the USA focusing entirely on the business traveller. However, they flew their services from Luton and Stansted which are quieter airports than Heathrow and Gatwick but are also a considerable distance from central London, roughly 30 miles away.

 

The close proximity of London City to Canary Wharf is a big USP to the members of the banking community to whom the service is targeted at. With the airport just a 15 minute ride away on the DLR or in a taxi, and a minimum time of 15 or 20 minutes required for checking in prior to departure, the speed and convenience of the experience is exceptional. Far different from trying to get to the west side of London in time for a flight from Heathrow.

 

Corporate customers who have used the service would now like to see British Airways add more daily services to New York, or even new cities added to the route network. Walsh recently stated that “Realistically it is only possible to fly to the east coast of the USA - Boston, Chicago, Washington. But we are being pushed to fly to more destinations”.

 

It is well known that London City has some big operational challenges. It is a small airport with a short runway, 4984 feet (1508 metres) long. The outbound services to New York cannot make it across the Atlantic from such a short runway, so they make a tech stop in Shannon en-route. While the aircraft is refuelled (and then take off again from a much longer runway) the passengers can make good use of the time on the ground. By clearing US customs and immigration in Ireland passengers avoid having to do the same process at JFK. This allows the aircraft to land in New York as a US domestic flight.

 

Adding services to Boston, Chicago or Washington would also stop in Shannon. Aircraft operating to these cities could complete the roundtrip in less than 24 hours, which operationally make them ideal. Just like London they all come with downtown airports too, alternatives to the larger out of town hubs all the other transatlantic flights go to. Boston’s Logan is right next to the city centre in the harbour, and is where all transatlantic flights serve the city. Chicago-Midway and Washington-National however may not be so easy to serve, as operational constraints and security issues come in to play at both airports.

 

For any destinations further west it would not be possible to operate a daily service if you were to use the same aircraft again from London the following day. You would also need a second tech stop getting there, not to mention a tech stop coming back to London. A service like that may have less appeal to time-conscious passengers. Even though the payload of the A318 is a lot less with a maximum of 32 passengers onboard it would still struggle to fly a longer distance than the 3081 miles from Shannon to JFK (or 3472 miles back from JFK to London City, helped out by the ever present Jet stream of course). Even Dubai has been requested as a destination for the all-business class service. A stopping point such as Brussels or Amsterdam would allow for refuelling, but what about UAE immigration procedures just like US immigration in Shannon?

 

So where should this service go from here? The number one item on the wish list for British Airways is a longer runway at London City. But even if an extension was approved the completion of that work would be years away. The amount of apron space was increased in May 2008 which allows for the two A318’s to sit side-by-side when they are both at home. But some careful timetabling would be required if more A318’s were added to the fleet. The lead time between ordering more aircraft and their eventual delivery dates will allow a long period for the airline to plan on how and where they operate them.

 

The airport boasts an impressive route network with 30 destinations currently served, 11 of them by BA Cityflyer. Some flights to other cities in the UK and Europe are timed to connect with the New York services giving some scope for connecting traffic. Therein lays the potential to create a small hub operation. Getting to fly new services to downtown airports will make them worthwhile. The ability to fly from door to door of the cities financial districts is a major attraction to business passengers. Excluding the possibility of another downturn in premium long haul traffic, the popularity of these services is likely to increase.

 

The restrictions at London City will limit what British Airways can do for new long haul services in the future, but there are opportunities available. Ultimately the decisions will be driven by the business community, and how they choose to fly with the British Airways experiment.

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