Comments on: British Airways’ all-business class from London to New York – is the OpenSkies brand dying?

By: file cabinet dividers

file cabinet dividers — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:48:57 +0000

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By: Overview On Types Of Seats In Business Class Flights | Flights To & Flights From

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 04:32:05 +0000

[...] British Airways’ all-business class from London to New York – is the OpenSkies brand dying? (simpliflying.com) [...]

By: Matthew

Matthew — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:14:32 +0000

Oh, and there’s one other thing about Open Skies… It *isn’t* an All Business Class brand, the 757′s are configured with 12 Business Class seats, and 40 Premium Economy Seats (although they have considerably more legroom than BA’s own World Traveller Plus Brand).

By: Martin Hedley

Martin Hedley — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 04:43:42 +0000

As a “regular” between JFK and LHR for almost eight years while I was in the banking industry, Club World had about 40% of its passengers from the financial services industry. People of many nationalities, origins and backgrounds all agreed that BA was the best across the pond. First with the flat bed, first with consistently high service level to match it. The only problem – getting from LHR to the City. The tube is slow and crowded (but cheap), taxis are unbearably expensive and the excellent Heathrow Express drops you at the ‘wrong end’ for bankers. From LCY I could walk to work! If BA could fly from Manhattan itself to LCY they’d be filling 10 A318s a day.

I am sure there are technical issues on the A318 vs 757 and I am sure BALPA had valid concerns, but for the primary business that keeps Club World going – this is a hit and one I’d want to be associated with the main brand.

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:29:27 +0000

@muzuzu
I believe it was reported in the media at the time.
Forward bookings are apparently very high, some flights are all ready fully booked and many flights between now and december have only a couple of seats left. I think you are misunderestimating the demand for LON-NYC. LCY is a great airport that business travellers love and I think there is huge demand for a service like this.

By: muzuzu

muzuzu — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:29:14 +0000

@Sean: Is that a fact or speculation on your part?

@Shashank: Well obviously the 757 not being certified to land at LCY is a problem but moreover I don’t think there is sufficient demand out there for an LCY-JFK pseudo-direct service using a 757.

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:16:50 +0000

I’m pretty sure its public information. BALPA the pilots union made alot of fuss when BA announced plans to launch openskies and threatened to strike as they saw Openskies as similar to Jetstar in Australia, where services would slowly be transfered to the new carrier which would pay much less. BA agreed that Openskies would not be used in this way and agreed to not launch services from the UK.

BA also sees this route as its premiere route hence the use of the BA001/BA002 concorde flight numbers and so would want to keep it under the British Airways brand.

By: Shashank Nigam

Shashank Nigam — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:53:36 +0000

@Sam: Is that public information? If so, then you might have nailed it why the all-business class flight is being operated by BA, not OpenSkies.

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:42:36 +0000

To avoid a strike BA agreed with pilot unions that Openskies would never operate services from UK Soil.

By: Shashank Nigam

Shashank Nigam — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:20:18 +0000

Alright guys.. my bad… missed the fact that 757s can’t land or take off from London City Airport. But I still think this should have been an OpenSkies operation, not a BA one.