BA drop Dublin flights from London City
British Airways axed flights to Dublin this week, but moved quickly to quash rumours its commitment to City Airport was fading.
Flights from City to the Irish capital began in summer last year but were withdrawn on Monday, March 2.
The airline said the decision was made to sacrifice the route due to lack of aircraft and a recent reduced uptake in flights.
BA City Flyer was already running with a reduced fleet when a RJ100, one of 12 aircraft based at City, had an emergency landing at the Docklands airport last month.
Airline spokeswoman Sue Redmond said: "We are an aircraft down because of the plane currently out of action at City Airport which is being assessed by the authorities.
"We also used to have Flightline operating 12 flights a day before they went into administration before Christmas, so we were running with a reduced service already and had to make changes.
"But also the reason we chose Dublin was because, following the bottom falling out of the financial market, there has been a distinct reduction in bookings."
News that the Dublin route was being dropped was jumped upon by anti-expansion groups which claimed it was the sign of problems for BA at City.
It also pointed out BA had dropped a number of other routes in the last year, including Oslo, Hamburg and Vienna.
However, Ms Redmond said BA was readjusting to suit demand, and she said the airline was continuing to use all its allocated flight slots.
She said: "We have to react with what the business passengers want. For example, they've been asking for more flights to Edinburgh and these will be improved shortly.
"While we have pulled out of a number of routes we have also brought in new ones, such as Nice, Glasgow, Barcelona and Frankfurt.
"There's no greater sign of our commitment than the fact we are starting flights to New York later this year."
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Finally you are reporting on the dramatic reduction of flights at London City Airport - funnily enough not from the Airport but from BA. And here I was thinking that you had a direct line to the airport.Everytime there is a new route we have the CE of the airport waxing lyrically about how great it is - yet nothing about loss of flights.(do a search on your own website) Loss of routes was reported on Fighttheflights.com weeks ago BEFORE BAs announcement.So it wasnt "jumped" on by anti-aviation groups - It was ANNOUNCED by fighttheflights.com Plus I do not belive their are problems for BA at London City Airport , There are problems at London City Airport - Full Stop!
I quote
"April 23, 2008
Welcoming the new service, Richard Gooding OBE, chief executive of London City Airport, commented: "Dublin will be the tenth route to be served out of London City Airport by British Airways. This announcement comes at a significant time as the airport is close to completing the current phase of development including an extension to the departure lounge and new aircraft parking stands. British Airways' commitment to our Docklands hub is recognised by the business community who will appreciate the additional frequencies available to them"
Turns out not to be true - quelle surprise.
We do no need additional flights from London City Airport.Planes are leaving less than a quarter full - just to keep slots open.
So far we have seen the loss of Oslo,Hamburg,Berne,Warsaw,Rome,Vienna,Stuttgart and Belfast.
Nice to see BA claim to be so poitive especially after their new "Junk" rating in the states.
I look forward to your balanced report of the Flash Mob against London City Airport last night at York Hall - Boris Johnsons Peoples Question Time.
It's not exactly rocket science that BA have had to pull a route considering they are an aircraft down - they're of course going to pull the weakest performing. Last week's CAA reports showed that LCY is still bucking the trend with high passenger numbers compared with the other London airports. The numbers speak for themselves.
"Oslo,Hamburg,Berne,Warsaw,Rome,Vienna,Stuttgart and Belfast." - of these only Warsaw was operated by BA!
Oh by the way Darren, BA didn't 'announce' the suspension of the route and neither did you - no-one goes to your web site for 'news' only spin. You get all your news from pprune.org - and that's pro-aviation!!
Regards,
Pilot.
Thanks for the S.O.S. on BA