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Great news on front page of tomorrow's Telegraph, "Covid passports proving vaccine status to be available for summer holidays". Allowing fully vaccinated to avoid tests or quarantine.
Should give the shares a filip.
British Airways has historically made very little money out of holidays or flying to holiday destinations. It was often remarked that the JFK route alone made more profit in a month, than the whole of LGW in a year.
The profit was in the lucrative business market. That has gone and is unlikely to return. Pinning your hopes that there will be a renaissance in the share price based on bucket and spade holidays, is pure delusion.
@Speedbird
Agree with you but what it does do is signal the possibility of a full return to 'business as usual'...If IAG can get the all important transatlantic route back up and running then this SP will rise significantly, but doubtful it will rise like a rocket!
GLA
@Speedbird
Very true.
Gatwick was often seen as revenue neutral.
However, as the Executive grew it became apparent over time that members didn't always want to 'burn' their miles going to say HKG.
They wanted to go to the Carribbean and/or city breaks.
Indeed, BA didn't want their Exec club members taking vast swathes of highly profitable 'free seats' on its profitable LHR flights (save JFK - which with over 11 flights a day could mop up Exec club members needs on that route due to capacity) and actively encouraged use of long haul 'holiday' routes from LGW.
It was said that, even when two flights a day were operated to MCO the route barely raised any direct revenue. Which begs the question, why fire two 777s there a day?
Answer? Was packed with Exec Club members and their families. Better to have them there than on the NAS for example.
Traditionally BAs meat and gravy was, as you point out, on its prime LHR destinations.
With LGW currently mothballed I'd wager BA would welcome any form of system getting bums on its seats. Holiday trade or otherwise.
If you think sppedbird that the business market has gone and is unlikely to return, then with respect you have no understanding of the market. Absolutely NO understanding. A brief glance at the data of the likes of Qatar that have kept flying shows a very healthy present business market if the planes are flying and the big social move to remote working and video conferencing is bigged up by a couple of commentators, but are very much a problem for most others. Video conferencing predates the world wide web by a decade or so. It only had a limited market then, and it only managed a limited market with the world wide web and even with things like 3 and 4G. It is like a live event, being there is many times better than watching on a monitor somewhere. Often the journey itself is critical psychological preparation routine before the big meeting.
You have made rather a fool of yourself with your comment.
So ETIHAD are scrapping their A380’s
Big-blue
You don’t know what you are talking about. You are clearly deluded.
BA will never again fill its business class cabins as it did before. The age of the four engined jet is over.
if you say so Speedbird 747...you must be right! You are like mystic meg..mind she was never right!
I predict speedbird, every seat in the airlines can get in the air will be full including all left turn seats! The big question is what kind of market research data will airlines use to determine what services it will open up. The return leg testing issue will severely reduce expected market size. For the business class it is more the issue of time at the airport, but I will expect the VIP service to be significantly expanded to 'help' out fast tracking and reducing any hanging about time. That's where the two tier systems will really be, not at the theatre door.
@Speedbird
I don't think business travel is gone completely but there will definitely be a shift to more premium leisure travel. It was interesting to see another 777 be reconfigured where they got rid of First and increased their world traveller plus seating capacity. I think there will always be people that will fly business, but I think your right not as many as pre pandemic, we will see. At least 6 A380s will be coming back into service and these have had their maintenance schedules kept up to date. GL All, hopefully see a good bounce back towards 220 level. Onwards and upwards!!
Business class and all the bells and whistles are status symbols. In the same way that two window offices become more important than the salary [because the bonus is worth 100 times more anyway], limo cars to airports, travel upgrades and apartment hotel suites will be on the self-important list of the executives and aspirational list of the pen pushers as it has always been. And every leg up the ladder the pen pushers get, the executives add more rungs on the luxury and convenience ladder to keep that socially superior distance. It has always been like it, it will always been like it. The covid pandemic will not alter that at all. In fact the opposite may happen as many lobby that they deserve better travel grades because of their contribution. Even if there is more video conferencing built into the business landscape, what is the purpose for it? Simply to prepare the ground for a face to face, which has been the story from the 80's onwards and before that it was telephone conferencing to sett up the face to face. At every level, business, sport, entertainment, leisure, diplomatic, political, climate change junkets - the lot, face to face will always dominate and those travelling will always be looking to improve the travel experience. Think it through, even Ryanair passengers have upgrade options!!!! You seriously think BA and the rest are going to back peddle on upgrade options? I stand firm, you do not have any understanding of the market.
big blue the issue is yes face to face contact but you dont need many . Many issues can be resolved over the net you are living in the past mate
How are BA going to fill every seat on the six A380’s which no longer appear to be in the maintenance programme?
Relying on any sort of renaissance in the aviation industry based on holiday travel is delusional. Far too much competition in that segment. Businessmen have changed their pattern of conducting their trade. Are all those nights out of bed and suffering jet lag really necessary, just to get a wet signature. on a document? You can’t even shake hands on a deal now.
Transiting through airports is an even worse experience than it was before Covid. Many people will avoid flying at all costs
Most of the arab airlines have switched to dreamliners more cheaper to run and maintain a380 is a dead shire horse
Mararab, people that fly in Business class are also people who are retired and have extra dosh to spend, holidaymakers who have plenty of money to spend and treat their family and some business people. People in First are the millionaires who want the extra privacy and they will not fly Business. Business class seats are not as expensive as people think. It depends on the routes. All IMO
marab, living in the past? Well this covid travel restriction has only been around for a year or so. There was little appetite for video conferencing before and it had been tried many times. The most important example being the numerous climate change related conferences. Many times video conferencing was proposed but never came about because of the nature and need for face to face as humans. If ever there was to be a move to video conferencing it would have already happened there. The covid situation has forced video conferencing, but in reality how many main events such as expos actually ended up being staged online? Why didn't the entertainment festivals simply go online? Many people have found the video conferencing to be very limited and certainly not the place to assess the behaviour and intent of others involved.
A return to pre-covid assembly will happen quickly, only limited to the extent lockdowns are lifted. The social isolation might lead to more face to face as the lack of contact has been commented on repeatedly as a negative in workplace and social interaction.
big blue vid conferencing and working from home is here to stay pal i been working from home and productivity has gone up , there is need to meet clients but not like before business travel will slow down , people just wont be able to afford it and use economy there's a lot of companies that just wont allow you to travel business class its a fact and if you can do business over the net then why would you need to use business class
I should say though that a longer term limiting factor is on the cards and as announced by the UK government intervention on how often you maybe able to travel will be introduced. But not it is something that will require intervention to restrict people's free choice. If people were naturally migrating to online meetings then there would be no need for the introduction of travel restrictions that will be required now aviation is being lumped in with all the other green crap.
But left turners need not worry, may have to plant a few more trees but if you have money, you will be able to travel how you wish.
sundezena the average buisness class ticket is 3 times that of economy if i was a owner of a big company and need to save money its there i would look for savings , you peeps have to get real , yes there will be buisness class like you said i for one will use it on my 60th but normally economy for me as i can not justify the price
big blue also the future will be vr head headsets to use so you can be at the meeting virtually so why fly its the future
marab, for your job in your industry that may be the case and it maybe your company was moving that way anyway in order to keep the business afloat or line the owners pockets. But in a way you prove my point. If one of your colleagues is offered the same job elsewhere with a couple of business class seats thrown in when the inevitable client meeting must happen, will they stay with you at the arse end of the plane or be up front with their feet up? And that is why a return to full seats will happen far quicker than most are trying to imagine.
And also, the actual economic impact is very much lower than most think. Whilst big compared to previous troubled times, it has been pointed out that the credit crunch did far more damage to the world economy in the same space of time.
Emirates have over 130 380s in their fleet, unfortunately European carriers except BA didn't have the high capacity routes, I believe BA are intending to reintroduce some 380s later in the year, Air Chance have withdrawn the type from their fleet, hopefully Lufthansa will operate the 380 again.
big blue yes i agree its a dilemma that is facing us all i hope it will recover but technology is getting as fast as those airlines bud going to very interesting in 5 yrs
marab, I've seen it all before, new gadget this and that to change how everything will be in the future.
You would be gob smacked if you knew how many thoroughly modern businesses still use paper fax machines. VR will not take off in the same way headsets for phones didn't. Remember how for a brief period half the population seems to be wearing a bluetooth headset? Where are they now? VR headsets are no way a substitute for being there no matter how good they are in a virtual game world. The REAL world is a very different thing.