V-Flyer

As of 27th March BD will no longer fly this route so another domestic connection for VS bites the dust.

The cite the increase in the Heathrow pax service charge and the landing fees being the same or more than for an A380.

http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/ ... rvice.html

Isn't it the passenger who pays that charge though?

Sealink wrote:Isn't it the passenger who pays that charge though?

Well, yes, these are usually straight pass through charges - however I'd guess BMI's point is that they don't make money now, and this will only decrease the potential passengers on the route who will go to LTN or STN or other ...

I wonder how many people connect to VS from GLA ...

I'd pretty much given up with BMI due to their pratting about with schedules, low baggage allowance and poor connection times with a reduced amount of flights ex MAN.

But I had some miles to use up, so I booked with them for Lisbon (BMI and TAP). And now, with 6 months to go they've cancelled my first leg down to LHR. I have been moved to the earlier service (not quite sure when they planned to tell me), giving me a 3 hour 10 min connection.

At least the Daught, travelling on a different PNR has also been moved to the same flight.

I looked at schedules for a few dates, and it looks like its now down to 4 flights a day from MAN.

Regards
R3DV

from something i remember that might be somewhere on here BD are cutting the frequency of the MAN service and also transferring their A319/A320's to international services leaving LHR-MAN with the Embraer 145 50 seat jets

| am also convinced this has nothing to do with landing or any other fees. BMI are just using this as an excuse.

As the previous post mentioned it has already been reported that BMI are moving the larger domestic A/C onto international routes and I suspect this is the sole reason for the culling rather than anything else.

BMI have also announced a couple of new international routes today too so that's where the domestic A/C are going.

I cant believe people are surprised by this.

I would actually imagine that there is some weight in the landing charge argument.

The point is this- LH have acquired the airline, undertaken a thorough assessment and worked out what works well for the airline and what does not (read: what makes money and what doesn't).

Clearly UK domestic routes do not do well due to high(er) landing fees, lower yields and aircraft that are really too large for the routes (the best aircraft for these domestic runs is clearly the Dash Q8 not a 30% full 320 or 319). If routes elsewhere are going to bring you higher yields, less competition (including from train operators) better utilisation of aircraft (i.e.: keep the plane in the sky for longer in the day) and cheaper landing fees then really it is a no brainer.

Couple into this the overall strategy of the wider LH Group (LH, LH Italia, Swiss, Austrian etc etc including even B6) and you can see exactly why GLA is being dropped.