BA...Did they have inside information?

At last UK Airspace will be opened from 10pm.
BA have just announced plans to run all long haul flights from LGW and LHR tomorrow and all short haul from 13.00.
No announcement from Virgin yet but I get the impression BA were in the know. Why else would they have 36 flights heading to the UK this evening ?

Steve.

It's either that or they've bullied there way in so to speak! Either way it's worked out well for them at the moment unlike VS...

They were taking a BIG risk and for some flights it didn't pay off having had to land elsewhere.

I guess they would have had to land at Glasgow / Edinburgh if LHR had remained closed and I assme that was their plan all along.

[Pete]

No announcement from Virgin yet

No official update from Virgin yet, but as we get the backdoor updates, take a look at the Status Update page for their planned departures.

[Darren Wheeler]

The latest Twitter said

"Update: UK airspace is opening. We're working on a flying programme right now. More info after 11pm BST tonight."

They were taking a BIG risk and for some flights it didn't pay off having had to land elsewhere.

Disagree. BA, unlike VS, has operations in every major European city and key One World partners in Aer Lingus, Iberia and others. BA planes could easily divert to many locations where there are ground staff and handling partners. VS can't do the same.

Did BA apply pressure ... well ... :w

Did BA apply pressure ... well ... :w

Suspect BA will be spending some time in the stack - VS will get expedited approach

They were taking a BIG risk and for some flights it didn't pay off having had to land elsewhere.

Disagree. BA, unlike VS, has operations in every major European city and key One World partners in Aer Lingus, Iberia and others. BA planes could easily divert to many locations where there are ground staff and handling partners. VS can't do the same.

Did BA apply pressure ... well ... :w

Slinks - The point I was trying to make was that BA were aiming to land these flights at the UK (obviously preferably LHR). The fact they had ground staff etc at other European airports is, to me, incidental to this.