British Airways flying from Bristol to Palma

[roig cat]

And Malaga, Florence and Ibiza. They are summer routes only using an Embraer 190.
Palma appear to be Saturdays only and the flights I looked at in June were very expensive.
Worth a look though

 

[lovemallorca]

Not a great flight time with the Bristol - Palma Saturday flight departing 16.30.

Both Easyjet and Ryanair have departures around 6.30am, so not sure what market BA are appealing to - 16.30 is just too early to appeal to travellers who may have to work Saturdays, and are looking for a later time to fly.

An Embraer 190 is a nice choice of "wheels" though. One of my favourites.

 

[clinkham]

I recall reading in the press - Simon Calder perhaps - that the new routes from Bristol Manchester etc were a bit of a con.
They are using aircraft which would normally be sat, unused, at London City over the weekend( no flying allowed from City on Sundays?)

At Manchester, all the new destinations will be serviced by a single aircraft which will run a service on Thursday evenings from London City to MAN followed by trips to the new destinations through the weekend. It will then run a flight back to London City on the Sunday evening.

As the reporter said, it is to be hoped there are no 'technical difficulties' on the Thursday. The knock on effect through the weekend would be quite a logistical nightmare.

 

[tangofan]

This is definitely not the case as flights depart from London City every day of the week including weekends.

We go to Palma from City on BA and once you take into account the suitable flight time, luggage included and hand luggage allowance and just generally a nicer experience it seems worth the little extra it may cost though often can be cheaper with all the extra charges that the budget airlines often add on. Plus all the dramas of having to pay if you forget to print your board pass out etc etc - on BA you can also choose your seat 48 hours before departure for free.

Of course it is a shame they have stopped the free refreshments including wine etc on the short haul flights as it made it just a little bit more special. They now serve M&S food at higher prices I am led to believe than you can buy at the M&S at the airports, although City doesn't have M&S it does have Boots that do a very good meal deal! Also no fee for paying by debit card though the fee for using a credit card is definitely not good nor in keeping with government guidelines. We also live near so it is far better for us than trailing around the M25 to Gatwick.

 

[clinkham]

Sorry if I was incorrect about City actually closing at the weekend. I was reporting what I had seen in the press. Although I still haven't found the original piece I referred to earlier, the two links below from the Gruniad and the Independent refer to closure/idle Embraers at weekends.

From Manchester there is only one BA return flight to Palma each week, on a Sunday.

"The BA flights will use small Embraer jets normally deployed on business routes from London City airport. The Docklands airport is closed for 24 hours at weekends, and rather than leave aircraft on the ground a plane will be “positioned” to each of Bristol and Birmingham."

British Airways launches new summer holiday routes from Bristol and Birmingham | The Independent

"The flights will be operated by BA’s CityFlyer arm, using planes usually based at London City airport.

The 98-seat jets usually sit idle at weekends, but the unprecedented move also comes a week after BA warned it could pull its fleet out of London City [paywall] if landing charges were raised."

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/09/british-airways-summer-flights-stansted-airport

 

[tangofan]

That is interesting Clinkham, maybe it means that there is a 24 hour window during the weekend when they don't fly. I have great faith in Simon Calder's knowledge! There are flights to Palma every day and I just looked at a few random destinations and there were flights at weekends but maybe they are timed to leave 24 hours free. After all it is more of a business airport so there wouldn't be lots of weekend flights but I hope BA don't pull out as it is so nice to fly from there

 

[clinkham]

I was guessing the original article was by Simon Calder - he seems to pop up in every Travel section of every newspaper, and always an interesting read.

The point that was being made was that the single BA plane had to re position from/to City on the Thursday/Sunday and in between squeeze in whatever number of return flights to various Med sun spots in high summer. The suggestion was that a slight hiccup on the earlier flights would ripple through the rest of the programme.
Multiply that by the number of new regional airports BA were servicing in the same way and the possibility of chaos would be greatly increased. Allegedly!

From the north west point of view the BA link up with Manchester and Stanstead (same owners) is welcome and hopefully may be expanded in the future.

However, bad news for City customers - a July BA flight from Manchester to Palma is running out approx £120 cheaper than from City airport.

 

[James]

This is definitely not the case as flights depart from London City every day of the week including weekends.

You are correct but there is a curfew imposed on LCY banning flights from 1pm on Saturday to 12.30pm on Sunday. This effective 24 hour weekend closure and desire to utilise & monetise LCY based aircraft is why BA are now diverting many of them for use regionally at weekends.