Emirates adds a 7th Heathrow flight – on a Boeing 777

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• No Longer Entitled says:

  16 Aug16 August 05:01

  Presumably Finnair is also a significantly longer flight time having to first fly to Finland and then skirt all the way around Ukraine and Russian airspace on the Bangkok leg.

  • Tom1 says:

    16 Aug16 August 08:05

    I just did it.
    11h15 bkk-hel
    2h45 hel-Lhr

    • Gordon says:

      16 Aug16 August 08:39

      When BA flew to BKK from LHR, the flight time was approximately 11 hours out and around 13 hours return, But with the Finnair flight obviously you have a certain wait time in HEL before the LHR leg.

• Rizz says:

  16 Aug16 August 05:42

  Is EK’s 777 also sloping seats in biz (vs fully flat horizontal on the A380)?

• Erico1875 says:

  16 Aug16 August 06:08

  5 to 8 Oct Stn to RUH is as low as £67 hbo !!
  Rhys has to do this trip

• Paul says:

  16 Aug16 August 06:16

  Arrived in Glasgow yesterday to see EK A380! Think this is now daily and offers GLA to much of world with just one stop.
  Having just made a dummy booking GLA SYD in F to see fare, I can’t help but marvel at BAs lack of vision in having regional operations. There is clearly demand, it’s clearly growing yet London Airways is not part of it!
  Even the schedule to / from LHR is a mess with 4 hour gaps between some flights on a route that was once hourly for much of the day!

  • JDB says:

    16 Aug16 August 07:30

    It’s not a lack of vision by BA, but a lack of any commercial case. The fact that ME airlines can operate from UK regional cities to their hubs doesn’t mean there is a viable case for BA. How many long haul flights does AF fly from French regional cities or Iberia operate mainline long haul from Spanish cities? There are good reasons as Swissair and Alitalia discovered prior to their bankruptcies.

    • Richie says:

      16 Aug16 August 07:51

      France decided on High Speed rail before Mrs Thatcher was Prime Minister. Spain even bothered to copy.

      • JDB says:

        16 Aug16 August 08:46

        The French aren’t quite as enamoured with their train service as foreigners; they find it has become expensive and unreliable. The direct services to CDG are also rather messy and inconvenient. Nice airport covers one of of the most affluent areas in France but has no high speed service…6hrs to Paris vs 3h30 from Marseille.

        • Mikeact says:

          16 Aug16 August 09:35

          @JDB Including KLM, basically none.We usually fly SOU to either AMS or CDG to connect . If BA, depends, usually ex EU, particularly with a MultiCarrier booked.

    • Rob says:

      16 Aug16 August 08:13

      What people forget is that for BA to run the route there must be demand just to Dubai. Emirates connects to everywhere.

    • Mike says:

      16 Aug16 August 09:58

      I find it strange that you think there’s no case for flying from the regions to BA’s hub. Everytime I go MAN-LHR it’s utterly rammed, irrespective of time of day.

  • Chris R says:

    16 Aug16 August 07:43

    I agree. Surely there’s demand enough for a EDI/MAN to JFK/MCO that could be operated on a W pattern from LHR? I appreciate they’re trying this out with the Aer Lingus brand from MAN.
    At the very least, London Airways need to add more domestic connections from LGW. Having just 1 daily flight from GLA has pretty much written off any routes via LGW for us up north

    • chris1922 says:

      16 Aug16 August 09:14

      I agree completely. Pre-pandemic there were several GLA-LGW connections each day, as well as EDI. I was told the only reason the one remaining GLA exits is for A320 maintenance in GLA. It avoids an empty plane routing up for maintenance. If that wasn’t the case, even that one route wouldn’t exist !
      I was on full GLA – LGW in June, all but 10 pax were connecting (MCO, TPA and PUJ).

  • Londonsteve says:

    16 Aug16 August 11:16

    The issue, as ever, is a lack of slots. Not helped by BA’s poor reliability, which of course is made more complicated (or even caused) by Heathrow being such an overloaded airport. In effect BA operates the minimum domestic network they can get away with. It’s in their interests to connect the regions to help fill up long haul metal but there comes a point where flying another plane to Edinburgh or Newcastle is less appealing that launching yet another direct flight to a secondary US city with one of the precious slots. The symbiosis between Heathrow and BA is dysfunctional and leads to perverse results. It won’t alter until London has an expanded Heathrow or an entirely new airport, which BA doesn’t want because it’ll subject it to far more competition at its home hub.

• Peter says:

  16 Aug16 August 06:27

  The cost of the evisa is £120 though. Probably better to take advantage of the Saudia stopover offer when flying further east, which comes with a free visa and free one night hotel.

  • Marina says:

    16 Aug16 August 07:19

    E visa now free for British passport holders changed about 2 weeks ago.

    • Nick says:

      16 Aug16 August 22:17

      Are you sure it’s free? I was looking at this when the announcement was made and I found something that said it’s 150SAR – so about 31GBP. It’s single entry unlike the existing evisa which is multi. I didn’t bother to actually doing a test on the website, but it would be good to know.
      I’ve used wizz countless times over the last 8 years to the UAE and it’s great to see them adding new routes in the region. I’ve got a trip coming up mainly using them next week to Uzbekistan. Had been looking at stopping in Saudi but was put off by the expensive visa before this was announced and opted for stopover in Kuwait instead.
      Personally I love wizzair! When you pay 20EUR from Rome to Kuwait, who cares about their faults 🙂

  • Chris W says:

    16 Aug16 August 07:24

    I thought they were trying to get people to now visit KSA though? Purchasing a costly visa isn’t going to encourage tourism

    • Jonathan says:

      16 Aug16 August 10:34

      Although hardly a go-to place for many HfP readers, Angola 🇦🇴 for many years had a very strict, Russian / Chinese style visa policy (for most tourists) this has now been changed to a process very similar to Saudi Arabia’s with a rather chunky fee to seek entry on arrival, avoiding the hassle of obtaining a proper visa

      Although there’s no Wizz Air flights going there !

      Why some countries charge upwards of $100 to process what’s essentially an e-visa or to seek arrival on entry, whereas places like the US, Canada, South Korea and soon too be the Schengen Area etc. charge a modest fee that clearly doesn’t make any money (if it does, hardly any)

• Dubious says:

  16 Aug16 August 06:28

  Wizz Air has USD $44 return from Riyadh to Catania.
  So it looks like the fares could be nested to make a cheap and exotic way to get to Southern Italy…and then stopping in Venice on the way back…
  …beat that fare price cap!

  • Richie says:

    16 Aug16 August 08:18

    BTW CTA has been closed recently.

• Bloxorus says:

  16 Aug16 August 06:47

  As an expat currently living in KSA, the recent addition of the Wizz Air flights to Europe has been incredible. Over the last few months I have done several round trips to Europe for under £100 return. Previously the only “budget” airline available between Riyadh and Europe was Pegasus which is often just as or more expensive as full service airlines.

  • Blenz101 says:

    16 Aug16 August 07:02

    Similar situation with Wizz Air from Abu Dhabi allowing very low cost flights into Europe.

    • Pablo says:

      16 Aug16 August 09:10

      Etihad is price matching to/from FCO and VIE

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    16 Aug16 August 08:18

    Don’t come running for help when Wizz cancels or reschedules your flight and does nothing to help you / refuses to rebook / pay expenses etc

    • Jonathan says:

      16 Aug16 August 10:37

      Even filing a CCJ against them doesn’t get them to cough off up what you’re legally due either if you ever get into that position

      The government really need to buckle down on airlines behaving like this, banning them from flying until they get everything in order would make them change

      • LittleNick says:

        16 Aug16 August 10:57

        Agreed but escalating a CCJ to the High court Enforcement grants them power to seize Wizz Air assets to pay the debt including aircraft if necessary! I have seen High court enforcement officers shut down check in of an airline at Heathrow until the debt is paid.

        • Jonathan says:

          16 Aug16 August 11:23

          I think people would’ve already pushed it that far, but High court enforcement agents can’t literally force money out of someone or a company, at the same time Wizz Air’s legal teams will be using literally any loophole they can find to get rid of unwanted visitors without them getting what they came for

        • Gordon says:

          16 Aug16 August 11:57

          I am aware that MCOL costs are paid by the debtor if successful, I’m interested to know if a CCJ and all the other inevitable costs that go with pursuing a debtor are payable by them in a situation of successful claim.

        • The Savage Squirrel says:

          16 Aug16 August 13:40

          “High court enforcement agents can’t literally force money out of someone or a company”

          Isn’t that exactly what they do – by having the power to seize, and remove for sale, physical assets if necessary?

    • Gordon says:

      16 Aug16 August 17:46

      Yes saw this on the news app when it happened. It was quite pleasing,

      You can’t tap anyone on the shoulder to get their attention now, you need to hit them with a sledgehammer!

• Ian says:

  16 Aug16 August 07:26

  We have booked to fly QR to BKK next winter: seating, service and particularly food are on a totally different level to Finnair.

  • Richie says:

    16 Aug16 August 07:43

    Which travel class and QR aircraft are you referring to?

    • Ian says:

      16 Aug16 August 09:28

      J class on A380 and 787. I don’t like QSuite but like the 787’s seating and the A380’s bar.

      • LittleNick says:

        16 Aug16 August 11:01

        I found the Q-Suite takes a little getting used too. For me specifically the headrest against my shoulder i found a tad irritating at first. Despite telling a crew member I just wanted to sleep on that flight they did not offer the mattress turndown service and was warm on that 777. However on my return leg with Q-Suite they provided the mattress which was made it much more comfortable and much quieter on the A350. But I imagine the older business seats are much softer than Q-Suite.

  • John says:

    16 Aug16 August 07:47

    …and the price?

    • Ian says:

      16 Aug16 August 09:30

      Extortionate, but both airlines similar. Disappointing that RJ, which we used last year and was very competitive on price and not bad on food, has doubled their prices this year to around the same as AY, QR.

  • Tom1 says:

    16 Aug16 August 08:16

    I have done both Qatar and finnair this year. Both have pros and cons.

    Finnair – I love the new A350 seat. Perhaps more than qsuite – it felt less like I was in a box, and for sleeping I found the finnair was completely flat. The lack of door didn’t bother me. The finnair storage was better (accessible even in bed mode), and I liked the wireless charging pad.
    I also like the “long leg” – 11+ hours in one flight followed by a 2.5 hours short leg , means you can really get some sleep.
    The downside was that I booked the hel-Lhr leg on A320, so European business not lie flat. But it’s perfectly fine for a couple of hours.
    The lounge at HEL was really good. Not as glamorous as DOH but just as clean, decent showers (with no queue) and the terminal is compact so no long walks between gates. As for the bkk lounge – I went to both Qatar and Cathay lounges – so no difference there.
    I’m not a real foodie – yes, you’d probably say QR was better, but I wouldn’t pay for that difference.

    So for me, I’d take whichever was cheaper/had better timing.

    QR now has BHX again which is better for me – but that’s not qsuite from what I can tell.

  • JDB says:

    16 Aug16 August 08:38

    I flew on AY DOH-CPH in May after three QR sectors and found AY to be very second rate in most respects; I wouldn’t bother to fly long haul with them again.

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