British Airways to return to London Stansted airport in 2024

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• Paul says:

  12 Dec12 December 04:56

  Without booking, I don’t think I have managed to get into the escape lounge in the last 18 months on 6 occasions.

• NigelthePensioner says:

  12 Dec12 December 05:59

  Its appropriate that Stanstead call their lounge the “Escape Lounge”. In every city, groups of friends pay to enter an “Escape Lounge” and then try to escape from the place using clues to open doors and get out!
  Very similar situation in my one experience of the armpit of Britain’s airports!!
  Lyin’ Air should be forced to fly into and out of there only, with the exclusion of other carriers. They are so perfectly matched. Passengers would then be under no illusion as to what to expect…

  • Paul says:

    12 Dec12 December 09:07

    I spent many years commuting weekly to points north and east from Stansted, and, with the odd exception, found it perfectly fine. Straightforward to get to, with parking available a short walk to the terminal.

    The Escape Lounge did go downhill over the years. This can be dated from the time they stopped serving pastries. When commuting I only failed once to get into the lounge on arrival, and then only had to wait ten minutes. Last time we travelled a few weeks ago, there was no chance of getting in but a quick drink in one of the bars and we were called for boarding (well, queueing).

    The last pair of Ryanair flights taken have been Ronseal in nature and on time. A previous flight with them was delayed as a bunch of passengers wouldn’t follow crew instructions and be seated, so we missed our slot. For the record, they were neither wearing tracksuits nor carrying buckets and spades.

    • Roy says:

      12 Dec12 December 15:27

      Stansted is very convenient for people who live in Cambridge and its environs. I used to fly from Stansted on business often in the 90’s when I lived (and worked) there – usually flying UK Air. Can’t remember exactly what aircraft UK Air used, but they were turboprops.

      • Roy says:

        12 Dec12 December 15:38

        Ok, Wikipedia tells me it was actually AirUK, and looking at the article, the Fokker Friendship rings a bell…

      • Lyn says:

        13 Dec13 December 02:20

        Yes, AirUK and Stansted were super convenient for working in Cambridge in the early 90s. Our European colleagues called it Air Yuk, but I much preferred it to the journey via Heathrow, even if it meant connecting somewhere on the continent.

• Rob Collins says:

  12 Dec12 December 07:17

  Hello British Airways! Hello…over here…can you see us yet? We’re over here…

  Signed

  The North of England

  • Magarathea says:

    12 Dec12 December 07:38

    +1

  • No longer Entitled says:

    12 Dec12 December 07:40

    They have run these flights from Manchester before. Have they also tried Scotland? Pretty sure Southampton have had them also.

    I guess they keep moving around because they aren’t popular and as such are yet to find a permanent home.

    • chris1922 says:

      12 Dec12 December 08:31

      Yes, there have been weekend flights from both EDI and GLA, inc. ski flights and Barrhead Travel charters.

  • Nick says:

    12 Dec12 December 08:17

    Hello? North of England? If you were more willing to pay for BA (and BACF) flights, they’d be more willing to offer them.

    BACF has tried BHX and MAN, they didn’t work. Why? Because there’s no yield. London pays, end of story.

    • TimM says:

      12 Dec12 December 08:40

      1) BA were not attuned to the North of England. They operated to the same destinations that they operate from the South. 2) They didn’t try long enough. It takes time for business and awareness to build up. If BA had been in and out of Heathrow for one season, it would have met with with similar failure.

      Northerners are great winter travellers. We want to escape the gloom and short days and head for winter sunshine – Malaga (due South and with the best winter climate in Europe), Antalya (similar climate), the Canaries, Hurghada and so on. Keep France and other near-Europe for Southerners. In summer, the North of England is the best place to be on Earth.

      • T says:

        12 Dec12 December 08:57

        Can’t imagine they won’t be successful with new flights from London – there is no branding/marketing issue here and London is a cash cow.

        Isn’t the point these are spare aircraft which are efficient on shorter flights hence the lack of 4hr+ destinations. Málaga would be fine though.

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      12 Dec12 December 10:37

      Plenty of other airlines make it pay. Look at the likes of Jet2 and Qatar on long haul, and you will see plenty of this business is a long way from rock bottom prices too. Even Virgin can do it.

      Maybe BA just struggles to make things work without a baked in monopoly to give it an overwhelming competitive advantage 😉

      • JDB says:

        12 Dec12 December 15:13

        It’s really got nothing to do with any supposed BA monopoly. BA can’t and doesn’t want to compete with LCCs out of regional airports; as a network airline it is always going to have a substantially higher cost base. Likewise, ME3 and other airlines have different cost bases and operate to from their hubs where a very significant number of passengers transfer to other flights.

        Rather than making random comparisons that actually aren’t relevant, one should look at other European airlines.

        BA cannot make money opening another hub in the UK any more than Air France can or Iberia in geographically much larger countries can. LH supports its second MUC hub as a feeder for its many national airlines. Attempting to operate with a second hub has previously bankrupted Alitalia and Swissair. It’s also been catastrophic for SAS, now also bankrupt, keeping its masters happy trying to operate out of the various capitals.

        BA is very constrained by capacity at its home but the idea that because other airlines operate out of regional airports BA could successfully set up there is delusional as is the idea that BA somehow hasn’t spotted these competitors.

        London and the South East have for at least forty years proved to be a very specific market that is the envy of every European airline as it enables BA to sustain higher fares ex LHR than from any other European base; hence the cheap ex-EU fares we talk about here.

        • Throwawayname says:

          12 Dec12 December 23:57

          Nobody is talking about replicating MUC- after all, Bavaria is a very high yield market.

          According to Wikipedia, Air France have NINETEEN destinations out of LYS, 14 of which are year-round. TAP and Aegean have no problem supporting healthy mini-hubs at OPO and SKG respectively. Meanwhile in England’s second city, IAG haven’t even gotten round to reinstating flights to their MAD hub (when that was running, I got turned away from the contract lounge with a revenue business class boarding pass because the bright sparks who had set up the arrangement thought that they’d save a few bob by only admitting status holders). I am sure that their repeated failure to establish a foothold in the regions has absolutely nothing to do with their constant IT meltdowns nor their tendency to charge premium prices for a below-average product.

          Equally, as our local airlines at BHX [apart from Jet2] are AFKL and SN/LH, both of which offer a multitude of destinations with very frequent one-stop options, and there are a fair few ways to collect miles on both major alliances, I don’t see why anyone’s getting stressed about BA’s inability to compete against them. If you do collect Avios, you could always spend them on QF- better still, jump on a cheap flight to Brussels and start from there so that you don’t have to pay the ludicrous APD rate.

        • Throwawayname says:

          13 Dec13 December 00:00

          That should obviously have been QR instead of QF!

    • Mike says:

      12 Dec12 December 18:02

      I think the main reason they haven’t worked previously (and probably won’t at STN) is that they keep selecting weekend city break destinations and then scheduling them at such times that you can’t create a meaningful weekend break – so your only options are to have a very short trip or to stay for a whole week…

  • A2023D says:

    12 Dec12 December 09:03

    +1

  • Londonsteve says:

    12 Dec12 December 12:31

    This was also my first thought. Why go to Stansted where they’ll be crucified by the low cost competition, unless these are actually charters for which a travel agency already has a flow of passengers lined up? The high yield customer base that might otherwise want to fly BA instead of Ryanair has no interest in flying from Stansted and doesn’t generally live close by, they all want to fly from Heathrow and (to a significantly lesser degree) Gatwick.

    • Matthew says:

      12 Dec12 December 18:02

      Most who don’t want to fly RYR out of STN fly JET2 instead and often their flights are rather expensive, especially in summer hols. BACF had these routes pre covid out of STN and they had pretty good loads IIRC.

  • Jill Kinkell says:

    12 Dec12 December 13:12

    A direct flight to the sun from Inverness?! Flying pigs come to mind….
    Their changed winter scheduling for INV makes it almost impossible to connect same day for sunny Europe

• Stu says:

  12 Dec12 December 07:43

  I managed to get into the escape lounge on Saturday with a friend using priority pass but it was at 5am, seems most bookings start from around 7am.

  • Paul says:

    12 Dec12 December 08:46

    As Rob or Rhys pointed out recently, that’s because there’s an early afternoon EK flight that the Escape serves. We flew to Berlin on Ryanair a few Saturdays ago, and for months ahead my Dragonpass app was showing no booking slots 10 am to 2pm.

    If EK open their lounge next year, that should free up some weekend capacity.

• JRich says:

  12 Dec12 December 08:04

  Did you get a chance to ask if BA will be densifying their Embraers to 106 seats and introducing buy on board? If yes, it would be a major negative for booking LCY…

  • Rob says:

    12 Dec12 December 08:15

    Tom Stoddart was not around. There are new seats on display to staff at City but no mention of densification.

    • daveinitalia says:

      12 Dec12 December 09:51

      Tell us more about these new seats. If they’re thinner then that means densification is very likely. Otherwise why new seats?

      Will there be anything added to the aircraft so they can spin it as an improvement such as power or WiFi?

      • Rob says:

        12 Dec12 December 10:00

        I know nothing more.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    12 Dec12 December 09:24

    There is a thread on flyer talk about the densification but the tweet that generated the thread was subsequently deleted.

    Increasing the seats to 101+ requires an extra member of cabin crew even if there are less than 100 actual passengers on seats. So it may not be profitable to add.more seats.

  • Jack says:

    12 Dec12 December 17:25

    It is not going to be happening it has been a rumour that has been around for years and nothing has come of it . I doubt that for the costs involved that 8 seats will enable them to make that much more money really as you have to be able to fill them . The tweet mentioning this which is the only kind of rumour that has come around has been deleted which I think sums it up really . It is highly unlikely to happen especially as one they couldn’t until recently and 2 they are eyeing new aircraft anyways . They already have issues with the current amount of seats and weight issues

    • Rob says:

      12 Dec12 December 18:05

      Apparently Cityflyer has had to use 3 crew on certain routes this summer in order to complete the meal service in Club in time on full flights. This may have given them ideas ….

    • Paul says:

      12 Dec12 December 20:21

      It’s coming. With BOB.

• Gordon says:

  12 Dec12 December 08:07

  Stansted being only an hour drive for me instead of the long slog around the M25 to either LGW or LHR, this is good news albeit only for short haul flights.

• supergraeme says:

  12 Dec12 December 08:29

  “This is very much a ‘toe in the water’ for now”

  Fingers crossed!

• Matthew says:

  12 Dec12 December 09:25

  You may have already covered it Rob but Royal Jordanian are flying out of Stansted next year too, albeit with short haul aircraft and sporadic dates March-July I believe. Bookable by Avios now though….

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