British Airways using propeller aircraft between Gatwick and Glasgow this summer

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• TerryTierPoints says:

  14 Feb14 February 07:51

  This article reminds me of the BAe ATP BA used to fly when they had a regional service. Flew on this BHD-EDI a few times in the 90s.

• Petulent Squirrel says:

  14 Feb14 February 08:12

  Bit of an over-reaction to a change of aircraft! Blimey, I thought the sky had fallen in by all the negativity. Nothing wrong with these at all for an hour long flight. First world blubbering

  • Sandgrounder says:

    14 Feb14 February 09:45

    It’s over two hours!
    But yes, I imagine most passengers will survive to tell the tale.

  • Chris says:

    15 Feb15 February 00:46

    Change of aircraft, Change of airline, change of classs (downgrade), change of cabin baggage (to Ryanair underseat dimensions), change of departure time, change of flight time, change=no lounge access, change=no fast track security. Yeah….just an innocent reschedule.

• Paul says:

  14 Feb14 February 08:15

  It’s not the turbo prop experience that’s the issue it’s the fact that it’s almost faster now to take the train! That and BAs continued focus on London and the detriment to the rest of the U.K.

  • BBbetter says:

    14 Feb14 February 08:36

    Which train?

    • Sandgrounder says:

      14 Feb14 February 09:47

      4.5 hours on avanti, so centre of Glasgow to central London, with check in and travel times to and from the airports, waiting for bags etc it’s probably quicker on the train. Just about.

      • lcylocal says:

        14 Feb14 February 10:39

        The biggest thing in the trains favour from Glasgow/Edinburgh (travelling for work) for me is frequency, basically hourly fast services. So there can be quite a lot of hanging around if the work schedule doesn’t fit the flight schedule.

        Would love to take one of the prop flights from Gatwick for the experience though, along with this flight there is Aurigny to Guernsey and Eastern to Newquay.

        • Alan says:

          14 Feb14 February 20:13

          The new LNER +/- 70 min flexible ticket is a nice option too – not too much extra cost for a decent increase in flexibility and can be done for just one leg.

      • Paul says:

        14 Feb14 February 11:10

        Exactly this

  • Fennec says:

    14 Feb14 February 21:02

    Everyone I know calls it London Airways and have done so for years…

    Whilst it’s one step up up from cancellation; it’s almost the same time to travel to the capital of Germany as the capital of England.

• Talay says:

  14 Feb14 February 08:15

  I used to use one of these frequently from Buriram to Bangkok and back nigh on 20 years ago, PB Air (now defunct).

  Monks got priority, both on the plane and at the terminal, as is the way in Thailand.

• Stu_N says:

  14 Feb14 February 08:15

  Yep, amazed the number of people who think flying a prop is a novelty.

  They are going to have major issues with hand luggage and checked bags. The standard carry-ons don’t physically fit in the locker and the baggage hold is small.

  The morning Edinburgh/ Dublin flight on an Emerald ATR72 is a nightmare for this in summer. lots of angry Americans getting their carry on taken off them, suitcases and golf sticks left behind and delays while they sort it all out. I foresee similar issues with this flight.

  • Alan says:

    14 Feb14 February 20:14

    Haha yep 😂

• MIM says:

  14 Feb14 February 08:17

  Remember flying Cardiff to Edinburgh, and the cabin crew were weighing up passengers (excuse the pun) as they boarded – looking them up and down, to decide where to seat them, to balance out the payload.

  • Greg says:

    14 Feb14 February 10:59

    Cardiff to Paris was the same.

• GS says:

  14 Feb14 February 08:26

  EI GLA-DUB flights have been ATR for many years. Other than the limited hand luggage it is what it is – provides the frequency.

  I still find it surprising that GLA-LGW is still only one pd – pre Covid it was at four or five, a great service, particularly with the connections to long haul.

  • Alan says:

    14 Feb14 February 20:15

    It’s more than Edinburgh has to LGW now! 😭

• NorthernLass says:

  14 Feb14 February 08:26

  Are these the same aircraft that FlyBe used to operate? I did MAN-GLA and MAN-EDI with them back when there were such routes!

  Out of interest, is this new service likely to affect connection times for people taking long-haul flights from LGW? This would be very annoying with most of those routes only having 1 departure daily.

  • chris1922 says:

    14 Feb14 February 08:46

    No, FlyBe used the BOMBARDIER Dash 8 Q200. Similar though.
    Probably no change, the GLA – LGW service is quite early, and arrives in time for most long-haul connections from LGW. I can’t see this changing. The vast majority of passenger connected to MCO, TPA, CUN and PUJ.

  • Michael says:

    14 Feb14 February 08:48

    Not the same as FlyBe’s fleet, they were Q400 Dash8 with roughly same capacity.

    The luggage issue with the ATR is that the luggage hold is at the front between the cockpit and the cabin and space is limited relative to an A320 series where the hold is beneath the floor along most of the length of the aircraft depending on whether any extra fuel tanks have been added.

    As has been said, boarding is from the rear so the preferred seats are at the back. On a lightly loaded flight there can be on-board seat moves for weight and balance. The crew will usually do a manual head count in sections and send to the flight crew for checking.

    • Mark says:

      14 Feb14 February 08:58

      Unless you count the Flybe Southend or [some] Guernsey operations, which were ATRs operated by Stobart and Blue Islands as a Flybe franchise!

    • The real Swiss Tony says:

      14 Feb14 February 11:59

      Another quirk of the ATR72 is the fact they have a tendency to tip up if there’s too much weight at the back. So on landing you’re told to remain seated until the light is off, by which time they’ve pulled a metal pole out the back to prop the tail up.

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