The Sunday Times Business Section wrote on 10th April about the possibilities for feed traffic if FlyBE takes over some of the vacant ex BMi domestic slots and how "All BA's long haul rivals at Heathrow including Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic are crying out for (non BA) feeder services from the north. Er, maybe not quite.
The world has moved on a bit since that might have been true for most of these long haul bretheren. For business from the north and Scotland heading to worldwide points south and east, Emirates is very happy bypassing Heathrow via its thrice daily departures from Manchester and Birmingham, twice from Glasgow and once from Newcastle. Manchester has the Heathrow avoiders Cathay Pacific, Singapore, Turkish, Etihad(x2), Qatar (building to x 3) Turkish (x3) not to mention all the European marauders including KLM, Air France and Lufthansa. All of these offer quick and easy international to international transfers at their home hubs. Edinburgh has Etihad, Qatar and Turkish.
Apart from all the other comparative attractions of the airlines and airports concerned, international to international connections are always less hassle than domestic to international or vice versa.
The upshot is that there might not be as much in Heathrow as FlyBE, neutral though it is, might hope. They won't have the frequencies to wrest much of the higher yielding point to point traffic off BA and and on the frequently used/imposed (by the long haulers) mileage based straight rate prorate formula the money left for short haul parts of a long haul journey can be pitifully small. Carrying other people's feeder traffic over short sectors has seldom ever been a good way to riches, or even viability.
The world has moved on a bit since that might have been true for most of these long haul bretheren. For business from the north and Scotland heading to worldwide points south and east, Emirates is very happy bypassing Heathrow via its thrice daily departures from Manchester and Birmingham, twice from Glasgow and once from Newcastle. Manchester has the Heathrow avoiders Cathay Pacific, Singapore, Turkish, Etihad(x2), Qatar (building to x 3) Turkish (x3) not to mention all the European marauders including KLM, Air France and Lufthansa. All of these offer quick and easy international to international transfers at their home hubs. Edinburgh has Etihad, Qatar and Turkish.
Apart from all the other comparative attractions of the airlines and airports concerned, international to international connections are always less hassle than domestic to international or vice versa.
The upshot is that there might not be as much in Heathrow as FlyBE, neutral though it is, might hope. They won't have the frequencies to wrest much of the higher yielding point to point traffic off BA and and on the frequently used/imposed (by the long haulers) mileage based straight rate prorate formula the money left for short haul parts of a long haul journey can be pitifully small. Carrying other people's feeder traffic over short sectors has seldom ever been a good way to riches, or even viability.
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