BA launches "Open Skies" website

In response to the opportunities presented by the opening up of international airline flights between the EU and the USA, British Airways is launching a wholly owned subsidiary - Open Skies - to fly between continental Europe (Paris at least, but also possibly Amsterdam and Frankfurt) and the USA (New York JFK is the priority). Open Skies will not be an all business class airline like EOS, Silverjet and L'Avion. All the details are on its website which shows it will have business, premium economy and economy class, all on Boeing 757s.

Its economy class looks nothing special (right). However it will only have 5 rows at the back, so it wont be a plane dominated by the back seats. It will be a standard 3-3 configuration.

Premium economy with a 2-2 configuration and a 52" seat pitch (far superior to premium economy on current BA or Virgin Atlantic flights, but akin to BMI's) will be filling a niche, since premium economy is virtually unknown on most airlines in continental Europe (and from the USA). 28 seats in premium economy means seven rows, and frankly with seats like these, BA's premium economy is better than what some airlines offer across the Atlantic - certainly with few exceptions, these are at least as good as the seats in business class for most US airlines.

However, the primary point of this airline is to offer BA's fully flat bed business class. With the exception of United on one route, no airlines offer this between continental Europe and the USA. BA can beat Air France, Lufthansa, KLM and others. The business class offering is to use the old BA Club World seats that are being replaced by the redesigned New Club World seats on all of the 747s and 777. The seats are being refurbished and reused, but are still very good.

So here is hoping BA can make this fly. It should be able to offer a compelling product - fully lie flat seats, a premium economy that is like 1990s business class and a small economy class cabin.

Singapore Airlines starts A380 services to London Heathrow

Today the first commercial Airbus A380 flight arrived at London Heathrow with Singapore Airlines starting a daily service between Heathrow and Singapore with the A380.
.

Meanwhile Reuters reports the next route to get the A380 is Singapore to Tokyo.
.

This brings the A380 destinations to three, with Sydney of course being the original. While in theory one could fly all the way from Sydney to London and back by A380, the truth is that the best connections with Singapore Airlines don't allow that. Singapore Airlines has three flights a day between Heathrow and Singapore, and the same between Singapore and Sydney, but only one flight on each route is by A380 (Singapore Airlines only has 3 of the planes at the moment).

Singapore Airline's schedule for the A380 to and from London Heathrow will settle down as follows:

From 30 March:

SIN-LHR Depart 11.30pm- arrive 5.55am

LHR-SIN Depart 11.55am- arrive 7.45am
.

The Sydney route schedule from 30 March (until summer time ends in April) is:

SIN-SYD Depart 8.35pm- arrive 6.55am

SYD-SIN Depart 9.05am- arrive 2.20pm

but check Singapore Airlines website for details

Qantas upgrades New Zealand domestic services too

In response to Air NZ, Qantas has also decided to target the premium market on domestic services. In October 2007 it announced it would introduce its "Cityflyer" brand, which it uses in Australia, to revitalise its profile in the NZ domestic market, a market that some thought it might vacate given the arrival of Pacific Blue, and insider knowledge that indicates it has always lost money on NZ domestic routes.

.

Qantas has launched its upgraded service. It is catching up with Air NZ introducing self service checkin, online checkin, as well as enhancing on board service with complimentary morning papers and the reintroduction of on board food and drinks services, with a complimentary bar after 4pm.

.

Qantas is offering:

- Complimentary hot breakfast snack or fresh fruit;

- Complimentary cocktail snacks from 4pm to 7.30pm with free wine, beer and soft drinks;

- Inflight entertainment (audio over headsets and a video programme);

- Minimum 1000 frequent flyer points for every flight, regardless of fare paid.

.

In addition, Qantas is refurbishing the interior of its Boeing 737s and the domestic Qantas Club lounges at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, two of which haven't had serious investment since the Ansett days. The Wellington-Christchurch route is also seeing the return of Qantas.

.

Perhaps the two premiums Qantas offers over Air NZ are frequent flyer points on every flight, and inflight entertainment. The race is on to see how customers react to what is the SECOND generation of quality domestic airline service in New Zealand, and which airlines will be the winners.

Air NZ upgraded domestic service

The introduction of Koru Hour by Air NZ on its domestic Boeing 737 services heralds the end of the fully low cost model for its domestic market. It launched Express Class back in 2001 partly to arrest costs, but also to be pro-active competitively against what was seen as the imminent arrival of Pacific Blue.

.

Express Class saw the airline do away with inflight meals (which were served on all routes with aircraft that had cabin crew) and business class. The public indicated that it preferred paying lower fares than getting food on a short flight, and with the exception of MPs and the occasional super wealthy individuals, business class on domestic flights largely comprised of free upgrades and connections by those to and from long haul international business class flights. I once experienced the absurdity of it all consuming, just, a 3 course hot breakfast from Wellington to Christchurch in domestic business class. Express Class meant that only tea/coffee and mineral water would be offered with a cookie. This looked remarkably like what Air NZ once offered before the arrival of Ansett NZ in the mid 1980s.

.

Express Class was a stunning success, largely by shifting the entire sales model from travel agents and call centres to the internet. The public could compare fares online and book at minimal cost, and with the added bonus of self service checkin at the airport, it significantly reduced costs for the airline, and improved service. Meanwhile, the cuts in fares dramatically increased demand for domestic air travel. The effect was significant enough that it effectively killed off competition in the form of the Northerner between Wellington and Auckland, and forced bus companies to cut their fares.

.

However, the premium end of the market has felt somewhat neglected. One of the positive changes was that food in Koru Club lounges was significantly improved, to offset the end of catering on board, but the airline felt the backlash from an announcement late last year that it would be adding a row of seats to its 737 fleet and reducing the leg room in almost all rows to a standard level. With the planned Qantas alliance dead and buried by competition authorities, Air NZ feared that it could face being cherry picked on both sides by Qantas and Pacific Blue.

.

Pacific Blue's entrance could rival Air NZ for low cost traffic, whereas Qantas was quite capable of appealing to the premium end of the market with upgraded product. Air NZ's decision to adopt Koru Hour is its first step to secure the business market which it largely has to itself. It is an enlightened move.

.

Koru Hour is described on the website as follows:

.

All weekday 737 and A320* flights between Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch Dunedin and Queenstown in the mornings before 9am, and evenings between 5pm and 8pm are KoruHour flights. Start the day with great tasting Gravity plunger coffee, OJ, muesli or a muffin and a complimentary newspaper. For evening flights wine, beer and L&P are added to the beverage service and are served with a selection of Kapiti cheese, crackers and grapes.

.

So in effect, a light breakfast on morning business period flights, and drinks and snacks during the evening. A light snack service is also offered during the day and late.

.

"During the day, after 8pm, and all weekend, a selection of great tasting snacks are being introduced - healthy dried fruit, savoury Cassava chips and sweet NZ lollies as well as tea, coffee and water."

.

So what? Well for business travellers, the convenience of a light breakfast on board means a lot, especially those without Koru Club access, and adding some drinks in the evening will add to the product seeming to be better than Pacific Blue's low cost approach. Smart travellers will compare one way fares of all airlines and choose whether to sacrifice service for price, or whether they can get a better deal on Air NZ with better service.

Virgin Blue introduces premium economy

After having been launched and touted as a wholly low cost carrier, ABTN reports that Virgin Blue has finally conceded that there is money to be made at the premium end of the market. It has now launched premium economy on Australian domestic services flown by its Boeing 737 fleet. Apparently it will also be extended to its new Embraer 170 and 190 fleet as well.

.

Premium economy involves priority checkin, lounge access, 32kg baggage allowance and fully flexible and refundable fares - in other words much like business class.

.

On board the front three rows will have the middle seats blocked out so that the 3-3 configuration will be 2-2 with the middle seats able to be folded down to be used as an extra table. Seat pitch is to be increased to 34", similar to the best long haul economy class on airlines like Air NZ, Thai and Malaysian.

.

It is notable that premium economy is NOT available on Virgin Blue's international counterpart - Pacific Blue as explained on the website description of the 737 seating.

.

Good for Virgin Blue, and this clearly is some competition for Qantas for the high end corporate market. Virgin Blue can provide fully flexible fares cheaper than Qantas on domestic business class, but still offer more legroom and width than standard economy.

.

Meanwhile, it is worth noting Qantas has upped its games on domestic Australian services, with new separate Business lounges adjacent to Qantas Club exclusively for business class travellers and top tier frequent flyers (Qantas Platinum, One World Emerald), with enhanced facilities. With short haul international style seats and full hot meal service, Qantas has the premium edge, but Virgin Blue may have a value advantage.

BA business class from City Airport?

BA has proposed flying Airbus A318 aircraft (which it doesn't yet have) from London CITY Airport to New York (probably JFK) in an all club class configuration. These flights are widely expected to stop at Shannon airport westbound (as the A318 couldn't have enough range with the weight restrictions applying at LCY to make the trip) to refuel, but fly non stop on the return leg.

Now this does have three possible appealing qualities:

1. Avoiding Heathrow. Despite the purported improvements to be brought in weeks by Terminal 5, it is still easily a 45 minute-1 hour trip from the City to Heathrow, with a minimum 1 hour checkin at best. City airport is less time to reach with shorter check in thresholds (BA proposes 15 minutes!). Essentially an easier airport all round.
2. More pleasant flight. A small all business class plane will quickly fill, disembark and luggage will come off it quicker too. With all business class there should be less bewildered tourists to have to worry about holding the flight up.
3. Westbound avoiding US immigration/customs. Now this is a trickier one. Shannon airport has full US immigration/customs facilities, so offers travellers the prospect of clearing US entry requirements at a relatively quiet airport before reaching NYC (where arrival could be treated as a domestic entry). How this works in practice is another thing, but it could prove to be worth the hassle of early disembarkation.

Mark Frary at the Times thinks it could be a great idea.