British Airways Adds Flights from Manchester Bottom Line

British Airways has been challenged recently because of the impending Brexit. Yet, it seems that the airline is shining through the storm. The airline has announced a return to Manchester as a focus city. BA has not been involved much in Manchester since 2007 when it dismantled the remnants of its focus city operation. The new services come as part of a recent British Airways expansion throughout the globe.

 

Manchester Routes

The airline announced three new leisure routes from Manchester. They will fly to Alicante, Palma de Mallorca, and Ibiza in Spain; as well as Nice in France. These routes will offer two cabins of service and will compete with airlines like Monarch and Ryanair. The flights will operate with ERJ-190s that normally fly with BA CityFlyer. According to Bloomberg, the reasoning behind the move is to give better utilization to aircraft from their London-City hub. The airline plans on continuing their shuttles between Manchester and London Heathrow, with as many as 10 daily flights. Sun-Air of Denmark will also continue to fly as a British Airways affiliate to Manchester.

London Stansted Gets a Boost

A further boost of flights within the greater London area is also on the way. The airline has started seasonal flights from London Stansted to parts of Europe. Some of these routes will be expanded to year-round service. The airline is challenging Ryanair at their largest base in the UK. They currently fly to Geneva, Nice and Florence. The airline will resume service to Malaga, Faro (Portugal), Ibiza, and Palma de Mallorca.

Worldwide Expansion

All of these routes come amidst a major expansion embarked by British Airways. The airline added routes such as Santiago (Chile) and New Orleans from its Heathrow hub. They also added flights to Oakland, Cape Town, and Ft Lauderdale from their Gatwick hub. All of this comes in the front of the Brexit, which is seen as a detrimental factor to the British economy. The airline is doing its best to cut costs however since they stopped offering free items in economy on short European flights. BA now offers a buy-on-board program in partnership with Marks and Spencer.

Landing Thoughts

I am very excited to see British Airways expand within the UK, as well as throughout the world. I do consider them to be now at par with American Airlines, yet I have a special place for them in my books. My first international First Class trip was with them. Though their product is not the best out there, it set the bar for the rest. I expect to see British Airways to add more leisure routes as the summer months come closer. Hopefully, they will be able to optimize their fleet and provide even wider connectivity.

 

What do you think? Are you planning on flying any of the new BA routes? Where else should they add leisure routes to/from? Let us know!

 

All photos were taken from Wikimedia Commons unless otherwise noted.