The more I think about it, the more I think that British
Airways’ proposed new service from London City Airport to New York is
a brilliant idea.
The announcement came as a surprise to everyone I have spoken to. Some people
knew that A318s
– a stubbier version of the familiar A320 known as the Baby ‘bus - could use
London City Airport but no-one really expected anyone to start a service
with it, least of all BA.
Sure there are potential problems, the biggest of which is the necessity for a
refuelling stop on the journey west. All the buildings in Docklands means
that aircraft taking off from London City Airport need to do so far more
steeply than at other airports. This, combined with the short runway there,
means it won’t have enough fuel for the Atlantic crossing, despite only
having a maximum of 32 passengers on board.
So why am I so enamoured with the idea? Well, it’s a matter of time.
Imagine you are a banker working in Broadgate Circle in the heart of the City.
The journey from there to Heathrow takes about an hour and ten minutes,
including the walking at either end. The journey to London City airport
takes around 40 minutes.
BA says that it plans to offer 15 minute check-in at both ends of the route.
Minimum check-in time at Heathrow is 45 minutes, although you would have to
be a brave traveller to risk only allowing yourself that to get through
security there these days – 75 to 90 minutes is a much more likely estimate.
Typical flight time from Heathrow to JFK on a 747 is seven hours 40 minutes
(six hours 55 minutes in the other direction due to the favourable wind).
The new service will be operated by the less powerful A318 and the flight
time is expected to be nine and a half hours including the refuelling stop
(seven hours 10 minutes the other way).
So at the moment, both services are likely to clock up a total trip time of
ten and a half hours or thereabouts (and that’s giving Heathrow the benefit
of the doubt).
If you work in Canary Wharf – as many of BA’s premium passengers do these days
- London City looks even more appealing.
Yet we are not looking at the whole picture. The rumour network says Shannon
in Ireland may well be the refuelling stop for the proposed double daily
London City service. Why is that important? Well, Shannon has the advantage
that you can get pre-clearance
through US immigration. This is a big draw. The New York Times recently
said that the US
authorities had been working hard to reduce the time that foreigners have to
wait at immigration at JFK this coming summer to less than an hour. In
the past some travellers have had to wait several hours at immigration.
Imagine arriving and breezing straight past the snaking queues. There will
be plenty of business travellers ready to take advantage of that?
There could be other advantages too. BA has not yet announced which airport it
will use in New York. JFK seems obvious but it is constrained by capacity.
The US authorities have proposed
caps on the number of flights operating there from this summer – new
services seem out of the question.
BA also serves Newark, so that could be a possibility but there is another,
more exciting option. BA says that it plans to offer 15 minute check-in at
both ends of the new service. It’s hard to see how this could work at either
JFK or Newark. There is another option – Teterboro.
This New York airport is barely known in the UK and is mostly used for
private jet services. BA could happily operate from there and – because it
is closer to Manhattan than either JFK or Newark – could shave time off at
that end too. This could be a real stroke of genius from Willie Walsh.
The only fly in the ointment may be cost. A Club World fare from Heathrow is
around £2,000 including taxes. With only 32 seats on board the A318, the
fare is likely to have to be somewhere north of this. Saving an hour or two
could just make it worth it.
We may be looking at this the wrong way round. Perhaps Walsh doesn’t intend
British business travellers to be the main ones to use this service in the
first place. If you’re a New York based business traveller with a meeting in
the City or Canary Wharf, choosing the non-stop service to City Airport will
be a no-brainer. If you can fly into City on one leg and out of Heathrow on
the other, with no extra cost, BA may really have come up with a new cash
cow.
