One of the things I continue to shout from the rooftops as loud as I can is the following statement:

THERE IS MORE TO THE UNITED KINGDOM THAN LONDON

I know for a lot of people, that is quiet a shock. But there is more to the United Kingdom than the Square Mile, The City of Westminster and the boroughs of Greater London.

See – there’s lots of place to the United Kingdom than just London – Map – Google.

Some airlines recognise this, with United Airlines operating from the regions with Boeing 757 aircraft, and even American and Delta operating services from Manchester.

Well American Airlines is responding with services to from New York-JFK to Birmingham and Edinburgh (there are also additional route launches from MIA to FRA, additional LAX-LHR, but I’m focusing on the new UK routes here).

Both One Mile at a Time and View from the Wing have thrown in their US-Centric views. So let’s have a view from someone who actually lives near one of these proposed destinations – Birmingham in my case.

Well, this is clearly American Airlines pulling traffic from the UK regions rather than it delivering to the regions, with the airline linking up England’s second city and the Scottish Capital.

In terms of competition, there will be some there, with United Airlines operating services from both from Edinburgh (where a daily Newark service operates, along with a seasonal service to Chicago O’Hare – and US Airways operating to Philadelphia) and Birmingham (where a United Airlines 757 operates a daily service to Newark).

Both routes will use American Airlines Boeing 757-200 aircraft

American Airlines Boeing 757-200, Image, Economy Class and Beyond

As you can see with the airlines above, it’s feeding the United network from the outstations, with both connecting traffic as well as Origin and Destination Traffic.

View from the Wing asks a question that for those of us in the regions know the answer some years ago:

The only question then is why do the flight with the American Airlines brand rather than the British Airways one? And that may be about right-sized aircraft. American will operate 757’s on these thing routes, and those might make more sense than sticking a British Airways widebody there.

Ok, lets look at some background. British Airways has another nickname – London Airways – for not serving any long haul destination other than from its London Hubs (London Heathrow, Gatwick and London City). In the past traffic did flow from the regions to destinations other than London (Birmingham itself at a service operated by a 767 in the dim and distant past, whilst Manchester up until a few years ago operated a daily Manchester to New York JFK flights).

What happened? They didn’t make money for British Airways as that time, when the profits were under pressure. Rather, BA adopted a hub mentality to flow everything through its London hubs, pulling out of airports – leaving the with BA Connect services (that were either taken over by FlyBE or shut down). The assumption that people would flood in on regional routes to connect in London is a laughable one at best, and a poor joke at worst.

This has had bigger consequences for British Airways – more than they realise, as they discovered people didn’t like flying through Heathrow for any given reason. Let’s be honest, the biggest regional carrier to Europe from UK airports is KLM, followed by Lufthansa and long haul traffic Eastbound is handled by Emirates.

I hate to say this, but codeshares and alliances are not thought about by the general public. They’re more concerned that they can get from A to B in the minimum possible fuss. Hence why connecting from the regions to beyond in London is a poor idea at best (it cost Virgin Atlantic a lot of money to discover this).

All to avoid London.

And from a very personal perspective, here is my procedure for a London flight vs a Manchester Flight vs a Birmingham Flight:

Heathrow:

• Get Taxi to coach station in the dead of night
• Take National Express coach at £25 each way to Heathrow Central three hours early
• Push trolley for 20 minutes to get to T3
• Clear check in
• Wait 2 hours and a bit
• Board Plane

Manchester:

• Get Taxi to coach station in the dead of night
• Take National Express coach at £10.50 each way to Manchester Airport three hours early
• Hike across the airport to T3
• Clear check in
• Wait 2 hours and a bit
• Board Plane

Birmingham

• Get Taxi to Train station early in the morning
• Board train for £3.20
• Get off at Birmingham International in about 10 minutes.
• Take the Cable Liner
• Check-in, clear security
• Go to Lounge
• Board

And it beats dealing with motorways, driving, coaches, saving a good 3 hours before checking in.  Or what I call a very long lie in.

I’m really looking forward to these services, and hoping the services provide some good competition to United, as well as lowering prices on these routes. Hopefully the loads and revenue will add up to keep these services running.

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