http://www.airlinerworld.com 93HighFlyer
Airlines, and merged with Brymon
Airways (which BA had purchased
in 1993) to form British Airways
CitiExpress.
As a result of the merger, CitiExpress
had a diverse fleet including
BAe 146-100, -200, -300 and
RJ100, ATP, Jetstream 41,
de Havilland Dash 8
and ERJ145 aircraft.
Amid mounting
losses a further
rebrand was
initiated in
2006, resulting
in the creation
of BA Connect.
This model moved
towards a low-cost
operation, replacing the
complimentary food with
‘buy on board’ on all routes
except those flown from London
City (LCY). However, allocated seating
and baggage were still included, as was
lounge access, tier points and BA miles
for those in the BA Executive Club.
Connect operated a considerable
number of BA’s domestic and
European links that did not involve
Heathrow (with just a handful of
services from Gatwick) and it served
63 routes from 17 airports across the
UK and Ireland.
Despite this change in focus the
losses continued and in March 2007
Flybe took over the majority
of Connect’s operations. Flybe is
also widely reported to have received
around £130m from British Airways to
mitigate the losses it inherited at the
time of the transfer.A Fresh Start
The Flybe deal did not involve the
profitable LCY services, nor ten of
Connect’s Avro RJ100s, all of which
were taken on by BA CityFlyer. Using
eight of the jets – with the remaining
two acting as cover – the carrier
launched a scheduled 144 flights a
week to six cities from the Docklands
airport, with the very first flights
departing on March 30. Initial
destinations consisted of Edinburgh,
Glasgow, Zürich, Frankfurt, Madrid
and Milan. Within a month flights had
increased to 250 a week, with 600,000
passengers using the business-orient-
ed services during CityFlyer’s first year.
With all routes now emanating from
LCY it naturally became the airline’sWithin a month flights
had increased to 250
a week, with 600,000
passengers using the
business-oriented
services during
CityFlyer’s first year.Because of the steep
approach at LCY, both
the crews and the
aircraft require a
special rating to operate
at the airport.
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MATTHIEU DOUHAIRE