British Airways considering more leisure routes

London City Airport may be connected to leisure destinations such as Majorca and Ibiza next year. British Airways says it is considering offering tourist flights from the airport, which is located just outside London.

Current connections at the London City Airport, provided by British Airway’s CitiFlyer unit, link the capital to business destinations like Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Edinburgh. A total of nine routes are serviced by CitiFlyer at this airport.

British Airway’s plan to offer tourist connections from London City Airport is aimed towards optimally utilizing the longer range offered by its new fleet of aircraft. The new E-190 fleet, currently on order from Embraer, will offer a significantly longer range that the Avro RJ fleet it will replace.

Embraer will provide British Airways with a total of 11 new planes. This will also include six E-170s, considerably smaller than the E-190s.

Although business routes generate higher revenues than leisure flights, a global slump in business travel has forced airlines to reconsider their positioning. Airlines traditionally made higher revenues on their business class seats, but now have to contend with a huge dip in demand for premium travel.

British Airways says it will offer planes currently unused because of dwindling passenger numbers on business routes to serve the leisure connections. Destinations covered include Jamaica and the Maldives, as well as some US cities.

As leisure flights generate lower margins, the airline anticipates it will needed more passengers on each flight to make the routes profitable.