RSS Feed
Subscribe to RSS FeedWow! 70+ Comments!
As my first venture into blogging I didn’t know what to expect. But I didn’t expect this! I’m overwhelmed. Thanks for jumping in.
This blog is very much in line with our philosophy of trying new things, innovating, and having fun doing it. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts! And I only wish the demands of making this airline fly didn’t limit my ability to respond. I will answer as much as I can as often as I can, and will bring in experts for answers that require more detail.
That said, here are some quick answers to a few of the topics you raised.
Routes: Your requests for destinations in Glasgow, Boston, Torino, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Madrid, etc. have been noted. (John, I hear you about Hawaii!) Believe me, we’d love to fly to all of them. For now, Paris and Brussels to New York is what we’re aiming for to start. With success, we will explore expansion into other EU cities.
Pricing: Given the regulatory process both in Europe and the US, I’m not able disclose any details until we have been given approval to do so. Our plan is to offer superior value for the money. As soon as we can say something, we will!
OneWorld: Many of you have asked, and the answer is we will not be part of the OneWorld alliance. OneWorld is global, and our focus is city-to-city. However, OpenSkies customers will earn Executive Club miles and will receive most of the same benefits as flying any OneWorld airline.
Name: Some of you agree with Felix, “Love the idea, but the name is cheesy.” Thanks for your candor. We believe the name is a metaphor for bringing a new openness to our industry. And, much like our collective imagination, the sky has no limits. Hence, OpenSkies. Additionally, we chose to keep the BA tailfin. We’re proud of our association with this esteemed brand and plan to implement BA excellence in what we do every day.
Also… Andy wants to know if we will have “an enhanced food offering.” Steve is curious about carbon offsets. Justin wants more detail on our Premium Economy offering. Please check back with us as we tackle these topics in the weeks to come.
Keep writing. I’ll keep reading.
Dale
January 18th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
What will there be in terms of In Flight Entertainment?
January 19th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Dear Dale,
This is a very exciting time for Transatlantic aviation! I feel as long as the product is consistent and delivered with finesse, it will be a huge success. I also believe that Southern Europe should be considered for future expansion, i.e Lisbon, Madrid, Milan, etc. This is a long shot, but one day there will be a terrific Business service at affordable prices from the West Coast to Europe, especially out of Los Angeles. (Burbank, just a thought.
January 19th, 2008 at 3:05 am
Fantastic news. Many congratulations on the launch of Open Skies – and the launch of your blog which I heard about on a business communicators’ podcast, For Immediate Release, hosted by Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz.
It’s great to see another airline opening up a dialogue with its consumers and I hope that the straight-talking opinions you receive from contributors to your blog are matched by your own candour in response.
I also hope that you, and the members of your team who may contribute to this blog, will take the time to track and respond to other blogs, some of which have been quick to react to the Open Skies announcement in a variety of ways.
As contributor Jan said (14 Jan), it would be useful to see a feed added to this blog for readers to subscribe to the latest updates and to follow specific discussions.
January 21st, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Dear Dale
Congrats first on this new airlines venture. I think this idea is phenomenal, affordable flying across the pond to the beautiful European Countries. I’m originally from Italy and an ex Flight Attendant, I was just browsing around to get to know your Company a bit better since I’ve applied for it, and I thought to leave my print in this blog. It is very exiting for our industry to finally coming back from those years after 9/11. Well I wish you the best of luck and who knows maybe one day we’ll meet in flight!
January 21st, 2008 at 11:33 pm
When will you be opening in Boston’s Logan International Airport? I live in Boston and would love to work for Openskies. Please let me know if it is anticipated for 2009. Thank you for your time.
January 24th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Pleased to see BA taking full advantage of the new regulations. And as a BA Gold member pleased that OpenSkies will be recognizing the many miles flown on BA.
Few thoughts:
As a business traveler, my priorities on the NYC-EU outbound is sleep. The Sleeper service with on-ground dinner and quiet, lights-out flight followed by on-ground shower facilities on arrival are key for these “shorter” trans-atlantic flights and to maximize productive time and minimize time away from home.
I’ve also come to love the NYC-LHR day-time flights find I can be plenty productive AND get a good nights sleep, know that the extra hour time change to continent makes this a bit more difficult but would be an excellent differentiator to other carriers.
To note, in my experience, the Air France food is superb. I would argue probably better than any other (including Singapore). For me this is nice to have, but others may find a priority to compete.
Along the competitive lines, I would argue that the flight attendant services of any of the EU/US carriers is no match for Singapore, Cathay, etc. Jetblue seems to have found some way of improving on this (so far) please give some thought to this. The typically dour and occasionally rude personnel often found can really dampen a trip experience. Find good people and appreciate them please.
Also I hope that you consider the EOS, Silverjet competition. These guys, esp. EOS, are brilliant and I will fly them at every opportunity; please give me reason to stay loyal to a BA-offering. I.e. please make your seats and services comparable.
Lastly would be great if you could step a bit beyond the airport with your services; e.g. the helicopter transfer in NYC offered by EOS and Eithad is a nice perk, car service with Virgin, plane-door to plane-door transfers like LH in Frankfurt & Munich. These things help; I know you’re going after point-to-point, but think about what happens after you land. The best case, would be car/bus at airplane door to shower-lounge, separate/Fast-Track immigration/customs, car direct to destination or connecting flight.
Thanks and best of luck!
January 24th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I am also a Flight Attendant and just applied to your airline. I heard we would also get AA flight benefits; is that true? Then we would be able to commute to and from EWR! I am very excited about this opportunity!
January 24th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Congratulations, it’s always good to get that feeling when you start something new!
Darin
January 25th, 2008 at 1:32 am
I’m thrilled that BA has started a new blog! Anything to make the public more aware of aviation is fine in my book. Post often and you’ll find a great readership!
January 26th, 2008 at 4:23 am
Bring Open Skies to the Heart of America STL or the brand new vacant BVL Airport right across the river.
January 27th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Hi Dale, this is the way to go. Sharing the insight of BA. Now, I feel like to fly with BA for my trip. This is actually a innovative way of marketing BA’s services.
Hope to hear more, if you can put some videos , that would be great, mate.
January 28th, 2008 at 7:09 am
WOW WOW WOW………
IT’S A VERY AMAZING PROJECT…….
PLEASE, INCLUDE FLY FROM MILAN. WE ARE VERY VERY TIRED ABOUT ALITALIA AND AIR FRANCE.
IN THE NEXT FUTURE MALPENSA PROBABLY LOST ALITALIA SLOTS AND THIS IS A PERFECT MOMENT TO START WITH A NOW PROJECT.
I’M SURE TO BE A SUCCESS…
ITALY AND MILAN WAIT YOUR FLIGHTS………….
January 30th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Wow, indeed. I have worked for Dale Moss at British Airways. If he is leading this project, then I have high hopes. Any long range plans to bring OpenSkies to the DC area?
January 31st, 2008 at 10:08 am
Going ahead with this project you have to have very clear ideas about strategy. You can go for head to head competition with your greatest rivals (Skyteam and Star Alliance) or you can get at them through the back door by offering flights from airports they do not fly from(in Europe) eg Milan, Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, Lyon, Toulouse or Nice. That way you can build up a reputation to fight them head on.
However, whatever you do it should have a quick rank up time otherwise you will loos the advantage.
Another thing I cannot understand is why there are so few passengers in the plane – I presume it is that no more will fit given the layout. And why use 757s for long distance flights when they were designed for for shorter flights. Would not 767s be a better bet?
February 6th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
As an expat Brussels resident (8 years now) I am very excited and pleased that BA will beging offering direct transatlantic flights from BRU. The current choice of airlines leaves a lot to be desired in terms of cabin interiors, legroom and service! Given the choice I know I would opt for BA. Please consider flights to Chicago as well! Lots of US and non-US residents in Brussels that want to fly to the major US cities – NYC and ORD in particular. Don’t forget legroom in economy! Great news!
February 9th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Thin, beautiful face, high heels, nice b..ps, a very sexy and classy plane this 757 , not to mention the winglets. Good choice ’cause Brussels airport is very close to the city and I can tell you we ear the difference compared to those old wide bodies.
I want a educated, motivated, qualified, respectful, fresh and young flying personnel open to future challenges and innovations.
Handling:
Group people that want to use the flight entertaining system and laptops, others that want to sleep after a quick snack.
Pilots:
Be noise sensitive, inbound and outbound from BRU, respect your neighborhood.
I don’t bother to be late by 20 minutes if this can save lots of fuel.
Between BRU and NY, I want to feel at home and mine is quiet, not that big, environmental friendly, using adapted and local resources.
For me, after 20 years, flying is still an extraordinary experience. Explain things to people, we have some interest into it. And yes I will keep my seatbelt on!
Flying Attendants:
Change your approach, you and me are respectable people, able to communicate other than with “do, don’t do” talks.
Work as a team, I don’t need to know who is in charge or not.
Manage people to respect each-other (noise, light, …).
Be creative.
Management:
Motivate your people. Give them the tools.
Stick to an open mind, spread out your ideas more than fare prices.
Seduce your share holders with more than just money…
As a regular customer, I know the BA product and I’m open to new ideas.
Be different and make it happen guys!
February 15th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Lack of oneworld alliance membership is definitely a negative – especially given the business clientele you are trying to attract. Qantas got burned with this in Australia with its Jetstar subsidiary (everyone knows Jetstar is a QF brand). Many people resented not receiving alliance benefits when flying a Qantas group airline – especially business travellers who were constrained to routes/city pairs that were replaced with or solely Jetstar serviced.
The argument that “oneworld is global, OpenSkies is city-to-city” just doesn’t cut it. I may not be flying on a oneworld Explorer or RTW fare, but I still expect to receive alliance benefits – including Status/Tier credits – when I fly with a oneworld group member’s airline. I suspect the majority of tickets issued on oneworld carriers are city to city, not global or alliance fares.
Benefits for BAEC members may ameliorate this somewhat, but I imagine a lot of your American pax who may have AA membership, as well as those who choose to collect mileage on other oneworld programmes (I am a UK resident but like many other overseas Australian citizen I collect my oneworld status on the QF programme) will feel ill-served by this decision.
You are aiming to serve business travellers. I know that if I had a choice between a flight that progressed my alliance status and one that did not which one I would choose. Your fare proposition is going to have to be very attractive in order to make people think otherwise.
February 23rd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Hi,
my name is Tiago, and I am based in Lisbon, Portugal.
I was wondering if you have any plans to fly to Lisbon or any other Portuguese city?
It is great that more airlines are coming in to the business and creating more competition. Flights to New York from Portugal are expensive and monopolised by TAP Portugal and Continental, who both fly to Newark, so it would be great to see more pressure on them, and new players with new ideas and approaches!
best wishes,
Tiago
February 25th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
It’s all very exciting offering new transatlantic routes but should you not concentrate on adding routes closer to home. Glasgow is one of the largest cities in the UK yet it has an appalling/non-existent service from Brussels leaving an inconvenient Ryanair to mop up any business to Scotland.
March 23rd, 2008 at 11:04 pm
I agree with Simon’s comments tht the lack of participation in“oneworld is global, OpenSkies is city-to-city”doesn’t cut it.
When I read that, for which I can’t understand the reasoning behind that odd comment, my interest in flying Open Skies declined dramatically.
I may not always be able to go First of Business, but even in steerage as a One World elite member I do look forward to a few perks of One World– lounge access, priority check in, preferential seating, etc.
With the proposed relatively few number of seats I can’t see OS becoming another Laker Sky Train or People Express with rock bottom fares, so OS will not compete on fares in the same manner as SkyBus or EasyJet or Ryan Air.
But it will not be attractive for higher end repeat travel (if BAEC with its miserly earnings in steerage) is the only points earning venue– at least not for US residents who already eschew earning in BAEC.
Not good.
But there is still time for you guys to rethink this bit.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
So when can we start booking?
March 31st, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Hi there, great idea! But what about flying direct from Frankfurt to the u.s.a.? I´m so upset with Lufthansa´s seat quality so i would really apreciate flying with the new open skies classes to u.s. destinations direct.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:57 am
82 seat configuration ???
Almost looks like you want to go belly up.
Doesn’t look very well thought out.
A way for BA to get rid of Aircraft?
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:32 pm
1) Will you be offering student discounts? I realize OpenSkies is a discount airline, but discount overseas can still be expensive for a student.
2) Suggested destinations: Chicago is a MASSIVE international hub for the Midwest.
3) Offer connecting flights with other airlines for ease of booking.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:52 am
Hi
When will we be able to book flights from Brussels on this website?
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Any plans to fly to Toronto? We don’t call our major national airline “Scare Canada” for nothing. When you think it can’t get worse they turn around and prove you wrong. I’d be more than happy to never fly with them again.
April 24th, 2008 at 1:24 am
I think that your 757 Jets lack the range to make a flight from western europe to cities like Chicago or Madison in the midwest
April 25th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
at present we have no airline with flat beds flying from dublin to the usa have you any plans to start a route
graham
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:57 pm
I live in Paris and fly periodically to NYC in C.
I would be willing to trade flexibility of several daily flights offered by main carriers like AF, for the extra comfort and lower pricing. But Openskies needs to give BAEC tier points and be included in the 4 qualifying flights of BAEC. Not being part of an alliance is a MAJOR drawback, and your flights need to allow getting elite status on BAEC.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:20 am
I heard about Virgin America’s idea of cabin moodlighting and i wondered if you guys were going to do anything like that. If you do tell me because I think its a great idea.
May 15th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I read somewhere that you are planning to fly to Zurich, Switzerland as well?
Please update on that!
Thank You,
George
May 20th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Great to hear you got the approval for Paris – JFK
What is the latest news re Brussels availability
(which by the way is a much better airport and hub than Orly)
david (not surprisingly based in Belgium!)
August 9th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
I agree with many others that San Francisco is a gateway city & should definitley be utilized by Openskies, there is a big need for a premium airline such as this for the entire San Francisco bay area. I’ll keep my fingers crossed!!!
August 9th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Openskies would do very well out of San Francisco & would appeal to the discerning taste of the bay area crowd. Congratulations on the launch of a fabulous airline!
August 15th, 2008 at 1:03 am
wow i can really see why you guys made openskies, I was looking at flights to and from heathrow and saw that Air france was flying to LA from your city. pretty wierd that Air France would offer flights from the u.k across the Atlantic, I think Openskies will do pretty good, well as long as Willie Walsh does’nt sell it that is. oh well i love BA any way.how about some flights to munich? a quality airport for a quality airline. thanks, kane