British Airways brings plenty of upside to Las Vegas

Steve Marcus

A British Airways’ B777 passenger jet is shown at the gate after landing at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009. The new daily non-stop service is between London’s Heathrow Airport and Las Vegas.

By Richard N. Velotta (contact), In Business reporter

Fri, Oct 30, 2009 (3 a.m.)

Like many people, Willie Walsh decided to celebrate his birthday in Las Vegas, the party capital of the world.

But his birthday celebration here, although short, may someday be remembered as a red-letter day for the city.

Walsh, 48, the CEO of British Airways, was aboard his airline’s first flight from London’s Heathrow International Airport to McCarran International on Sunday.

Because the flight crossed eight time zones, he had the unusual experience of having a birthday that lasted 32 hours. (Luckily, he didn’t travel west from Los Angeles to Asia, as I did a few years ago — by crossing the international date line, he could have lost his entire birthday.)

Walsh stayed in Southern Nevada for just more than the amount of time it took him to fly from London to Las Vegas and back, but the time was memorable.

He greeted representatives of Wynn Las Vegas, where he stayed. The next morning, he met with representatives of the media. At lunch, he addressed more than 100 Las Vegas businesspeople at Jasmine at Bellagio. And afterward he toured the Grand Canyon by air before heading home.

Walsh stressed the benefits of British Airways’ new Las Vegas service. At the top of the list is the airline’s connectivity to the rest of the Europe and points east. Flights originate at Heathrow’s 1 1/2-year-old Terminal 5, a bright, airy departure from the rest of the airport.

British Airways is the primary carrier at Terminal 5, and most of its flights arrive and depart from there, making connections easier than at most airports.

Walsh noted that if you transfer at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, you usually arrive at one terminal and leave from another. That is also the case for Los Angeles International when people fly to Asia.

“I’m not much of a gambler,” Walsh told the group at Jasmine. “But I’d be happy to bet with anybody that this is going to be a great route.”

Based on early booking data, Walsh called Las Vegas the best-performing new route he had ever seen and that he will “speak with great passion about what I’ve seen here.”

British Airways is trying to jump-start the Las Vegas-to-London side of the round trip, which Walsh admits will be “challenging.” But he says advanced bookings for London to Las Vegas already have exceeded expectations.

He said the weakness of the British pound against the euro and the U.S. dollar enables the company to offer a low introductory fare.

The airline offered a $276 round-trip economy fare for flights from Nov. 2 to Dec. 20 and from Dec. 24 to March 28. The airline also offered one-stop trips to Paris, Milan, Rome, Madrid and Athens for $358 round trip. The bad news, though, is that if you didn’t already book them, they’re gone — the sale ended earlier this week.

Travel agents have told me not to get too excited about the fare because taxes and fees bump the price up considerably, and the deal requires a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday departure and a Saturday-night stay. By the time all the taxes are applied, the ticket costs $663.10 — the taxes, to U.S. and British entities, are more than the fare itself.

Still, tickets went fast and by the afternoon after the announcement, they were as hard to get as Garth Brooks tickets at Encore.

British Airways’ connectivity is a big plus for the new service. So would the airline take advantage of the new environment of bilateral agreements and “open skies” proposals that would enable it to offer flights from anywhere in Europe to anywhere in the United States to add more international lift to Las Vegas?

It’s not likely, Walsh said. Although “open skies” could enable British Airways to fly from Paris or Rome to Las Vegas, it’s probably not going to happen because of the strong connectivity at Heathrow.

A more likely scenario, he said, is that British Airways could increase capacity between London and Las Vegas if demand remains strong. That could come in the form of larger aircraft making the run — British Airways’ Boeing 777 has a capacity of 272 passengers — or expanding to two daily flights.

Walsh said the airline would analyze loads and evaluate booking patterns to determine if expansion is in the cards. He explained it could be a matter of juggling the fleet to match the right aircraft with the route or removing flights elsewhere to add to the Las Vegas route.

British Airways operates some larger jets with a range capable of reaching Las Vegas from London — 54 Boeing 747s. It also has an order for 12 Airbus 380 double-deck jumbo jets, although they probably would not see Southern Nevada airspace until the Ivanpah Valley airport opens.

The other plus for Las Vegas is that British Airways will compete with another established British carrier, Virgin Atlantic Airways, with the big difference in service being that Virgin flies the route from London’s Gatwick International Airport, which is farther from central London than Heathrow.

Virgin Atlantic, operated by flamboyant adventurer Richard Branson, also operates daily Las Vegas flights. As of this writing, Virgin hadn’t responded to British Airways’ introductory fares, but you can bet that it will match them, which should keep the cost of flying to and from London in check.

Walsh discounted Virgin being anything more than just another competitor on the landscape, but aviation watchers know that the British Airways-Virgin rivalry is one of the most spirited in the industry. The two companies disagree often and publicly, and Las Vegas will be the newest battleground.

In the early 1990s Branson received a settlement from British Airways when he sued it for libel over an article written in its internal magazine. The suit led to the disclosure that British Airways had conducted a “dirty tricks” campaign against Virgin.

Branson has frequently aired his views on his planes, painting “No-Way BA/AA” on his aircraft to voice his displeasure with a proposed merger between British Airways and American Airlines.

Branson also had the winglets on his planes painted with a Union Jack in a tongue-in-cheek challenge to British Airways considering itself the flag-carrier airline of Britain after it removed the colors in favor of world images.

So for now, everything is good for Las Vegas. It has nonstop round trips to Heathrow and Gatwick. It has great connections to the rest of Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. It has world-renowned companies to partner with.

And it all couldn’t have happened at a better time, when the city could use an economic lift.

Where should Southwest go?

When Southwest Airlines last week announced that its 68th destination would be Panama City, Fla., the airline left out key information: Where would it fly nonstop?

When Southwest unveiled its surprise decision to fly to the as-yet-unopened Panama City-Bay County International Airport beginning in May, it said that there would be eight daily flights, two each to four destinations. The announcement and the schedules are expected to be made in December, giving Southwest a double dose of media coverage.

Panama City ABC television affiliate WMBB asked its viewers to weigh in on where they would like to see Southwest fly in one of those unscientific online polls.

The early results: 17 percent wanted Southwest to take them to Baltimore-Washington International Airport while 16 percent each voted for Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla. Los Angeles and Chicago followed with 11 percent each. The also-rans were Denver and Dallas (9 percent), Phoenix (6 percent), Houston (4 percent) and Oakland, Calif., (2 percent). I’m guessing these percentages were rounded up, since they total 101 percent.

It’s doubtful Las Vegas would be among the four cities that get those flights. The market probably isn’t big enough to warrant two flights a day.

More likely, the airline would connect the city to destinations that have a lot of connecting Southwest flights: Baltimore, Chicago, Nashville, St. Louis or Denver.

It is a little weird that the poll would include Oakland. Why not San Francisco? One woman interviewed for the WMBB story was hopeful that there would be a flight to Charlotte, N.C. That’s not likely since Southwest doesn’t fly there. And Southwest couldn’t fly Floridians to Love Field in Dallas since the Wright Amendment still prohibits nonstops there from most U.S. states, including Florida.

But it is nice to know that many Floridians want to know what this “what happens here, stays here” thing is all about.

Richard N. Velotta covers tourism, technology and small business for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at 259-4061 or at rick.velotta@lasvegassun.com.