Austin Gets Its First Nonstop International Flight (Houston, Paris: buy, prices)

[centralaustinite]

Originally Posted by JimBaker488

The game-changer appears to be the delivery of British Airway’s Boeing 787s, a smaller wide-body airplane with excellent fuel efficiency. The 787s allow airlines to serve the long international routes that previously did not have enough traffic to support nonstop service.
Austin to get non-stop London service from British Airways | Airline Biz Blog
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According to this story in the DallasNews, the Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" was the game changer for the London-Austin market.

Fingers crossed!

[owlman]

Neato burrito! Even San Antonio doesn't have any transatlantic nonstops... take that America's seventh largest city!

[scm53]

The issue isn't so much Austin or London o/d traffic - it is the destinations past London that are now one stop, and vice versa. We certainly had one stop service, mainly from US carriers, to a relatively small number of destinations. Now we have over 170 one stop destinations, world wide.

Will be huge for the international business market headed to Austin. Goes hand in hand with the number of European, especially German, RE investors that have bought office buildings here. We are firmly on the world radar, and this is just confirmation.

[Kosmonaut]

Wow, DAILY flights to London on a Dreamliner???? There must be a lot of business occurring between the two cities. I think F1 has done a lot for this city already as a catalyst.

[atxcio]

Wow, just wow. This is unexpected and huge.

Like scm said, it's not really just about LHR but all the destinations in Europe that are now one stop. And it's not just about BA, a bold move like this doesn't happen in a vacuum -- there is certain to be a response and interest from other carriers. Maybe not a competing non-stop, but very low fares through DFW or IAH to European destinations. It's all good for us, though.

[Bubchub68]

This is great news for international traveler's like us. We used to fly out of Houston or Dallas which will add about 4 extra hours to the already looooooooong trip. The new non-stop will save time and money. BA allows 2 baggages for certain Asian countries, but due to the domestic connecting flight, we either had to pay for the extra baggage or just take 1 baggage. This is good news.

[Trainwreck20]

Saw an show on the 787 a year or two ago, and they talked about how it would really change the international flight scene, especially for 'skinny' routes that had reliable but smaller groups of travelers going long distance. I think the example they gave was the U.S. to New Zealand, but the same idea - there is a demand, but a slightly smaller and more eff. plane was needed due to the limit on passengers on a give day.

I am surprised by the frequency - that is a lot of routes, so I wonder if there is some partnership or something that will use the connections.

[PrimusPilus]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

I don't know that it has a huge 'actual' impact, but psychologically, it it might. Maybe we will have an influx of brits .

Not just Brits. Many Asians living in Austin while traveling home have to transit in Europe. Currently they have to first fly to Europe out of a major US hub. Now there's a faster option.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Saw an show on the 787 a year or two ago, and they talked about how it would really change the international flight scene, especially for 'skinny' routes that had reliable but smaller groups of travelers going long distance.

That's why one of the first announced 787 routes for Continental (pre-merger) was Houston - Lagos. Never made sense in a 777 and 767/757 can't make it.

[Komeht]

Lowest fare $1,700 RT - about 2X the cost of connecting through DFW.

I don't foresee myself booking anytime soon.