MEM-LGW?

[northernbizzkit1]

People on airliners.net posted this, and I saw it on wikipedia too...if you look at wikipedia page for MEM, it claims that Memphis-London Gatwick service starts on October 4th...hmmmmmmm...

[Bears]

Nice find. Its under Memphis' page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MEM

and Gatwick's

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Gatwick

I dunno. The thing about wikipedia is that anyone can change it without a source. This could be a prank or a leak from the inside. I checked for the shortest flight between MEM-LGW in December and a nonstop flight doesn't exist. Did NWA recieve the 787s yet?

[Rardy]

People on airliners.net posted this, and I saw it on wikipedia too...if you look at wikipedia page for MEM, it claims that Memphis-London Gatwick service starts on October 4th...hmmmmmmm...

There is no discussion about it on Wikipedia, but it was added on 8/23/06 by someone using the screenname bucs2004.

There are no direct flights from Memphis to LGW on October 4th, per NWA's website. They all involve layovers in MSP or DTW. I'm suspicious about this...

[Rardy]

Actually I found some evidence of "exaggeration" concerning international flights on wikipedia. For instance a flight from Newark to MSP to Edmonton was listed as international when there very clearly was a layover, flight number change, and a plane change in MSP. That, in my opinion, does not count as an international flight for Newark...

[Clobber]

Remember, direct doesn't mean non-stop.

I doubt that MEM-LGW nonstop would start in October without an official announcement by now.

[northernbizzkit1]

not in the timetables, and those go to October 28th...granted, they do change up timetables periodically and tweak them...we'll see, but I agree...there certainly would have been some report of this happening b/c I know NW would want to get booking started on such a flight as soon as possible.

[ricky_the_great]

im a member of wikipedia

User:barcode

[jmduke]

Did a quick search of recent NWA filings with the DOT and didn't see anything in the past four years which showed anything involving MEM-LGW. Most recent DOT activity was Memphis-Cozumel, and there was docket activity from several years ago where NWA attempted to get approval from Memphis to both Mexico City and Puerto Vallarta.

Unless something is in the works and hasn't been filed yet, Oct. 4 seems too soon to start Gatwick service from MEM, but it sure would be nice to have.

If, in the near future the service does start, it will be a DC10 or an A330. DC10s are not long for this world, and their flights will be upgraded to A330s within a year. 787s are a few years away as they are in development and hasn't been rolled out yet.

[cdarr]

I'm pretty sure somebody's exaggerating or being wishful. MEM-LGW wouldn't make much sense, really. I think a second daily MEM-AMS flight would be more likely. LGW isn't really a NWA gateway, anyway.

What makes MEM-AMS successful is that you can connect to just about anywhere in Europe through AMS.

[jmduke]

CDarr's exactly right. Even with all the NWA connecting traffic through MEM, there's probably not yet enough business to operate a DC10 or an A330 to Gatwick profitably. Gatwick is a destination with few connecting flights through the SkyTeam alliance of NWA, Delta, Continental, KLM, and Air France among others.

A second Amsterdam flight or, as has been discussed in another topic, a daily Paris flight makes more sense because of the multitude of connections through the KLM and Air France networks.

[northernbizzkit1]

CDarr's exactly right. Even with all the NWA connecting traffic through MEM, there's probably not yet enough business to operate a DC10 or an A330 to Gatwick profitably. Gatwick is a destination with few connecting flights through the SkyTeam alliance of NWA, Delta, Continental, KLM, and Air France among others.

A second Amsterdam flight or, as has been discussed in another topic, a daily Paris flight makes more sense because of the multitude of connections through the KLM and Air France networks.

Agreed. I'd love to see LGW, but I've heard MEM-CDG, a second daily MEM-AMS flight, and MEM-NRT as the next international routes to come up that are trans-atlantic or trans-pacific.