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Vancouver is to join BA’s roster of Airbus A380 destinations from 1 May 2016 until 2 October 2016 as one of its daily flights to the Canadian city will be upgraded from a Boeing 747 to an Airbus A380:
Flight BA085 Depart London Heathrow 17:15 – Arrive Vancouver 18:40
Flight BA084 Depart Vancouver 20:50 – Arrive London Heathrow 14:00
This does mark the end of, temporarily at least, BA Boeing 747 services to Vancouver. The service will revert back to a daily Boeing 747 from 2 October 2016. There is no doubt that the Airbus A380 is a significant upgrade over the Boeing 747 in all aspects, particularly with regard to seating in World Traveller Plus, in-flight entertainment aircraft condition and overall cabin comfort.
Other BA A380 destinations include selected flights to Los Angeles, Washington, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Singapore, San Francisco and, from 25 October 2015, Miami.
For passengers looking to book specific A380 services we should note that schedules are subject to change and aircraft can also be substituted at short notice.
Update January 2018:
The Airbus A380 is next due to operate on this route from Tuesday 1 May 2018 to Sunday 30 September 2018. The route continues to otherwise operates with a Boeing 747.
When will British Airways use Airbus A380s on the London / Cape Town route? Now that both SAA and Virgin no longer fly directly to Cape Town (no thanks to Delta) surely there is a major capacity shortfall on this route? Do I have to start an airline myself to avoid the exhausting transfer at O R Tambo Airport and a significantly lengthened journey time?
Hi, Thanks for your comment. BA is due to take delivery of three more A380s from its original order of twelve, and it has options (yet to be exercised) for seven more so we would not rule out the A380 being added to this route on a seasonal basis. BA did briefly upgrade the route to three times daily for a period of nine days in January 2015, but I can’t see evidence of this repeated for 2016.
When will the Vancouver 747 be phased out , it is filthy and needs upgrade or taken out of service . We want to fly during March 2017 but the 747 is shown as the aircraft for that date as opposed to the a380