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International Airlines Group, the parent company of British Airways, is holding its annual Capital Markets Day today, Friday 8 November 2019.
As part its presentation, IAG has published its first complete plan for the roll-out of its “Club Suite” to existing long-haul aircraft at London Heathrow.
This gives a flavour of when passengers can expect to see the Club Suite on Heathrow based long-haul aircraft.
Overall, BA plans to have the Club Suite on 100% of Heathrow long-haul aircraft by 2025. By this time, BA will have retired its last Boeing 747 aircraft.
More than 50% long-haul aircraft at London Heathrow should feature the Club Suite by the end of 2021. Nearly 80% of long-haul aircraft at London Heathrow should feature the Club Suite by the end of 2022.
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The Club Suite On New Aircraft
As expected, the Club Suite will be available on new deliveries of long-haul aircraft.
This includes:
- 18 Airbus A350-1000 aircraft, which are already under way
- 4 new Boeing 777-300 aircraft, which will be delivered in 2020
- 12 Boeing 787-10 aircraft, 6 of which will be delivered in 2020
- 18 new Boeing 777-9 aircraft, 8 of which will be delivered in 2022
The Club Suite On Existing Aircraft
BA has already begun retrofitting the Club Suite to four class Boeing 777-200 aircraft.
From the slide, the priority is clearly to continue retrofitting the Club Suite to Boeing 777-200 aircraft throughout 2020 and 2021. It’s worth adding that at the same time BA will convert economy seats on these aircraft from 9 to 10 abreast. The Club Suite is expected to be on 16 Heathrow based Boeing 777-200 aircraft by the end of 2020.
BA will then retrofit the Club Suite to its 12 existing Boeing 777-300 aircraft from 2020/2021. The Club Suite is expected to be retrofitted to 3 Boeing 777-300 aircraft by the end of 2020.
It will also begin retrofitting the Club Suite to 12 Boeing 787-8 aircraft from 2021 and 18 Boeing 787-9 aircraft from 2022.
The last existing fleet type to be retrofitted with the Club Suite will be 12 Airbus A380 aircraft from 2023.
As expected, the Club Suite will not be retrofitted to Boeing 747 aircraft. The current plan remains to retire the last Boeing 747s by 2024. The current plan is to have 25, 20, and 12 aircraft in service by the end of 2020, 2021 and 2022 respectively.
These plans are of course subject to change according to the availability of seats from manufacturers and the ability to withdraw aircraft from service for refurbishment.
Economic and geopolitical events may also require BA to slow down capital expenditure or review its fleet plans in terms of new deliveries and the retirement of aircraft.
The Club Suite at London Gatwick
It should also be noted that this presentation is silent on whether the Club Suite will be retrofitted at Gatwick.
At the moment there appear to be no plans to do so.
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