London Heathrow is the principal hub of British Airways where it operates from Terminal 5. Here is the latest news in connection with BA at London Heathrow.
British Airways Logo (Image Credit: British Airways)
The opening of Terminal 2 at London Heathrow this year has resulted in a large number of airlines moving out of Terminals 1 and 3.
As a consequence of this, Terminal 1 is due to close next year and BA will also be consolidating its operations in Terminals 3 and 5.
A series of terminal moves will be taking place next year. As part of this, from Tuesday 30 June 2015 BA’s medium haul flights to Amman, Beirut, Baku and Cairo flights will move from Terminal 1 to Terminal 5.
From this date, BA will have no further flights from Terminal 1.
With the exception of Cairo, these routes were inherited by BA following the acquisition of bmi by its parent company International Airlines Group in 2012.
British Airways Logo (Image Credit: British Airways)
The opening of Terminal 2 at London Heathrow this year has resulted in a large number of airlines moving out of Terminals 1 and 3.
As a consequence of this, Terminal 1 is due to close in 2015 and BA will be consolidating its operations in Terminals 3 and 5.
A series of terminal moves will be taking place next year.
As part of this, from Tuesday 30 June 2015, BA’s short-haul flights to Bilbao (launching 29 March 2015), Hanover, Luxembourg, Lyon, Marseille will move from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3.
These routes will join existing BA short-haul routes from Terminal 3 which are Barcelona, Budapest, Gibraltar, Helsinki, Lisbon, Vienna and Warsaw.
Flights from London Heathrow to Rotterdam will not be moving as this route is being suspended from 28 March 2015.
BA Airbus A319 aircraft at London Heathrow (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways has today announced it is to launch a twice daily service from London Heathrow to Bilbao in the Basque region of Northern Spain.
Bilbao is currently served from London Heathrow by BA’s IAG sibling Vueling. It will move its four weekly flights to London Gatwick.
Flights launch on Sunday 29 March 2015.
BA’s flights will initially operate from Heathrow Terminal 1 and will move to Terminal 3 on Tuesday 30 June 2015.
London Heathrow – Bilbao
Flight BA466 Depart London Heathrow 09:20 – Arrive Bilbao 12:20
Flight BA468 Depart London Heathrow 16:05 – Arrive Bilbao 19:05
Flight BA467 Depart Bilbao 13:05 – Arrive London Heathrow 14:00
Flight BA469 Depart Bilbao 19:40 – Arrive London Heathrow 20:35
Whilst a popular leisure destination in its own right (Bilbao is of course home to a Guggenheim museum) we understand the service has been operated to attract corporate clients in the area to BA’s London network and cargo traffic from the port of Bilbao.
British Airways Logo (Image Credit: British Airways) British Airways is to suspend its thrice-daily service from London Heathrow to Rotterdam from 28 March 2015.
BA has served Rotterdam since late 2012 and was one of three new short-haul routes announced shortly after BA’s parent company, International Airlines Group, bought bmi. The other two routes were Leeds-Bradford and Zagreb.
BA has since launched a service between London City and Rotterdam and will continue to operate this route.
It’s a reasonable assumption that an unsatisfactory commercial performance is a reason for the suspension of the route. According to Civil Aviation Authority statistics, just over 8,000 passengers flew in both directions between London Heathrow and Rotterdam in September 2014, a fall of nearly 30% year on year. August’s numbers show a similar trend.
Affected passengers have the option of being rerouted on either a London Heathrow – Amsterdam flight or London City – Rotterdam flight.
British Airways Boeing 747 Heathrow (Image Credit: Heathrow)
It’s not often you hear of first class being added to BA’s London Heathrow routes. Indeed, it wasn’t long ago BA announced it was withdrawing first class from Cape Town, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Vancouver from later this month.
However, BA will be upgrading its single daily flight to Denver, Colorado (BA 219 and BA 218 return) from a three class Boeing 777 to a four class Boeing 747 from Sunday 29 March 2015.
This means that BA’s first class cabin will be available on this route and travellers in Club World business class will have the option of the popular 20 seat cabin in the “bubble” of the 747.
We’re not quite sure what has prompted this decision, other than that BA is the sole operator of the London Heathrow – Denver route and transatlantic traffic is buoyant at the moment.
BA Airbus A319 aircraft at London Heathrow (Image Credit: British Airways)
The summer seasonal route is now a regular fixture of BA’s summer timetable at London Heathrow.
Last year, BA operated summer seasonal routes from London Heathrow to Faro, Ibiza, Malaga, Mykonos, Palma, Porto and Santorini. These routes return next summer.
Also launching next summer are new routes from London Heathrow to Olbia in Sardinia (twice weekly), Kos (twice weekly) and Corfu (four times weekly) and Split in Croatia (twice weekly).
Flights operate between 1 May 2015 and 20 September 2015 and are on sale now. Note that flight times vary by time of day, so check timetables carefully before booking.
These routes are complemented by summer seasonal routes from London Gatwick to Seville, Funchal in Madeira and Las Palmas in Gran Canaria.
British Airways Boeing 777 at London Heathrow (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways has today, 17 September 2014, announced it is to return to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur from 27 May 2015.
BA will operate a daily flight from London Heathrow Terminal 5, initially with a four class Boeing 777. This may change to Boeing 787).
Here is the initial timetable:
Flight BA33 Depart London Heathrow 20:15 – Arrive Kuala Lumpur 16:00
Flight BA34 Depart Kuala Lumpur 23:05 – Arrive London Heathrow 05:25
The flight timings work well for the business traveller. BA and others have long argued that expansion at Heathrow will open up routes to the East, so it is good to evidence of this in action.
It’s noteworthy that BA has allocated a peak early arrival slot to this route, traditionally reserved for long-standing “trunk” routes such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Johannesburg, so it’s clearly expected to an important route.
BA previously flew to Kuala Lumpur until March 2001, when flights were suspended as part of wide-ranging review of BA’s route network. BA’s predecessor airlines first served Malaysia in 1933.
Kuala Lumpur by BOAC (Image Credit: British Airways)
Kuala Lumpur is of course currently served twice daily by fellow Oneworld alliance partner Malaysian Airlines which has had some well documented problems of late and is currently undergoing a restructuring. There is no news yet on whether Malaysian Airlinesis to reduce capacity from London Heathrow. As BA and Malaysian do not have anti-trust immunity they would be prohibited from discussing/co-ordinating capacity and scheduling decisions on this route.
There is also no news yet on any codeshares with Malaysian Airlines on regional routes from Malaysia which we expect will be important to sustain the route.
At Kuala Lumpur airport, eligible passengers will have access to the Malaysia Airlines Golden Lounge. BA flights will depart from Satellite Terminal A.
Finally, for various reasons, new routes to Asia tend to take a while to grow passenger traffic and BA has in the past offered special fares for new route launches such as Chengdu and Seoul, so it’s worth keeping an eye out for any special fares when launch date approaches.
Update May 2015: Contrary to our suggestions above, forward bookings have been described by IAG CEO Willie Walsh as being very strong, so we do not expect any downgrading of capacity by BA on this route.
British Airways Logo (Image Credit: British Airways)
The Foreign Office is currently advising against all travel to Libya and encourages Britons in the country to leave.
This is in response to a high threat to foreign nationals from terrorist incidents such as kidnappings. BBC News is currently reporting on a fire at a fuel storage facility in Tripoli.
In response to the Foreign Office advice, British Airways has cancelled its daily flight to Tripoli indefinitely.
Passengers booked to travel to Tripoli are offered a refund or travel to alternative gateway within 300 mile radius of Tripoli, or Cairo.
Cape Town has long been a popular leisure destination for UK holidaymakers, particularly in the winter months of the northern hemisphere.
BA currently serves the city ten times weekly during the UK summer season and twice daily during the UK winter season.
BA will now be adding a third daily flight for just nine days between 2 January and 11 January 2015 to meet high demand in the New Year.
These flights are:
Flight BA 45 Depart London Heathrow 16:30 – Arrive Cape Town 06:05 (first flight 2 January, last flight 10 January)
Flight BA 44 Depart Cape Town 09:15 – Arrive London Heathrow 19:00 (first flight 3 January, last flight 11 January)
It’s also worth noting that first class will be available on these extra flights. During the winter season, flights BA 43 and BA 42 will operate without first class.
British Airways Tailfin (Image Credit: Nick Morrish/British Airways)
British Airways has announced it is to suspend its twice weekly service from London Heathrow to Agadir from 26 October 2014.
No specific reason has been given for the cancellation. However, we assume that poor commercial performance is a factor.
This was a route inherited by BA from its takeover of bmi in 2012 and is one of many subsequent route cancellations.
These include Damascus (29 May 2012), Addis Ababa (10 June 2012), Dammam (16 September 2012), Bishkek, Khartoum (1 October 2012), Tehran (12 October 2012), Yerevan (13 October 2012), Amristar, Casablanca, Marrakech (28 October 2012) and Tbilisi (31 March 2013).
Affected passengers have the option of a full refund or flying to Marrakech from London Gatwick or Casablanca via Madrid. No direct alternative route is available.
