British Airways Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner (Image Credit: Heathrow)
British Airways has suspended its daily service from London Heathrow to Calgary for the winter season. The route now operates on a summer seasonal basis only.
The last outbound and inbound flight operates on Saturday 27 October 2018. The service resumes on Sunday 31 March 2019 until Monday 25 October 2019.
It then resumes again, initially four times weekly, on Sunday 29 March 2020 until Saturday 3 October 2020. The affected flight numbers are BA102 and BA103.
No specific reason has been given for the cancellation. However, it is a reasonable assumption that unsatisfactory commercial performance is behind the decision.
BA started flying from London Heathrow to Calgary in December 2006, initially with a Boeing 767 aircraft. The route then changed to a Boeing 787 in July 2014.
Air Canada will continue to fly direct from London Heathrow to Calgary year-round.
Update May 2020
Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, this route will not operate in the summer of 2020.
It is currently scheduled to return from Sunday 28 March 2020.
Qatar Airways is to operate BA flights between London Heathrow and Delhi, Kuwait and Muscat from early June to August 2018. There will be significant changes for all passengers.
Flights operated by Qatar Airways will be operated by Qatar Airways A330 aircraft and its pilots and cabin crew. The aircraft will not have a First Class or premium economy cabin. In addition, there will be differences to special meals and other aspects the in-flight service. All flights will continue to operate from London Heathrow Terminal 5.
Rebooking options are available to passengers, including on alternative routes and airlines. However, these depend on which cabin you are booked in.
Please note this guidance is based on BA’s advice first issued to the travel trade on Monday 4 June 2018. It has already been subject to change and will no doubt continue to be so.
Affected Routes & Flights
Delhi
Qatar Airways will operate BA’s daily Boeing 787-9 service to Delhi:
Flight BA143 London Heathrow – Delhi (Saturday 9 June – Monday 20 August 2018)
Flight BA142 Delhi – London Heathrow (Sunday 10 June – Tuesday 21 August 2018)
BA will continue to operate flights BA256 and BA257 between London and Delhi with a Boeing 777-200.
Kuwait
Qatar Airways will operate BA’s daily Boeing 777-200 service to Kuwait:
Flight BA157 London Heathrow to Kuwait (Saturday 9 June – Saturday 30 June 2018)
Flight BA156 Kuwait to London Heathrow (Sunday 10 June – Sunday 1 July 2018)
Muscat
Qatar Airways will operate BA’s daily Boeing 787-9 service to Muscat:
British Airways is starting to piece together its schedules for the Winter 2018 season which officially begins on Saturday 28 October 2018.
An extensive list of changes for London Heathrow has been published.
Here are known changes at London Gatwick so far. Note this is very much work in progress. Further changes, particularly to short-haul, are expected to be announced. Also, it is expected that significant changes will be announced for Summer 2019 as BA beds in the extra slots it has acquired from Monarch.
Flights at London Gatwick can be booked now at ba.com
Long-Haul Changes
Cape Town resumes for the winter, three times weekly, from Monday 12 November 2018 to Saturday 30 March 2019.
Las Vegas will now operate year round.
Lima is suspended for the winter from Friday 26 October 2018 until Sunday 31 March 2019.
Male resumes for the winter from Sunday 28 October 2018 to Friday 29 March 2019.
Oakland is suspended from Saturday 13 October 2018. It was planned to resume on Monday 1 April 2019, but the route is now permanently suspended.
Toronto is suspended for the winter from Friday 12 October 2018 until Friday 3 May 2019.
British Airways 100 Years Of Aviation Posters (Image Credit: British Airways)
In the very early days of commercial aviation, the principal means by which airlines advertised their services was the poster.
American Airlines, Braniff International Airways, Pan American World Airways, Swissair, Trans World Airways, United Airlines and many others all used the medium to great effect. This was not only to sell the relatively new idea of flying to a small constituency of wealthy travellers, but also their respective fleets and route networks, to passengers in their home markets and around the world.
In his latest book on British Airways, Paul Jarvis has selected 200 posters from a collection of over 1,000 posters from BA’s near 100 year history.
It begins with a poster from the very first BA predecessor airline, Aircraft Transport & Travel, which operated the first commercial air service from London to Paris on 25 August 1919.
The book also features an extensive collection of posters from other predecessor airlines including Imperial Airways, BEA and BOAC.
Not only do the posters cover developments in technology such as the VC-10, Boeing 747 and Concorde, but also major occasions of the 20th Century, such as the 1948 Olympic Games, 1951 Festival of Britain and 1953 Coronation. They all rely heavily on illustration and feature a variety of styles, notably the modernism of Imperial Airways’ posters in the 1930s.
The book inevitably focuses on advertising between the 1920s and 1960s as television took over as the principal advertising medium for airlines. BA of course used television advertising to great effect in the 1980s and beyond.
However, there are many more recent posters in the book such as BBH’s 2012 Olympics campaign and illustrations by Carla Lucena for the launch of London Gatwick – Lima in 2016.
Sadly, the book’s author passed away in the week of publication.
Paul Jarvis was a much respected and liked colleague who for over 15 years has volunteered as the curator of the British Airways Heritage Collection. This is particularly untimely as next year BA will celebrate its centenary. There can be no doubt Paul’s work has played a vital role in airline’s preparations for its centenary.
British Airways is to suspend its service from London Heathrow to Luanda, Angola, from early June 2018. The last outbound flight BA77 departs Thursday 7 June 2018. The last inbound flight BA76 departs Saturday 9 June 2018.
The route currently operates once weekly and is codeshared with Angola Airlines. It is the only direct route between London and Luanda. The last outbound flight BA77 departs Thursday 7 June 2018. The last inbound flight BA76 departs Saturday 9 June 2018.
No reason has been given for the cancellation and the period of notice is very short. The route has been subject to occasional cancellations in recent weeks due to maintenance requirements of BA’s Boeing 787 Dreamliners.. The short notice period does suggest a degree of urgency to release a spare Boeing 787 for the summer.
It also has to be said that this development follows a number of suspended routes to Africa.
BA has previously suspended Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 2012; Lusaka, Zambia in 2013; Freetown and Monrovia in 2014; and Entebbe, Uganda in 2015.
The main exception is South Africa where BA has recently announced Durban and an increase in flights to Johannesburg to 18 times weekly for the winter season.
If BA ever orders the Airbus A321 Long Range aircraft this may make some of these routes viable again. However, there is no sign of an imminent order.
British Airways is to switch one of its three daily services between London and Moscow from Domodedovo International Airport to Sheremetyevo International Airport from Sunday 28 October 2018.
British Airways is to switch one of its three daily services between London and Moscow from Domodedovo International Airport to Sheremetyevo International Airport from Sunday 28 October 2018.
The outbound flight BA235 and inbound flight BA234 will operate to and from Sheremetyevo. These flights will be operated by an Airbus A321 aircraft a “mid-haul” configuration with flat beds in business class and no premium economy cabin.
Flights, BA233, BA232, BA237, and BA236 will continue to operate to and from Moscow Domodedovo. These will be operated by a mixture of Airbus A321, Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 aircraft.
These changes have been announced amongst a significant number of changes to BA’s London Heathrow schedule for the Winter 2018 season which are detailed here.
British Airways is to fly from London Heathrow Terminal 5 to Marrakech four times weekly from Sunday 28 October 2018, complementing its existing service from London Gatwick.
Marrakech, Morocco. (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways is to fly from London Heathrow to Marrakech from Sunday 28 October 2018.
Flights will operate four times weekly on Thursday to Sunday from London Heathrow Terminal 5 to Marrakesh Menara Airport until Saturday 30 March 2019.
Flights will be operated with Airbus A320 aircraft in a two class, Club Europe business class, and EuroTraveller economy configuration.
This is not the first time BA has flown to Morocco from London Heathrow. It inherited this route from bmi in 2012, before suspending it in October of that year..
It is relatively rare for BA to announce new routes to Africa, a region where BA and its parent IAG is relatively weak. Morocco based airline Royal Air Maroc, which like BA has a joint business with Qatar Airways, was due to become an Avios partner some years ago. However, nothing has come of this yet, possibly due to IT issues.
BA also flies to Morocco from London Gatwick eight times a week. It is of course possible to “mix and match” London departure and arrival airports, if that is convenient.
The exact flight times vary by day, but flights typically leave London Heathrow between 09:25 and 11:00, and return from Marrakech between 13:50 and 15:15.
BA has also announced a number of changes to its Winter schedule at London Heathrow which are detailed in full here.
Here are details of BA’s London Heathrow winter schedule from Sunday 28 October 2018 with details of new and seasonal winter routes as well as terminal, aircraft and frequency changes.
BA Airbus A319 aircraft at London Heathrow (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways is in the process of firming up its schedules for the winter travel season, which officially starts on Sunday 28 October 2018.
Here are details of schedule and terminal changes for London Heathrow. Further announcements are expected, particularly at London Gatwick where BA is yet to announce how many of the slots it has acquired from Monarch will be used in the winter.
Please note the details below are based on announcements by BA to the travel trade and our own enquiries on third party subscription services. Not all updates may be updated on ba.com at the time of publication.
New Long-Haul Routes
BA will fly direct to Durban three times a week from Monday 29 October 2018.
New Short-Haul Routes
BA will fly to Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport from Sunday 28 October 2018. More details here.
Route Suspensions
BA’s daily service to Calgary is suspended from 28 October 2018 until Sunday 31 March 2019. More details here.
BA’s weekly service to Luanda is suspended from Thursday 7 June 2018. More details here.
BA’s twice weekly service to Palermo is suspended from the winter season. Affected passengers can be rebooked on to Air Italy via Milan or Vueling via Rome or Barcelona. Note that neither airline offers business class to Palermo.
BA’s service to Tehran is suspended from Saturday 22 September. More details here.
Turin was planned to resume twice weekly from Sunday 16 December 2018 to Saturday 30 March 2019. However, the route has been cancelled. Passengers will be re-accommodated on BA flights from Gatwick.
Winter Seasonal Routes
BA will fly to Marrakech four times a week Thursday – Sunday from 28 October 2018 until Saturday 30 March 2019, complementing its existing service from Gatwick.
Salzburg resumes, four times weekly from Sunday 16 December 2018 to Saturday 30 March 2019.
British Airways is now officially participating in TSA PreCheck® programme which allows eligible passengers to undergo an expedited security screening process at US airports.
BA New York JFK Terminal 7 (Image Credit: London Air Travel)
British Airways and the Transport Security Administration have today, Thursday 17 May 2018, officially confirmed that the airline is now participating in the TSA PreCheck® programme.
The TSA PreCheck® programme allows eligible members to go through an expedited security screening process at US airports when flying on participating airlines.
BA has in fact been participating in TSA PreCheck® for a while. Indeed, the BA press release issued today refers to the imminent launch of Nashville, which actually happened two weeks ago. However, for reasons unknown, an official announcement has only been made today.
Members of the Global Entry scheme for citizens of the UK and many other countries are eligible, as are US citizens and lawful permanent residents enrolled in TSA PreCheck®, NEXUS or SENTRI and Canadian citizens who are members of NEXUS.
You can enter your Known Traveller Number or Pass ID on the Manage My Booking tool on ba.com
There are some limitations at the moment for BA passengers:
1. You must have a printed boarding pass, either at home or the airport. Mobile boarding passes are not yet enabled for TSA PreCheck®. You should have no difficulty whatsoever asking for a printed boarding pass at the airport even if you have checked in online.
2. TSA PreCheck® is not currently available at New York JFK Terminal 7 which is currently undergoing renovations.
Both should be available from summer this year. For the avoidance of doubt, TSA PreCheck® is not available at Heathrow or any other UK airport.
British Airways lounge at Aberdeen International Airport (Image Credit: Nick Morrish/British Airways)
British Airways has this week opened its new lounge in Aberdeen.
It follows a similar design aesthetic to its recently opened Rome Fiumicino airport. As with Rome there is a distinctly Scandinavian feel. It is a sharp contrast to the rest of BA’s lounge portfolio.
At 380 m2 in size, the lounge features a wide variety of seating options, with views of the runway. The centrepiece of the lounge is a self-pour granite topped bar. BA also promises food appropriate to the time of day.
The lounge also includes posters and art work from the airline’s collection and “The Long Winding Shores” by artist Maddie Rose Hills.
As is clear from the images below, there is no shortage of powerpoint throughout the lounge.
Passengers travelling in Club Europe and Executive Club Silver and Gold cardholders are eligible to use the lounge. BA flies from London Heathrow to Aberdeen up to eight times daily. Continue reading “BA opens new Aberdeen lounge”
