The SACAA is now satisfied that its enquiries into the “Level 1” incidents that required an immediate response are closed.
The suspension of Comair’s operating licence has now been lifted with immediate effect.
Whilst Comair has been grounded, BA has offered passengers whose connections on Comair to its long haul flights are cancelled the option to rebook on to AirLink or South African Airways.
British Airways Coat Of Arms (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways has suspended indefinitely its frequent flyer relationship with S7 Airlines.
Members of the British Airways Executive Club can no longer earn or redeem Avios on S7 Airlines with immediate effect.
S7 Airlines has been a member of the Oneworld alliance since November 2010. This ordinarily entitles members of the BA Executive Club to reciprocal frequent flyer recognition when flying with S7 Airlines.
The operating licence of British Airways’ franchise partner, Comair, has been suspended by the Civil Aviation Authority in South Africa(“SACAA”).
Comair was forced to cancel all flights on Saturday. The SACAA suspended Comair’s operating licence following a number of safety incidents. These included engine failures, engine malfunction and landing gear malfunctions.
Three of these incidents were described as a “Level 1” finding. This is considered an immediate risk to safety and security that must be closed immediately.
The suspension was initially described in a statement by the SACAA on Saturday as precautionary, pending a response from Comair that it had effective risk and safety management systems in place.
British Airways Coat Of Arms (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways has extended the temporary suspension of flights from London Heathrow to Tokyo Haneda until late May 2022.
BA had suspended the route for the winter season. It was due to resume on Wednesday 30 March 2022. The route will now resume from Sunday 29 May 2022 at the earliest.
Flights beyond this date have been taken off sale until Monday 31 October, which suggests the suspension will be extended further.
Update Monday 4 April: The route is now suspended until Sunday 30 October 2022.
British Airways 8 Seat Boeing 787-9 First Class Cabin (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways will return to Sydney from Sunday 27 March 2022.
This will be the first time in two years the airline has operated a scheduled flight to Australia.
Whilst BA’s presence in Australia is a shadow of what it used to be, its return is symbolic given there is almost 90 years’ history of UK flights from London to Australia via Singapore.
Flights will operate daily using a four class Boeing 787-9 aircraft. This replaces a Boeing 777-300 aircraft BA used before COVID-19.
This also means flights to Singapore will increase from the current frequency of four times weekly to daily, under flights BA15 & B16 instead of BA11 & BA12.
Manchester Airport Terminal 3 (Image Credit: Manchester Airport)
British Airways flights at Manchester airportwill move to Terminal 3 from Sunday 27 March 2022.
Terminal 3 closed in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic with all flights at the airport initially consolidated at Terminal 1.
This should also coincide with BA finally relaunching a daily service between Gatwick and Manchester after a delay of a year.
Occasional flights between London City and Manchester will also continue to operate. Weekend seasonal flights operated by BA CityFlyer between Manchester and Europe remain suspended.
In terms of lounge facilities for eligible passengers, it is assumed BA will provide access to the Escape Lounge at Terminal 3, as the BA lounge is reported to have closed.
British Airways Galleries Lounge London Heathrow Terminal 3 (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways will restart long haul flights at London Heathrow Terminal 3 from Wednesday 30 March 2022.
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic all BA flights at London Heathrow were consolidated at Terminal 5. BA resumed short haul flights at Terminal 3 in late 2021.
These long haul routes will move from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3:
Accra – 25 April 2022 Austin – 25 April 2022 Barbados – 30 March 2022 Nairobi – 30 March 2022 Orlando – 30 March 2022 Las Vegas – 25 April 2022 Phoenix – 25 April 2022 São Paulo – Buenos Aires – 25 April 2022
These dates may change and further route transfers later in the summer season are possible.
British Airways Airbus A350-1000 G-XWBA Aircraft, London Heathrow (Image Credit: British Airways)
IAG, the parent company of Aer Lingus, BA, Iberia, LEVEL and Vueling, released its annual results today, Friday 25 February 2022.
As expected, the group made a substantial operating loss of €3 billion for the year.
BA made by far the biggest loss of any airline in the group, with an operating loss of £1.9 billion. Its recovery significantly lags Iberia and Iberia Express, which were both profitable in the last quarter of 2021. 10 years ago the relative fortunes of the two airlines was the reverse.
IAG was keen to point out that it sees 2022 as a year of recovery and a return to profitability. This presupposes no new COVID-19 variants will result in travel restrictions. The results were published against a backdrop of considerable geopolitical uncertainty following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine Situation
IAG CEO Luis Gallego confirmed that following the decision by the UK government to withdraw the foreign carrier permit of Aeroflot, BA has suspended flights to Moscow.
Irrespective of the decision by the Russian government to ban UK registered aircraft from its airspace, BA flights to Asia will be re-routed to avoid entering Russian airspace.
Given many BA routes to Asia are still suspended this will have a limited impact in the short term. However, this will affect flights to Tokyo Haneda which were due to resume in late March.
BA’s Recovery In 2022
BA’s capacity in 2022, measured by Available Seat Kilometres, will be around 80% of 2019 levels.
As a percentage, this is the lowest of any IAG airline. This will be mainly accounted for by markets to mainland China & Hong Kong which are expected to remain closed well into this year.
Premium business traffic, defined as bookings in Club & First cabins, is still substantially down at BA, at just 20% of 2019 levels in January.
BA CEO Sean Doyle was keen to continue his narrative of a positive future for the airline, for both colleagues and customers.
There was no indication of any new initiatives beyond what has been previously announced such as catering improvements. No specific detail was given on any other improvements to services on the ground and in the air.
BA’s Club Suite will feature on 68 Heathrow based long haul aircraft by the end of the year.
Little was said beyond what is already known about BA’s plans to restart short haul flights at Gatwick. The enthusiasm for its return was described as “encouraging”.
With BA consolidating all short haul routes at Heathrow, the airline has seen the benefit of which ones complement the long haul network. Many former Gatwick routes such as Naples will stay at Heathrow to benefit from connections to transatlantic flights.
In response to criticism of call waiting times at contact centres, Sean said the airline is half way through implementing a new telephony system.
British Airways has launched a new transatlantic day flight from Newark to London Heathrow.
British Airways Lounge, Terminal B, Newark Liberty International Airport (Image Credit: British Airways)
One of the more reliable pleasures of transatlantic travel are day flights from North America to London Heathrow.
The majority of eastbound flights across the Atlantic are “Red Eye” flights which involve limited sleep on a short flight before an early morning arrival at Heathrow.
There are a handful of day flights which leave the US for London in the morning.
Compared to Red Eye flights these are like, well, night and day. Passengers are in a more relaxed mood. There’s no need to get to sleep over the short flight across the pond.
BA Launches Day Flight From Newark
From Monday 6 June 2022, BA will launch a new transatlantic day flight from Newark to Heathrow.
The flight, BA180, will leave Newark at 07:55 and arrive at London Heathrow at 19:55.
London Gatwick Airfield (Image Credit: London Gatwick Airport)
British Airways will lease many of Gatwick airport slots to easyJet & Vueling for the summer 2022 season.
According to filings lodged with Airport Coordination Ltd, the body responsible for overseeing slot allocations at London airports, BA will lease 230 weekly slots to easyJet for most of the summer 2022 season. This is equivalent to approximately 16 return flights a day.
A further 118 weekly slots will be leased to its IAG sister airline Vueling. This is equivalent to approximately 8 return flights a day.
