British Airways is the largest airline at London City and London Heathrow airports. It also has a presence at London Gatwick.
It is a subsidiary of International Airlines Group which also owns Aer Lingus, Iberia and Vueling who all have a presence in London.
BA is also a member of the Oneworld alliance. It operates joint businesses from London with American Airlines and Japan Airlines.
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We’ve received a lot of search enquiries of late regarding BA’s Boeing 747 fleet. We suspect this may be in part due to the condition of some of them! It’s an issue we have looked at previously and we thought we’d cover some of the most frequently asked questions:
Continue reading “What are BA’s plans to refurbish & retire the Boeing 747?”
London Air Travel » British Airways »
As we have remarked before, British Airways has long earned itself the moniker “London Airways” for the fact that it does not fly internationally from any UK city other than London.
The one exception are routes operated by its franchise partner Sun Air which flies from Manchester to Billund and Gothenburg.
Another new route launched by Sun-Air is Cambridge to Gothernburg. We know Cambridge strictly isn’t London, but many airports have been flexible in this regard!
This route launches on 2 March 2015 and operates once a day on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The outbound flight originates in Manchester, which is also where the inbound flight terminates.
Continue reading “BA launches Cambridge – Gothenburg”
London Air Travel » British Airways »
A short while ago, we compiled a list of the British Airways routes from London Heathrow that operate with a first class cabin.
To complete the list, here’s a list of long-haul Gatwick routes that operate with and without a first class cabin.
It’s a relatively easy list to compile. BA’s routes from Gatwick are operated exclusively with either three or four class Boeing 777 aircraft.
Whilst a first class cabin is not sold on all routes, there is the possibility that a four class aircraft may be operated on a route on some days with no first class cabin on sale, with the normal Club World business class service provided to passengers seated in the first class cabin.
London Air Travel » British Airways »
British Airways has today, 28 January 2015, announced major changes to the way members of the British Airways Executive Club can earn and redeem Avios on BA and partner airline flights.
BA’s International Airlines Group sibling Iberia has also announced changes to its Iberia Plus programme that take effect from 1 March 2015.
The changes are quite significant and will impact on members depending what level they are in the Executive Club, what cabins they fly on BA and, for the first time, what type of ticket is purchased.
There are some definite negatives and some positives may emerge in time. It is also important to emphasise that they only apply to bookings made after 28 April 2015, so there is a three month window to make bookings in advance of the changes.
Here’s a summary of the key changes and our take on them:
Continue reading “BA Executive Club announces changes to earning and redeeming Avios”
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Continue reading “British Airways cabin cleanliness called into question”
London Air Travel » British Airways »
British Airways today, 19 January 2015, confirmed that is to move its entire London Gatwick operation from the North terminal to the South terminal at an as yet unspecified date in November 2016.
The purpose of the move is to allow easyJet to consolidate its London Gatwick operation in the North terminal.
Gatwick Airport has confirmed details of the move.
BA will benefit from an upgraded check-in area and a new lounge facility for eligible passengers. BA has confirmed that a new lounge for eligible customers will be constructed in the North terminal.
As BA’s London Gatwick operation involves approximately 60 departures a day, we expect the move will take place in phases.
Perhaps what is more significant are easyJet’s ambitions once it consolidates operations in one terminal.
easyJet currently has 45% of departure and arrival slots at Gatwick, compared to just 16% for BA. Ten years ago, BA had 30% of departure and arrival slots, and easyJet had 13%.
easyJet has made a number of moves in recent years to move it closer to the traditional full service carrier model, such as offering allocated seating and fast track ground facilities.
The one thing easyJet doesn’t do is interline with other airlines (this is where an airline will transfer your bag to another airline’s flight on a connecting ticket). Nor does it codeshare with other airlines. Nor does it offer connections.
Currently, a passenger wishing to fly from say, Edinburgh to Tel Aviv via Gatwick would have to “self-connect” and buy two separate tickets (and hope for the best if things go wrong!).
If easyJet was to move to a traditional “hub” model offering connections and codeshares with other airlines, this could radically change its position in the market and that of London Gatwick. There is certainly precedent for a low cost carrier to do this, as Vueling does at its hub in Barcelona.
This would of course add cost and complexity to easyJet’s operation (which it may be keen to avoid) but connecting traffic could support many more routes from Gatwick.
One other point of note is that Aer Lingus, currently a takeover target for BA’s parent company International Airlines Group, also operates in the South terminal and a consolidation of operations may allow for greater co-operation between BA and Aer Lingus at Gatwick.
British Airways will increase its flights from London Heathrow to Mexico City to daily from 1 May 2015.
London Air Travel » British Airways »
After gradually increasing its weekly frequency on London Heathrow to Mexico City over the past few years, BA’s current five weekly Mexico service will become a daily service from 1 May 2015.
The timetable for the new daily service is:
Flight BA243 Depart London Heathrow 14:10 Arrive Mexico City 19:30
Flight BA242 Depart Mexico City 21:30 Arrive London Heathrow 13:55
BA currently flies to Mexico City five times a week, excluding Tuesdays and Saturdays. This increases to a six weekly service from April and a daily service from May.
We assume the increase in frequency is driven by a relaxation of the bilateral treaty between the UK and Mexico.
BA’s International Airlines Group sibling Iberia also flies to Mexico City via Madrid up to twice daily. Iberia also offers connections to a number of domestic destinations in Mexico with AeroMexico.
AeroMexico also fly three times weekly between London Heathrow and Mexico City. We have not seen any increase in frequency on their part, which may be due to lack of slots.
The extra BA flights are now on sale on ba.com.
Update: AeroMexico will increase its flights from London Heathrow to five weekly flights from 29 March 2015, flying from Heathrow on Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. At the same time, with the exception of Saturdays, its departure time change will change from a mid-afternoon flight (14:45) to a late evening flight (22:30p). Exact times may very slightly by day.
Aegean Airlines and British Airways have added additional flights to Larnaca following the collapse of Cyprus Airways.
London Air Travel » British Airways »
Following the collapse last week of Cyprus Airways, British Airways and Aegean Airlines have not wasted any time in adding additional flights between London Heathrow and Larnaca.
BA has added an additional six weekly flights to its existing daily London Heathrow – Larnaca flight from Sunday 29 March 2015.
Aegean Airlines is also launching a daily flight between London Heathrow and Larnaca, also from Sunday 29 March.
Aegean Airlines Schedule (from 29 March 2015)
Flight A3773 Depart London Heathrow 20:45 – Arrive Larnaca 03:15 (ouch!)
Flight A3772 Depart Larnaca 16:40 – Arrive London Heathrow 19:40
British Airways Schedule (from 29 March 2015)
Flight BA664 Depart London Heathrow 07:10 – Arrive Larnaca 14:00 (excluding Saturdays, arrives 13:55 on Wednesday)
Flight BA662 Depart London Heathrow 11:45 – Arrive Larnaca 18:15
Flight BA665 Depart Larnaca 14:50 – Arrive London Heathrow 17:25 (excluding Saturdays)
Flight BA663 Depart Larnaca 19:25 – Arrive London Heathrow 22:10
Flights are on sale now on ba.com and Aegeanair.com respectively.
(H/T to airlineroute.net)
Here’s a full list of long-haul BA routes from London Heathrow that operate with a first class cabin.
London Air Travel » British Airways »
We receive a lot of search enquiries regarding which British Airways routes operate with or without a first class cabin.
Whilst BA’s first class product is far from a market leading product in the air or on the ground, the network it covers is very broad.
It’s also a popular choice for members of the BA Executive Club to use their Avios and holders of BA branded American Express credit cards to use 2-4-1 flight vouchers. Many Silver & Gold members of the Executive Club can also find themselves upgraded from Club World on oversold flights.
The general trend in recent years has been for first class to be removed from routes. However, it has in recent times been restored to routes such as Denver and San Diego.
So we thought it would be helpful to compile a list of BA first class destinations. We have also compiled a separate list for London Gatwick.
Continue reading “Which BA routes operate from London Heathrow with First Class?”London Air Travel » British Airways »
A few months ago it was announced that BA would stop offering first class on flights to Cape Town (selected flights only) and Las Vegas, Phoenix and Vancouver.
The reason for this was that even though the flights continue to operate with a four class Boeing 747 aircraft, these routes would be operated with aircraft that have not been fitted with the latest version of BA’s first class cabin.
Instead, BA would operate the old first class cabin as an extension of Club World business class.
As the airline continues to retire its older Boeing 747 aircraft, it is reintroducing first class on these routes with the assurance that all flights will operate with the latest first class cabin.
First class will return to Vancouver from Sunday 29 March 2015. First class will return to Cape Town, Las Vegas and Phoenix from Sunday 25 October 2015.
Continue reading “BA to reintroduce First Class to Vancouver, Cape Town, Las Vegas and Phoenix”