British Airways is to transfer its route from London Heathrow to Paris Orly to London City airport from Sunday 29 October 2017.
Currently, BA flies from London Heathrow to Paris Orly up to four times daily. This will reduce to three times daily from 30 September 2017 with BA334 and BA335 cancelled from this date. The last flights will operate on Saturday 28 October 2017. BA will continue to fly from London Heathrow to Charles de Gaulle airport up to seven times daily.
BA will fly from London City to Paris Orly three times daily on weekdays and daily on weekends. This route will reinstate a link between London City and Paris after CityJet suspended this route in March of this year.
BA is to launch two new routes from London City airport to Prague and Reykjavik from Sunday 29 October 2017.
BA will fly to Prague daily, except Saturdays and to Reykjavik twice weekly on Thursdays and Sundays on a winter seasonal basis until late March 2018.
Flights will be operated by Embraer aircraft in a two class, Club Europe business class and EuroTraveller economy configuration.
These will complement BA’s existing services from London Heathrow and it will be possible to “mix and match” the two London airports if that is convenient.
BA flies between London Heathrow and Prague up to four times daily. BA currently flies between London Heathrow and Reykjavik four times weekly which will increase to twice daily from 29 October 2017.
BA has also announced that its route between London City and Granada will become a summer seasonal service only.
Rowan Atkinson as Mr Bean in the British Airways Safety Video (Image Credit: British Airways)
The “novelty” in-flight safety video has been a feature of many airlines for years.
They have helped generate huge publicity for airlines, most notably Air New Zealand, on social media channels and help reinforce the brand values of the airlines and their home countries.
BA has, to date, eschewed this approach. However, today, BA has unveiled a new safety video which will be rolled out across its long-haul fleet from Friday 1 September 2017.
BA has partnered with its corporate charity partner Comic Relief to produce the film. It features well known British public figures such as Rowan Atkinson, Gordon Ramsay, Gillian Anderson and Sir Ian McKellen.
The actors audition in front of comedian Chabuddy G for a part in the airline’s new safety video, while simultaneously demonstrating the safety features and procedures on the aircraft.
Japan Airlines (“JAL”) is to add a second daily London Heathrow – Tokyo Haneda flight with effect from Sunday 29 October 2017.
This means that, together with its joint-venture partner British Airways, JAL will offer four flights a day between London and Tokyo. BA will continue to fly to both Tokyo Narita and Tokyo Haneda airports daily.
The new JAL flight (JL41 & J42) will depart London Heathrow at 09:30 and return to London Heathrow at 06:25. The flight will be operated by a Boeing 787 in a three class configuration.
It’s noteworthy that BA and JAL have chosen to add capacity between London and Japan when history has shown that inbound visitors from Japan to Europe can be very sensitive to terrorist incidents.
In addition, BA and JAL have chosen to a fourth daily frequency from London to Tokyo, rather than add a flight to an unserved destination in Japan such as Osaka or Nagoya. This does give BA and JAL a substantial frequency advantage over All Nippon Airlines which is the only other airline to fly between London and Tokyo after Virgin Atlantic withdrew from Tokyo on 31 January 2015.
The new flight will be on sale at Japan Airlines from Friday 14 July 2017.
British Airways Short Haul Economy Cabin (Credit: British Airways) BA has launched a new winter seasonal route from London Gatwick to Nuremberg.
The flight from Gatwick to Nuremberg airport will operate for just five weeks from Thursday 30 November 2017 to Sunday 7 January 2018. The route is then scheduled to resume on Thursday 29 November 2018.
Flights operate four times weekly on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday by an Airbus A319 aircraft in a two class (Club Europe business class and EuroTraveller economy) configuration.
As is often the case for BA short-haul flights at Gatwick, the precise flight times vary by both day and week.
However, flights typically leave London Gatwick at around 4-5pm and return from Nuremberg at around 8-9pm. The flight numbers are BA2660 for the outbound and BA2661 for the inbound.
Norwegian is to launch yet more long-haul routes from London Gatwick with the addition of Chicago O’Hare and Austin to its network from late March 2018
Norwegian will fly to Austin three times weekly from Tuesday 27 March 2018 and Chicago O’Hare four times weekly from Sunday 25 March 2018.
The launch of Austin will create a second link between London and the city. Currently, British Airways is the only airline to fly direct between London and Austin.
Yet more expansion by Norwegian is a major headache for both BA and Virgin Atlantic. Norwegian can now claim to serve two US states not served by Virgin Atlantic: Illinois and Texas. Virgin Atlantic suspended Chicago this year.. BA has also coveted being the exclusive operator of routes such as Austin as it gives the airline pricing power in the market.
New British Airways Club World Bedding from The White CompanyLate last year, BA promised a £400m investment in its Club World long-haul business class. A brief preview of new Club World catering was unveiled in April.
Today, we have had the first concrete announcement of improvements to Club World.
The White Company comes to BA Club World
BA has unveiled a new partnership with The White Company to provide in-flight amenities for Club World passengers.
The existing Club World bedding comprising a single blanket and a very small pillow and Elemis washbag will be replaced with new amenities from The White Company.
These include a brand new amenity kit, a much larger pillow and a day cushion. The bedding will now include a woven blanket with satin trim, a duvet and a padded mattress cover. Continue reading “The White Company comes to BA Club World”
British Airways Self Boarding Gates – London Heathrow Terminal 5
We receive a lot of search enquiries regarding BA’s boarding procedures, so we thought it would be helpful to set out how they work. Both in theory and in practice!
In summary…
BA offers early boarding for families and passengers with special needs on all flights.
BA also offers priority boarding for passengers travelling in first and business class and Bronze, Silver, and Gold Executive Club card holders (and Oneworld alliance Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald equivalents).
Passengers travelling in premium economy, economy and Blue Executive Club cardholders all board as part of general boarding.
BA does not currently operate the numbered grouping system adopted by many US airlines. However, a new boarding by group system will be offered from Tuesday 12 December 2017.
From 12 December 2017 all passengers on short and long-haul flights will be allocated to one of five groups and called for boarding in group order.
On long-haul flights, Group 1 will comprise First Class passengers and BA Gold and Oneworld Emerald cardholders. Group 2 will comprise Club World passengers and BA Silver and Oneworld Sapphire cardholders. Group 3 will comprise World Traveller Plus Premium Economy and BA Bronze and Oneworld Ruby cardholders. Groups 4 and 5 will comprise World Traveller economy passengers.
On short-haul flights, Group 1 will comprise Club Europe passengers and BA Gold and Oneworld Emerald cardholders. Group 2 will BA Silver and Oneworld Sapphire cardholders. Group 3 will comprise World Traveller Plus Premium Economy and BA Bronze and Oneworld Ruby cardholders. Groups 4 and 5 will comprise EuroTraveller economy passengers.
Please see here for more details. Below are procedures for flights up to 12 December 2017:
Philadelphia’s Independence Hall (Image Credit: C. Smyth for VISIT PHILADELPHIA®)
Delta Air Lines is to suspend its route from London Heathrow to Philadelphia from Thursday 3 May 2018.
The route launched in April 2015 with the benefit of a pair of slots that American Airlines was required to relinquish as part of its merger with US Airways. It is understood that Delta should now have permanent rights to this slot pair.
It is not currently known what route Delta will operate instead. Bearing in mind that Virgin has also permanently suspended Chicago this latest route suspension does suggest that Delta and Virgin struggle on routes where rival alliances have higher frequencies.
Now that Delta has suspended London Heathrow – Philadelphia, this route will be operated exclusively by Oneworld alliance members and joint-venture American Airlines and British Airways.
Affected Delta passengers should have the option of being accommodated on alternative Delta and Virgin Atlantic services via gateways such as New York JFK.
Update January 2018:
An earlier version of this article stated that this route was suspended from Saturday 24 March 2018. This article has been updated as it has since emerged that flights will operate until Thursday 3 May 2018.
Virgin Atlantic is to operate two special return flights between London Heathrow (departing on Sunday 7 & Monday 8 January 2018) and Las Vegas (returning Friday 12 & Saturday 13 January 2018) for the benefit of visitors to the annual Consumer Electronics Show.
Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner Upper Class Cabin (Credit: Virgin Atlantic)
Virgin Atlantic is to operate two special return flights between London Heathrow and Las Vegas for the benefit of visitors to the annual Consumer Electronics Show in January 2018.
The flights will depart London Heathrow on Sunday 7 and Monday 8 January 2018 and will return from Las Vegas on Friday 12 and Saturday 13 January 2018.
Flights will be operated using Virgin Atlantic’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner which features a larger Upper Class cabin as well as amenities such as in-flight WiFi.
These will complement Virgin’s existing Boeing 747 service between London Gatwick and Las Vegas and will compete BA’s own direct Boeing 747 services between London Heathrow and Las Vegas which can operate up to twice daily.
This new “pop up” route does point to Virgin being flexible with its schedule to take advantage of peaks in demand. The airline is to also launch a seasonal route from London Heathrow to Barbados in December 2017, which will again complement its London Gatwick service.
Flight VS961 Depart London Heathrow 11:15 – Arrive Las Vegas 14:00 (7, 8 January 2018)
Flight VS962 Depart Las Vegas 21:45 – Arrive London Heathrow 15:55 (12, 13 January 2018)
