Finnair Airbus A330 Aircraft (Image Credit: Finnair)
Finnair plans to resume regular flights between London Heathrow and Helsinki with long haul aircraft.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Finnair operated daily Airbus A330 and A350 flights between Heathrow and its Helsinki hub. These were replaced with Airbus and Embraer short haul aircraft.
From Wednesday 2 March 2022, Finnair will fly an Airbus A330-300 aircraft daily on flights AY1331 and AY1332.
These flights are codeshared with BA, which no longer serves Helsinki with its own aircraft, under flight numbers BA6031 and BA6032.
It goes without saying that this will offer a substantially better inflight experience than Airbus A320 series aircraft.
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.
Air Canada Boeing 737 MAX aircraft (Image Credit: Air Canada)
Air Canada will restart flights from London Heathrow to Halifax, Nova Scotia from Sunday 1 May 2022.
The route has been suspended for some time. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic it had been suspended due to the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
Air Canada will continue to serve the route with Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. This operates in a two class, economy and premium economy, configuration.
The inbound flight from Halifax, AC868, will operate as a day flight, departing at 11:00 and arriving at Heathrow at 21:00.
The aircraft will stay at Heathrow overnight before leaving at 11:05 under flight AC869.
Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 21 February 2022.
Today’s the day Australia reopens its borders to international travel. Meanwhile in another sign of travel returning to its pre COVID-19 state, flights in the UK remain subject to disruption due to severe weather, with short haul flights bearing the brunt of cancellations.
IAG Prepares To Announce Its Annual Results
It’s results season.
Last week Air France-KLM and Finnair announced their annual results for 2021. This Friday it’s the turn of IAG. Lufthansa will follow next week.
For IAG, we can expect another heavy annual loss. Analysts will be keen to understand the group’s capacity plans for the coming year – and whether they can be fulfilled – as well as plans for aircraft deliveries in the coming years.
BA has tried to make much of planned investments in customer service but, apart from the roll out of its Club Suite, there is little by way of hard capital spend.
Ever since the decision by the UK to leave the European Union, there has been the question whether IAG’s ownership structure could be compliant with the UK’s future relationship with the EU.
Former IAG CEO Willie Walsh always confidently brushed aside any concerns. When IAG was formed it was structured to ensure that both BA and Iberia were majority UK & Spanish owned to comply with bilateral route authorities.
There have been reports of lobbying by France and Germany for the EU to demand IAG spin off BA to comply EU airline ownership laws. When asked about the need for airlines operating in the EU to comply with such laws, Air France KLM CEO Benjamin Smith was quoted in the Financial Times last week as saying the group would not be “holding back our efforts to make sure they are”.
IAG is unlikely to comment on litigation between its shareholder Qatar Airways and Airbus, nor ongoing pay negotiations at BA.
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.
Qantas Boeing 787-9 Aircraft VH-OJA Arrival, Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, Friday 15 November 2019 (Image Credit: Qantas Airways)
Qantas will continue to operate all flights from London Heathrow to Australia via Darwin until at least June 2022.
When Qantas resumed scheduled flights from London Heathrow to Australia in late 2021, it chose to route flights to both Melbourne and Sydney via Darwin instead of Perth and Singapore.
Qantas had planned to reinstate non stop flights from London to Perth from Sunday 27 March 2022. These are postponed until at least June 2022. This is due to the decision by the Premier of Western Australia Mark McGowan to extend the closure of its international border.
Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 14 February 2022.
Gatwick Hopes For A Busy Summer
Gatwick Airport was in upbeat mood last Friday.
The airport was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic with BA and Virgin consolidating flights at Heathrow. Norwegian also suspended long haul operations entirely.
easyJet and Vueling will operate increased schedules are they’re both leasing slots from BA. This is not the first time BA has indirectly assisted easyJet’s growth at Gatwick.
Iberia Express will also tentatively restart twice daily flights to Madrid from 27 March.
As far as BA is concerned, there are signs that it’s not quite ready to restart short haul flights. The start date of roughly a third of its planned routes was pushed back last week, including:
British Airways Lounge – London Gatwick South Terminal (Credit: British Airways)
The South Terminal at London Gatwick Airport is to reopen.
The South Terminal will reopen for passenger flights from the start of the summer 2022 season on Sunday 27 March 2022. The South Terminal closed in June 2020 with all flights consolidated in the North Terminal.
Airlines expected to operate from the South Terminal this summer include Aer Lingus, Air Baltic, BA, Eastern Airways, Norwegian and Vueling.
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.
