Iberia has taken another step in its renewal and modernisation by unveiling a new premium economy cabin on selected long-haul aircraft and routes from Madrid from the summer of 2017.
Continue reading “Iberia unveils its new premium economy cabin”
British Airways is to launch a new direct route from London Heathrow to New Orleans in Louisiana (Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport) from Monday 27 March 2017.
This will be the only direct scheduled flight from New Orleans to London.
Flights will be operated from London Heathrow Terminal 5 using a three class Boeing 787 aircraft (Club World Business Class, World Traveller Plus Premium Economy and World Traveller Economy).
Flights will intially operate four times weekly on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. However, we would not be surprised to see the route upgraded to a daily service in the future.
New Orleans is the third transatlantic route to be launched by BA from London Heathrow using the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, after Austin and San Jose, California.
The prospects of success for the route are strong. New Orleans is a popular tourist destination (notably for its Mardi Gras) as well as a popular choice for conventions.
Further transatlantic route announcements from BA are likely to come (albeit at a steady pace). And BA is likely to continue the trend of launching routes from cities that are not served by direct flights to London and/or Europe.
Flights are on sale now at ba.com
BA has also produced a short PDF brochure for the new route.
Flight BA225 Depart London Heathrow 15:40 – Arrive New Orleans 19:40
Flight BA224 Depart New Orleans 21:10 – Arrive London Heathrow 12:00
British Airways has confirmed it is to suspend its London Heathrow – Chengdu route from Tuesday 12 January 2017.
The last outbound flight from London Heathrow (Flight BA88) will operate on Tuesday 12 January, and the last inbound flight to London Heathrow (Flight BA89) will operate on Wednesday 13 January.
Whilst airlines regularly review their route networks and suspend under-performing routes and it has been known for some time that the Chengdu route is underperforming, the announcement is significant.
Continue reading “BA to suspend London Heathrow – Chengdu from 12 January 2017”
After months of speculation and rumour, British Airways has today confirmed it is to introduce Buy On Board catering all U.K. Domestic and EuroTraveller economy routes from 11 January 2017.
The menu will be supplied by Marks & Spencer.
This will replace all complimentary food & drink in these cabins.
Food & drink can only be paid for by debit or credit card or the Executive Club frequent flyer currency Avios via the BA app. Cash will not be accepted.
At present, only cold items are for sale. No hot items will be available for sale.
Food & drink remains complimentary in Club Europe business class and on long-haul flights. In addition, Buy On Board will not be introduced at London City and London Stansted until the summer of 2017. BA also promises to revamp its Ckub Europe catering in the spring of 2017.
We’re fairly sanguine about these changes. Anyone who has flown BA over the years could not fail to notice the diminishing complimentary offer and the inconsistencies between London Heathrow & Gatwick flights.
That said, the removal of complimentary alcoholic drinks and breakfast on early morning flights is unlikely to be popular.
In addition, it is perhaps surprising that BA does not offer complimentary items for passengers travelling on the most expensive fares or those with Silver/Gold frequent flyer status.
You can be confident that customer feedback will be monitored closely and, after the changes are introduced, we would encourage any feedback (positive and negative) to be made known.
Full details are available in the BA press release and on ba.com
British Airways and Qatar Airways have today announced the formation of a joint-venture on the airlines’ respective flights to UK, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia via their respective hubs in Doha and London Heathrow.
The joint-venture will take effect from 30 October 2016.
The two airlines will codeshare on all their respective flights between the UK and Doha. This will include Qatar Airways operated flights from both London Heathrow and UK regional airports (Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester).
Qatar Airways will codeshare on selected British Airways operated flights from London Heathrow to the UK and mainland Europe.
British Airways will codeshare on selected Qatar Airways routes from Doha to the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
These routes include Colombo, Ho Chi Minh City, Multan, Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Denpasar Bali, Addis Ababa, Entebbe, Dar es Salaam, Basra, Baghdad, Khartoum, Sulaimaniyah, Kilimanjaro, Al Najaf, Dhaka, and Djibouti.
There appear to be some exclusions.
For example, Qatar Airways flights to Australia (which BA serves with its own aircraft and codeshares with Qantas Airways and Cathay Pactific) are not mentioned. Nor are BA flights to North America included, where the growth of Middle Eastern airlines has been politically contentious.
Qatar Airways will not codeshare on British Airways routes from London Heathrow to the UK and mainland Europe which it serves directly from Doha.
Similarly, British Airways will not codeshare on Qatar Airways routes from Doha which it serves directly from London Heathrow.
The two airlines will also seek to co-ordinate schedules and fare pricing.
BA and Qatar have been working more closely in recent years. However, codesharing has been limited to a small number of routes and has not been helped by the fact that, until the end of October, BA flies to Doha via Bahrain and its flights were not well timed for onward connections. BA will fly to Doha non-stop from 30 October 2016.
For BA, this deal enlarges its route network to cover a number of destinations it does not serve from London Heathrow such as routes it has withdrawn from in Pakistan and Africa. Qatar Airways gains access to BA’s distribution network and frequent flyer base in the UK to help it compete more effectively against Etihad Airways and Emirates.
Qatar Airways now owns 20% of BA’s parent company International Airlines Group. Qatar Airways has also announced a codeshare arrangement with fellow IAG member airline Vueling.
More details are available in the IAG press release and codeshare flights are on sale now at ba.com
Ever since Terminal 5 opened at London Heathrow in March 2008 a familiar complaint has been the circuitous route passengers have to take from the South Security area (via an often crowded set of escalators and past numerous shops and restaurants) to the Galleries South lounge complex.
This is in spite of the fact that the lounges are immediately adjacent to the security area!
Indeed, only passengers with access to the Concorde Room lounge (First Class passengers and Concorde Room card holders) have the privilege of avoiding this via a special door (once rumoured to have cost BA many millions of pounds).
Next April, some nine years after Terminal 5 opened, all this will change for passengers travelling in First Class and British Airways Executive Club Gold card holders (and Emerald members of Oneworld frequent flyer programmes) who will have access to a dedicated security channel near to the existing First Class check-in area at the south end of the terminal. This security channel will also provide direct access to the Galleries First lounge.
BA is confident that this new security channel will also reduce queuing at the existing North & South security zones.
It is obviously encouraging to see investment to improve the experience for passengers at Terminal 5, particularly when so many other airlines are investing in their ground experience at London Heathrow. BA has released some computer generated images to preview the new area which are below.
Continue reading “BA to open dedicated First Class security channel at Terminal 5”
British Airways has delayed the relaunch of its route from London Heathrow to Tehran, Iran from Thursday 14 July to Thursday 1 September 2016.
No specific reason has been given for the delay. However, we surmise that the delay is either due to a shortage of suitable long-haul aircraft or operational and regulatory delays in establishing operations in Tehran.
Affected passengers have the option of an indirect reroute on the following airlines: Lufthansa (via Frankfurt/Munich), Alitalia (via Rome Fiumicino), Turkish Airlines (via Istanbul), or Aegean Airlines (via Athens). Connections to the aforementioned airlines flights will be via British Airways operated flights from London Heathrow.
BA has also revised its schedule for London Heathrow – Tehran which is now as follows:
Flight BA153 Depart London Heathrow 20:30 – Arrive Tehran 05:45 (Daily, except Sundays)
Flight BA152 Depart Tehran 08:35 – Arrive London Heathrow 11:10 (Daily, except Mondays)
(Timetable is indicative and may vary by season.)
British Airways is to launch a new route from London Heathrow to Innsbruck Austria from Sunday 4 December 2016.
The airline will fly to Inssbruck all year round. Flights will operate four times weekly (Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays) for the winter season and twice weekly for the summer season (Wednesdays and Sundays).
Flights will be operate from London Heathrow Terminal 5 using an Airbus A320 aircraft in a two class, Club Europe business class and EuroTraveller economy class configuration.
BA also flies to Innsbruck from London Gatwick and it will be possible to “mix and match” flights if convenient.
Passengers travelling with ski equipment should be mindful that the “basic” EuroTraveller economy fare does not include any checked baggage allowance and the “plus” EuroTraveller economy fare should be selected for checked baggage.
Flights are on sale now at ba.com
United Airlines has today announced it is to introduce a new business class seat called “Polaris” on its fleet of long-haul aircraft.
The new seat is a bespoke patented design for United Airlines by London based Acumen Design Associates and PriestmanGoode and is manufactured by Zodiac Seats.
The seat offers a fully flat 6′ 6″ bed. In common with many other long-haul airlines, all seats will have direct access to the aisle in a 1-2-1 configuration. However, United will maintain the same seating density by combining inline and angled seats in the cabin.
All seats are forward-facing and each customer’s seat will feature a “Do Not Disturb” sign, mood lighting, one-touch lumbar support, storage areas, multiple surfaces for simultaneous working and dining, and a 16″ high-definition entertainment screen.
United Airlines also promises significant improvements to in-flight amenities and dining. The Polaris cabin will also feature a walk-up bar for in flight snacks.
The Polaris business class seat will be first installed in December 2016 on Boeing 777-300ER aircraft and subsequently on Boeing 787-10 and Airbus A350-1000 aircraft. It will also be retrofitted to Boeing 767-300 and Boeing 777-200 aircraft. It will not be fitted to Boeing 787-8, 787-9, Boeing 747 nor Boeing 757 aircraft (which currently operate on a number of London Heathrow flights). United is yet to specify which London Heathrow routes will operate with the Polaris cabin.
United Airlines is also rolling out nine Polaris business class lounges worldwide. These lounges will feature daybeds and pre-flight dining. A Polaris lounge will be fitted out at London Heathrow Terminal 2 in 2017.
Other locations will include Chicago O’Hare airport, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, New York Newark, Washington Dulles, Tokyo Narita and Hong Kong.
This latest development does mean that all-aisle access business class seating is now becoming standard on most long-haul transatlantic airlines. The one exception being British Airways which seems intent on maintaining its primarily 8-across “yin-yang” seating in its Club World business class cabin.
There’s more online on a dedicated a microsite. There’s also more insight behind the design from Acumen Design Associates and and PriestmanGoode.
United Airlines flies from London Heathrow Terminal 2 to New York Newark, Chicago, Washington Dulles, Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Virgin Atlantic will fly from London Heathrow to Seattle from 26 March 2017, replacing Delta on this route.
Virgin Atlantic is to fly to Seattle from 26 March 2017.
Flights will be operated from London Heathrow Terminal 3 to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport using a Boeing 787-9 aircraft offering economy, premium economy and Upper Class cabins.
Strictly speaking, this is not a new route as Virgin is merely replacing its transatlantic joint-venture partner Delta on this route.
In turn, Delta will also replace Virgin Atlantic on one of the daily frequencies it operates from London Heathrow to Atlanta and Detroit.
Delta has also today announced that it is to fly from London Heathrow to Portland, Oregon from 26 May 2017.
Flight VS105 Depart London Heathrow 11:00 – Arrive Seattle 13:20
Flight VS106 Depart Seattle 19:10 – Arrive London Heathrow 13:00