British Airways launched fully flat beds in long-haul business class. But its cabins are falling behind the competition.
It was some fifteen years ago in May 1999 that British Airways shook up the market for long-haul business class travel with the launch of its fully flat Club World “flying bed”.
Designed by Tangerine, it was arguably the singlest biggest innovation since the original introduction of business class (which Qantas claims credit for.)
BA is retiring the Boeing 747-400. However, it will still have a presence at London Heathrow for many years to come.
On 11 August 2014, flight BA78 arrived at London Heathrow from Accra in Ghana. For the aircraft operating the route, a Boeing 747-400 (registration G-BNLI), this was its last passenger flight after more than 24 years’ service at the airline.
G-BNLI is the 11th 747 to be withdrawn from service at BA. This marks a continuation of a process that started some five years ago.
The 747s were initially withdrawn in response to the financial crisis, but more recently to be replaced by more efficient Boeing 777-300s and Airbus A380s which have seen the BA 747 removed from routes such as London Heathrow to Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Sydney.
Continue reading “BA’s long farewell to the Boeing 747-400 jumbo”
Over the past fifteen years, Finnair has been steadily, but surely, building a niche as the European airline that provides the most efficient link between Europe and Asia via its hub in Helsinki.
In 2000, Finnair served just three destinations in Asia. Now, it serves 15 destinations. Finnair also serves a number of cities without direct links to London including Chongqing and Xi’an in China and Nagoya and Osaka in Japan.
Unfortunately, this has yet to translate into long term profitability for the airline. On Friday, Finnair joined the list of European airlines to issue a profit warning.
However, the airline is committed to its strategy and aims to double revenues from Asia by 2020. This week, Finnair revealed the interiors for its new Airbus A350 aircraft which will replace its quad-engine Airbus A340 aircraft and ply routes from Helsinki to Asia from mid 2015.
The airline has 11 firm orders for Airbus A350 aircraft, and a further 8 options.
The aircraft will initially be deployed on flights to Shanghai, Bangkok and Beijing in 2015. Hong Kong and Singapore will be served by the A350 in 2016.
In business class, Finnair has opted for the Zodiac Cirrus III seat which American Airlines (Boeing 777-300 flights only), Air France and Cathay Pacific have also adopted.
This seat provides both a fully flat bed and direct aisle access for all passengers, which is increasingly becoming standard for business class cabins. Finnair’s seat will also include touchscreen in flight entertainment and AC and USB power sockets. There will be a total of 46 seats in the cabin.
Continue reading “Finnair Unveils Airbus A350 Cabins”As part of Etihad’s acquisition of a 49% stake in Alitalia, it will also acquire five London Heathrow airport slot pairs and lease these back to Alitalia.
After a long period of negotiation, Etihad has finally announced a deal to acquire a 49% stake (the maximum allowed under EU ownership rules) in troubled European airline Alitalia.
Full details of the transaction can be viewed here.
Continue reading “Etihad To Acquire Five Heathrow Slot From Alitalia”British Airways is to make tactical cancellations to long-haul schedules at Gatwick and Heathrow during the Winter 2014/2015 season.
British Airways parent company, International Airlines Group, released its half year results last Friday.
The results were, overall, very positive. All three IAG airlines (BA, Iberia, and Vueling) reported increased profits year on year.
However, IAG, did sound a note of caution. The group will moderate planned capacity growth for the rest of the year with BA and Iberia in particular shaving off a couple of per cent of their growth.
In the case of BA, this will not be done by way of route suspensions or cancellations, but by tactical cancellations of flights during quiet periods.
Continue reading “BA Tactical Winter 2014/2015 Long Haul Cancellations”
As has been widely reported in the UK media, British Airways has suspended its flights from London Heathrow to Freetown and Monrovia from Wednesday 6 August until Sunday 31 August 2014 at the earliest, following an outbreak on Ebola in the region.
BA has provided details of rebooking and cancellation options for affected passengers.
Passengers are entitled to a full refund or to rebook their flights at a later date.
Alternatively, passengers can travel between London Heathrow and alternative BA destinations in Africa. These are Lagos and Abuja in Nigeria, Accra in Ghana and Nairobi in Kenya. Any additional consequential costs must be met by passengers.
Update: Flights are now cancelled until 31 March 2015. BA is no longer allowing reroutings to Lagos, Abuja, nor Nairobi. Passengers booked to travel up to 31 December 2014 also have the option of an alternative routing to Freetown or Monrovia via Brussels on SN Brussels airlines.
Update: This route has since been suspended permanently
The relative performance of two BA routes to Austin and Chengdu shows why a third runway Heathrow may not result in more routes to Asia.
The owners of Heathrow and Gatwick are currently campaigning for their respective airports to gain an additional runway (a third runway in the case of Heathrow and a second runway in the case of Gatwick) as part of The Airports Commission’s appraisal of the options for additional runway capacity in the South East of England.
The nub of Gatwick’s campaign under the banner “Gatwick Obviously” is that, as well as being able to secure a new runway at much less cost, additional capacity at Gatwick is essential to provide effective competition between Gatwick and Heathrow.
Key to Heathrow’s campaign for a third runway is that additional capacity is essential to secure links between the UK and international growth markets in Asia and elsewhere.
Continue reading “A Tale Of Two Routes: Heathrow To Austin & Chengdu”
British Airways will move its daily flights from London Heathrow to São Paulo Guarulhos airport from Terminal 1 to the new Guarulhos Terminal 3 from Thursday 7 August 2014.
BA currently flies daily to São Paulo and will increase its flights to ten weekly from early September.
BA will share the terminal with its IAG sibling Iberia. Eligible passengers will be able to use a third party VIP lounge until a dedicated Oneworld lounge opens.
On a related note, we are expecting BA to announce a codeshare relationship with its relatively new alliance partner TAM airlines, but nothing has been forthcoming.
Aurigny Air Services launches a direct flight from London City airport to Guernsey from Monday 8 September 2014.
The service will operate five times weekly, with flights departing London City to Guernsey every weekday at 09:15 and flights returning from Guernsey at 15:10.
The flight will initially be operated by a wet leased Fokker 50 aircraft until the airline secures appropriate aircraft for the route.
Aurigny Air Services also flies several times a day to London Gatwick and daily to London Stansted. Blue Islands also flies from London City to Guernsey via Jersey.
Update: This route has since been suspended.
The Foreign Office is currently advising against all travel to Libya and encourages Britons in the country to leave.
This is in response to a high threat to foreign nationals from terrorist incidents such as kidnappings. BBC News is currently reporting on a fire at a fuel storage facility in Tripoli.
In response to the Foreign Office advice, British Airways has cancelled its daily flight to Tripoli indefinitely.
Passengers booked to travel to Tripoli are offered a refund or travel to alternative gateway within 300 mile radius of Tripoli, or Cairo.