London Air Travel

London Air Travel » Page 61

This article was published in 2019 in a series on the history of British Airways and its predecessors Imperial Airways, BOAC and BEA. You can browse all 100 stories in number order, by theme or by decade.

Many have been updated since first published.

BOAC and Pan American World Airways were fierce transatlantic rivals in the 1950s.

In 1958, BOAC was in a race with Pan Am to operate the first transatlantic jet flight from London to New York. Pan Am had even taken out advertisements in UK newspapers promising to operate the first jet flight.

However, on 4 October 1958, BOAC flew two de Havilland Comet 4 aircraft between London and New York International Airport, Idlewild.

Pan Am actually had a Boeing 707 aircraft in London ready to operate its flights. This was a larger aircraft with capacity for 86 passengers in First Class, 143 in tourist class and 163 in economy class. However, it did not begin scheduled flights until 17 November 1958, partly due to difficulties in negotiating with pilot unions.

BOAC’s first flight was a mere 24 hours after the Port Authority of New York granted approval for passenger jet services following concerns over noise. It was also less than a month after the aircraft had been delivered to the airline and it had received its certificate or air worthiness.

The westbound flight left London at 09:55 local time and landed in New York at 15:15 local time after a refuelling stop for one hour and ten minutes in Gander, Newfoundland. The total journey time was 10 hours and 20 minutes.

London Air Travel » Page 61

This article was published in 2019 in a series on the history of British Airways and its predecessors Imperial Airways, BOAC and BEA. You can browse all 100 stories in number order, by theme or by decade.

Many have been updated since first published.

Long before the era of smartphones, social media and carefully planned “flash mob” viral stunts, here’s a stunt developed Saatchi & Saatchi for BA in 1991.

A British Airways Holidays advert for romantic weekend breaks begins playing at a cinema before the screening of a film.

Everything starts as expected featuring a couple on holiday in Paris. It all looks perfectly predictable with footage of a couple walking arm in arm along the River Seine in Paris with French accordion music playing in the background.

An actress planted in the cinema audience playing the character of Michelle then pretends to recognise the man on screen as her boyfriend, Nigel, cheating on her with the other girl, Amanda, on screen.

Standing up, she starts shouting at the cinema screen to get his attention. He then recognises her in the audience and tries to explain away the situation to both her, and the girl he was in Paris with.

The actress has none of it, dumps her boyfriend, and storms out of the cinema to applause from the audience.

The voiceover then hastily wraps things up for BA Holidays. The stunt was repeated in cinemas around the UK (although the actress was asked to leave in one cinema by a staff member unaware of the stunt) and, although it took approval from Lord King for it to be signed off initially, it generated significant press coverage for BA as well as winning numerous awards.

London Air Travel » Page 61

This article was published in 2019 in a series on the history of British Airways and its predecessors Imperial Airways, BOAC and BEA. You can browse all 100 stories in number order, by theme or by decade.

Many have been updated since first published.

Over the past few decades, BA has regularly opened itself up to the cameras.

In 2013, BA was the subject of a BBC documentary series “A Very British Airline”. Title Role Productions is currently filming a series on BA’s centenary year for Channel 5. It’s also taken part in airport series such as “Airport Live” and “Heathrow: Britain’s Busiest Airport.”

However, it is relatively rare that you see the upper echelons of BA at work – PRs know that access given to TV production companies must be carefully controlled. However, “Airline” from 1990 was an exception.

Filmed in 1989, this four part series covers the delivery of the first Boeing 747-400 aircraft and BA’s position in the market at the time, competing against airlines such as American Airlines (then a foe wishing to secure access to Heathrow), Singapore Airlines and former rivals Air Europe, British Caledonian, British Midland, and Laker Airways.

There’s a good amount of vintage footage, including the relaunch of First Class in 1989. One notable episode is dedicated to following Lord King at work, with his famously abrupt manner with journalists.

Of course, much has changed in 30 years. This series pre-dates the liberalisation of the aviation market in Europe. Though some things haven’t changed. BA CEO Colin Marshall complains about the US being unwilling to open up its domestic market to overseas airlines which, in spite of EU-US Open Skies, it has doggedly refused to do.

Part 1

Jet Jockeys – It’s the job every small boy dreams of, but the pilot’s role is changing fast. In Jet Jockeys cameras are for the first time in the cockpit for BA’s 22-hour London to Sydney flight, and with the pilots off duty in Bangkok. What personal and professional problems do pilots face? Is the job as glamorous as it seems? How do pilots combat fatigue on the flight deck? Will the day come when air traffic controllers take over and the jet jockeys no longer fly their own aircraft? 

London Air Travel » Page 61

Before the 2008 financial crisis, a number of new “boutique” all premium class airlines started operating flights from London airports, principally to New York.

In 2005, Eos, founded by former BA director David Spurlock, launched an all business class Boeing 757 service from Stansted to New York JFK, carrying just 48 passengers on each aircraft.

MAXJet launched all premium service from Stansted to New York, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Silverjet also launched an all premium Boeing 767 service from London Luton to Newark and Dubai.

Whilst MAXJet was plagued with reliability issues, Eos and Silverjet were very well received by passengers.

However, all three airlines were financially unsuccessful and had ceased operations by May 2008 due to rising fuel prices and being unable to secure new financing.

Still, they did not escape the attention of existing airlines. Virgin Atlantic announced it planned to launch all business class services to New York from a number of European cities, not that it ever came close to fruition.

Club World London City

In February 2008, BA announced its own plan to launch an all business class service from London City to New York JFK.

The route would be served twice daily with two brand new Airbus A318 aircraft in all business class configuration of 32 seats.

London Air Travel » Page 61

This article was published in 2019 in a series on the history of British Airways and its predecessors Imperial Airways, BOAC and BEA. You can browse all 100 stories in number order, by theme or by decade.

Many have been updated since first published.

When BA’s current Waterside Headquarters opened in 1998 it was a development of such architectural significance it was deemed worthy of inclusion in the ultimate arbiter of cool, the zeitgeist of the 1990s, Wallpaper* magazine.

The site was designed by Norwegian architect Niels Torp, who had also designed offices for SAS Scandinavian Airlines in Frøsundavik, Stockholm.

Constructed at a cost of £200m, it was hailed at launch as a revolution in BA’s working practices. Replacing 14 different buildings that was estimated to save £15 million a year in costs alone, it introduced open plan working for the first time, even for the CEO.

Set in 240 acres of land that had been reclaimed and landscaped into a public park and nature reserve, Waterside is based on a village concept of streets and neighbourhoods. It features six four storey buildings all connected by a glass-roofed internal street that is criss-crossed by aerial walkways. The Scandinavian influence is present with the building clad in pale cream limestone and grey steel.

The building does have its detractors. It did open just as low cost airlines took hold in Europe, and with their spartan headquarters, BA’s is seen as an indulgence.

The buildings also comprises BA’s museum The Speedbird Centre, and the offices of its parent company IAG. And since BA’s ownership under IAG many functions have been transferred from Waterside to IAG’s Global Business Services centre in Krakow. Her Majesty The Queen did also recently pay a visit to mark BA’s centenary year.

London Air Travel » Page 61

This article was published in 2019 in a series on the history of British Airways and its predecessors Imperial Airways, BOAC and BEA. You can browse all 100 stories in number order, by theme or by decade.

Many have been updated since first published.

The early 1990s was not a good era for BA.

Traffic fell away sharply during the 1990 Gulf War, which also led to the destruction of one of its Boeing 747 aircraft in Kuwait, with demand falling by about 30%.

BA was also facing increased competition at Heathrow with American Airlines and United Airlines securing route authorities from Trans World Airlines and Pan American World Airways. Virgin Atlantic was to also shortly secure access to Heathrow.

In March 1991, former BA Chairman Lord King described the situation as “The engine of consumer demand did not just idle in neutral, it sputtered to a complete stop” and “now it needs a kick start”.

“The World’s Biggest Offer”

So BA hatched a plan.

It gave away in a ballot every single seat on every international flight to and from the UK, including Concorde, on 23 April 1991. This was equivalent to around 50,000 free tickets. The 20,000 passengers who had already booked flights on that day would receive a voucher towards the purchase of a new flight.

Passengers could either apply in person at BA ticket offices or through newspaper entry forms.

The promotion was kept under wraps until it broke on the same day around the world in March 1991 – an achievement in itself given this pre-dated the internet.

BA’s ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi booked space in newspapers in over 70 countries around the world for the promotion. Bogus adverts were placed with the newspapers and then swapped at the eleventh hour.

It is estimated that some 500 million people read about the offer, 200 million saw it on TV and 5.7 million people entered the ballot for a free flight.

There is of course no more powerful marketing tool than getting something for free. The promotion was considered a success with passenger numbers returning to their original level within 120 days.

London Air Travel » Page 61

This article was published in 2019 in a series on the history of British Airways and its predecessors Imperial Airways, BOAC and BEA. You can browse all 100 stories in number order, by theme or by decade.

Many have been updated since first published.

The Boeing 757 was the little aircraft that could.

Its prospects at launch were not good. Boeing launched the aircraft in the late 1970s when airlines were grappling with an economic recession and rising fuel prices.

However, BA desperately needed to secure a replacement for uneconomical Trident aircraft for short-haul routes. These aircraft had three engines and required three flight crew. They also had to be phased out by 1986 due to noise regulations.

BA, along with Eastern Airways, placed the first two orders for the aircraft in 1978 with BA initially ordering 19 aircraft, securing production of the aircraft by Boeing.

The order was not without controversy. BA was facing heavy financial losses the early 1980s. There was genuine questions as to whether the airline might have to enter into administration and there were pressures on BA to cut the order to reduce capital expenditure. There were also political pressures on BA in the UK to place an aircraft order with Airbus, and not Boeing.

However, BA persisted and the first aircraft entered into service at BA in February 1983, initially operating Shuttle services to UK domestic routes and then major trunk destinations in mainland Europe. It offered vastly better fuel efficiency and significantly more sophisticated computerised in-flight management systems than the aircraft it replaced.

During the 1980s and 1990s the aircraft performed extremely well for BA and it continued to top up its orders. It was quite an aircraft to fly on, with an unforgettably steep climb during take-off. There was a dedicated Shuttle configuration of 195 seats and a European configuration of 180 seats.

The aircraft did also briefly operate long-haul routes from UK regional airports in the mid 1990s. One aircraft operated Glasgow – New York JFK – Boston and another Birmingham – New York JFK – Toronto. However, this was not a financial success and these aircraft were soon returned to short-haul use.

The late 1990s

By the late 1990s, the aircraft started to fall out of favour.

In September 1999, after BA had placed its first order for new smaller capacity short-haul aircraft with Airbus, BA announced that 34 of its fleet of what was then 53 aircraft would be sold to DHL for conversion into freighters.

Four aircraft were also sold before their planned delivery in 1999. (Airbus A320 aircraft have of course been “densified” with a configuration now close to the Boeing 757’s capacity)

London Air Travel » Page 61

This article was published in 2019 in a series on the history of British Airways and its predecessors Imperial Airways, BOAC and BEA. You can browse all 100 stories in number order, by theme or by decade.

Many have been updated since first published.

In the early 2000s after BA had rolled out fully flat beds in its Club World business class, BA introduced its “Sleeper Service”.

On relatively short overnight flights from the US East Coast and Middle East to Heathrow BA offers a truncated in-flight service to minimise cabin noise and maximise the time available for passengers to sleep. Instead, passengers have the option of pre-flight dining in airport lounges.