British Airways Lounge, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (Image Credit: British Airways)
The British Airways Lounge at Amsterdam Schiphol airport will not reopen as a BA lounge.
The lounge has been closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst all other BA lounges worldwide have reopened or have been confirmed as closed, this lounge has remained as “temporarily closed”.
Eligible BA passengers at Amsterdam can continue to use the Aspire lounge.
The BA lounge was part of the Priority Pass lounge access scheme. It is likely that another operator will take over the lounge.
Two years after the former Flybe collapsed into administration, the Flybe name will return to Heathrow as a new airline with routes to Amsterdam, Belfast and Leeds-Bradford.
The first flights will launch from late April 2022.
All flights operate with De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 turboprop aircraft.
Dutch airline KLM is to return to London City airport from Monday 6 February 2017 with direct flights to Amsterdam Schipol airport.
Flights with initially operate once a day on weekdays from Monday 6 February 2017. The schedule will progressively increase to four times a day on weekdays with daily flights on Saturdays and twice daily on Sundays from 28 March 2017.
A four times daily schedule will clearly allow for ample connections to and from KLM’s extensive international network at Amsterdam Schipol.
Flights will be operated by KLM CityHopper using 100 seat Embraer E-190 aircraft, which should afford good leg room.
The London City – Amsterdam route is currently served by both CityJet and BA CityFlyer so passengers will have an extensive schedule of flights to choose from in 2017.
KLM currently serves London City from Amsterdam via a codeshare arrangement with CityJet and it is assumed this will discontinue after KLM launches its own flights.
KLM have released a short series of “Cockpit Tales” videos showing the work its pilots undertake on a day to day basis to ensure flights operate safely and according to plan.
Filmed using “fixed rig” cameras in the cockpit of KLM aircraft, the first video “Autopilot in Action” shows Captain van Dorst planning a flight from Amsterdam to London Heathrow, how the flight is programmed using flight management software and the use of autopilot, and communications with Air Traffic Control from takeoff through to landing.
In the second video, “Highways In The Sky”, Captain de Vries on a flight from Amsterdam to New York JFK airport shows how the airline plans a flight across the atlantic ocean, where for a large part of the journey the crew and aircraft will have no radar communication with Air Traffic Control.
Finally in “Big plane, short runway”, at just 2,300 metres, Princess Juliana International Airport on the island of Saint Martin has one of the most challenging runways in the world. Captain ten Velde shows how KLM ensures it lands a Boeing 747 jumbo safely on the island.
We like these videos. There’s a huge amount that gets taken for granted in aviation and anything that increases understanding of aviation should be welcomed.
British Airways Logo (Image Credit: British Airways) British Airways is to suspend its thrice-daily service from London Heathrow to Rotterdam from 28 March 2015.
BA has served Rotterdam since late 2012 and was one of three new short-haul routes announced shortly after BA’s parent company, International Airlines Group, bought bmi. The other two routes were Leeds-Bradford and Zagreb.
BA has since launched a service between London City and Rotterdam and will continue to operate this route.
It’s a reasonable assumption that an unsatisfactory commercial performance is a reason for the suspension of the route. According to Civil Aviation Authority statistics, just over 8,000 passengers flew in both directions between London Heathrow and Rotterdam in September 2014, a fall of nearly 30% year on year. August’s numbers show a similar trend.
Affected passengers have the option of being rerouted on either a London Heathrow – Amsterdam flight or London City – Rotterdam flight.
London Heathrow Terminal 5 (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways has confirmed changes to its London Heathrow short-haul timetable for the Winter 2013 season, which starts at the end of October.
The changes are relatively modest and mainly concern small increases and decreases in frequencies on certain routes.
Frequency Increases
– Agadir increases from two flights a week to three.
– Basel increases from 21 to 26 flights a week.
– Amsterdam, Athens, Hamburg and Nice also benefit from small increases of 1-2 flights a week.
Frequency Decreases
– Flights to Manchester reduce from 72 to 68 a week.
– Prague also reduces by five flights from 33 to 28 flights a week.
– Aberdeen, Barcelona, Budapest, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Paris Charles de Gualle, Rome, Stockholm and Zurich also reduce by 1-3 flights a week.
The daily flight to Larnaca also reverts back from a night-time departure to a day-time departure from London Heathrow, with the flight from Heathrow leaving at 12:05 and returning to Heathrow at 19:40.
There are also timetable changes to Rotterdam with BA’s three daily flights moved to earlier times. There are also relatively modest changes to timings for BA’s twice daily flights to Bergen and Stavanger.
Summer Seasonal Flights
BA’s weekly summer Saturday flights from London Heathrow to Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca also finish on Saturday 26 October 2013. The airline will continue to fly all year round to Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca from London City airport.
