Boeing 747 Archives – London Air Travel

BA to increase Club World seats on some Boeing 747 aircraft

BA Club World 2006 — BA Club World Cabin – 2006 (Image Credit: British Airways)

Some time ago, we wrote of British Airways’ plans to refurbish 18 of its 40-odd fleet Boeing 747 aircraft. Full details of the refurbishment programme are here.

As part of this refurbishment programme, BA is to also reconfigure the capacity of its Club World business class cabin on these aircraft.

Currently, BA has two Club World configurations on the Boeing 747, with either 52 or 70 business class seats.

The former is a relatively unusual arrangement introduced just under ten years ago whereby World Traveller Plus premium economy is located between first and business class. Although many bawked at the idea at the time, it did allow BA to increase its business class capacity by 8%, which was roughly the entire business class capacity of Virgin Atlantic.

On 6 Boeing 747 aircraft the number of business class seats will be reduced from 70 to 52.

On the 18 aircraft earmarked for refurbishment the number of business class seats will increase from 70 to 86, with an additional two rows of Club World seats.

This means there will be 66 business class seats on the main deck (with the remaining 20 seats on the upper deck). This will make for a very large cabin, so it will be interesting to see how this works in practice.

The number of World Traveller economy seats will be reduced to accommodate the extra seats. The number of First class and World Traveller Plus premium economy seats will remain the same.

The new larger cabin is expected to operate on routes with high business class demand such as New York, Boston, Chicago and Lagos.

NB. We should add we receive a lot of search enquiries about the condition of BA’s Boeing 747 aircraft, so it’s clearly a very live issue for passengers.

What are BA’s plans to refurbish & retire the Boeing 747?

London Air Travel » Boeing 747

BA In Flight Entertainment - Boeing 747 World Traveller — BA In Flight Entertainment – Boeing 747 World Traveller (Image Credit: British Airways)

We’ve received a lot of search enquiries of late regarding BA’s Boeing 747 fleet. We suspect this may be in part due to the condition of some of them! It’s an issue we have looked at previously and we thought we’d cover some of the most frequently asked questions:
Continue reading “What are BA’s plans to refurbish & retire the Boeing 747?”

BA to reintroduce First Class to Vancouver, Cape Town, Las Vegas and Phoenix

London Air Travel » Boeing 747

British Airways First Class Cabin (Image Credit: British Airways)

A few months ago it was announced that BA would stop offering first class on flights to Cape Town (selected flights only) and Las Vegas, Phoenix and Vancouver.

The reason for this was that even though the flights continue to operate with a four class Boeing 747 aircraft, these routes would be operated with aircraft that have not been fitted with the latest version of BA’s first class cabin.

Instead, BA would operate the old first class cabin as an extension of Club World business class.

As the airline continues to retire its older Boeing 747 aircraft, it is reintroducing first class on these routes with the assurance that all flights will operate with the latest first class cabin.

First class will return to Vancouver from Sunday 29 March 2015. First class will return to Cape Town, Las Vegas and Phoenix from Sunday 25 October 2015.

Continue reading “BA to reintroduce First Class to Vancouver, Cape Town, Las Vegas and Phoenix”

BA’s long farewell to the Boeing 747-400 jumbo

BA is retiring the Boeing 747-400. However, it will still have a presence at London Heathrow for many years to come.

London Air Travel » Boeing 747

British Airways Boeing 747 Heathrow (Image Credit: Heathrow)

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”

BA to stop First Class on Cape Town, Las Vegas, Phoenix & Vancouver from 26 October 2014

London Air Travel » Boeing 747

Update December 2014: BA has announced that First Class will return to Vancouver from Sunday 29 March 2015 and Cape Town, Las Vegas and Phoenix from Sunday 25 October 2015. More details here

Many readers will know that, over the past five years, British Airways has been progressively updating its four class Boeing 777 and 747 aircraft with a new first class product.

The roll out on Boeing 777 aircraft has long been complete. Out of BA’s fleet of nearly fifty Boeing 747 aircraft, less than ten do not have the latest first class product. These aircraft are left with the Kelly Hoppen designed interior from the year 2000.

It is no exaggeration to say these cabins are showing their age and, in response, BA has by default offered 50,000 Avios to members of the Executive Club frequent flyer programme as compensation.

With number of 747s in BA’s fleet expected to fall to approximately thirty by 2018 and the last 747 due to retire after 2020, many of those aircraft that do not have the new first class cabin are likely to be retired over the coming year.

BA has now decided to stop selling first class on these aircraft and will instead offer a three class service, with business class passengers seated in the first class cabin (who will receive the standard “Club World” service) if there is the demand.

Continue reading “BA to stop First Class on Cape Town, Las Vegas, Phoenix & Vancouver from 26 October 2014”

BBC2 tells the story of “Jumbo: The Plane That Changed The World”

London Air Travel » Boeing 747

We’ve always had something of a soft spot for the Boeing 747. It’s an aircraft that, we think, is second only to Concorde in terms of presence on the tarmac.