The latest on BA’s plans to replace and refurbish its short-haul and long-haul fleet.
We receive a lot of enquiries regarding BA’s plans to replace and refurbish its short and long-haul fleet.
We suspect this is, in part, due to the wide variation in the condition of many of its long-haul aircraft in particular!
BA has a conservative approach to fleet expansion and refurbishment. This is unlikely to ever change. Here’s a run through of recent and forthcoming deliveries and refurbishments by aircraft type:
British Airways has today confirmed the first route to be operated by the Boeing 787-900 Dreamliner.
The aircraft will operate on selected flights from London Heathrow to Dehli (Indira Gandhi International Airport) from Sunday 25 October.
One noteworthy aspect is that First cabin on this aircraft has just eight seats, compared to the usual 14 seats on most other aircraft. The exact design of the cabin is yet to be revealed. However, BA claim the First cabin features extra storage space and a single dial to control seat recline, headrest, lumbar adjustment and lighting. It also features a larger TV screen and a new touchscreen handset. That said, the seat plan for the cabin shows two rows of seats in a 1-2-1 configuration so we do not expect any radical changes.
The Club World business class, World Traveller premium economy and World Traveller economy cabins are expected to be the same as the Boeing 787-8 aircraft that are currently in operation.
The aircraft will have 216 seats in total with 42 Club World business class seats in a 2-3-2 configuration, 39 World Traveller plus premium economy seats in a 2-3-2 configuration and 127 World Traveller economy seats in a 3-3-3 configuration.
The Club World cabin is split between two parts of the aircraft with just two rows of seats in a demi-cabin behind First class (a further four rows are behind the galley) and we suspect this will prove quite popular.
There are a lot of anecdotal comments about the relatively poor comfort of the Boeing 787-8 cabin on BA so it will be interesting to see if any improvements are to be made.
The flights will operate five times a week on the BA257 from London Heathrow to Delhi on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays and the BA256 from Delhi to London Heathrow on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. This replaces a Boeing 777 on this rotation. The other daily flight to Dehli (BA143 & BA142) will continue to be operated by a Boeing 747.
Further route announcements for the Boeing 787-900 are expected in due course. Future routes are expected to include Abu Dhabi, Muscat and Kuala Lumpur.
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 (Source: The BA Source.)
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 “British Airways’ long farewell to the Boeing 747-400 jumbo”
In recent months, there has been a flurry of activity by Europe’s legacy airlines in respect of their short-haul operations.
Traditionally, these airlines (British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa etc) have operated a business model of broadly making all of their profits on long-haul flights whilst losing money on short-haul flights.
Losses on short-haul flights have historically been tolerated on the basis they provide connecting passengers to support long-haul operations.
However, the maturing of low cost carriers such as easyJet into credible rivals for lucrative business passengers has put pressure on short-haul revenues. Furthermore, the intensity of competition from Middle Eastern airlines has reduced the profits on long-haul against which losses on short-haul operations can be offset.
Lufthansa is in the process of transferring short-haul flights that do not serve is Frankfurt and Munich hubs to Germanwings. British Airways has undertaken a number of revenue-raising measures such as short notice day-tripper and weekender flights and seasonal flights during quiet business travel periods.
The next phase of activity from BA is a complete reconfiguration of almost all of its Airbus short-haul aircraft.
For passengers travelling in the economy EuroTraveller cabin, the changes are broadly positive. For passengers travelling in the business class Club Euroe cabin the picture is more mixed.
Here are the main changes:
1. New ergonomically designed, slimmer leather seats with moveable armrests and a 4-way moveable headrest.
2. New literature pockets that can also hold the sleeve of an iPad for passengers who want to bring their own in-flight entertainment.
3. In Club Europe, a new central table feature called the ‘Centre console’ will be positioned in the middle seat that is traditionally kept free.
4. The aircraft will also be fitted with new curtains, carpets and wall coverings and a LED lighting system and “refreshed” washrooms.
The big downside is that leg room in Club Europe will be reduced from 34 inches to 30 inches. However, BA claims that this will not impact significantly on “usable” space due to the design of the seats which allow for more knee room.
The effect of the reduction in leg room and other changes is that the overall number of seats will increase on each aircraft. On an Airbus 319 aircraft BA will provide 143 seats instead of 132 seats. On an Airbus 320 aircraft will provide 168 seats instead of 162 seats. On an Airbus 321 aircraft will provide 205 seats instead of 188 seats
The first refurbished aircraft will enter into service on 4 July of this year and the rollout is expected to be completed by next year.
The Boeing 767s that operate in a short-haul configuration and the Boeing 737s that operate at Gatwick are not being reconfigured as they are both shortly being retired from the fleet.
As Virgin Atlantic celebrates its thirtieth anniversary later this month, here are more images from the airline’s history.
In the third part of our series, we take a look at the some of the airline’s aircraft past and present: