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.
British Airways continues to surprise with its choice of new routes to occupy the 50 or so extra Heathrow slot pairs it has to fill following the purchase of bmi. Following the launch of Leeds Bradford, Rotterdam, Zagreb and seasonal summer flights to Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca, the airline has now launched a weekly return flight to Gran Canaria from Saturday 26 October 2013.
The flights are now on sale on ba.com:
Flight BA488 – London – Las Palmas – 10:05 – 14.35
Flight BA489 – Las Palmas – London – 15:20 – 19:40
Here are a few new & noteworthy items for, today, Thursday 25 April:
Continue reading “New & Noteworthy: Europe’s state carriers, BA & IT, Aer Lingus, United”
Here are a few new & noteworthy items for today, Wednesday 24 April:
The offer by International Airlines Group to acquire the 54% of Vueling’s shares that it does not already own expired on Friday 19 April. The airline group initially made an offer priced at €7.00 per share which Vueling management chose not to recommend. IAG subsequently increased its offer to €9.25 per share. However, the minimum acceptance level was reduced to just 4.16% of Vueling’s capital to leave IAG with at least overall control of Vueling, if not 100% ownership.
Assuming the transaction completes this will be the second airline acquired by IAG since its formation in 2011 and the third member airline of the group (the first acquisition, bmi, being subsumed into British Airways).
So why is IAG so interested in Vueling and what does it have planned for the airline?
Continue reading “What does International Airlines Group have planned for Vueling?”
International Airlines Group has just announced that it has ordered 18 Airbus A350-1000 aircraft for British Airways for delivery between 2017 and 2023 and has secured a further 18 options. The group has also secured delivery slots for Iberia, in anticipation of a future order for Iberia, subject to a satisfactory restructuring of the airline.
This follows the recent exercise of 18 Boeing 787 options for BA and acquisition of 787 delivery slots for Iberia and both airlines are moving towards a common long-haul fleet.
Whilst this is not the first long-haul order for Airbus by either BA or IAG, for Airbus this is still a significant long-haul order by BA as the A350 aircraft is likely to form a major part of BA’s long haul fleet as a replacement for the Boeing 747-400.
Full details are on the IAG website.
When BA’s parent company, International Airlines Group, bought bmi last year much was made of how the extra slots would enable BA to expand its long-haul network. So it was something of a surprise when last May BA announced it would launch new routes to Leeds-Bradford (initially 4 daily) and Rotterdam (3 daily) from 9 December 2012. Neither are the most exciting destinations on the BA route network but both seem like a clear move to capture traffic from KLM.
Continue reading “So how are BA’s new routes to Leeds-Bradford and Rotterdam performing?”
British Airways has confirmed today that its (near) daily flight to Bangkok, BA9, will undergo a change of departure terminal at Heathrow, aircraft type and timing from the start of the Winter 2013 season on Sunday 27 October 2013.
The flight which currently departs from Heathrow Terminal 3 at 22:05 to arrive in Bangkok at 15:20 will transfer to Terminal 5 from 27 October 2013.
The operating aircraft will also a change from a four class Boeing 747 to a three class Boeing 777.
Furthermore, the departure time will change to 15:05, arriving in Bangkok at 09:20 and returning from Bangkok at 10:55 to arrive at Heathrow at 16:55. This is also the last BA operated long-haul flight to transfer from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5.
An 11 hour transatlantic flight from San Francisco to London in a passenger configured BA aircraft may not seem the most conducive environment for 100 thinkers to come up with solutions to the world’s problems, but BA thinks otherwise with the launch of Ungrounded.
Continue reading “British Airways launches “Ungrounded” – An innovation lab in the sky”
BA is marking ten years of operations at London City airport with a set of weekly competitions with The Evening Standard giving you the chance to fly with 49 friends on a flight to Amsterdam, Madrid and Edinburgh. To enter all you need to do is say which famous Londoner you will take with you on the flight and why. The Amsterdam competition is currently open and the Madrid and Edinburgh competitions open on 22 and 29 April respectively.
Full details are on The Evening Standard website.