British Airways Coat Of Arms (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways has cancelled outbound passenger flights from London Heathrow to Hong Kong until Friday 18 December 2020.
BA will continue to send aircraft to Hong Kong with cargo only. Inbound passenger flights from Hong Kong to London Heathrow will operate as normal.
According to a report in the South China Morning Post, BA has been banned by local authorities from operating passenger flights to Hong until Friday 25 December.
This is after it was found that four passengers who travelled on a BA flight to Hong Kong on Tuesday had COVID-19. Another passenger’s documents were not checked properly by the airline.
Whilst BA has been banned from flying to passengers to Hong Kong for two weeks and flights have been taken off sale until 25 December, at the time of publication the airline has only cancelled flights to Hong Kong up to Friday 18 December. This suggests that BA is seeking an alleviation.
British Airways Airbus A380 Heathrow (Image Credit: Heathrow)
British Airways has cut one of its twice daily return flights from London Heathrow to Hong Kong until the end of May 2020.
This move is expected given the large fall in demand for travel to the region.
Flights BA31 & BA32, operated with a Boeing 777-300 aircraft, have been suspended until Sunday 31 May 2020.
Flights BA27 & BA28, which operate with the Airbus A380, continue to operate.
Whilst BA has said these flights are suspended until the end of May 2020, given the current situation, the period of cancellation may well be extended.
From Sunday 29 March 2020 until Saturday 24 October 2020, the two flights are supposed to swap aircraft with BA31 & BA32 operated with the A380. However, BA27 & BA28 will continue to operate with the A380 up to and including 31 May 2020.
Passengers whose flights have been cancelled should be re-accommodated on alternative BA flights.
BA also has a flexible rebooking policy in place for all passengers due to fly to Hong Kong up to 31 May 2020. All passengers can rebook onto alternative BA services to Hong Kong up to Friday 31 July 2020 or obtain a full refund.
Those passengers who have connections to/from Cathay Pacific and Qantas at Hong Kong will need to check their itinerary to confirm they meet minimum connection times.
Passengers can check the status of their booking using the Manage My Booking tool on ba.com and should contact BA or their travel agent.
Cathay Pacific Lounge Closures
Cathay Pacific has also announced that it will temporarily close some of its departure lounges at Hong Kong international airport from Monday 17 February 2020 until further notice.
These are: The Bridge at Gate 35, The Deck at Gate 6; and The Pier First Class Lounge at Gate 63.
The Wing First Class and Business Class Lounges at Gates 1 – 4 and The Pier Business Class Lounge at Gate 65 will remain open.
New amenities for British Airways flights between London Heathrow, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong
British Airways is to add additional in-flight amenities and services to passengers travelling between London Heathrow, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Passengers travelling in World Traveller Plus and Club World will be offered slippers. Passengers travelling in all cabins will be offered Twinings green tea, the option of chopsticks for eating meals and bilingual menus.
In the grand scheme of things, these are fairly small changes. It’s also not unusual for BA to offer additional in flight amenities on certain routes for cultural reasons. Slippers have long been offered on flights to Tokyo and bilingual menus are common on many routes.
However, it does point to an effort to do better in China where BA has had mixed success. BA’s route from London Heathrow to Chengdu was suspended this month and BA faces very strong competition from Cathay Pacific on the London – Hong Kong route.
Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse, Hong Kong (Image Credit; Virgin Atlantic)
Virgin Atlantic has long been known for its small, but distinctive, portfolio of Clubhouse lounges around the world. That portfolio will be a little smaller shortly as its Clubhouse at Hong Kong International Airport is to close from Sunday 5 February 2017.
The reason for the closure is that the lease on the space occupied by the clubhouse has come up for renewal and Virgin Atlantic has decided not to renew the lease for reasons of cost.
Passengers travelling in Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class cabin and Flying Club Gold members will be able to use the third party Plaza Premium lounge.
Cathay Pacific A350-900 Business Class (Image courtesy of Cathay Pacific)
Cathay Pacific has today announced it will fly daily between London Gatwick and Hong Kong from Thursday 1 June 2017.
The route launched in September of this year on a four times weekly basis and clearly has been a success with an increase in frequency to daily.
The flight will continue be operated with an Airbus A350-900 aircraft in a three class (business, premium economy and economy) configuration. Cathay Pacific will also continue to fly between London Heathrow and Hong Kong five times daily.
Cathay Pacific A350-900 Business Class (Image Credit: Cathay Pacific)
After months of speculation, Cathay Pacific has today officially confirmed that it is to launch a four times weekly flight from London Gatwick to Hong Kong from Friday 2 September 2016.
The flight will be operated with an Airbus A350-900 aircraft in a three class (business, premium economy and economy) configuration.
Cathay Pacific will continue to fly between London Heathrow and Hong Kong five times daily.
It is something of a coup for London Gatwick airport to attract an airline with an existing presence at London Heathrow as the trend in recent years has been for long-haul airlines to move routes from Gatwick to Heathrow as and when slots become available.
This route also adds to a growing portfolio of Cathay Pacific destinations in Europe with Manchester, Düsseldorf and Madrid being recent additions. It also represents a significant investment by Cathay Pacific in London which is also currently renovating and expanding its London Heathrow first and business class lounges.
The airline has today reopened the first class lounge at The Pier.
Designed by London based agency Studioilse (who also designed the recently refurbished lounges at Tokyo Haneda and Bangkok) the lounge is a continuation of Cathay Pacific’s brand strategy “Life Well Travelled”.
Over the past fifteen years, Finnair has been steadily, but surely, building a niche as the European airline that provides the most efficient link between Europe and Asia via its hub in Helsinki.
In 2000, Finnair served just three destinations in Asia. Now, it serves 15 destinations. Finnair also serves a number of cities without direct links to London including Chongqing and Xi’an in China and Nagoya and Osaka in Japan.
Unfortunately, this has yet to translate into long term profitability for the airline. On Friday, Finnair joined the list of European airlines to issue a profit warning.
However, the airline is committed to its strategy and aims to double revenues from Asia by 2020. This week, Finnair revealed the interiors for its new Airbus A350 aircraft which will replace its quad-engine Airbus A340 aircraft and ply routes from Helsinki to Asia from mid 2015.
The airline has 11 firm orders for Airbus A350 aircraft, and a further 8 options.
The aircraft will initially be deployed on flights to Shanghai, Bangkok and Beijing in 2015. Hong Kong and Singapore will be served by the A350 in 2016.
In business class, Finnair has opted for the Zodiac Cirrus III seat which American Airlines (Boeing 777-300 flights only), Air France and Cathay Pacific have also adopted.
This seat provides both a fully flat bed and direct aisle access for all passengers, which is increasingly becoming standard for business class cabins. Finnair’s seat will also include touchscreen in flight entertainment and AC and USB power sockets. There will be a total of 46 seats in the cabin.
British Airways Logo (Image Credit: British Airways)
British Airways has today, 10 June 2013, confirmed that is to take delivery of its first Boeing 787 aircraft on 26 June 2013, and a second Boeing 787 aircraft a day later. It will take delivery of its first Airbus A380 aircraft on 4 July 2013 at a special media event at Heathrow to celebrate the introduction of two new aircraft types to its fleet.
BA is yet to confirm on which routes the Boeing 787 will first be deployed. However, it reasonable to assume that some of the first routes to receive the Boeing 787 will be transatlantic routes currently operated by the Boeing 767 aircraft which include Washington, New York Newark, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Calgary. Continue reading “BA confirms delivery dates for first Boeing 787 & Airbus A380 aircraft”
