British Airways has launched a new transatlantic day flight from Newark to London Heathrow.
British Airways Lounge, Terminal B, Newark Liberty International Airport (Image Credit: British Airways)
One of the more reliable pleasures of transatlantic travel are day flights from North America to London Heathrow.
The majority of eastbound flights across the Atlantic are “Red Eye” flights which involve limited sleep on a short flight before an early morning arrival at Heathrow.
There are a handful of day flights which leave the US for London in the morning.
Compared to Red Eye flights these are like, well, night and day. Passengers are in a more relaxed mood. There’s no need to get to sleep over the short flight across the pond.
BA Launches Day Flight From Newark
From Monday 6 June 2022, BA will launch a new transatlantic day flight from Newark to Heathrow.
The flight, BA180, will leave Newark at 07:55 and arrive at London Heathrow at 19:55.
One return flight, BA185 & BA184 from London Heathrow to Newark, will be operated by Air Belgium from Monday 1 April to Saturday 8 June 2019.
The flight will be operated by an Air Belgium A340-300 aircraft.
The overall service standard should be similar to that of BA.
Rebooking Options
All passengers have the option of rebooking on to BA’s alternative return flights to Newark (BA189/188) as close to your original date of travel as possible.
Full refunds are not available to any passengers, except First Class passengers, unless allowed by the original fare rules.
First Class Passengers
There is no First Class cabin on Air Belgium aircraft.
Unless passengers rebook on to an alternative BA service, they will be downgraded to business class and receive a partial refund of their fare.
Passengers will still have a First Class baggage allowance, earn the Avios and Tier Points of the First Class fare, and have access to First Class ground facilities such as the Concorde Room at London Heathrow.
Alternatively, passengers can request a full refund.
Premium Economy Passengers
There is no premium economy cabin on Air Belgium aircraft.
Unless passengers rebook on to an alternative BA service, they will be downgraded to economy and receive a partial refund of their fare.
Passengers will retain their original baggage allowance and Avios earning entitlement. Some passengers may also be upgraded to business class.
Passengers can check the status of their booking using the Manage My Booking tool on ba.com
Affected passengers should contact BA or their travel agent.
American Airlines Codeshare
This flight is codeshared with American Airlines under flight numbers AA6148 / AA6147.
As American Airlines does not have regulatory approval to codeshare on BA flights operated by other airlines, AA passengers will have to rebook onto an alternative AA or BA service between London and New York.
Primera Air is to launch direct flights frowm London Stansted to Boston and Newark in the spring of 2018.
Flights from London Stansted to Boston will launch on Saturday 19 May 2018, operating four times weekly.
Flights to from London Stansted to Newark will launch on Thursday 19 April 2018, operating daily.
These flights will be the first transatlantic operations from London Stansted in many years.
What is also noteworthy is that Primera Air will be using the Airbus A321 aircraft, in a two class economy and premium economy configuration.
Primera Air will be the first airline to use this aircraft for transatlantic flights from the U.K. It will be interesting to see if this aircraft facilitates more expansion and more new entrants into the market, in the same way the Boeing 787 facilitated the arrival of Norwegian at London Gatwick and the launch of many new routes by BA at London Heathrow.
The airline is a relatively unknown name in the UK. Its operations are mainly based in Scandinavia, operating short-haul flights in Europe.
Primera Air is of course not the first airline to seek to enter the UK transatlantic market. There is a long list of airlines that have tried and failed: eos, MaxJet, SilverJet and La Compagnie.
Given that its rivals offer very high levels of frequency on this route and many of its passengers are wielded to their frequent flyer cards, a strong marketing effort will also be required to generate traffic.
If Primera Air is to be successful in what is a very competitive market then it will need to instil confidence, before and after launch, that it will have reliable operations with sufficient contingency plans if things go wrong.
Flights are on sale now at Primera Air with promotional fares from £149 each way.
Update February 2018:. Primera Air has since announced it will launch three times weekly flights to Toronto Pearson from Saturday 19 May 2018 and four times weekly flights to Washington Dulles from Wednesday 22 August 2018.
London Stansted – Boston
Flight PF043 Depart London Stansted 17:00 – Arrive Boston 20:10 (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday)
Flight PF044 Depart Boston 21:40 – London Stansted 09:30 (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday)
London Stansted – Newark
Flight PF041 Depart London Stansted 17:55 – Arrive Newark 21:20
Flight PF042 Depart Newark 22:50 – Arrive London Stansted 11:00
As was widely tipped online, Aer Lingus has today announced it is to return to Los Angeles and Newark airports next year, and launch a new direct route from Dublin to Bradley International Airport in Hartford County, Connecticut. The latter route will be the sole transatlantic route from the airport.
Aer Lingus will fly five times a week to Los Angeles from Sunday 1 May 2016, and daily to Newark from Thursday 1 September 2016. Both routes will be operated by A330 aircraft. Flights for these routes are on sale now at AerLingus.com
As was widely tipped online, Aer Lingus has today announced it is to return to Los Angeles and Newark airports next year, and launch a new direct route from Dublin to Bradley International Airport in Hartford County, Connecticut. The latter route will be the sole transatlantic route from the airport.
Aer Lingus will fly five times a week to Los Angeles from Sunday 1 May 2016, and daily to Newark from Thursday 1 September 2016. Both routes will be operated by A330 aircraft. Flights for these routes are on sale now at AerLingus.com
It was a little under ten years ago that the concept of the all business class airline gained traction in the UK.
In October 2005, Eos Airlines launched all business class flights to New York JFK from London Stansted using 48 seat Boeing 757 aircraft. Silverjet launched all business class flights from London Luton (using a private terminal) to New York Newark using Boeing 767 aircraft, later adding Dubai.
Whilst both airlines received very positive reviews and many industry accolades, Eos collapsed in April 2008 after an additional round of financing fell through at the last minute. Silverjet fell victim to rising oil prices shortly afterwards.
Both airlines did have a lasting impact.
British Airways launched an (almost) all business class operation from Paris to New York under the name OpenSkies. In 2009, BA also launched a twice daily all business class service from London City to New York JFK (via Shannon). Whilst there was talk of additional routes being added, none have materialised. Unsurprisingly, claims by Virgin Atlantic that it was looking into launching all business class flights never came to fruition.
As Virgin Atlantic celebrates its thirtieth anniversary later this month, here are more images from the airline’s history.
Whilst Virgin Atlantic’s route network is relatively small compared to its major rivals, when it does launch a route, the airline can never be accused of not making an entrance:
Virgin Atlantic celebrates its thirtieth anniversary later this month.
On 22 June 1984, flight VS1 departed London Gatwick for Newark airport, operated by a Boeing 747-200 aircraft bearing the name “Maiden Voyager”. The airline has grown significantly since then. It now flies to approximately thirty destinations worldwide, principally from London Heathrow and London Gatwick airports.
Whilst Virgin has struggled in recent years with the airline losing money for four of the past five years and it suspending a number of routes (Accra, Nairobi, Sydney), it remains one of aviation’s most iconic brands, marketing itself with a confidence and flair that few can match, and is known for punching well above its weight in terms of its profile in the industry.
Flight VS1 still operates to Newark today, but from London Heathrow which is now the airline’s principal base for flights to North America. New York continues to be one of Virgin Atlantic’s most important routes with the airline operating a combined six flights a day (nine if you add Delta codeshares) to Newark and New York JFK airports combined.
Here is the first of a collection of images from Virgin Atlantic’s 30 year history, starting with the launch of the airline in 1984 and its inaugural flight:
(Click here for parts two and three of our collection.
