Continuing my series of airline overviews, let’s head over to England and check out British Airways’ fleet. This has always been a fascinating fleet to analyze because of the diversity of aircraft used. Even though they are part of the International Airlines Group which also has airlines such as Iberia and Aer Lingus, we will just focus on British Airways and their fleet. Although the actual airline was formed in 1974, it has been a carrier for England since 1919 as Air Transport and Travel Limited and became British Airways the merger of result BEA and BOAC. Just like with the previous entry in the series about Air India, we will go over the mainline fleet, service and future operations.
The Fleet
Narrowbodies
As previously mentioned, this airline has one of the most diverse fleets in the industry. While their narrowbody fleet consists of mainly the Airbus A320 series, their widebody fleet has a good variety of aircraft. Currently the British flag carrier has 272 aircraft in service. As previously mentioned, British’s narrowbody fleet mainly consists of 26 A319s, 80 A320s (60 A320-200s and 20 A320neos) and 24 A321s (11 A321-200s 13 A321Neos). The A320s were part of a large order from BA’s owner IAG for 200 A320neos that would be distributed between all their subsidiaries. British would use these narrowbodies for flights within Britain and the rest of Europe.
Widebodies
While the narrowbody market is important for the intra-European market, what really pays the bills for British Airways is their diverse collection of widebodies. They consist of a mix of Boeing and Airbus aircraft from the A380 to smaller widebodies such as the 787 Dreamliner.
Boeing 787 Dreamliner
To begin with, British utilizes the 787 Dreamliner for a variety of routes. They are one of few airlines (United, ANA and Air Canada in the future) that do so. The smaller variant (787-8) is mainly used for “long and skinny routes” such as Heathrow to Pittsburgh or New Orleans. This is because smaller secondary airports such as Pittsburgh or New Orleans don’t have the infrastructure to warrant larger aircraft such as the 777-300ER, A380 or A350-1000. Next their 787-9s are mainly utilized for ultra long haul premium routes such from London Heathrow to destinations such as Shanghai, Hong Kong or Tokyo. Lastly, the 787-10s are mainly used to complement the 777 series and A350-1000s flying to higher density markets such as New York, Phoenix or Seattle. Overall, British Airways’ Dreamliner fleet composition is:
12 787-8s
18 787-9s
7 787-10s
By utilizing all variants of the Dreamliner, British gets a lot of bang for their buck for the type. But the Dreamliner isn’t the only widebody of importance.
Boeing 777
In addition to their 787 Dreamliners, British Airways has one of the largest 777 fleets in the industry. Currently they own 43 777-200ERS and 18 777-300ERs. As for routes, the 777-200ERs are mainly used for lower density leisure destinations such as San Diego or Phoenix as well as flights to Orlando from London Gatwick. The 777-300ER are mainly used for higher density routes to New York JFK, Los Angeles, or Chicago. However British Airways doesn’t only own Boeing widebodies.
Airbus A350-1000
Currently, Airbus owns 18 A350-1000s. These planes along with their 777-300ERs and the upcoming 777-9s are replacing their 42 747-400s used prior to the pandemic. These planes are mainly used to destinations such as Phoenix, Los Angeles, Denver or Las Vegas. These used to be typical 747-400 routes for British. These were also the first planes to feature British Airways’ new Club World Suites that are slowly being integrated into the rest of the fleet. Including the world’s largest commercial airliner.
Airbus A380
Unlike other carriers, British Airways feels like there is still a place for the A380 in their fleet. The reason being so is because London Heathrow has the strictest slot regulations in the world and the airline needs to maximize its hold on the market. As a result, all their A380s were reactivated after the pandemic. British flies the superjumbo to Johannesburg, Dubai (twice daily), Boston, Miami and Dallas. They were also the only A380 to fly to Chicago O’Hare last winter. But the next question is how will British Airways compete with other carriers?
Service
Since the end of the pandemic, British Airways is trying to up their game to compete with other carriers. As someone that recently flew on British Airways last year, I feel like they are moving in the right direction to compete in the industry So how are they doing this? First off, British Airways has plans to retrofit the rest of their fleet. When I flew from London to Phoenix last year, the 777 that I flew on had the new Club World Suites installed. This £7 billion project will result in the whole retrofit being completed by 2026. Originally it was supposed to be done last year but due to supply chain issues caused by the pandemic and the Russo-Ukraine War, premium seats are the biggest casualty of this. However, the airline recently announced a new hard product for their short haul operations. The new seats would have a tray table in the middle seat for their Club World passengers (Europe blocks the middle seat for business class). These seats would also include 60W USB-A and USB-C in Club World whereas Euro Traveller (economy) would have 15W USB-A and USB-C outlets. In the video below, British goes more in depth on what the new interiors will look like.
The airline is planning to remove all AC power outlets because of this. In addition to aircraft retrofits, the airline is also investing £750 million into improving their outdated IT systems. This will result in their website and app having less bugs and becoming easier to use. Lastly, the airline has plans to refurbish all of their lounges in Terminal 5 at Heathrow. This project is scheduled to start in late 2024 with the arrivals lounge being the first one renovated. But it isn’t just the lounges in Heathrow that are going to be upgraded. The airline also has plans to open a new lounge in Dubai in 2025 as well as refurbishing their lounges in Miami and Seattle. But what does the future hold for the English flag carrier?
Future of British Airways
In addition to customer experience improvement, the future of British Airways is continuous expansion and network recovery. Recently, they announced flights from Gatwick to Bangkok as well as Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur. Both routes are starting off as seasonal with the former potentially becoming year round. In addition, British will launch daily flights to Abu Dhabi on April 20th. Moreover, their subsidiary BA Euroflyer will start flying to Agadir in Morocco four times a week starting March 31st. Seasonal flights will also begin to Izmir, Turkey from May to September once a week.
As well as reintroducing more routes, the airline will be increasing frequency for flights to San Diego from one flight daily to two flights daily. Instead of using one A350-1000, the earlier flight (BA 264/265) will be serviced by a 777-200ER and the later flight (BA 272/273) by a 787-8. According to the Port Authority of San Diego, “Of all the 30 US-Europe passenger markets, San Diego had the strongest recovery from the pandemic with San Diego-London increasing by 28 percent more than before the pandemic.” All in all, these are exciting times for British Airways as they recover their network and continue expanding.
Conclusion
In summary, the future of British Airways is brighter than ever thanks to their diverse fleet, new service improvements as well as introducing new routes. But what do you guys think? Would you fly British Airways in the future? Be sure to let me know in the comments below and keep looking to the sky!
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