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Some more cheerless news about the new ‘densified’ British Airways short-haul aircraft

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We have known for some time that British Airways is moving at speed to add even more seats to its short-haul Airbus fleet.  The exact details are only starting to emerge now as cabin crew are sent for retraining.

A few weeks I reported how duty free is being dropped from British Airways short-haul flights.  This is because a rear toilet in Euro Traveller (economy) is being removed to fit in more seats, and replaced by a loo built into the back wall of the galley.  The loo will take up part of the space formerly occupied by the duty free trolley. The Club Europe loo at the front remains.

Club Europe British Airways

A member of BA cabin crew posted the following additional information on Flyertalk over the weekend, some of which is new.  This only applies to Heathrow services for now, as the A319 aircraft will be moved over to Gatwick:

The first twelve rows of seating (A320) or fourteen rows (A321) will retain the current seats.  USB and standard power sockets will be added.

Seats in the rest of the aircraft will be replaced by ultra-thin seats with a 29 inch pitch.  From March, there will be a substantial benefit in being seated in the first 12 or 14 rows.

The ultra-thin seats will not recline (fine by me, to be honest)

The ultra-thin seats will have USB sockets but no standard plugs.

Sales of Club Europe tickets will be capped on longer flights as there will no longer be enough galley space to store meal trays beyond a certain point.  This is not an issue on shorter flights as the meal is served on one tray.

The new aircraft being received by BA from March will not have drop down monitors.  This means that cabin crew will do manual safety demonstrations and there will be no ‘moving map’ to watch.  This is a fuel saving measure due to weight.

There will be no waste facilities or potable water supply at the rear of the plane, again due to the need to free up space to fit in the loo.  This means that all waste will be carried through Club Europe for disposal at the front, and all requests for free tap water will require a trip to the Club Europe galley.

The Club Europe wardrobe will remain but will also be used for general storage and may not be available for coats – the crew member quoted was not sure

Very little of this is enticing, but apparently we only have ourselves to blame for refusing to spend 1p more than a low cost carrier for our flights.  Even though BA will always cost 1p more than a low cost carrier due to the £19.30 per person Heathrow Passenger Service Charge …..

In other news ….

There are two more cheerful bits of BA short haul news.

The Qatar Airways planes are coming back.  There is a rumour that six Qatar Airways short haul aircraft will be returning to the fleet for February, March and April.  This is to provide cover whilst the A320 and A321 aircraft are refurbished as well as helping BA meet its obligations to use the Monarch slots at Gatwick it just purchased, but must ‘use or lose’.

The Flyertalk post mentioned above also reiterated – as has been said before – that Club Europe catering will receive (another) relaunch in April.  Let’s hope it is more successful than the last one, which was seemingly designed by a 50-year old ex-public schoolboy who believed that the modern business traveller jetting in from Milan wants a ploughmans lunch.  I am slightly surprised that the crew don’t pass around a jar of pickled eggs. 

Just to keep it very simple for BA …. Pret had sales of £776m last year.  They have already done the market research. If Pret don’t sell it, let’s just assume that no-one wants it and move on …..

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Comments (178)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Rami says:
    2 Jan2 January 06:04

    It’s somewhat similar to what the Americans are doing, economy plus and “normal” economy on short haul flights with £100 difference in price. I’m sure BA will start doing the same to generate more revenue.

  • Amit says:
    2 Jan2 January 06:07

    Pret sell ploughman’s no?

    • JamesB says:
      2 Jan2 January 06:30

      They certainly did in the past, I presumed from Rob’s comments they had stopped.

    • Alex W says:
      2 Jan2 January 08:21

      I love a good ploughman’s! Much prefer that to a prawn salad.

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
      2 Jan2 January 09:38

      They have a cheese and pickle sandwich. Even though it covers off the core trio of the ploughman’s, I’m not sure I’d describe it as such.

  • JamesB says:
    2 Jan2 January 06:19

    How many extra rows of seats will all this give them, I’m guessing just two?

    Will the two different seat types mean the end of the curtain and a fixed number of CE seats? If so why not just add new proper short haul business cabins to get ahead of the competion.

    a319 moving to LGW must mean extra capacity to INV are other airports served by a319 from LHR.

    I should have thought a good Yorshireman like yourself would be endorsing a ploghmans with premium Yorkshire ham and Wensleydale!

  • Ian says:
    2 Jan2 January 06:42

    All sounds dreadful. But at least the Qatar planes are returning for a bit.

    How are they going to manage with only 1 toilet at the rear? Will economy passengers be allowed to use the front toilet?

    • Matt says:
      2 Jan2 January 06:53

      As ex crew for BA and Ezy, it seems fundamentally ridiculous that you would ever just have one toilet on any form of Airbus aircraft. All it means is if you sit in Club you will have a nice long queue of people through the aisle, hardly very premium is it ?!

      • Anna says:
        2 Jan2 January 07:18

        It’ll be ironic if one of the outcomes is pax buying less drinks on board!

        • Genghis says:
          2 Jan2 January 07:54

          Potentially. I remember going to a club in Prague as a youngster. You had to pay to get in, pay for drinks and pay for the toilet. I bought fewer drinks. To this day I still don’t really get the business model

      • JamesB says:
        2 Jan2 January 07:53

        Is the toilet at front going too?

      • Rob says:
        2 Jan2 January 08:10

        The loo at the front remains.

    • Bkev says:
      2 Jan2 January 08:21

      You will be limited in how much time you xan spend in the toilet, though you will be able to buy extra time using avios.

  • Mark says:
    2 Jan2 January 07:33

    I believe that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) mandates the maximum number of seats on any given type of aircraft, the minimum ratio of cabin crew to passengers on shorthaul aircraft, and at least one member of cabin crew per door on longhaul aircraft. Perhaps someone “in the know” could advise us whether the CAA mandates a minimum ratio of onboard washrooms to passengers and crew. Also, it would be interesting to know if there are any potential violations of the relevant health, safety, and duty of care legislation with what BA is doing.

    • Nick says:
      2 Jan2 January 08:43

      No, there are no such rules. And you’re not even right about cabin crew – else please explain how minimum crew on a 787 is 6 (but it has 8 doors)…

      • Tim says:
        2 Jan2 January 11:13

        I thought it was one cabin crew per 50 passengers. Is this not why the London City Embraer 190s have superior seat pitch to the 170s. If they added an extra row and had 102 seats they would need to carry (and pay) for a third crew member.

    • Richard says:
      2 Jan2 January 09:07

      At least on lufthansa there is a maximum amount of passengers per crew member. This is why some of the front rows in their A321 have fixed centre tables. A seat with a fixed table does not count as a seat. When LH changed to ultra thin seats and total seat count went up they added these fixed tables to some middle seats to keep the total seat count under the limit for the amount of crew they have on A321

  • Paul says:
    2 Jan2 January 07:38

    Having just endured two shorthaul flights over new year on a 767. ( clapped out is being generous) the prospect of these new seats fill me with dread. The 767 has one benefit in that the pitch is generous. Service was of course non existent, boarding farcical and the lounge catering on the return dire.

  • JamesB says:
    2 Jan2 January 07:55

    OT something to cheer:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42538053

  • Scott says:
    2 Jan2 January 07:55

    Would have thought the capping of CE will put some people off.
    We all know there are those who won’t fly anything else regardless of price and if a family is popping down to Greece or somewhere, sitting in ET might maka them fly with someone else.
    Wouldn’t selling say 4 CE seats @ £250 each be better than 6 ET @ £69 for BA?

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