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Here is the proposed British Airways operational plan going forward

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There is still a big question mark over how British Airways will operate for the next couple of months.  IAG, BA’s parent company, has said that it intends to ground 75% of flights from April but that number was not broken out between Iberia, BA, Aer Lingus, Vueling and LEVEL.

On Wednesday I spoke to a friend who works at BA and he outlined the current thinking to me.  This is NOT heresay – I have seen written confirmation of what is outlined below.  That said, the situation is clearly moving quickly and this plan could easily end up on the back burner.

Long-haul flying:

75% of the long-haul schedule will be cancelled

The ONLY long-haul aircraft which will be flying are the new Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 fleets – these are generally smaller aircraft and very fuel efficient, with the newest interiors

The entire A380, Boeing 777 and Boeing 747 fleets are to be parked.  The 747 retirement plan has been accelerated and many of these aircraft will never fly again for BA.

Short-haul flying:

The medium-term position of short-haul routes is not clear.  A substantial number of services have already been cancelled but a core minimum is likely to remain if the Government allows.

Logistics:

Terminal 5C is to be closed.  This will be used to park aircraft (there are 22 stands available).

Short-haul aircraft are already being sent elsewhere where possible.  Aircraft are already parked at Glasgow, Southend, Norwich and Cardiff.

British Airways will leave Terminal 3, with all flights moved to Terminal 5.  (There are separate rumours that Terminal 4 will be closed entirely and the 50 or so daily flights moved to Terminal 2 and Terminal 3.)

The Concorde Room lounge in Terminal 5 will be closed (this happened yesterday) and parts of the Terminal 5 check-in and security areas closed.  We already know that the Galleries North and Terminal 5B Galleries lounges have closed.

As I said above, this plan may not survive a collision with reality, but as of a couple of days ago it was the current strategy.

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Comments (184)

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

  • ChrisC says:
    20 Mar20 March 09:04

    A lot of what Rob has listed has already happened so hardy hearsay

    • Doug M says:
      20 Mar20 March 09:33

      I think the point was Rob has heresay rather than hearsay. It’s good to focus on the trivial in times of uncertainty. Off outside to rearrange the deckchairs.

      • Anna says:
        20 Mar20 March 10:02

        I like heresay. Kind of a mixture of heresy and hearsay, very topical! I am trying to deliver Year 9 curriculum 🤦‍♀️

  • Employee says:
    20 Mar20 March 09:15

    This proposal came from an internal BA PowerPoint from engineering from last week. It’s been passed around a million times and is inaccurate. BA’s current plan is based around every pilot taking 4 weeks unpaid leave (split over April and May) with pay affected in April, May and June. The flying schedule continues for 777, 747 and 380.

    • ADS says:
      20 Mar20 March 12:51

      that sounds about right – i can imagine Engineering would love to only have to keep B787s and A350s flying … much easier than dealing with a full range of types !

      • Shoestring says:
        20 Mar20 March 19:50

        that does actually make a lot of sense for an airline’s efficiency

        ie don’t do routes/ capacities outside optimal efficiency for the aircraft you run

        Flybe might learn from this

        oops

        • ADS says:
          21 Mar21 March 18:06

          i think the point is that from a commercial perspective, sometimes the B787 and A350 will *not* be the optimal size of aircraft for every route … so whilst Engineering would love to only have two planes to deal with … commercially it might not be best !

  • Alex barclay says:
    20 Mar20 March 10:14

    My flight from fra to Lhr on 26th March just got cancelled

    • neil says:
      20 Mar20 March 14:15

      The FRA schedule is all over the place. Eg yesterday there were no flights for Sunday or monday, then this mornings a flight appeared for sale on Sunday and Monday. Also Gatwick-Cologne is running .

  • Jeff says:
    20 Mar20 March 11:00

    On the subject of travel vouchers. I did think about getting one offered by Air Europa instead of a refund but given that one of my friends who I was planning to with is a teacher, the voucher is essentially useless.

    May half term and the summer feel too early to be planning anything. October half term is rainy season where I was planning to go and Christmas is 40% more expensive than when initially booked.

    Flights for Easter 2021 aren’t yet available and there isn’t anywhere else I would want to go on their limited network.

    There’s also the more pressing matter of uncertainty around work so getting the voucher would be throwing money down the toilet

  • Adam says:
    20 Mar20 March 11:25

    What is the date BA will implement the 75% schedule reduction?

    • Rhys says:
      20 Mar20 March 11:27

      We don’t know – it may be a gradual ramp down to 75%.

      • Rob says:
        20 Mar20 March 11:51

        There will be flights for a while. Typical Australian holidays can be 4-6 weeks for example so presumably there will be a need for repatriation flights for that long.

        • Adam says:
          20 Mar20 March 13:04

          Rob, based on your EC compensation article – is there a benefit for EU airlines to wait to cancel within the 14 days leading up to departure, rather than before, even if they know the flight will eventually be cancelled?

          • ChrisC says:
            20 Mar20 March 13:09

            The sooner they cancel the better as they have to think about crewing issues and rotas and cancelling catering etc etc

            That’s not to say they don’t cancel flights at the last minute because they obviously do but it is much more preferable to do it in advance

          • Genghis says:
            20 Mar20 March 13:19

            Genuine question – what’s the definition of “cancel”?

            Can BA decide to cancel the flight, and therefore not have to think about crewing issues / rotas / catering etc, but then not officially “cancel” until the last minute for refund purposes (i.e. more people tempted to go for the voucher in the meanwhile)?

          • Rob says:
            20 Mar20 March 15:18

            Yes

          • Adam says:
            20 Mar20 March 17:54

            Therefore, we should seriously consider taking the voucher 15 days before are ‘active’ flight departs? Otherwise they may cancel within 14 days and place us on the ‘next flight’ which is in September with no refund option?

        • Spaghetti Town says:
          20 Mar20 March 13:43

          Well, in 4-6 weeks we won’t be far off starting to ramp things up again.

  • meta says:
    20 Mar20 March 11:38

    Has BA cancelled the flight? If not, you should have contacted Amex Plat if you have one and claim on the insurance. I would submit the claim anyway to Amex even now.

  • Andy says:
    20 Mar20 March 12:13

    Hi Folks

    We are booked to leave Miami for london on sunday, starting to panic of a lockdown.
    I have elderly parents to get back too.

    Do you think they could close airports in next few days ?

    ANDY

    • AJA says:
      20 Mar20 March 16:39

      Andy I think you will be OK. The US will be happy you want to leave and go home. There are 2 BA and 2 AA flights a day from MIA to LHR and according to both BA and AA websites all 4 are still scheduled to fly on Sunday so I think you would still get home even if you end up on a different plane or airline.

  • Roy Thomson says:
    20 Mar20 March 12:14

    In view of the WHO chief’s statistical cockup and China’s reporting of no new cases, the pandemic could end almost as suddenly as it started. Hence, the pent up demand for flights could overwhelm BA and others. Are they making appropriate provisions one must ask?

    • Jeff says:
      20 Mar20 March 12:24

      What was the statistical cockpup?

      (Genuine question by the way)

    • ChrisBCN says:
      20 Mar20 March 12:52

      And your assumption is flawed I’m afraid. Wait and see what happens in China as the population begins to mix again. Pandemics like this tail off, rather than abruptly end. Sorry!

      • will says:
        20 Mar20 March 13:11

        It’ll be interested to see what happens in China. If everyone stays inside and doesn’t mix for 2-4 weeks then it could be eradicated but every single infected person and their contacts would need to do it.

        IF they sealed Wuhan properly in Feb and IF they have identified all new cases and contacts outside of Wuhan and IF they close borders to international travelers then how could it pop up again?

        Some very big IF’s there.

        I still think if we all lock ourselves away for a month we could eradicate it. Economically that’s probably cheaper than the alternative.

        What we all need is reliable, cheap home tests for both virus and antibody.

        Anyone with antibodies should be able to carry on even now.

        • Lady London says:
          20 Mar20 March 18:17

          No : people who do not have it can still be carriers

          • Shoestring says:
            20 Mar20 March 18:22

            Plague Mary

          • Will says:
            20 Mar20 March 23:05

            I didn’t realise that, always thought these cases were so rare there must be another explanation but apparently not.

            Is there evidence that this is true for a virus?

            I can understand bacteria but a virus needs a host cell, having just read a bit it’s surprising how little is known.

      • Lady London says:
        20 Mar20 March 18:15

        Tail off and sometimes resurge a bit later. If mutation then more dangerous. After this first shakeout I am actually worried about a resurgence in winter and this. As I think I mentioned Spanish flu was even more vicious in the second year.

        • Will says:
          20 Mar20 March 23:07

          And the worrying thing about Spanish flu is that the first wave was as expected affecting old and vulnerable the most.

          The second wave hurt the young and healthy hardest.

    • ChrisC says:
      20 Mar20 March 13:05

      China is reporting no new cases arising locally but they do have new cases from people returning back to the country.

    • Edd M says:
      20 Mar20 March 13:05

      My friend this is almost certainly with us for 12-18 months (although I cannot imagine this extent of lockdown will persist that long: but certainly some degree).

      See the Imperial College’s report, widely noted in the news media.
      Google:
      Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020

      • Harry T says:
        20 Mar20 March 13:13

        Anyone who thinks we can crack this with a month or two of staying indoors is not well informed.

      • will says:
        20 Mar20 March 13:13

        This lockdown is a walk in the park. In Wuhan they built fences around buildings to keep people in. It seems to have worked.

        I don’t see the appetite for dead loved ones that 12-18 months of this will bring. We are in the calm before the storm right now.

    • Chuck says:
      20 Mar20 March 13:24

      Wishful thinking … have you looked at the numbers in Italy ?

    • Spaghetti Town says:
      20 Mar20 March 13:45

      @ Roy Thomson. A psychic in 2008 predicted that we’d get a worldwide flu in 2020, and it would disappear as quickly as it arrived. Google it.

    • JRC says:
      21 Mar21 March 00:27

      Not aware of this, care to share more details.

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