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How many flights is British Airways operating at the moment?

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If you are wondering what is happening at Heathrow at the moment, I managed to get hold of the British Airways traffic figures for last Sunday.

Across the whole day, BA operated:

  • 43 passenger aircraft arrivals
  • 41 passenger aircraft departures
  • 15 cargo-only arrivals
  • 18 cargo-only departures

Long-haul departures were 33% full whilst short-haul departures were 76% full. This doesn’t account for no-shows so the actual number of people travelling will have been lower.

I have the total passenger numbers too but it may be too sensitive to publish. It is a low four-digit number in each direction.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

Get 5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

Huge 80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

20,000 points (ONLY TO 9TH DECEMBER) Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

30,000 points (TO 9TH DECEMBER) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (61)

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

  • George says:

    Cornercard will have no way of knowing if you’re on furlough, unless they call your employer or write to them, which they’re not going to do. And even then… Anyway, it’s none of their business and a lot of people on furlough have a surplus of cash waiting to be spent anyway.

    • Rob says:

      It is very hard to get a credit card if you are self employed at the moment though. Even Capital On Tap won’t touch you now unless you have a Limited Company.

      • Lloyd says:

        Let’s hope that this changes by the summer, as wife and I are both self employed, we stand to lose over 100,000 points between us if we can’t spend them!

      • Richard G says:

        This is news to me. What’s going on there?

        I am amused by the concept that my business of 20 years is less stable than if I was some random employee that a company could get rid of on a whim.

      • Pangolin says:

        True. My Experian rating is the maximum 999 yet the only credit cards it says are available to me are the Amex ones I already have!

        PS I understand that these ratings and actual suitability for credit are not one and the same but the point stands. Self employed? Computer says NO!

  • Brighton Belle says:

    What other methods are there to put a few points onto the LH account to stop points expiring?

    • E says:

      Think points expire 3 years after you got them regardless of what else you add to the account? So even if you added points now from Amex (not possible but an example), the just added points would be safe for 3 years from now but the points you gained 3 years ago would still expire imminently. The only ‘protective’ measure is the credit card.

      • Chris P says:

        There’s always the alternative of buying something from the Miles & More catalogue so at least you get something, rather than lose them completely. Sadly, their wine doesn’t seem available to UK residents but I used a 25% off points deal on Black Friday and now have a great glass teapot courtesy of Lufthansa!

        • Neil says:

          Where do they ship from if you buy something from the catalogue? Just wondering if you’ll now get stung for import duty.

          • kitten says:

            They shipped some Bose or Anker kit – can’t remember which – to me from Germany. pre-31 December though

          • Chris P says:

            My teapot was shipped from Germany BUT it was November 2020.

        • Alex Sm says:

          Converting them to Amazon voucher is the last resort (or an option for small amount – helped me a lot after MBNA cards were abandoned a couple of years ago)

      • Rob says:

        Correct. The only other option is to get LH status, but as they don’t do matches that is not an option.

  • Paul says:

    60 flights yesterday with 50% being ferry flights (ie) Cargo only.

    ISB and Africa have almost 100% load factors and, in the midst of this awful pandemic, one has to wonder why?

    • chabuddy geezy says:

      International students are still coming to the UK despite lockdown and remote teaching.

  • SH says:

    I flew to ACC on Monday for work and the First Wing check in staff told me they’re expecting 3000 departing passengers.

  • Andy S says:

    You could get a train from Horley to Gatwick Airport for £2 (less if you have a railcard) to aviod the £5 drop off charge or a shuttle bus.

    • Martin Louis says:

      But it’s the hassle of getting out of the car with luggage, getting into the station, onto a train, off again. Fine for 1 able bodied person but if there’s 2 or more then the savings go.

  • 1ATL says:

    Drop off at the Hilton South Terminal and walk through might be a work around moving forward. How about the North Terminal hotels (Sofitel, Premier Inn, Hampton)?

  • Alex Sm says:

    It would make a brilliant McKinsey-style recruitment task to test people’s logic and general knowledge.

    So, if we assume for simplicity that all short-haul flights are A320 and long-haul are a mix of B772 and B789, it will give us 180 seats for each short-haul and average 240 seats for each long-haul.

    Let’s also assume that LH and SH were roughly 1 to 2, i.e. 14 LH departures and 27 SH departures.

    LH: 14*240=3,360 and 33% of which are ca 1,100

    SH: 27*180=4,860 and 76% of which are ca 3,700

    The total is nearly 4,800, which is not exactly in low 4-digit, rather the middle of the range. There might be a flaw in my calculations, but can’t figure out where exactly. Any ideas?

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

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