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How much smaller is the British Airways long haul fleet post pandemic?

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The British Airways long haul fleet is smaller than it was before the pandemic – but how much smaller?

As our other article today explains, British Airways is rumoured to be leasing an A330neo from Air Belgium to fly to Chicago for five months. Given the squeeze on the fleet, it has few options.

Routes such as Bangkok, Seoul, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Kuala Lumpur and Durban will probably come back to the British Airways network in time. The retirement of over 30 Boeing 747 aircraft during covid is causing severe issues, however.

BA 747 retirement

British Airways currently has 15 fewer long haul aircraft than it had in March 2020. Average utilisation per aircraft is unchanged at 13 hours per day, meaning that there is a direct correlation to miles flown by the long haul fleet.

Here is how the fleet looked in March 2020 (hat-tip to Rob Walker on LinkedIn):

  • 5 x A350-1000
  • 0 x Boeing 787-10 (not yet introduced)
  • 18 x Boeing 787-9
  • 12 x Boeing 787-8
  • 12 x A380-800
  • 12 x Boeing 777-300
  • 45 x Boeing 777-200
  • 32 x Boeing 747-400

…. for a total of 136 aircraft.

Here is how it looks now:

  • 13 x A350-1000
  • 7 x Boeing 787-10
  • 18 x Boeing 787-9
  • 12 x Boeing 787-8
  • 12 x A380-800
  • 16 x Boeing 777-300
  • 43 x Boeing 777-200
  • 0 x Boeing 747-400 (all retired)

…. for a total of 121 aircraft.

British Airways a380

Is British Airways going to fill the 15 aircraft gap with new arrivals? Not for a while. There are 10 x A350 and Boeing 787 aircraft to be delivered over the next couple of years – the 14th A350 is imminent. There will then be a gap until at least 2026 until the first of the Boeing 777-9 fleet arrives.

We’re probably looking at 2027 until the long haul fleet is back at 136 aircraft. This means that we may be waiting for four years to see a long haul schedule as varied as the one we had in 2019.

(In case you’re wondering, the narrow body fleet for short haul is pretty much as it was pre pandemic at 143 aircraft. Finnair and Avion are both providing additional resources at the moment with leased aircraft.)

Don’t get your hopes up too high though. In general, the new aircraft being delivered are smaller than the Boeing 747 aircraft they are replacing and this situation will only get worse if the A380 fleet is retired early. Even if the missing British Airways routes come back over the next few years, there may be a squeeze on the number of seats available.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (109)

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

  • Ben says:
    7 Jun7 June 07:23

    Also the 777-9s are massively delayed – expected to introduced from last year to replace the 747s. They’re not arriving any time soon, either.

  • Rock&Roll says:
    7 Jun7 June 07:29

    BA fly only to HKG and SIN, why they not fly to KUL, BKK or HAN it’s big pots for me it’s a big mistake or part deal with QA?

    • Rob says:
      7 Jun7 June 07:57

      Zero demand for £10k full fare business class tickets. Even if there was demand, BA can get £10k per seat flying to the US East Coast and it takes half the time.

      • Chris W says:
        7 Jun7 June 08:14

        What business is paying £10k to fly a staff member across the Atlantic in a post-pandemic world where so much can be done on zoom?

        • Rob says:
          7 Jun7 June 09:11

          Loads. Hyatt paid £10k last year to fly me to NY to attend a party. You’ve clearly never worked for businesses where money is no object.

        • JAXBA says:
          7 Jun7 June 11:16

          The US government, National Grid, AT&T… yes, they’re paying it…

        • GeoffreyB says:
          7 Jun7 June 14:04

          Businesses waste loads of money. They’re generally not particularly efficient.

          Can have a meeting in the office? No let’s go and hire a hotel for hundreds/thousands of pounds for a few days even though there’s more than enough space in the office etc.

      • yorkieflyer says:
        7 Jun7 June 08:37

        Yet they continue to launch flights to US cities you’ve never heard of?

        • Rob says:
          7 Jun7 June 09:06

          Because there will be a few regional banks or funds there flying people to London at £10k per pop. Routes may also be subsidised – Aer Lingus actually put out ads pre covid inviting US cities to submit lump sum bids to get them to launch routes.

          No country with its own flag carrier will be bunging BA a few £m to fly there.

      • davet says:
        7 Jun7 June 08:50

        I was shocked when I saw my friends wifes monthly business class seat to the US at over £10k

        • TGLoyalty says:
          7 Jun7 June 09:38

          Large businesses will get a total business based rebate at the end of the year.

          Ie give BA £1m of sales and you’ll get a 25% rebate etc

    • jjoohhnn says:
      7 Jun7 June 10:18

      They have a lack of fleet and crew. By the time they are back to pre-covid numbers then some of these routes might return.

  • Thomas says:
    7 Jun7 June 08:04

    I think this article misses one of the key points, that they have very little slack in the long haul fleet at present, coupled with the additional flying time per aircraft means the planes are going tech much more often. Or indeed they don’t have the aircraft to operate routes and are making lots of short notice cancellations. This is a key point as these types of cancellations are eligible for 261 compensation (seen a lot of cancellations on BA48/49, also on LHR-IAH, plenty of LHR-ORD and LHR-HND)

  • Mark says:
    7 Jun7 June 08:12

    At the start of the pandemic there were 46 777-200s/-200ERs, assuming everything else is correct, that takes it to a gap of 16 aircraft.

  • Richie says:
    7 Jun7 June 08:20

    The silver lining is BA short haul slot sitting at LHR will continue, so keep collecting those Avios and be ready for May half term 24 availability popping up soon.

  • Tony says:
    7 Jun7 June 08:23

    Should have kept the 747s….we all told them so!! But the work experience kid knew better!!

    • Rhys says:
      7 Jun7 June 09:38

      Why? I’m sure BA is enjoying the high fares it can currently charge.

  • Mark says:
    7 Jun7 June 08:27

    There’s also more of a squeeze on premium seating than anything. To an extent the impact of smaller aircraft is offset by higher density configurations, e.g. 331 seats on the A350s which is broadly in line with the total count on the old ‘Mid J’ 52 business class seat 747s. In addition a number of the 777-200ERs have been reconfigured from 4 to 3 class, and most now with 10 abreast economy.
    It would be interesting to compare the number of F seats in the fleet. That must be way down on what it was.

    • jjoohhnn says:
      7 Jun7 June 10:29

      F seats. A massive reduction if you consider the numbers of seats on aircraft at present. But this is also common on other airlines, with some ditching F altogether:

      A35K – none
      781 – 8
      789 – 8
      777 (Club Suite) – 8
      777 (Club World) – 14
      A380 – 14

      Compared to the older aircraft:
      747 – 14
      772 – 17 in some configurations

      Once the 777’s are fully refurbed then it’ll only be the 380 that has double figures. If they keep the 380 longer term then they may get refurbed and reduced also. Although with the galley positionings on the 380 it might not make sense to do that.

      But consider that Club Suite is a step forward towards first compared with Club World, so where people were upgrading to F for the seat, there is perhaps less incentive to do that on newer business products.

  • Colin MacKinnon says:
    7 Jun7 June 08:40

    Even if they had the aircraft, they don’t have the pilots.

    Not only are older pilots I have met flying part-time, they are also leaving. Just not the job it was, they say.

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