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Where will British Airways fly the A380 in Winter 2025?

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Whilst plans to refit the British Airways A380 fleet keep slipping further and further back, there’s no doubt that the aircraft still has a great attraction for flyers – even it means getting the old BA Club World seat!

Following some adjustments to the British Airways winter timetable last week, we have a (for now) firm plan for where the super jumbo will be heading.

Remember that the winter timetable runs from the last weekend in October to the last weekend in March.

BA A380 routes

The A380 will be flying on five routes from late October 2025:

Dubai

Following a recent timetable shift, Dubai will once again see one A380 service per day this winter, along with two Boeing 777 services. The latter two should have Club Suite.

Johannesburg

The timetable update now means that BOTH Johannesburg flights for winter 2025 will be flown with an A380.

Los Angeles

One daily flight will continue to operate with the A380, together with two Boeing 777 services. The latter should have Club Suite.

Where will British Airways fly the A380 this winter?

Miami

Originally scheduled as 1 x A380 and 1 x Boeing 787 service, BA is now showing an A380 offering both flights for the winter season.

San Francisco

One daily flight will continue to operate with the A380, together with a Boeing 777 service.

This means that the fleet of 12 A380s will operate seven daily departures from Heathrow. Four are flying on routes where a round trip takes more than 24 hours, and given the reliability of the A380 recently I assume there is spare capacity built in.

Whilst Boston and Washington see an A380 during the summer, it appears that the demand is not there during the winter. Dallas Fort Worth, currently an A380 route, is being transferred to American Airlines. Singapore is losing the A380 from 1st June.

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Comments (79)

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

  • Andrew J says:
    18 Feb18 February 06:07

    Headline should read “next winter”, as we’re currently in “this winter” and I think the article is referring to next winter.

    • Nick G says:
      18 Feb18 February 07:31

      Bit like next weekend……to me means a week AFTER the one coming up. To others it means the one due……

      I still don’t get it.

      • Larry says:
        18 Feb18 February 07:58

        would anybody saying ‘this weekend’ on a saturday mean the weekend coming? we’re still in the middle of ‘this’ winter, personally i agree with the comment…

        • BJ says:
          18 Feb18 February 08:43

          We’re 2ish weeks away from spring.

          • Rui N. says:
            18 Feb18 February 09:58

            We are over a month from spring

          • BJ says:
            18 Feb18 February 10:08

            @Rui N, I’ll trust the birds, the flowers and the trees. No reason to believe it will not be roughly March, April and May as usual depending where we are in the UK.

          • Rob says:
            18 Feb18 February 10:18

            Trust HfP! When we decide it is spring (at least in London) we swap over the logo on the chat thread post on the home page 🙂

          • BJ says:
            18 Feb18 February 10:38

            In other words … when Waitrose get the daffodils in.

          • Rui N. says:
            18 Feb18 February 11:28

            LMAO Spring starts on the SPRING equinox and is not depending on local conditions in the UK *facepalm*
            In aviation there is no spring in any case, just summer and winter. Winter ends when the clocks change in the UK

          • BJ says:
            18 Feb18 February 11:51

            Thanks @Rui N, LSNED on HfP 🙂

          • jjoohhnn says:
            18 Feb18 February 12:16

            I find it a bit baffling that BA are not capturing the October half term market and are offering flights out to various destinations, but then you can’t get back home again at the end of half term! Very short sighted!

          • Rui N. says:
            18 Feb18 February 12:57

            @jjoohhnn that’s because the end of half term is already at the beggining of the winter IATA season. They can add ad hoc flights of course, but it makes their lives much easier to just follow the IATA schedules (e.g. the slots will all change come 26 October).

      • CJD says:
        18 Feb18 February 08:56

        Indeed.

        ‘This Saturday’ refers to the 22nd February.

        ‘Next Saturday’s is the 1st March.

  • BJ says:
    18 Feb18 February 06:17

    I’ve had a flurry of emails from Qatar Airways about schedule and equipment changes to our flights this year. The most notable changes being that (for our dates at least) the A350-900 has been replaced by 787-8 or 787-9 on the EDI sectors. If this is generally true across most of the EDI schedule I suspect they may be losing business to the relaunched Emirates service. I wouldn’t be surprised as I believe Joe Blogs perceive Emirates as the most highly-valued airline brand. There are obviously a number of factors at play but I think for many the A380 is still a huge part of this, people still want to fly it and they know that even if they are not getting one to/from EDI then they might well be connecting to/from one at DXB. For multiple reasons I’ll be sticking with Qatar, and I get a few sectors on A380 with them anyway. I think most people probably don”t care what aircraft they fly but for many I think the A380 remains an exception.

    • A says:
      18 Feb18 February 06:36

      I’d say that’s true of the 747 too. Sadly no more for BA, but Lufty still fly them.

      • BJ says:
        18 Feb18 February 08:48

        Agreed, the only aircraft of last 50 years that had any sort of romantic aura were the 747, Concorde and A380. Sorry I passed up on my only chance to fly Concorde and still hoping that I may fly 747 one more time.

      • RussellH says:
        18 Feb18 February 10:11

        Did a return BA trip LHR-MIA in Y about 10 years ago. Out on an A380, back on a 747.
        The A 380 was not too unpleasant, the 747 was dreadful.

        A couple of years later did an LH trip FRA-SIN in J on an A380, returning HKG-FRA in F (using a 2-F-1 special offer advised about here). Both trips overnight and comfortable.

        Were I to ever do a long haul flight again, an A380 would definitely be a bonus, in my book.

    • numpty says:
      18 Feb18 February 07:25

      The good thing though is that Qatar seem to have swapped out the A350 to the 787-9 with the mini Q suite seat (subject to change).

      I fly QR on DOH to KUL and each time it was swapped out to an old 777 with the very old Biz class seat from Q Suite. On next flight I have avoided this old plane by booking the MH codeshare for the DOH to KUL sector for a change and MH aren’t likely to be swapping this out.

      • webloid says:
        18 Feb18 February 08:20

        Ah, but they do occasionally put a 330 on it.

      • BJ says:
        18 Feb18 February 08:53

        Thanks, I forgot the 787’9 had those seats
        The old 777s have their fans but the one time I hot one I was disappointed. IME you’ll get better food and service on MH so I think you made a smart choice.

      • Phillip says:
        18 Feb18 February 11:10

        Last weekend’s last minute swap was the other way round.. from the old old business to Q Suite on the 777-300ER operating QR853 on Saturday. It will be good when they get rid of that product (and some of the other peripheral ones such as the ex CX or VA aircraft), although it’s decent when travelling with someone on a day flight.

    • CJD says:
      18 Feb18 February 09:50

      If people flying from Edinburgh are desperate to try the A380 on Emirates then they’d be as well driving through to Glasgow.

    • Scotty665 says:
      18 Feb18 February 20:59

      Noticed today as well that the A350 from DOH – EDI was swapped for 787-9 for me too in June. Think someone else mentioned but at least it should be the “mini” Q suite.

      Feeling quite lucky as getting another chance at the 747 upper floor from Seoul to Hong Kong this summer on Korean Air. Not sure how many other opportunities we will have to fly the 747 again after this!

  • JR says:
    18 Feb18 February 06:28

    When is BA planning on doing the A380 refurbishment to new club suites? Although I prefer the old seat for sleeping, the cabin interior on those birds is really starting to show its age….

    • BJ says:
      18 Feb18 February 09:00

      That it keeps getting pushed back suggests never to me. They won’t even fit larger bins to the A320s because as @JDB keeps reminding us they are now the world’s most astute airline, while what we all want is to get the world’s favourite airline back…

    • SMP says:
      18 Feb18 February 10:33

      Agreed, the old seats are way more comfortable when actually sleeping. The new club suites are a bit too hard to sleep comfortably!

    • jjoohhnn says:
      18 Feb18 February 11:44

      Q3 2025 is the supposed schedule but not necessarily going to stick. They have their 12-year heavy maintenance checks due in Manilla, with one currently undergoing this. They strip the plane back completely, and they get new main landing gear, but apparently they are not going to be putting new cabins in when they refit it. No one is sure why. Supposedly the cabin refurb will occur in Manilla also!

  • ElSemm says:
    18 Feb18 February 06:47

    Certainly doesn’t have an attraction for me with it having old CW…..I personally hate that seat.

    • BJ says:
      18 Feb18 February 06:54

      I’d take it over 777 with CS but not A350 with CS.

    • numpty says:
      18 Feb18 February 07:27

      although I hate the seat, I always get the best sleep on that old seat/bed, way better than on any other seat. In the summer I flew Singapore in Biz, with the bulkhead seat (more leg room, no cubby hole) and hated it in seat mode and bed mode, so uncomfortable.

      • BJ says:
        18 Feb18 February 09:07

        I like the old CW seat when flying as a couple because my partner lijes the window seat and I the aisle. We also like the face to face asprct of seating. We are neither tall nor broad so seat also fits us fine. I dislike it flying solo though.

  • Simon says:
    18 Feb18 February 06:52

    Love the old seats (windows, upstairs, obvs), but would avoid these flights like the plague unless you don’t care about delays and missed connections.
    Just switched my LAX trip next month to the 777 flight as A380 reliability seems to be getting worse again.

  • PeterK says:
    18 Feb18 February 07:05

    For clarification, LHR-Dallas is back on sale with a single BA rotation for winter 2025/6, but on the 773. The BA cessation is only supposed to be temporary and for the coming summer season.

  • Iain says:
    18 Feb18 February 07:46

    I’ve not seen any A380s scheduled for IAD this summer. I thought the three rotations are being operated by 777, 787-8/9/10 and A350. Is the A380 an option?

    • bibby135 says:
      18 Feb18 February 18:29

      We are booked in F on A380 in August to IAD. Booked it a while ago – saw your comment and have just checked again. Still showing as A380 so must be scheduled.

  • Earthman says:
    18 Feb18 February 08:48

    Are there still 2 flights to Sin and what’s replacing the A380 on the 2nd one ?

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

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