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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.

  • Tony says:

    Only when the A380s aren’t broken and unserviceable….like most of the time!!

  • tomtom135 says:

    We have an upcoming 241 1st redemption on an A380 to Johannesburg.

    I’m preparing for the possibility of our flight being cancelled and have been meaning to ask on here what our rights are in the event that happens, if anyone happens to know. Guessing I just call the exec club number and go from there.

    • Dunders says:

      @tomtom135
      We flew in 2023 LHR to JNB and the flight was a day delayed due to A380 technical fault. BA paid us compensation under Air Passenger Rights Regulations of £520 each, as well as hotel/food etc while in LHR. I also claimed from my travel insurance for onward delays such as JNB airport hotel, flight changes etc. For BA claims – it was a simple enough form to raise a case, and payment was made quite quickly.

      • NorthernLass says:

        We also got delay compo in December ’23 when our DXB flight was delayed due to technical issues, though only £520 between us as they managed to land just a smidge under 4 hours late!
        I still say it was my best CW flight ever, having managed to bag 56K on the upper deck, which had the most personal space of any BA cabin I’ve been in across the 4 classes!

    • NorthernLass says:

      If it’s actually cancelled, you have re-routing rights under UK law, to be put on another flight to your destination, in the same cabin class. Do a bit of research on here and other sites if you’re really worried, but the important thing is not to be fobbed off with a refund if that’s not what you want!

      • babyg_wc says:

        yup agreed with NorthernLass about re-routing, i moved to a QR flight when my BA flight was cancelled late last year…

    • tomtom135 says:

      thanks for all the replies above, very helpful

  • R_B says:

    Good article. I know now what routes to avoid with BA’s A3-latey!

  • Jordan D says:

    Had been told by ground staff there (pre-pandemic, so may have changed), that one of the main reasons that BOS lost its A380 service in winter was due to a lack of deicing equipment that was suitable for the larger plane. No idea if this remains the case.

  • Hak says:

    Well the AA LHR-LAX tomorrow has been cancelled and I have just been rebooked onto an A380 with BA. We will see. Quite the downgrade given its a Club World seat compared to the business seat on AA. Got to say, AA’s customer service was super efficient. Less than 30 seconds to wait and all rebooked in under 10 minutes.

    • MarkMD says:

      If you can get 53A or 53K, they’re as good as you’ll get. Upper deck and aisle access.

      • Mark says:

        Just try getting out in the middle of the night without collapsing the footstool and then having to faff around to get it back into place. I actively dislike old CW for lots of reasons, but if I have to fly it now I will always choose an aisle seat where you can easily slide sideways and stand up.

        • Hak says:

          Well we got a side pair of seats (14k and 14j I think). It was a day flight so stayed up and just read for the majority of the 11 hour flight. Not been in business class with BA for a while so I was impressed with the food and the staff were pleasant and helpful. Getting out of the window seat was a bit of a pain but I am reasonably small and slim so hopping over did not prove too problematic. So, overall, it was perfectly okay. Will have a moan to AA and see whether they will throw me some points for my hurt feelings etc Only! Only downside was that someone at baggage collection took my bag but thankfully that was returned later the same evening!

  • Jon says:

    Just back from LAX last night on the A380. I was worried about delays, but no problem. I still like old CW – it’s much more sociable with a partner and I slept like a log!

    • babyg_wc says:

      agreed, old CW is great for a family too, and the bed mode doesnt have the lumps like the new CSuite… CSuite is better for instagrammers thou…

  • Dave1234 says:

    Flew with QR to Australia on the A380 while I had a cold and the air conditioning on it was so dry it was quite an unpleasant inexperience. The crew also said they didn’t like it. The bar however was a nice novelty.

  • RC says:

    ‘Due to customer feedback we have allocated A380s to Johannesburg. Our customers told us that since the planes spend all day on the ground, they’d prefer to see their flights hit with long delays without affecting the return flight. Our customers also told us that despite the aircraft often being on the ground all day, cleaning was not their top priority- so we don’t clean them’

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

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