yep very large tankering operation for BA shorthaul, costing in both terms of fuel and in this cold weather de-icing. Also large amount of longhaul tankering from various destinations, which is updated almost daily according to the varying costs of fuel. Last time I flew we were tankering from JFK (7 flights a day) EWR (3 x day) SFO (2 x day) BOS (3 xday) YVR (1x day) CAI (1 day) LOS (1 day) PHL (2 x day) IAD (3 x day) together with various other destinations, many being told to land with a minimum of 40 tonnes of fuel(taking aircraft performance into account). Last flight I did from JFK we tankered 80 tonnes of fuel, landing at 100kg under our MLW
Thats how tight its being planned. So on reflection it looks like BA are fareing no better than the US carriers, the only advantage we have is a degree of flexibility which would be afforded to any home based carrier.