Great news!
BA are going to have to increase its international long-haul capability if it will successfully compete against the Middle Eastern and Asian giants. Operating a fleet that can fly to thinner long-haul routes (i.e., LHR to Manila) efficiently will be critical and the B787s and A350s will help. The A380s and some of the larger 777s can handle the main trunk routes while these types can fill in on the mid-sized cities. How else can you compete with aggressive first-class carriers like Emirates and Qatar Airways who are taking market share in long-haul markets to/from North American and Asian cities? When a business person needs to fly from San Francisco to Mumbai, BA is no longer the first consideration....
In the future, Emirates will only expand its connections and quality service to more and more cities (basically one stop service through Dubai to any big/midsized city in the world) - BA and the other Euro-based legacies will need to fight hard to be relevant to non-European long-haul passengers and differentiate their products if they intend to maintain (and maybe even grow) their market share.
Last edited by Iver; 22nd Apr 2013 at 18:59.