Wheres all the nay-sayers now saying BA long haul has had it? now NYC, and then CPT....
Who said BA long haul "had it"? Straw man arguments don't help.
Some stats :
2005S ANU ATL BDA BGI DFW GND IAH KIN MCO TAB TPA UVF 12 destinations at 59 departures per week
2015S BDA BGI CUN GND KIN LAS MCO MRU PLS POS PUJ SKB TAB TPA UVF 15 destinations at 62 flights per week
Now between those two extremes for which I have data to hand, traffic fell to 46 departures per week in 2008S after Bermuda 2 was replaced allowing the old BCAL IAH/ATL/DFW routes to finally move to LHR. Growth since then has gotten them back to higher than the 2005 figure which was well down on hub days when we had B744s galore alongside B763s and based B777s.
Growth has come from leisure point to point where BA Holidays can sell good deals and where business customers can bust some accumulated AVIOS.
I was told again and again that JFK would not return as it was the lowest yielding LON-NYC rotation. However I suspect that the BA strategy has been tweaked to prevent Norwegian doing to BA long haul what easyJet did on short haul at Gatwick. Hence taking the fight to the competition with JFK coming back. Given the B777s are staying until end of life, there's scope for yet more hand me downs from LHR when enough B789s arrive. CPT was a very pleasant surprise although I was disappointed LAS was cut back, seemed like a very good LGW fit.
I only hope that they get use of the Satellite rather than the windowless gaterooms of Pier 2 when they get evicted, er willingly move out of the North Terminal to make way for easyJet.