British Airways
 

The BA174 flight in January 2014 from JFK to LHR is a 777. Does anyone know if it's the 772 or 773? Cheers

It's equally likely to be either, assuming it's not a 747-400.

You'll find out on the day, or rather the day before if you can ascertain what aircraft operated the outbound BA177.

On one or two of the days I have looked at it is down as a -300.

Changing it to a -200 could cause one or two issues with capacity but as DR has pointed out nothing is definite - on the day it could get subbed for a 200 or a 744

Currently down as a B77W but the usual disclaimer of 'things can change' applies.

Best way to tell is the seat maps. If it has 48 Club World seats, its a -200. If it has 56 Club World seats, its a -300ER.

BA DUB
 

Sat Ba839 xxld.....60 pax left no flts no hotels in Dublin
Reason given was failure to agree fuel load ex Dub? Seems an unusual
One???
Today major delays again on BA , pity because they are advertising again,
Even sent 380 over on Sunday but dozens passengers moved to EI and others
Due to go down to five/six flts from 28oct, what's happening ?

Fleet
 

As the A380 begins long haul flying for BA, I was wondering what routes, beyond those already announced, do you see the A380 being used on in the years to come?

Also, do you think BA might eventually go down the same route as Lufthansa and add the B747-8 to their fleet too, as more B744's are retired?

Not a chance.

no-one understands why LH bought those dreadful old bangers anyway - maybe a mis-print in the contract...........

Hi I have noticed this too- punctuality to and from BHD is woeful also. 1420 to bhd regularly delayed. Last night's by almost 3 hours. Twice due to baggage in hold problems and a few techs as well. It's almost as if they take pleasure in it!!

Pretty ridiculous to suggest an airline would take pleasure in delays....it costs them money !

There were probs at Heathrow yesterday due to visibility early in the day and also baggage belt probs .

I fly LHR/BFS regularly and can,t remember when I last had any significant delay.

Pretty ridiculous to say that you haven't had any significant delay when Aer Lingus pulled out from this route last October. :rolleyes:

That rather depends on whether the OP was using

BFS (IATA airport code) = Belfast (Aldergrove/International)
or
BFS (IATA metropolitan code) = Belfast (all airports)

Given that the context was his flying regularly to Belfast, it's not hard to work out which he must have meant.

Looking at the stats for the last couple of months, they are pretty grim though - fewer than two-thirds of BA's Heathrow-Belfast flights were airborne within half-an-hour of the STD.

Surely though the key metric is arrival punctuality? Block times for departures from Heathrow to anywhere are usually padded to account for the inevitable delays queuing for take-off etc., so still being on the ground within 30 minutes of STD doesn't automatically imply a correspondingly late arrival.

No, of course not - the block time will, as you say, contain an allowance for taxy in/out and inbound holding delays.

In fact, having just done the same calculation for BA on Heathrow-Edinburgh, the Belfast stats don't actually look too bad on reflection - over the last 2 months, just over half the departures to EDI got airborne within the half-hour. Those that didn't include the 13:00 departure on Tuesday of this week which took off at 7pm. :O

Are BA not just interested in RTG time rather than actual std?

They publish two metrics in their Annual Report: RTG and 15-minute departure punctuality (55% and 79%, respectively, for last year).

I've never come across "Actual STD".

What's driving the poor punctuality then? Is it the lack of segregation of arriving and departing passengers from the ROI still clogging things up when the glass doors are shut or is it Menzies the handling agent in comparison with BA self handling at T5? Or is it the ongoing malarkey involved in bussing?

It appears to be a combination of all of the above as well as crew airframes and even baggage containers having to be moved from T5 across to T1.
Many flights to BHD and DUB have been delayed due crew rotation between terminals. A move for all routes to T5 may help improve performance.

Quote: "What's driving the poor punctuality then? Is it the lack of segregation of arriving and departing passengers from the ROI still clogging things up when the glass doors are shut or is it Menzies the handling agent in comparison with BA self handling at T5? Or is it the ongoing malarkey involved in bussing?"

All this nonsense isn't helping!


Quote: "It appears to be a combination of all of the above as well as crew airframes and even baggage containers having to be moved from T5 across to T1.
Many flights to BHD and DUB have been delayed due crew rotation between terminals. A move for all routes to T5 may help improve performance."

Good idea, but LHR-5, as big as it is, is apparently not big enough for all of BA (and IB). BA still have flights out of LHR-1 and LHR-3.

It was a lot easier when it was LHR-1 for shorthaul BA and LHR-4 for longhaul BA.

In reality the delays problem it's probably a combination of all these factors on LHR-BHD, especially if EI experiences similar delays on this route.


Quote: "Surely though the key metric is arrival punctuality? Block times for departures from Heathrow to anywhere are usually padded to account for the inevitable delays queuing for take-off etc., so still being on the ground within 30 minutes of STD doesn't automatically imply a correspondingly late arrival."

Indeed it is! However, flights to/from LHR have had extended block times for years. It's to account for the time spent queueing to takeoff and circling while waiting to land.

It bloody wasn't! Transfer between the two for connecting flights was a joke.

Quote: "It bloody wasn't! Transfer between the two for connecting flights was a joke."

Fair comment, point taken.

The only reason the present LHR-1/LHR-3/LHR-5 split may be better than the old LHR-1/LHR-4 split is because of the relatively small numbers of BA ops at LHR-1 and LHR-3. For those few pax enduring the cross terminal transfer it's still "a joke".

It's not a bundle of laughs for those on a BA/other Oneworld alliance transfer either.

Clearly for the majority who can now transfer under one roof at LHR-5, it's immensely better!

It illustrates the need, in the long term, for (1) redevelopment of LHR-3, (2) shared satelites between LHR-3 and LHR-5, and (3) the extension of the transit to link all these and the new LHR-1/2 and its satelites.

Does anyone know the routes/flights for the BA Boeing 777-3 for January 2014?

Tokyo Narita
Singapore /Sydney
Shanghai
Rio from Late Oct
JFK
Hong Kong

DXB and BOM have had a few

The one for JFK, do you know the flight time/flight number?

airbus tech issues
 

Following recent postings about delays, yesterday's departure BA LHR-ABZ 11.50 delayed. Reason given eventually was a tech fault. Replacement plane brought in which worringly also had a problem, so flight cancelled and passengers later took off at 18.30.
Similarly, BA304 to CDG taxiing to runway returned to stand with a tech fault resulting in a 3 hr delay and a replacement plane.

Sheer coincidence or poor maintenance issues?

Current planned 773 BA JFK - BA179/182

airbus tech issues
 

Coincidence that three technical defects on BA short-haul flights from LHR involved Airbus aircraft, you mean ?

yes, sorry that is what I meant!

sheer coincidence

Cheers. One final question. I believe BAs 772 are undergoing refurbishment... How many have been done does anyone know?

I'm flying to JFK in Jan 2014 and am hoping for the new cabin....

Well if you picked any 3 BA short-haul LHR tech delays at random, there's an 85% chance that they would involve 3 Airbus aircraft, given that those operate around 19 out of every 20 such flights.

Well yes - if you widen the scope beyond just S/H at LHR, you will probably find on any given day tech issues affecting most types in the fleet. 'Twas ever thus.

BA 787
 

Due to fly lhr to yyz next wed. With all negative comment about LOT and Norwegian 787 just wondering how aircraft is performing for BA?
Has anyone been on a BA 787 service? How did you rate it?

I saw a corporate TV ad by BA the other evening, pushing the 787. I cannot understand why they used CGi instead of the real machine.

I understand, of course, that it's far cheaper and you get what you want - but it looks fake and BA are trying to sell something real (their service).

Perhaps they used cgi because if they showed you the service you really get no one would book with them?

When did u last fly with BA ?

Many are really happy with BA, always excellent and looking forward to flying again, club world, LHR/YVR just before Christmas.:ok:

Chrisy08,

The 777 refurbishment has been completed. All of the older birds (G-ZZZ* and most of the G-VII* series plus G-RAES) were done. These were all the aircraft that had the old GMIS video tape 'loop' system. These all now have New First and the new style WT+ and WT seats (along with the Thales AVOD system).

The aircraft that weren't done were the ones already fitted with the Rockwell Collins system (the same system that is used on the 747s and 767s). These include all of the LGW 777s, G-VIIX/Y and all the G-YMM* series.

JFK is served by a mixture of all types. I'd say your chances are about 50/50 if I'm honest. If you manage to get a 777-300ER service, then this will be guaranteed to have the new interior (unless there's a last min aircraft change). Good luck!

dochealth,

Although I don't have specific figures, the 787 has been performing much better than it has for LOT and Norwegian. Like all new aircraft coming into a fleet, there will always be teething problems. I am not aware of any services having to have been cancelled or switched to another aircraft type though. At worst, a few hours delay. Most of the flights are leaving on time and there is usually a standby aircraft to cover the YYZ and EWR services depending on the day. The only negative comments I've seen have been the seating in traveller being quite tight. I've not flown the aircraft so I can't really comment. I'm sure you'll have a great time on board.

Regards,

Champ

Thanks for the info. Will post impressions on my return...

Great to see Oporto, Mykonos and Santorini being offered from LHR next summer. Presumably taking advantage of the charter flights currently operated this year. Odd that LGW got nothing in the next round.