BA 380/787 RIDE TOMORROW
 

Morning all.

Looking to get a ride on either of the above tomorrow.

Does anyone know if they are operating on a short haul flight tomorrow (sat) out of lhr.

As always thanks in advance.

BA 380/787 RIDE TOMORROW
 

Nope... Only long hauls

BA's sole A380 has not been flying any long-haul passenger sectors (yet).

For the past week it has been doing either one or two LHR-FRA-LHR rotations daily on the BA902/903 and/or BA910/911.

The exception was on Saturday 03/08, when it didn't fly at all. Whether it will fly tomorrow or not I don't know, but if it does then see above.

G-XLEA has just flown over, my first good sighting of a BA A380, should be at Heathrow in 2-3 minutes.

If the 787 has only just been delivered I would imagine it will do a few flights with staff as a 'load' until the crews get used to it.

Both types now carrying revenue pax !

Tomorrow's LHR-Stockholm-LHR BA780/781, out at 1330, should be a 787.

A380 has been shuttling back and forth to Frankfurt once, sometimes twice a day, but doesn't seem to be doing so tomorrow.

Absolutely nothing to stop you buying a ticket, if you can afford it....but a/c type
cannot be guaranteed, could be substituted, even at last minute......

787 G-ZBJB enroute STO-LHR even as we speak, ETA LHR 1939 BST

^ ...and G-XLEA a little ahead of it, heading in again from FRA

Hi ukdean,

For this weekend the plan is as follows:

A380
Saturday - No op.
Sunday - BA902/903 and BA910/911 LHR-FRA-LHR runs, G-XLEA.

B787
Saturday - BA780/781 LHR-ARN-LHR, G-ZBJB.
Sunday - BA780/781 LHR-ARN-LHR, G-ZBJA.

As ever, the usual caveat applies - the flights in question can be swapped to the regular 767s at any time and the regs are liable to change too.

Is it possible to purchase tickets for those flights ?

Yes, of course, they are revenue flights after all.

Subject to there being space available, of course. As I understand it, seats will only be sold up to 767 capacity, in case it's necessary to substitute one at short notice.

And if that happens, and you've booked expecting a 787 or A380, that's too bad - you won't get a refund.

According to a company notice I posted in another thread, the 787s are being sold up to capacity, the 380s only up to the capacity of the aircraft they replace

Why does BA not have a special A380 flight for the public / enthusiasts? Heathrow around the bay of Biscay (like Concorde used to do) and back to LHR? Its something that used to be done in years gone by (when BOAC first had the 747) it would be great publicity for the airline.

The A380 ain't supersonic :ugh:

With due respect Mr Fogg, what difference would it make if the subsonic A380 flew around the Bay of Biscay ? Surely the point of an enthusiast/public flight would be to go for a roundtrip somewhere not too far from LHR and that would fit the bill.

I think Concorde went to the BoB as it was a relatively close area where they could fly supersonic. With a sub-sonic plane they might have more options. I too think BA have missed a trick with 380 and 787.

No insult or sleight intended to our spotter friends but I suspect there's probably little training value in doing a once around the bay with a group of "on-side" enthusiasts who simply want to sample the airframe.

BA want feedback from revenue travellers and they'll get this by operating a revenue service to an out-station with revenue travellers who are more concerned about the entire product (e.g. boarding/food/cabin service/baggage delivery at destination, etc, etc,) than the aircraft

Resources aren't limitless so IMHO it makes sense for BA to use the new airframes to cover an exisiting service rather than using an extra, precious LHR slot, limited gate space and ground support to operat an additional pleasure/PR flight.

Well yes and no. There's normally plenty of spare capacity at LHR on Saturdays, with typically up to 10 BA non-scheduled/charter flights operating.

Ah, you live and learn, thanks..

That said you'd still find it hard to free up/source other resources for a "round the bay", especially at weekends...:E

Quite simply, they learned from the AF issues. Why hype up, sell and market a flight to fly on a specific aircraft type only for an aircraft to go tech and generate loads of bad publicity. Far better to take the policy of 'expect nothing and if you get an A380 it's a pleasant surprise'.