British Airways All Business Class Flights London City to New York
British Airways has announced an all business class flight service from London City airport to New York in a bid to attract high-revenue passengers from the financial district around Canary Wharf. |
British Airways plan to operate 2 Airbus A318 aircraft configured to 32 lie-flat seats which will be similar to the current Club World business class service. Passengers will be able to check-in just 15 minutes before departure and this will be seen as a huge plus point for those coming from the City, which is a short hop away on the London Docklands Light railway.
The minor downside is that a stop in Ireland is needed on the outbound leg. Due to the short length on City airport's runway, the A318 will have to refuel at Shannon airport and all passengers have to disembark - although they may be able to clear US customs there. The return leg can be flown non-stop.
The key selling point for BA is the London City departure and tight check-in time allowance - so passengers can avoid the cross-town journey to London Heathrow and get airborne relatively quickly. Whether this is enough to persuade passengers to tolerate the stop in Ireland remains to be seen. However total journey time from central London is likely to be similar to the non-stop flights if one checks in at the latest allowable time.
Fares are likely to be around the standard Club level - we shall see if BA is willing to offer some good discounts as they establish the service. Like PrivatAir all-business services to the US (for Lufthansa, KLM, Swiss) you will be able to mix these flights with the normal scheduled service. So you could fly non-stop from London Heathrow and return to London City if you wanted to avoid the refuelling stop.
Note the other all-biz airlines - Silverjet, Maxjet and EOS Airlines - who served London to New York - have all gone bankrupt recently.
The BA 'City' flights are due to commence in 2009.
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