(Picture by Nick Morrish/British Airways)

British Airways is joining the response against COVID-19 with a company-wide task force who will bring their skills and expertise to communities across the UK to help the fight against the COVID-19 virus.

The current reduction in the number of flights means British Airways is in the position of having thousands of cabin and flight crew with more time available and an appetite to volunteer. Their advanced first aid qualifications, combined with their natural passion for looking after people, means that they can bring both technical training and natural kindness to a range of desperately needed roles for a range of organisations, including the NHS.

Other teams in the airline specialize in the logistics that sit behind getting 800 flights a day to 200 destinations around the world and those skills can also benefit the community-at-large.

The airline has been in talks with a number of organisations in order to deploy its volunteers most usefully. These include the NHS via their Helpforce team, which organises volunteers for the NHS and could involve working at the Nightingale hospitals being set up in London, Manchester and Birmingham  as well as transporting patients and NHS workers.

British Airways is also pairing volunteers who have first aid training and clinical skills with St John Ambulance to support their emergency response units within the community. Similarly, members from that same highly skilled crew community can apply to volunteer with the London Ambulance Service to take 999 or 111 calls, triaging the caller and placing them in a clinical queue to speak to a qualified medical professional.

The airline already has a partnership with the British Red Cross providing vital support for their UK response work and will be encouraging more colleagues to sign up to their Community Reserve Volunteer network to provide practical assistance in local communities. Right now, the British Red Cross is mobilising volunteers across the UK to support the response to Covid-19 by, for example, helping out at local foodbanks and supporting NHS hospitals.

Sadly, many older people who are self-isolating are coming into even less contact with their community than normal, leading to a spike in both physical and emotional support being required. Volunteers from around the airline will be encouraged to reach out to older and more vulnerable people with help, for example via Age UK, be that collecting a prescription, dropping-off food or helping to combat loneliness with a daily phone call for a chat.

The airline also has ongoing relationships with a number of food bank providers, including The Trussell Trust where volunteering duties for staff could include sorting and packing food donations, collecting supplies from supermarkets and delivering food to people in greatest need.

British Airways is also donating its on board wash bags, socks and blankets to various NHS Trusts and continues to work with agency partners to offer help where it is most needed. And flying crew from British Airways and other airlines have set up Project Wingman at the Whittington Hospital in North London, where NHS workers are welcomed into a mini first class lounge for a cup of tea and a chat during or after a busy shift.

Money that British Airways’ customers and colleagues have raised through Flying Start, the airline’s partnership with Comic Relief, is also being used towards a covid-19 response, which is enabling Comic Relief to reach out across their network to communities hardest hit and most in need, such as those who are experiencing domestic violence or homelessness.

Further afield, the airline has been collaborating with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to fly people home to their friends and families before borders close and its sister company, IAG Cargo, has been working around the clock to ship essential freight including food and medicines across the globe to communities in need.

Organizations wishing to request help from British Airways can contact community.branch@ba.com.

British Airways aircraft photo gallery (Boeing):

British Airways CEO Alex Cruz has warned its employees that “jobs will be lost” due to the coronavirus outbreak.

“As a result, we are suspending routes and will be parking aircraft in a way that we have never had to before. Please do not underestimate the seriousness of this for our company.”

Read the full memo via Lewis Goodall who published the memo on social media.

In other news, BA has introduced flexible changes for anyone due to travel up to May 31, 2020. Visit ba.com/confidence for more information about your options.

British Airways aircraft photo gallery:

British Airways has made this announcement:

• British Airways trials state-of-the-art, fully autonomous vehicles at JFK Airport to help customers navigate the airport terminal freely and independently
• Autonomous devices are the latest innovation to complement the airline’s investment in customer service, including the introduction of a specialist accessibility team
• British Airways aims to be the airline of choice for customers requiring additional assistance; Chairman and CEO Alex Cruz recently signed The Valuable 500 pledge

British Airways has become the first airline to trial fully autonomous, electric mobility devices in North America as it continues its journey to become the airline of choice for customers with both hidden and visible disabilities.

Almost half a million customers who require additional assistance fly with British Airways each year and with this number due to rise by 10 per cent by 2021 the airline is exploring new ways to offer a seamless travel experience, including trialling self-driving, self-navigating, electric vehicles from Japanese technology firm, WHILL.

The devices, which were exclusively trialled by British Airways customers at New York’s JFK Airport, are equipped with anti-collision technology and allow customers to set their preferred destination anywhere within the airport. The vehicle safely navigates the terminal without the need for assistance from travel companions or the airport support team, currently responsible for escorting customers from check-in directly to the boarding gate.

Offering additional independence for customers who are unable to walk long distances but may not have their own wheelchair, the autonomous mobility devices give customers the freedom to explore the airport at their leisure, changing destination as many times as they like on their way to the boarding gate. Once they reach the gate, the customer alights and the device will self-drive back to the docking station ready for the next customer.

“Over the next few months we will be collaborating on a further trial at our busy home hub at Heathrow Terminal 5 to gather more feedback and explore the introduction of this technology alongside our team of customer service professionals to provide a truly seamless and accessible airport experience. I’m excited about the future of inclusive innovation to support the accelerating demand for accessible air travel.”

British Airways has invested in a number of initiatives to encourage more customers with disabilities to travel. The airline has seen customer satisfaction more than double for travellers with accessibility needs following the creation of a specialist acessibility team to support them before, during and after their journey as part of its £6.5 billion investment programme for customers.

British Airways has announced a new target to remove more than 700 tons of single-use plastic on board its flights in 2020, amounting to more than a quarter of a billion individual items of plastic and equivalent to more than 30,000 suitcases full of single-use plastic*, even more than the number of bags customers check in with the airline at Heathrow on an average day.

The airline has already rolled out initiatives to remove 25 million individual items of single-use plastic on board each year, equivalent to 90 tonnes, and has now set itself an ambitious target to increase this by more than 700%.

British Airways has been working closely with its suppliers to identify alternatives to single-use plastic items, and this year it will replace as many as possible with recyclable or re-usable items or items from sustainable sources. To date, the airline has achieved the following plastic reductions:

• Swapped plastic stirrers with bamboo alternatives
• Reduced plastic packaging on Club World amenity kits
• Swapped plastic wrapping for all bedding and blankets for paper wrapping (currently being rolled out across all cabins)

• Removed plastic wrapping on headsets and instead placed these inside paper charity envelopes in World Traveller cabins
• Water bottles on board are made from 50% recycled plastic
• Removed inflight retail plastic bags

The target also includes finding alternatives to single-use plastic cutlery, tumblers, cups, toothpicks and butter packaging on board. The airline described the process of making these changes as complex, with a significant amount of research required to ensure that the alternative products sourced are credibly sustainable, offer the same hygiene levels as their plastic counterparts and do not outweigh the items they replace.

Kate Tanner, British Airways’ Customer Experience Manager said:

“Our customers have told us that they want to see these changes and we’re pleased to have made real strides in our journey to becoming more sustainable. We’ve spent a long time researching how to make sustainable changes without causing environmental impact elsewhere. For instance, we are looking at the amount of water and detergent needed to wash metal cutlery and how often it needs to be replaced versus using plastic or bamboo cutlery.

“We’ve looked at how we ensure blankets and other items can be kept clean without a plastic covering and the lifespan of all the new items compared to the existing ones. Some potential replacement options may be heavier, which would then have an impact on the weight of the aircraft and therefore on our emissions, so we must ensure we are making the right choices on all replacements.”

The airline has a team of more than 170 War on Waste cabin crew champions who promote best practice among crew and identify potential new initiatives to improve waste reduction and recycling practices on board. British Airways says it now expects its suppliers to offer sustainable alternatives as standard and will be making continual changes to its onboard products as they become available.

To mark the new target British Airways commissioned eco-artist Sarah Turner to create a giant suitcase made from a thousand pieces of waste plastic, including 160 spoons, more than a dozen plastic stirrers, drinks lids, plastic wrap, bubble wrap, catering dishes and covers and bottles. The sculpture, which represents the 30,000 suitcases worth of plastic waste being removed, is currently on display at British Airways’ Headquarters near Heathrow.

British Airways is committed to reducing its environmental impact. In October 2019, the airline committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.  From January this year, British Airways began offsetting carbon emissions on all its flights within the UK and is investing heavily in new, more fuel-efficient aircraft and in the development of sustainable aviation fuels.

NOTES:

• *Figure based on suitcases weighing 23kg.
• The target of removing upwards of 700 tonnes of single-use plastic equates to more than 30,000 suitcases (23kg) – more than the combined weight of all baggage checked in with British Airways at London Heathrow each day.

More information on British Airways’ sustainability plan can be found here.

Cape Town Sunset Panorama

British Airways is adding more flights to some of its most popular destinations in the US and South Africa from April*.

The airline will be increasing its services from Heathrow to Miami, Seattle and Cape Town, offering those customers who want to travel during the busy spring period more flexibility.

British Airways recently announced that it would be increasing services next  winter from Gatwick to Cape Town, St Lucia and Cancun. The airline will also be launching six new European routes starting from July from Heathrow to Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Montenegro and Turkey.

*Increased services will vary by destination and may be subject to change:

·       Cape Town will increase by three services a week From March 30 until April 19

·       Seattle will increase by a daily service from May 1 until May 31

·       Miami will increase by a daily service from April 1 until May 31