Tag Archives: British Airways

British Airways paints an Airbus A320neo in a new sustainability program livery

British Airways has made this announcement:

British Airways has launched its new BA Better World sustainability program, describing it as its ‘most important journey yet’
The airline partnered with Airbus to paint one of its most modern, fuel-efficient A320neos in its new sustainability program colors
British Airways also announced a new collaboration with bp to source sustainable aviation fuel in respect of all its flights between London, Glasgow and Edinburgh during the UK COP26 conference, providing a lifecycle carbon reduction of up to 80% compared to the traditional jet fuel it replaces
From today, British Airways customers will be able to purchase sustainable aviation fuel to reduce their carbon footprint in combination with carbon offsets

British Airways has today launched BA Better World, its new sustainability program.

The airline said this marked a further commitment to put sustainability at the heart of its business, from reducing emissions and waste and positively contributing to the communities it serves, to creating a great place for people to work in order to build a resilient, responsible business.

At an event at British Airways’ Heathrow engineering base this morning the airline unveiled a new look for one of its most fuel-efficient short-haul aircraft, an A320neo (G-TTNA), which it has painted in its new BA Better World sustainability colors as part of a partnership with aircraft manufacturer Airbus.

British Airways has long been leading the aviation industry’s efforts to decarbonize. In 1992 it was the first airline to report its carbon footprint. In 2002 it became the first airline to participate in UK emissions trading. In 2019 British Airways’ parent company IAG became the first airline group in the world to commit to net zero CO2 emissions by 2050, and last year British Airways became the first major airline to voluntarily offset all emissions from its domestic flights.

After unveiling the new aircraft livery, British Airways announced a collaboration with bp, committing to source sustainable aviation fuel with respect to all its flights between London, Glasgow and Edinburgh during the UK’s COP26 climate change summit being held in Glasgow later this year*. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is blended with traditional jet fuel to comply with aviation fuel certification standards. The SAF sourced for the COP26 period provides a lifecycle carbon reduction of up to 80% compared to traditional jet fuel. **

In a UK first, British Airways also announced that from today its customers can purchase sustainable aviation fuel to reduce their carbon footprint via its not-for-profit organization Pure Leapfrog***. This is in addition to the existing option for customers to offset their emissions.

The collaboration with bp forms part of British Airways’ long-term commitment to the development and use of sustainable aviation fuel. The airline’s parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG), is investing $400m over the next 20 years into the development of SAF, with British Airways forming partnerships with a number of technology and fuel companies to develop SAF plants and purchase the fuel, including with Velocys in the UK and LanzaJet in the US. British Airways, as part of an IAG commitment, recently stated it would power 10 per cent of its fuel needs with SAF by 2030.

Speaking at the event, British Airways CEO and Chairman Sean Doyle said:

“With BA Better World we’re on our most important journey yet – to a better, more sustainable future and one which will ensure the long-term success of our business. We’re clear that we have a responsibility to reduce our impact on the planet and have a detailed plan to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, including investing in more fuel-efficient aircraft, improving our operational efficiency and investing in the development of sustainable aviation fuel and zero emissions aircraft.

“It is only through working in partnership with Government and industry that we’ll be able to reach our targets and I’m delighted that, thanks to our new collaboration with bp, we’re able to source enough sustainable aviation fuel with respect to all our flights between London, Glasgow and Edinburgh during COP26, substantially reducing the emissions associated with taking our customers to and from COP26 by up to 80% compared to traditional jet fuel. This commitment for COP26 is in addition to the mandatory carbon trading we already operate in the UK and our own further voluntary carbon offsetting of our UK domestic flights.”

Martin Thomsen, CEO of bp’s aviation division commented:

“We’re thrilled to collaborate with British Airways by supplying sustainable aviation fuel with respect to all of its flights from London to Glasgow and Edinburgh for the COP26 event. Our companies have a long-standing relationship and will continue to work together on sustainable aviation fuel supply initiatives on an on-going basis.

“At bp we want to help decarbonize the aviation industry and we will continue to collaborate with industry stakeholders and governments to explore viable options to help scale up sustainable aviation fuel more broadly.”

Many of the flights between London, Glasgow and Edinburgh during COP26 will be operated by the airline’s new BA Better World aircraft, an Airbus A320neo (G-TTNA).

Julie Kitcher, Executive Vice President Corporate Affairs and Communications at Airbus, and a member of the UK Government’s Jet Zero Council said:

“We’re delighted to be partnering with BA on this journey and feel proud BA has chosen one of our A320neos to highlight the importance of sustainability for the future of the industry.

“The aircraft has 20% less fuel burn & CO2 emissions compared to A320ceo and 50% less noise so it’s a great choice and I am looking forward to seeing the new livery in the sky.

“BA is committed to a sustainable future and contributing positively to climate change mitigation and adaptation. We will achieve the ambition of a net zero carbon emissions industry by 2050 through cooperation and collaboration and this initiative is a clear example of that.”

At today’s event the airline showcased some of the initiatives it has introduced to improve sustainability in the air and on the ground, including switching from diesel to renewably powered electric pushback vehicles and removing weight from its aircraft by introducing lighter seats and trollies, inflight magazines and paper flight manuals. It also outlined its efforts to remove single-use plastic and source more products made from recycled materials, including its First Class duvet and World Traveller Plus amenity kits.

The airline’s new sustainability strategy is not simply focused on the planet, with two further priorities concentrated on its people and driving responsible business. Today the carrier also announced a new BA Better World Community Fund to further the positive work it does within the UK and global communities it flies to and pledged to take positive action in many other areas of its business.

British Airways is set to welcome home the final athletes from ParalympicsGB

British Airways is set to welcome home the final athletes from ParalympicsGB after their triumph at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic games, with the flight due to land today at 1920.

Athletes have been returning home from Tokyo throughout the past week with a total of 124 medals including 41 gold, 38 silver and 45 bronze weighing a combined total of 63.946kg.

To celebrate the team’s success British Airways, will be giving all medal winners an executive card status to match the medal that they won in Tokyo.

The final flight home has athletes from the archery, athletics, badminton, boccia, shooting, canoeing and the men’s wheelchair basketball team.

The airline has worked tirelessly to ensure that it got the team and all of their equipment to and from Tokyo safely, flying 468 passengers, 429 wheelchairs and mobility equipment, 209 bikes, 4381 bags and sporting equipment, including 58 oversized items.

British Airways has a long-standing history in supporting national sporting events and teams. The airline has been the proud airline partner to Team GB and Paralympics GB since 2008 and is currently the Principal Partner to Twickenham Stadium, Official Airline Partner to England Rugby. The airline also flew the British & Irish Lions home after competing int heir recent tour of South Africa.

British Airways moves to the next phase of its lounge reopening plan

British Airways has made this announcement:

British Airways reopens its Concorde Room at New York’s JFK airport and Heathrow Terminal 5
To coincide the airline has partnered with a renowned mixologist, Mr Lyan, to create new bespoke cocktail menus available in its lounges, with two exclusive signature serves
Other enhancements include ‘surprise and delight’ lounge access for selected Bronze BA executive card holders and the introduction of ‘Forty Winks’ sleep pods in the Concorde Rooms at JFK & Heathrow
The airline will continue to gradually reopen lounges across its network

British Airways has today announced that it will move to the next phase of its lounge reopening plan, as it is set to once again open the doors to its Concorde Room (specifically for those flying in First) at JFK and Heathrow on September 1, with a number of other enhancements in store for customers.

The reopening of the airline’s two exclusive lounges, both of which have remained closed since March 2020, follows swiftly in the footsteps of the airline’s flagship US lounge, that started to welcome back eligible customers from the start of August.

To coincide with both Concorde Rooms opening their doors once again, British Airways will be introducing a new exciting cocktail menu, created exclusively for the airline by Mr Lyan (Ryan Chetiyawardana) (below), a figurehead in the global cocktail scene. Driven by sustainability and his love for experimenting with new ingredients, he has carefully created an array of elegant cocktails for customers to enjoy depending on their individual tastes and preferences, ahead of their flight.

The new menu contains seven cocktails, with two unique British Airways serves designed in celebration of the airline’s heritage and iconic colleagues. The two special cocktails are named the Barton and Lawford after Lynne Barton, the first female British Airways pilot, and Bill Lawford, the first ever British Airways pilot in 1919. The menu has been designed with a focus on the best of British seasonal ingredients that specifically embrace ‘in-flight’ and wind pollinated flavors. The Barton and Lawford will also be available in the Galleries Club lounges and First lounge.

Customers in the Concorde Room will continue to receive table service across the whole lounge, but visitors to other lounges will also benefit from using the airline’s new digital ‘Your Menu’ service which allows them to order food from the menu directly to their seat in the lounge with the use of a QR code close to them.

Elsewhere the airline will also be surprising a number of its Bronze Executive card holders on a daily basis in September and October with the taste of Silver Card benefits. British Airways will be inviting those who are close to the next threshold to use one of the airline’s lounge at Heathrow with a guest.

British Airways customers using the airline’s Concorde Room will also have access to the new ‘Forty Winks’ EnergyPods, to get some pre-flight shuteye if they wish to. Concorde Room customers will be able book an EnergyPod via dedicated hosts, request a time to be woken and choose a hot beverage to enjoy after their rest. Water and hot towels will be provided to add to the refreshing awakening experience.

Other enhancements to the customer experience also include the introduction of ‘Best of British menus’ on board the airline’s flights, focusing on seasonal ingredients and British provenance, taking customers on a culinary journey across the British Isles. British Airways recently announced that the first edition of the carefully curated menus will include a traditional roast with all the trimmings.

Back to the future: British Airways is planning a possible low-fare “BA Lite” subsidiary to compete with low-fare airlines at Gatwick

British Airways is reportedly exploring a possible new low-cost subsidiary at London Gatwick to relaunch operations at the airport.

The proposed subsidiary would compete against other low-fare carriers at LGW such as easyJet and Ryanair.

BA has explored this option in the past.

Go Fly Limited (stylized as Go) was founded by British Airways and started operations on May 22, 1998. Go operated low-fare flights from London’s Stansted Airport to destinations in Europe.

The subsidiary was purchased from BA, by management in a buy-out backed by the private equity in June 2001.

In March 2003 the airline was closed out.

Go Fly aircraft slide show:

British Airways carries home the Team GB athletes

British Airways made this announcement:

Over the last two weeks British Airways has proudly been flying Team GB home from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, with the final flight carrying Olympians due to land at 13:10 (UK local) this afternoon, Monday 9 August.

The airline has welcomed tens of competitors across a wide range of sports back to the United Kingdom after an incredible Tokyo Games, with Team GB matching their overall medal haul of 65 from London 2012, when they competed on home turf. This morning British Airways has announced that to celebrate the team’s success, it will be giving all medal winners an executive card status to match the medal that they won in the Games.

On board the final flight back to the UK are eight gold, nine silver and three bronze medals, weighing a combined weight of 10.298 kilograms. The remaining athletes flying home with British Airways are from the boxing, track cycling, modern pentathlon and the athletic teams.

Among the incredible team members on the flight are Laura Kenny, Team GB’s most successful female athlete who carried the Union flag in Sunday’s Closing Ceremony and her husband, Jason Kenny, the most successful British Olympian after he won his seventh Olympic gold medal in the men’s keirin.

Once the aircraft has landed, the athletes will be led through by British Airways’ staff to the arrivals hall in Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport to reunite with friends and family after spending so long apart.

British Airways is also the proud airline partner of ParalympicsGB and will be carrying the athletes to and from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games which starts on Tuesday 24 August.

British Airways has a long-standing history in supporting national sporting events and teams. The airline has been the proud airline partner to Team GB and Paralympics GB since 2008 and is currently the Principal Partner to Twickenham Stadium, Official Airline Partner to England Rugby. Today, the airline is also flying the British & Irish Lions home today after their final match in their recent tour of South Africa.

BBC: BA flight 149: Was it on a secret ‘military intelligence mission’?

From the BBC:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-58087520

British Airways flagship U.S. lounge reopens

Picture by: Stuart Bailey / British Airways

JFK New York – Club World Lounge

British Airways’ flagship US lounge at JFK’s Terminal 7 will reopen its doors on Sunday 1 August, following a 16-month closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The news comes in time for the UK Government’s announcement that double vaccinated travelers from the US will be exempt from quarantine on arrival into the UK from 2nd August.

The opening of the Galleries Club lounge also marks the next step in the airline’s phased lounge reopening plan and will be available for customers traveling in First, Club World and eligible card holders, ahead of their flight to London Heathrow.

Those flying from JFK in First and Club World can enjoy an enhanced check-in experience at the exclusive Premium Zone. The First Wing and First check in are also open to ensure a smooth start to the journey.

British Airways’ customers will now also be able to use the airline’s innovative new digital app ‘Your Menu’ to order food directly from their mobile device to their seat after scanning a QR code. The app will be available throughout the lounge, meaning that customers can select from a wide range of complimentary food and beverages, to any seat.

At Heathrow on their return to the US, customers will have access to the Club and First lounges from Terminal 5, which also boasts a new sleep zone ‘Forty Winks’, allowing travelers to rest ahead of their flight.

Elsewhere the airline recently reopened three domestic lounges in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

A walk-through of the lounge can be viewed below.

Historic Photo: British Airways McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 G-BHDI (msn 47831) LGW (SPA). Image: 954573.

British Airways adds extra seats between the USA, EU and UK as bookings surge by 95%

British Airways made this announcement:

787 landing at Heathrow

New bookings from the US surged by 95% within hours of the UK Government announcement
British Airways is adding extra seats from US cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago and European cities including Berlin, Geneva and Hamburg
Additional flights will allow US and EU citizens to easily connect to a range of UK destinations such as Newquay, Edinburgh, and Belfast

British Airways is adding thousands of extra seats on key routes to the UK from the USA and EU, following a huge increase in interest in travel to London since the UK Government announced that quarantine restrictions would be lifted for fully-vaccinated US and EU customers when traveling to the UK.

Within a couple of hours British Airways saw bookings from the US surging by 95%, following the recent UK Government announcement mainly from cities such as New York and Los Angeles in the USA, and European cities such as Berlin, Geneva and Hamburg. The additional flights will play a key part in kickstarting the British economy by welcoming much-needed tourism back to cities all over Britain.

Flights between New York-JFK and London Heathrow will increase to 21 services per week (up from 17 per week), Los Angeles and Chicago will increase to 10 per week (up from 7 per week), starting from 16 August 2021. From 23 August 2021, flights between Seattle and London Heathrow will increase to 7 services per week (up from 4 per week), and Los Angeles will further increase to 14 per week. BA also plans to continue to broaden its schedule between the USA and UK throughout September.

Customers from the US will be able to take advantage of the increased timetable, as well as services to the UK with American Airlines. Our partnership with AA allows for seamless connections across American’s key hubs in the US, providing one-stop connections from most US cities into London. British Airways and American Airlines operate more flights between the US and London than any other transatlantic partnership, offering regular direct services to/from 12 airports.

In addition, passengers can connect to British Airways’ extensive UK domestic network to cities throughout the rest of the UK, such as Newquay, Edinburgh, and Belfast, and to a range of destinations across Europe, where entry requirements allow.

Additional flights will also be added from European cities such as Berlin, Geneva and Hamburg, and the schedules will be continually reviewed to ensure the number of seats available matches customer interest. Customers flying in the Euro Traveller cabin can also enjoy the newly launched Speedbird Café at-seat ordering system, recently launched in addition to the existing pre-order service as well as complimentary water and snacks served on all routes.

The news comes after a successful trial was conducted between British Airways, Heathrow Airport and Virgin Atlantic, which showed that the Government’s amber policy for fully vaccinated travelers could be rapidly expanded for US and EU citizens. As part of the 10-day trial, fully vaccinated customers on selected flights from Los Angeles, New York, Montego Bay and Athens agreed to share their vaccination status at their departure airport, showing the industry is ready to rapidly adapt and operationalize further vaccination checks, to support a safe reopening of the skies at scale.

British Airways has partnerships with a range of testing providers and has teamed up with mobile travel health app VeriFly to make customers’ journeys through the airport as smooth as possible. Once a customer has had their travel documentation certified through the app they will be able to check-in through either ba.com or the British Airways app and download their boarding pass before arriving at the airport.

British Airways and partners shortlisted for UK government funding to decarbonize aviation

British Airways made this announcement:

Airbus A350

Eight projects have been shortlisted for funding by the Department for Transport’s Green Fuels, Green Skies competition – part of the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, announced in November 2020
The grants will drive meaningful progress towards the development of sustainable aviation fuel plants in the UK and the decarbonization of the aviation industry
Projects British Airways has invested in include turning household waste and wood waste into sustainable aviation fuel and capturing carbon from the atmosphere and form part of the airline’s plans to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050

Four aviation decarbonization projects supported by British Airways and designed to help the industry achieve its targets of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, have been shortlisted for Government funding.

The Department of Transport’s Green Fuels, Green Skies (GFGS) competition has awarded the funding to develop the UK’s first sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production facility. In total the Government shortlisted eight projects to potentially receive a share of £15 million in its competition, all of which have a clear potential to produce SAF capable of reducing emissions by more than 70% on a lifecycle basis when used in place of conventional fossil jet fuel.

British Airways is directly involved in four of those projects which, pending the completion of grant agreements, can all press ahead with developing their feasibility and engineering plans.

The airline is partnering with technology company Velocys on the Altalto project to build a commercial waste-to-SAF plant in Immingham, Lincolnshire. Altalto will take more than half a million tonnes per year of household and commercial waste and produce up to 80 million litres of cleaner burning SAF and naphtha. The project has already received planning consent from North East Lincolnshire Council and is in the final stages of preparation for Front End Engineering Design.

Project Speedbird is a collaboration between British Airways, LanzaJet and Nova Pangaea, with a goal of producing 100 million litres of sustainable fuel a year from 2025, sufficient to power 2,000 flights from London to New York operated by an A350 aircraft. The technology is based on Nova Pangaea’s REFNOVA® process of converting waste wood into alcohol. LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) technology, which was developed by LanzaTech and the Pacific Northwest National Lab, then converts the alcohol to produce sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel.

British Airways is also working on two further decarbonization projects with LanzaTech and LanzaJet that, if successful, could each produce more than 100 million litres a year of SAF. The first would involve capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and converting it into SAF. The second would support the development of a SAF plant in Port Talbot, South Wales that would produce SAF from waste and industrial gases, with the potential to support significant jobs in the area.