Summary The iconic BA all-business flight between New York and London was operated on the Airbus A318, termed 'babybus'. Passengers arrived in the US as domestic passengers due to a refueling stop at Shannon Airport, which houses a US preclearance facility. While Virgin Atlantic's plans for all-business flights from Europe to the US fell through, Airbus A220 may step in to fill the void.
British Airways , the flag carrier of the UK, has operated some unforgettable flights in the world, ranging from the operations of the supersonic Concorde to its iconic Airbus A380s . Amid the global aviation shutdown during the pandemic, one of BA's other iconic flights stopped. This was an all-business flight between New York and London.
In this article, we will look at five fun facts about this flight. 5 Operated on British Airways' smallest mainstream aircraft Both aircraft are no longer a part of BA's fleet British Airways chose the Airbus A318 for the all-business flights between London and New York. The flights have been endearingly called ‘babybus’, as they were operated by the smallest aircraft in the British Airways fleet - the Airbus A318.
Simple Flying reviewed the flight : " All 32 of the business class seats are forward facing in a 2-2 layout. Each of these seats becomes a lie-flat bed meaning that every passenger can get a good nights sleep. The seats each have a width of 20 inches, with a pitch of 73 inches.
This allows for the beds to have a length of 72 inches." This flight, dubbed ‘Club World London City’, offered a unique transatlantic experience on the two A318s that BA operated. Registration number Status G-EUNA Its airframe was broken up in Oct 2021 at Twente Airport in Enschede (according to planespotters.
net ) G-EUNB Transferred to Titan Airways in 2017 4 The flight landed in the US as a domestic flight This allowed passengers to get out of the airport in minutes The services of British Airways all-business flights from London to New York required a stop. This is because the flight took off from London City Airport, which had a small runway. So, the A318 deployed on the route could only carry a certain amount of fuel and needed a stop for refueling.
The refueling stop was to be at Shannon Airport, which has a runway of 2 miles. Shannon Airport also has the longest runway in Ireland. It holds a few other curious distinctions, too: It is a designated alternative landing site for the space shuttle.
The airport is Europe's first United States border preclearance facility. According to US Customs and Border Protection , preclearance is the practice of operating prescreening border control facilities at airports located outside the US. Operated by the United States Department of Homeland Security's (DHS), travelers undergo immigration and customs inspections by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers before their journey to the US.
This meant that all the passengers who traveled from Shannon Airport, Ireland to JFK, New York, on BA's all-business flights arrived as domestic passengers. 3 Virgin Atlantic might have beaten British Airways for the flights Four carriers in Europe were already offering premium flights between the US and Europe Eos and Maxjet were some airlines that operated dedicated business-only flights between Europe and the US in the noughties. These airlines operated flights from Stansted to the following destinations in the US: New York Las Vegas Los Angeles.
Two prominent carriers in Europe - Lufthansa and SWISS - also had premium-only flights from mainland Europe to the Big Apple. Virgin Atlantic also aspired to launch all-business operations from Europe to the US. One of the spokespeople had even said that all-business flights operated by Virgin Atlantic would ‘certainly’ hit the skies within eighteen months.
A "subfleet of 15 aircraft" was also announced. The Times had even dubbed it an ‘elite fleet’ . But soon, the financial crisis hit the world.
Business travel dwindled, as a result of which Virgin Atlantic dropped its plans. However, the downturn did not deter British Airways, which announced an all-business class flight from London City to New York JFK. 2 The Airbus A220 might be filling the boots A321LR and A321XLR are the other viable options Although British Airways' all-business flights from London to New York ended during the pandemic, there's room for optimism.
Headforpoints reported that an Airbus aircraft had already undergone a test flight for a similar operation: "The A220, now marketed and owned by Airbus but developed by Bombardier, leaves the door open for a New York service from City Airport. It is the largest aircraft to be certified for operations at London City and can carry 100-150 passengers in a typical layout. It has already operated test flights with an all-business configuration between London City and New York, and can fly the distance without a refueling stop.
" It is believed that a single-aisle aircraft might become the norm for air services between New York and the UK. The production of aircraft such as the A321LR and A321XLR just strengthens this point. Some of the operators of these aircraft types between the UK and US include: JetBlue's operations between the US East Coast and the UK Aer Lingus' operations from Dublin to multiple cities in the US 1 Using a flight number that had to be retired twice BA1 might rise from its ashes, again BA001 is one of the most prestigious flight numbers .
The flight number was reserved for services on the unforgettable Concorde. But the BA1 had to be retired for a few reasons: It faced challenges amid growing environmental concerns. Concorde consumed an exorbitant amount of fuel.
A one-way ticket from the US to the UK on Concorde cost £431 , equivalent to £2,200 ($2,800) today. Eventually, Concorde's iconic flight number was reused, albeit the number was given a slight tweek. Tom Boon, Simple Flying's Content Manager and someone with expertise in British Airways, wrote about the iconic flight number used in BA's all-business flights between London and New York: "BA1 was once the flight number reserved for Concorde flights between London and New York.
Since the retirement of the Concorde from the British Airways fleet, the flight number was unused. Then British Airways launched their business class service from London to New York." After the retirement of BA's all-business services between the two cities amid the pandemic, flight BA1 was retired again.
However, with speculations that an Airbus aircraft will resume its services, the iconic BA1 might be resurrected. Who knows?.
