It is the 12th of September, which can mean only one thing....

New catering standards for Club Europe are coming, which you should see on BA short haul routes to/from Heathrow today with Gatwick following soon after.

There will also be a realignment of catering bands as the current Short, Medium, and Long will be replaced by new Express, Band 1, Band 2, Band 3, and Band 4 menus. We’ve been told we should expect a number of real, tangible improvements such as improved recipes, a commitment to provenance with dishes created around key British ingredients. There will be new wines plus Union Hand-Roasted coffee. Menus will rotate twice a month on Heathrow services (previously monthly) and monthly on Gatwick services. As to the quality of the new culinary offering, well, the proof of the pudding is in the eating so please do post your impressions of the new service as it rolls out.

The following information is applicable to Heathrow and Gatwick routes which I hope you will find useful. This will be updated and expanded with product details during the weeks ahead once we get a better feel of the new offering.


Service patterm

* Brunch has been abbreviated as "Br"


Destination map identifying destination bands

Note, the map is not fully inclusive so some destinations have been omitted for visual clarity. For Mainland Spain, Madrid and all stations south are Band 3. The Balearic Islands are split, with Menorca and Palma de Mallorca in Band 2 and Ibiza in Band 3. Squeezed off the map is Reykjavík (Band 3) and the Canary Islands (Band 4), plus the myriad of Greek destinations all of which fall conveniently into the Band 4 category.


Full schedule of LHR/LGW routes, listed by countryAlbania
Band 4: Tirana

Austria
Band 1: Innsbruck
Band 2: Salzburg and Vienna

Belgium
Band 1: Brussels

Bulgaria
Band 4: Sofia

Croatia
Band 2: Pula and Zagreb
Band 3: Dubrovnik and Split

Czech Republic
Band 2: Prague

Cyprus
Band 4: Larnaca and Paphos

Denmark
Band 1: Billund
Band 2: Copenhagen

Estonia
Band 4: Tallinn

Finland
Band 3: Helsinki

France
Band 1: Bordeaux, Grenoble, Limoges, Lyon, Montpellier, Nantes, Paris, and Toulouse
Band 2: Marseilles and Nice

Germany
Band 1: Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Friedrichshafen, Hamburg, Hannover, Munich, and Stuttgart

Gibraltar
Band 3: Gibraltar

Greece
Band 4: Athens, Chania, Corfu, Heraklion, Kalamata, Kefalonia, Kos, Mykonos, Preveza, Rhodes, Santorini, Thessaloniki, and Zakynthos

Hungary
Band 3: Budapest

Iceland
Band 3: Reykjavík

Ireland
Band 1: Dublin

Italy
Band 2: Bologna, Genoa, Milan, Pisa, Turin, Venice, and Verona
Band 3: Bari, Cagliari, Naples, Olbia, Rome
Band 4: Brindisi, Catania, Palermo

Luxembourg
Band 1: Luxembourg

Malta
Band 4: Malta

Morocco
Band 4: Marrakech

Netherlands
Band 1: Amsterdam

Norway
Band 2: Oslo

Poland
Band 3: Krakow and Warsaw

Portugal
Band 2: Porto
Band 3: Faro and Lisbon
Band 4: Funchal

Romania
Band 4: Bucharest

Russia
Band 4: Saint Petersburg

Spain
Band 2: Barcelona, Bilbao, Menorca, and Palma de Mallorca
Band 3: Alicante, Almería, Ibiza, Madrid, Malaga, Seville, and Valencia
Band 4: Arrecife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife

Sweden
Band 2: Gothenburg
Band 3: Stockholm

Switzerland
Band 1: Basel, Geneva, and Zurich

Turkey
Band 4: Dalaman and Istanbul

Ukraine
Band 4: Kiev

United Kingdom (and Crown dependencies)
Express: Leeds Bradford and Manchester
Band 1 menu/express service delivery: Jersey
Band 1: Aberdeen, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, and Newcastle


Food offerings
The descriptions below are a work in progress and should be treated as unofficial. Graphic diagrams have been added which illustrate the number of options available on each service and indicate hot (orange) and cold (blue) components included in each tray. However, I am hoping that the power of the many can be harnessed together to rapidly assemble all the detailed info you need during the weeks and months ahead so that we can transform this thread into a valuable resource.

Express

• Special meals are available
• Wine and champagne served in quarter size bottles

Breakfast 05:00 to 09:59

Fresh fruit main
Warm ham filled croissant and yoghurt

Brunch 10:00 to 10:59
or
Warm quiche or charcuterie/cheese main
Fresh fruit, yoghurt, and bakery

Lunch 11:00 to 13:59
or
Meat or vegetarian salad main
Side salad, dessert, and bakery

Afternoon tea 14:00 to 16:59
or
Ploughman's or sandwiches
Cake, scones, clotted cream, and jam

Dinner 17:00 to 04:59
or
Meat or vegetarian salad main
Side salad, dessert, and baker




Bands 1 and 2

• Special meals are available
• Wine and Champagne served in quarter size bottles

Breakfast 05:00 to 09:59
or or
Full English or vegetarian omelette or cold breakfast main
Yoghurt and bakery

Brunch 10:00 to 10:59
or or
Warm quiche, or chilled smoked salmon, or charcuterie/cheese main
Fresh fruit, yoghurt, and bakery

Lunch 11:00 to 13:59
or
Meat or vegetarian salad main
Side salad, dessert, and bakery

Afternoon tea 14:00 to 16:59
or
Ploughman's or sandwiches
Cake, scones, clotted cream, and jam

Dinner 17:00 to 04:59
or
Meat or vegetarian salad main
Side salad, dessert, and bakery




Bands 3 and 4

• Special meals are available
• Printed menus
• Wine served in quarter sized bottles
• Champagne served in full size bottles

Breakfast 05:00 to 09:59
From LHR and LGW:
or or
Full English or vegetarian omelette, or chilled smoked salmon main
Fresh fruit, yoghurt, and bakery

From outstations*:
or
Full English or vegetarian omelette
Fresh fruit, yoghurt, and bakery

* breakfasts served on small tray when aircraft night stops at the outstation. Food is return catered from London and stored on-board overnight

Rest of day meal 10:00 to 04:59
or or
Hot meat main, or hot vegetarian main, or signature cold plate
Side salad, dessert, cheese plate, and bakery




Acknowledgements
Many thanks to our insiders at BA who generously offered us a sneak preview of what's coming our way, with a very special mention to Bar Operator and BAWatson


Photos and impressions
This part has been left for you to populate.