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Bad news - BA's NCL lounge reportedly to close permanently
I am probably the bearer of bad news.
I heard last week, and had a second confirmation today, that BA's wonderful lounge in NCL is to be closed permanently. I understand the staff employed there have been cosulted, as in consulted about being made redundant. I don't know if the intention is to use the lacklustre Aspire lounge next door instead, or for NCL simply to have no lounge facility at all. I guess the other option is a Toronto option, where Aspire takes over the BA space, but I very much doubt that is the intention. NCL was building a new lounge, owned by the airport itself, but that too has been shelved. So the future is uncertain, but it would be a future without a BA branded lounge in NCL from here on.
If this is confirmed, and I fear it will be, then it will be terrible for the wonderful staff at the lounge, who have made it a home from home for me and many others. In many ways it was the perfect lounge, in terms of location, space, staff service and the "welcome to BA" that starts when you enter the door.
I hope those based in the North East and other regular users send in complaints to BA about this. I appreciate that BA is losing millions of pounds every day, and things will perforce have to change, but if BA cuts off their own legs they are asking not to be able to walk again.
The small ray of good news is that EDI is aiming now to reopen in the next month or two. The other lounges (MAN, ABZ, LGW, GLA) are not under threat as such, but since they are unlikely to open until Q2 2021 there are likely to be redundancies in view of the long closure. BHD and JER are independently operated but I don't know about their plans.