Makes sense. The 789 is a good longhauler and is a decent cargo uplifter. It's also going to be easier to fill and, if they're going after yield, it'll give them better ones. Bit of a shame about lack of Wi-Fi on most of the planes and no short-term plans of having Club Suite on it... Pre C19 them and the 788s were the only ones with no CS plans even submitted to the board if I remember correctly.
The question I'm asking myself, though, is about Singapore. So
right now pre C19 we had, on LHR-SIN, a 380 (14F 97J 55W 303M) and a 77W (14F 56J 44W 185M) giving a daily premium capacity of 181 seats which, as many staffers will tell you, was filled on most days (yields, no idea) and a non-premium capacity of 587. Total bum-on-seats capacity of 768 seats. They also allowed a (hypothetical) total cargo capacity of 38 tonnes. Now, let's check a couple of scenarios:
- The 380 remains and the 77W is replaced by the 789 (config: 8F 42J 39W 127M).
- Premium capacity is now 161, down 12%
- Non-premium capacity is now 524, down 46%
- Cargo capacity (theoretically) is now 24 tonnes, down 58%
- The 380 is replaced by a CS 77W in the new config 8F 76J 40W 130M
- Premium capacity is now 134, down 35%
- Non-premium capacity is now 336, down 74%!
- Cargo capacity (theoretically) is now 36 tonnes, down 5%
I'm not looped into BA's decisions but if it were me I'd probably go, at least for 2021-22, for Option 2. Stick two modern two-engined long-haulers, one of which with the brand new product, on a flagship route. Sacrifice capacity for higher potential yield, reduced operating costs and, more importantly, ensure a higher yield than the 380 can provide. All while safeguarding cargo which has proved to be the lifeboat of the airline world in the past few months.
On a side note, I struggle to see on which routes they'd have a 380 flying in 2021... it just feels too much of a plane for most of the network right now.