Lounge Review: ABZ British Airways Lounge
Index to Genius1 Trip Reports
Opened in 2018 by Camilla, then HRH The Duchess of Rothesay (now HM The Queen), BA’s lounge at Aberdeen follows the Futures concept and replaced a much smaller Terraces lounge that was starting to look somewhat dated even after a light touch refurbishment with Galleries-style furniture in more recent years.
The lounge is located one level above the gates in the new extension to the terminal building, with the entrance off the corridor just before the Northern Lights lounge. Spread over 380 square metres across two main rooms, the lounge is flooded with natural light from a large run of windows overlooking the apron and runway – with plenty of interesting aircraft to be spotted.
Reception features two podiums for staff and a couple of armchairs, beyond which is the bar and dining area. A mix of café and bar seating is available in this space, including a long high-top bench seating five people immediately on the left as you enter the lounge.
The central bar is fully walk-through for self service. In addition to the usual drinks selection, when I visited at lunchtime, nuts, pretzels, crisps, olives, biscuits, fudge, whole fruit, chocolate brownies and packaged fruit cake was available here, along with some leftover breakfast pastries. Despite being designed for bar stools on both sides (the presence of power sockets is a giveaway), one side of the bar closest to the buffet tends to be used for service items rather than seating.
On the far wall, the buffet is home to a coffee machine (a relic relocated from the Heathrow lounges), a ‘hot special’ (chicken and vegetable stew with basmati rice on my visit in June last year), salad, cheese, sandwiches, two different types of warm pie and soup. The offering across both the bar and buffet is very decent and is typical of what you’ll find at BA’s other domestic outstation lounges in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The second room of the lounge features armchair seating, a large chunk of which has been replaced since the lounge opened due to the original seating being somewhat impractical in the stain-resisting department. (Some of this style of seating can still be found at BA’s Newark lounge, relocated from the former JFK First lounge.) Stool seating is arranged along the length of the windows, with ample power sockets here and between most of the armchairs (the side tables feature both UK and European sockets). A wireless printer is located adjacent to a magazine rack, which since the pandemic has only featured copies of High Life magazine (other titles being available via PressReader, as advertised on a large banner in the lounge).
A VIP room occupies the far end of the lounge closest to reception, with two three-seater sofas. One of the members of staff explained that they often invite families to use this space when not required for VIPs.
Despite not being branded as a Galleries lounge, art features prominently on the walls of the space, in the form of local artists’ work in addition to heritage airline posters.
Washrooms are located in the lounge, and feature Elemis hand wash and moisturiser. There are no showers.
BA’s Aberdeen lounge has been fitted out to a high standard, with high quality materials throughout – although I was slightly disappointed that the terrazzo flooring often found in Futures lounges is absent here. My only complaint is that cleanliness during my visit wasn’t great, with many of the side table lamps being visibly dusty. That aside, and assuming a duster has been deployed since my visit, this is a lounge well worth making time for to enjoy some plane spotting from on your next trip to the Granite City.
