ZBLA had a Functional Check Flight yesterday which indicates it's either had more work done which needed testing or BA will soon be doing another Customer Acceptance Flight.

I for one will be glad to see the back of them. The E190s are imho the nicest BA aircraft to fly on in ET/CE due to the generous seat pitch and overall lower volume of people (so less bundling on and off). The E170s on the other hand are awful - tight pitch, no over-wing exit in ET...

Windows badly misaligned with seats...

I just saw this on PlaneSpotters.Net for G-YMMG and G-YMMK. I can’t comment on how reliable it is though.

2 E190’s, G-LCYS (MSN 1900663) and G-LCYT (MSN1900670) look as if they are being returned to lessor (Falko) soon. The reason I say that is both aircraft are listed on there website as available to lease from Q4 2020.

https://www.falko.com/our-fleet/
(Note: Available aircraft are listed towards bottom of the page)

Interesting, thanks for pointing that out. That makes it even harder to see where they’re going with the fleet.

It seems silly that they’ll be getting rid of G-LCYS/T which were new to BA and then adding second hand leased ones (G-LCAC etc) which require fitting out. I guess the deal must have been very good.

good spot !

both flew down from Norwich to LCY on Thursday.

Not sure about the reliability of the source but https://www.photogenicphotolific.com...set-to-be-axed is reporting the 737 Max LOI is to be scrapped.

It would make sense given that most would have gone to BA, who will be substantially reducing their fleet size and there are still A320s to be delivered.

that source seems a bit dodgy. They confirmed two days ago that the MAX was still on. And it’s only an LOI anyway

I'm not saying it's not true but the quote is written in the same language as the spam emails I receive and the words in capital letters scream of conspiracy theorists and the more sensationalist media like the Daily Mail and Daily Express. I'm taking it with a pinch of salt.

(For those who won't click on the link for any reason here is the quote, allegedly from a BA official, as quoted) -

"IAG due to COVID-19 expects the travel will not increased until 2023 as a result it wishes no burden & hence it will be axing the B737 Max Deal or has already been AXED OR CANCELLED !"

I would have thought if it’s true, the stock exchange would be the first to know.

Or The Seattle Times or Washington Post. Neither are shy on reporting Boeing news, whether good or bad and seem to have a good bunch of sources inside the company.

But there was never any suggestion that most would have gone to BA. Willie Walsh stated that BA would use them at Gatwick but not at Heathrow (because 737s can't handle containerised baggage, and LHR T5 is designed round containerised bags). If they replaced the entire Gatwick shorthaul fleet with them, that's only 30 or so planes, leaving 170 to go elsewhere in the group. Since LGW is slot controlled, fleet expansion there is contingent on buying more slots - hardly likely in the new conditions!
Vueling would have always been the most likely destination for the bulk of the MAXs if the LOI turned into an order.

he never said not Heathrow. In fact what they said was flexibility to move across the group. The slides actually state that the initial placement will be BA Gatwick and Vueling with flexibility to spread across the group. Also options for The 320neo has significantly reduced at BA. Moreover 200 max jets even if you split equally across 5 airlines that’s still 40 jets and I doubt that will happen though. T5 can handle non containerised if it has to. My question is what kind of airport can’t handle non containerised baggage? Even the most basic airports in the world can handle non containerised baggage. I understand in an effort to simplify the baggage issue when the terminal first opened in 2008 but come on

T5 and T3 absolutely can handle non-containerised baggage. Jettime, which was used for a while during the summer of '18 (or was it '17?) used non-containerised 737s. There have been non-containerised 32x from LGW too. What it makes harder, though, is the handling of transfers.
In an operation with a lot of transfers as is the situation with LHR, bins are usually segregated in London-terminating and transfers. The two go in two different input points: one feeds the bags into the system, the other is just the end of the baggage collection belt that is behind the wall in Arrivals. Keeping the two separate is very easy, although BA's baggage handlers are in a class of their own in terms of offloading entire transfer bags on an Arrivals belt. With non-containerised holds it's trickier: the norm all the world over is to have transfer bags by the door, clearly identifiable with transfer stickers (the arrow tags you often see on bags), but that requires the handlers at A/C side to be using their eyes and brains to look at the bags, read "TRANSFER" and then put them in the right cart (aka 'Wessex' in the UK airport parlance): London arrivals in the London arrivals Wessex, Transfer in the Transfer Wessex. Surprisingly that is often too hard to do. "I haven't been trained guv" was the answer I've heard more than once.