stu1985

A340 back on Monday!

MarJon

Flew TLV -> LHR on 777. Had a WTP bulkhead seat, when I arrived at the airport, my seat had been changed. When asked why, I was told the 777 was switched out for a different version...... maybe related.....

ringingup

This Sunday they seem to be operating using a 777 without First. It surely changed at some point. Now I need to look into what the best seats are!

jonkx

Just seen our BA460/461 switched to narrowbodies late February/early March, is that likely to stick/change?

nufnuf77

2.5 years old subs thread

at this point I have no clue, our jan flight changed as well. I thought this used to be cargo flights on longhaul equipment...

KeaneJohn

It took a voucher for my Jan and Feb flights on the 460/1 last week and now my Jan flights would have been cancelled and February subbed.

Is it to do with 777s being chartered for cargo to ship covid vaccines ?

jonkx

well yes, people always say you should search for relevant threads so I did!

travelsbyplane

I really hope this isn't the beginning of the end for the 777, or any widebody on this route. It's still showing as a 777 into April, but that means nothing these days. Fingers crossed the cargo demand remains in the long term to keep it viable.

nufnuf77

I am surprised because I thought the cargo on the route is doing rather well. though I did see IB send widebodies sometimes even twice daily so i wonder if BA is giving way to IB here

Confus

​​​​
The Cargo demand on LHRMAD is actually primarily for traffic being routed between the Far East and south America. It arrives in London early morning, gets screened and loaded onto the lunchtime MAD 777/787, then loaded again onto the nighttime departures out of Spain - one of the biggest successes of IAG since its creation. However, pre-Christmas period tends to provide a shift in global freight patterns, with more capacity on Far East-Europe flights being used for the Christmas rush of goods to stores. This year in particular since Felixstowe has been so determined to put itself out of business over the last 6 weeks - and of course, while BA would normally plough on regardless, this year they’ve been ruthless on cutting less profitable rotations. The MAD 777 is expensive to run not just because of the obvious fuel load, but also in needing lots of cabin crew and (believe it or not) because BALPA refused to operate it if the pilots didn’t get 2 nights in a London hotel. So this is a long-winded way of saying that I fully expect BAU to resume at some point in the new year, when everything resets itself.

clubman

Well not always. Depends how old or recent the thread is, or how relevant it still is to your current question (just because the title is, doesn't necessarily mean the content is... )

When I first opened the thread and read the first post, I couldn't understand why a 767 was operating the MAD route when they were retired a couple of years ago...

nufnuf77

Thank you this is very insightful - though I have no clue how the 2 nights in London hotel come about. like .......

george77300

Just to point out during November the 777 cargo flight to MAD did operate and was on the BA458/459 rather than the usual BA460/461. Of course what will happen in the future with demand, even BA may not know yet.

tobsw

IB is sending two wide-bodies daily to LHR:

IB 3162/3175
IB 3166/3167

BA and IB used to operate each one daily wide-body rotation. I think IB is just replacing BA for one of those - don't know for how long though.

travelsbyplane

Well spotted, and it looks like this is planned up until the end of March when the summer season kicks in.