ISTFlyer

Not because of economical purposes; the A350-1000, 787-10 and 777-9 deliveries would be delayed so they would actually need some 747-400 to recover the demand in 2022 or 2023.

diamantaire

sorry to hear, hope things start getting better sooner than later for everyone.

T8191

Interesting thought ... if of course the demand in 2022/23 exists. There will, hopefully, be rebound in Business traffic, buy I could see Leisure traffic (long-haul) being severely reduced as smaller tourism economies collapse ... freeing up the Tourist 777s from LGW.

bmibaby737

I can tell you it will be at least one of the following

- 787
-777
-747
-A380
-A350

cmd320

Oil is dirt cheap at the moment and I would assume the 747 fleet has been paid off. Likely more cost effective to continue operating the older equipment than buy/lease a bunch of brand new aircraft for a marginal amount of savings on fuel.

cameramaker

I think the LCY and LGW departures will go. I doubt the LGW flight will make enough money and BA could utilise the airframe on a more lucrative Caribbean route if VS disappear. Load factors on the LCY flight might not be high enough and getting rid of the baby bus will help with fleet rationalisation too.

They might chop a couple of rotations from Heathrow and AA may do the same, but there’ll always be premium demand to/from JFK and the frequency of the services is attractive for the highest paying pax. The A380 won’t ever turn up on the route, its too big. Much better to run x3 789 than x1 A380
on the route I think.

Medium term, we’ll see more 772s and fewer 744s, but I think they’ll keep the more modern aircraft for the longer routes to maximise fuel economies, so we’ll see all the clunkers on JFK, BOS, YYZ etc

I don’t think we’ll see a total collapse in demand as some commentators think. I reckon there’ll be a greater demand for businesses to get closer to their customers and understand their businesses more thus requiring travel.

ISTFlyer

Actually, if JetBlue starts JFK-LGW flights as planned, BA would like to keep the Gatwick service in order to compete with them.
However, with SA, NZ, and many others leaving LHR or decreasing frequencies to Heathrow; B6 may also find Heathrow slots fitting to their schedule so it's too early to make an assumption of the effect of JetBlue on the NYC-LON route.

darthlemsip

LCY is back in the schedules - my flights I was supposed to be on next week, I’ve moved to first week of October and LCY was available

No guarantee it will actually restart of course, but it is at least in the schedule

rossmacd

I was going to make a post in the thread regarding future fleet orders, but this is a more apt thread. Thank you OP for posting, despite some grouchy responses. The LHR-JFK, or more specifically, JFK-LHR is a subject close to my heart. I cross the Atlantic approximately 25-30 times per year (in a "normal" year ), overwhelmingly into JFK, but sometimes into PHL, CLT or rarely MIA/BOS.

With the current BA J product, I avoid taking it on day flights. In my opinion, it is not competitive and there are far better options out there. Others will strongly disagree, but we are all entitled to our opinion. I therefore always look to take AA J on day flights due to the superior hard product - I care very little for the soft product.

Therefore, my BA flying concentrates heavily on JFK-LHR particularly on the night flights (the day 178 or 142 flights are complete waste of time to me) where sleep is the aim of the game. I always try to prioritise 747 flights on these sectors and secure an UD window seat at the time of booking (I will select another flight in order to make this happen) - ideally in 64K, 64A, 62/AK in that order of preference. I dislike the large J cabins BA has on 777s and the food/drink service that some people seem to require, and I do not agree with the AA obsession with collecting headsets more than 1 hour out from LHR - impacting already limited sleeping time.

I freely admit that I have not tried the new BA CS product overnight (I tried it on a day sector on a 777 to JFK) so do not know how that compares for sleeping. My fear is that with the 'hand delivered' service that BA forces upon J passengers that it impacts on sleep potential on the 777. Certainly, on my singular BA CS experience, it was bewildering to see the CC up and down the aisles for what seemed like an age (compared to my usual experience on AA when the cart rolls down the aisle efficiently dispensing drinks then lunch/dinner trays quickly afterwards) with little interruption afterwards. I am somewhat apprehensive to try the new BA CS product overnight, compared to the 747 which is a less dense environment and more people seem to focus on getting to sleep fairly swiftly after gear up.

With all of this in mind, removal of the 747s from the BA fleet will cause some difficulties with my own schedule (hence my deliberation to post in the aforementioned thread) when we return to a near-normal level of travel. In terms of other carriers, UA is out of EWR which is not located well for me, VS looks to be on a sticky wicket at present, which just leaves DL - which is a decent product, but with only 2 departures in the evening, is very restrictive on scheduling (likely would increase if VS dropped out). All in all, it is going to be a challenging set of circumstances which ever way you look at it - for both airlines and passengers, and one which I will be keeping a close eye on indeed

rockflyertalk

Alex????

I always wondered if BA get there strategies from FT BAEC.

BAeuro

Imagine 😂

Jambon87

BA throw a complete curveball and bring some of those 767s sitting out in the desert back instead. Old style CW to JFK, with some overhead disco lights

Note: I don’t know if any of them are still around, I am just adding a humorous note.

ISTFlyer

How about an A321neo service with a fuel stop at KEF with M&S BoB menu on Y?

By the way, it's not hard to predict that this thread would be locked in a few hours.

greg5

Why stop there? Maybe we'll see the Boeing 2707 make a comeback.

Fly_IAD