End of BA MidHaul
 

So thanks to Raffles for bringing this to my attention. It seems BA will end Mid Haul operations.

So a few months ago BA axed SVO and BEY. That didn’t leave many Mid Haul routes left, so imho it seemed like the fleet wouldn’t be needed/practical.

It seems Moscow and Amman will become Short Haul routes. Yes you heard me right. Moscow on the A320 and Amman on A321neo.

Moscow has also changed to flight numbers BA881 and BA883. Amman to BA312.

EDIT: Cairo has also switched to become a short haul route (BA400).

Yep.. just been notified of the change on a Moscow booking in December. A321 changed to A320 NEO. Ouch.

Moscow in terms of distance won't be too bad, but Amman with a shorthaul product will be unpleasant. I'm not sure why they don't give up entirely and just codeshare with RJ instead?

Far longer short hauls out there than Moscow

It’s sad how Moscow was once a 4 class 747 and now it’s a SH A320neo.

I think we can now assume the remaining G-MED A321s will be retired or converted to short haul. I feel the first is more likely.

It will be good for BA to have this fleet gone. It caused operational difficulty and long downtime at LHR having a subfleet of 4 frames. Shame for DME/AMM/CAI though as the short haul product isn’t amazing. I hope they don’t face M&S BOB!

It will be harder for BA to compete with Aeroflot/Royal Jordanian/Egypt Air.

AMM is further away than TLV

Having travelled with both BA and Egyptair to CAI, in J , I am reluctant to say that BA were not the better!

Moscow has been retimed for next summer too. Interesting that there will be no morning flight:

13:30 LHR-DME
22:00 LHR-DME

Doesn't AA fly SH planes on some of their South American routes?

AMM and CAI on NEO? Thanks but no thanks... That will be other airlines for me on those routes.

That sounds deeply unpleasant, with you entirely on that one.

Ive always wondered why BA do not equip their A321NEO with a decent CE cabin, prehaps the WTP seats (or similar reclining shell seats)
They can then be used on band 3/4 and mid-haul routes and leave the remaining a3xx fleet as is for other routes

I did suggest previously that BA convert the Mid Haul A321s to Short Haul and get some A321neos delivered in Mid Haul. That would have saved them fuel costs. However that was pre Covid and now it mustn’t stack up to have a subfleet.

Huge loss for the Moscow route, they will lose a lot of business travellers to SU, will be interesting to see there schedule for this route moving forward. I for one as a regular on this route hope the fares will reflect the huge reduction in product at the pointy end.

Maybe repurpose some of the seats from the recently retired A318?

It’ll never happen, but one can wonder out loud I guess.