I guess it depends which media outlet you believe as they all seem to be reporting what you need to know and what countries will be green. I guess it remains to be seen what the actual verdict is but either way BA will be fast to redeploy resources accordingly.

I do think the multiple tests to be some sort of deterrent. I also though I read that there will be a weeks notice before countries change colour. Personally if the risk deteriorates I can’t see the government allowing people,to drift in for another week.

Never underestimate our government, they did from India for several days !

Plus upper deck deplaning would be interesting...

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...1075ff5942.jpg

indeed. I saw a few websites labelling Mexico as a contender for green. Seems bizarre considering the outrageous death toll and terribly slow vaccination program here. I could understand amber due to declining hospital rates, but green seems a stretch too far. I can't see BA increasing Mexico city frequency..4 a week seem logical. Cancun on other hand...

You can sort of get a rough idea yourself by using a couple of websites.
I don't know if you're aware of the Coronavirus Update website that has data for the whole world - COVID Live Update: 154,420,873 Cases and 3,230,354 Deaths from the Coronavirus - Worldometer (worldometers.info)

A few weeks ago they started a new feature that shows the current case rates rather than just the totals for the entire pandemic. If you filter it by the cases per million of the population you'll see Mexico is currently 123rd, compared to the UK which is 117th at the moment and Portugal which is 111th.

The worst hit right now are:-

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...8bf01aefbf.png


You can also see current vaccination rates and numbers at Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccinations - Statistics and Research - Our World in Data

The UK government have other criteria as well but this info may hopefully indicate to some extent where may be opening up soon. Based on the current figures I wouldn't be looking at going to The Seychelles or The Maldives for a while yet for instance!

Here's the current list of countries with low infection rates - you'll have to decide for yourself how much each government can be trusted to be able and willing to give genuine numbers....

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...05a2ad09ce.png


As I say, nothing official but the government will be looking at the same data as part of their decisions.

Thanks for sharing that.

The countries on the second image you could trust with the figures aren't likely to be letting people in anyway!

Fleet allocations are going to be interesting as BA has parked the majority of the A321 fleet of 28. 18 of them are CEO and all are parked, IIIRC 3 are still mid-haul -haul configuration. Of the A321s, only the 10 new A321neo are active. I think the A321ceo's all went to Madrid for deep, or semi-deep storage, not a quick kick of the tyres to reactivate them, as I understand. The choice might be to use wide-bodied aircraft, but only the 77W, A350 and A380 offer significantly more seats than an A321. Not to mention the 777 fleet seems to be busy carrying cargo and operating the remains of the passenger network.

Its not an easy juggling act, especially when activating or storing aircraft comes with a considerable cost.

yes. It sounds like a planning nightmare. How many seats difference between 787 and the 321?

hi,

I think it is quite minor

The 787-8 has 214 seats and the 787-9 has 216 seats per ba.com and the a321 neo is around 215 in a one cabin config but would be less when the middle seats are left empty for club europe

Regards
tbs

218 on a 321 CEO
220 on a 321 NEO
180 on a 320 NEO/CEO
177 on a 320 LGW config
214 on a 788
216 on a 789
256 on a 78X
​​​

Currently only for essential reasons. Source: re-open EU.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c21e379d3.jpeg

wow that's much closer than I thought. Can see why planning will be tough. At some point they'll have to bite the bullet and hope bringing planes out of storage will be worth the money. What provisions are there for ensuring enough pilots trained? Is there an exemption for time in simulator?

You may well have 15 rows of CE on a holiday route so that could be 30 less seats on the short haul configurations.

I wonder how they will treat places that are likely to be on the Amber list, presumably there will be people resident here from some of those countries, particularly EU, who would want to travel even with the pain of it being amber, eg those who haven't seen family in a long time. Will BA cancel amber destinations or keep something running. Guess once the list is announced then BA will see how many people cancel before pulling services.