RJD1983

How busy does BA's LHR-DFW get? I had been looking at flights over the next month, and BA seems to heavily sold out on many of the flights. How many years has BA been flying to DFW for, approx?

bhbloke

Very busy! Seems like big business has moved there from Cali, bringing most of their staff

Used to be a LGW flight back in the day

Can I help you

BA started flying to DFW in 1988 and yes the flights are busy.

vectismanpaul

Previous to the 1988 takeover by BA, British Caledonian flew daily to Dallas/Fort Worth from Gatwick using DC-10 aircraft.
I believe BA took over from 1988 and not 1998. It was from Gatwick for a good while before moving to Heathrow. BA used the ex BCAL DC-10s for
a good number of years after the takeover on transatlantic routes from Gatwick.

TPJ

Wasn't it a BCAL route before?

On a separate note - I recall there was a joint KE/BA lounge there - KE utilized it in the morning, BA in the afternoon.

vectismanpaul

Our posts must have crossed. Yes it was a BCAL route before 1988.

Door5L

BA use their A380 on the DFW route which gives you an indication of the route profile. First class and 97 Club seats available and rarely a spare seat despite AA also offering daily 773 services.

GM1985

Almost every DFW flight I�ve been on has been full or very close to it.

There is one flight that sticks out when there were just 10-12 people across the two upper deck WT cabins, and the crew said the lower deck was similarly empty. But that�s an aberration on an otherwise busy route.

AA also seem to do a good job at filling their planes to DFW and have been progressively adding services over the past few years. I remember when there was 1x BA and 1x AA service a day both on 777s. It�s now 1x BA A380 and 4x AA 77W�s.

sigma421

Yup. Also worth noting that DFW is an absolute fortress hub for American Airlines so there is a lot of connecting traffic coming off the BA193.

firstlight

I was on an AA 773 flight to /from dfw this week and it was rammed.

RJD1983

I am flying LHR-LAS via DFW in F soon, and one of the reasons I chose DFW was because of it being an AA hub.

That's a good point, actually.

RJD1983

I had a feeling it used to be a LGW route before T5. I remember doing ATL via Gatwick.

camdentown

Until relatively recently BA operated 2 flights per day to DFW. However AA took over one of the rotations.

NA-Flyer

They are flying the A380 to DFW----->High load route.

Nil SeAnn

I've been flying this route very regularly for almost a decade and load factor has been very high for years whether on BA or AA (with the exception of Covid restricted travel era).
Anecdotal experience from my flight LHR-DFW on BA193 on July 11.
Flight arrived over 2 hours late after departure was delayed - not as bad as my 6+ hour delay in May.
On approach to DFW the IFM announced that it was a completely full flight with 469 passengers and that over 200 of us were due to transfer on to connecting flights.
He went on to read out a list of passengers who now had new revised flight assignments. Connections varied from Cancun to Calgary and many other far flung places. It seemed to take forever to get through the list. I have to admit that I was surprised that almost half of the folks on that particular flight were connecting onwards. Got me thinking how many had also connected from elsewhere to join the flight at LHR (as I had).
The first flight of my forward bookings that is not very full is at the end of October.
Another anecdote is that even as Gold, upgrades are almost a thing of the past on this route. Over the years I have enjoyed many pleasant surprises from WT+ to Club, or even Club to First, but these are just memories now.
I also always opt for the BA option on the DFW-LHR leg to keep my EU261 "card in the deck".