[AMcWhirter]

The importance of the transatlantic market means that European carriers tend to announce new (transatlantic) routes in N America before Europe.

That’s certainly been the case with BA and VS. It was the same yesterday with AF.

Only today did AF update its media pages with news of the Phoenix route which was, open for booking on Airfrance.com, yesterday.

[AMcWhirter]

X/twitter this evening reporting that BA will restart services to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur in winter season 2024/5.

Bangkok will be served from LGW (from October 28) while KUL (from November 10) will operate ex-LHR.

It’s reported that bookings will open tomorrow (Tuesday March 5).

Certainly BKK will be welcomed by many readers who have requested for many months that BA restart this route.

Changes are possible.

3 users thanked author for this post.

AlanOrton1, sparkyflier, AndrewinHK

[ImissConcorde]

Kuala Lumpur daily. Bangkok thrice weekly.

[MarkivJ]

KL will be super welcome. I’ve heard MS is running full load on its 2 A350s to LHR and this will definitely help feed to that area. I did also hear that KL has become a favourite transit spot for oneworld’ers to get to Indonesia and Phillipines.

1 user thanked author for this post.

sparkyflier

[AndrewinHK]

Good to see they announced a new First will debut on the retrofitted 380’s, and the new lounge concept will debut in Dubai later this year. New short-haul seats on the next batch of 320/321 deliveries 8 are due in May.

1 user thanked author for this post.

sparkyflier

[sparkyflier]

Good to see BKK and KL come back. I did think they would as to me the analytics were strong, but of course their return was delayed due to shortage of planes and staff.

Wished BKK was from LHR but the schedules do look good and attractive.

I have wondered if the LGW-BKK slots may come from Mauritius..? And move that flight to LHR? Can see BA thinking Mauritius could be a market that would justify a F class cabin. We shall see.

The new seats in Club Europe do look good. The current ones are not great and these colours look slicker and more vibrant.

[TominScotland]

For me, it is great to see KUL back in particular. I use the MH service quite frequently and it is good in the A350 but always rammed full so the demand is there. Just back on that route (from Australia) on Saturday and heading out again in April. Malaysia’s tourist arrivals have grown very rapidly over the past couple of years so the travel market is certainly buoyant.

[BackOfThePlane]

The fact that BA are fitting their A380s with a new First suite suggests that they plan to keep flying the aircraft to at least 2030.

By then, it might be just them and Emirates.

[Gkesuuuk]

It is good they are back to BKK. As for Gatwick, they aren’t really expanding – the long haul fleet is still smaller than pre-COVID and I think from the end of March they will have less long haul flights with the transfer of the Doha route to Heathrow (which is a frustration as I have been a regular user of it and it has usually been rammed at the front and back).

[cwoodward]

BOTP …and possibly Qantas who have already refitted almost all of their A380 fleet.

1 user thanked author for this post.

BackOfThePlane

[AMcWhirter]

BOTP … no mention of new Club World ?

Maybe if only first class it must be to do with the cost (of not updating the other cabins).

As I said before one of the reasons for AF retiring its A380s was the cost of refurbishment.

AF’s A380s had not been updated since their delivery in 2012.

Business class for AF’s A380s was still 2-3-2 and the seats remained angled lie-flat.

Not sure when BA’s A380s will require a C check but that YouTube by Flightradar24 on the amount of work involved (the video featured an Etihad A380) was incredible and costly.

[BackOfThePlane]

@AMc – I believe that they are fitting the new Club Suite onto the A380 as well but I don’t have any inside info on that, it’s simply what (I think) I read elsewhere.

If they are going to fit the A380 with the new Club Suite (and they will do the 787-8S & 787-9s first), then the new First Class Suite will have to be a definite & distinct step up in order to ensure that there is sufficient differentiation to make the upgrade option compelling.

At the moment, the only BA aircraft with both First Class (current version) and the new Club Suite is the 787-10. I wonder how many people flying First in the 787-10 are using Avios to upgrade from business or simply being upgraded when Club is full?

Anyone have any experience of either?

1 user thanked author for this post.

AMcWhirter

[CheerUp]

BOTP – 777 from LHR-LAX in Feb that I travelled on had both new F and J suites.
Suspect there are a few 777 that have had both cabin upgrades.

[BackOfThePlane]

@CheerUp – Yesterday’s announcement from BA referred to an entirely brand new First Class Suite to be fitted on the A380 from 2025.

What was missing from the announcement (I think) was whether these would then be retrofitted to the 787-9 (which will be getting the new Club Suite), 777 (most of which now have the new Club Suite) or relatively new 787-10 (which has the Club Suite and newish First Class seats).

1 user thanked author for this post.

CheerUp

[CheerUp]

BOTP – Ah missed it would be a new F suite on 380!

1 user thanked author for this post.

BackOfThePlane

[Author]

Posts