Boeing Jets Allocated to British Airways

Anglo-Spanish multinational airline holding company and British Airways parent entity International Airlines Group (IAG) has converted six Boeing 787-10 options into firm orders. Moreover, AIG has added another six 787-10 options to Boeing’s orderbook.

The new wide-body jets, which are to be delivered between 2025 and 2026, stand to afford the air-carrier’s premium wide-body fleet a much-needed capacity boost.

In addition to British Airways, IAG’s subsidiary airlines include: Aer Lingus, IAG Cargo, Iberia, Iberia Express, LEVEL, Vueling, and Avios Group.

Strong revenues notwithstanding, British Airways remains the only IAG subsidiary air-carrier yet to exceed its 2019 capacity figures.

Apparently confident in the ongoing growth of both the long- and short-haul commercial air-travel sectors, IAG has also converted ten A320neo options to firm deliveries. The new Airbus jets are slated to be delivered in 2028.

Finally, IAG has converted an option on an Iberia Airbus A350-900 into a firm order.

Speaking to the subject of its recent acquisitions, an IAG spokesperson stated: “The firm aircraft will be delivered in 2025 and 2026 and will be used by British Airways and Iberia to restore capacity in the airlines’ long-haul fleets.”

For purpose of attracting larger numbers of passengers, British Airways is attempting to better its in-flight cabin service. After a fashion befitting the United Kingdom’s flag-carrier, the London-based airline—after a six-year hiatus—is reintroducing free tea services for economy-class customers on short-haul flights.

Once renowned for its passenger amenities and cabin service, British Airways has fallen to a meme-worthy level of penuriousness. A catering-cart SNAFU saw the entirety of the passengers traveling aboard a recent British Airways flight each served nothing more than a single piece of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

An enthusiastic adherent and inveterate operator of Boeing’s 787 aircraft family, British Airways’s fleet comprises 12 787-8, 18 787-9, and seven 787-10 jets—the latter having been delivered in June 2023. British Airways’s complement of wide-body planes includes, also, 59 Boeing 777 family aircraft, 15 A350-100s, and 12 A380s.

British Airways’s 787-10s service the air-carrier’s routes to destinations the likes of Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Houston Intercontinental (IAH), Newark Liberty (EWR), Toronto, Pearson (YYZ), Kuwait City (KWI), and Dubai (DXB).

Referred to as Speedbird in the truncated patois peculiar to air traffic controllers, British Airways flights—for the foreseeable future—will be operated by a young, capable, and comfortable fleet consisting of both Boeing and Airbus aircraft. The airline’s return to form, however, is contingent more so upon the personnel by whom subject aircraft are crewed and managed than the machines themselves.

FMI: www.britishairways.com