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Airlines have been putting through a lot of schedule updates over the past couple of weeks and they keep coming think and fast on pretty major routes. In this post I’ll take a look at two of the more significant changes I’ve seen over the past few days including British Airways changing its mind on an A380 service to the US and Qatar Airways withdrawing a planned A350 service to Europe.
British Airways Cancels A380 Service To Boston
Back in July British Airways announced that it was scheduling an Airbus A380 aircraft to operate the London Heathrow – Boston route in February and March 2017 and, at the time, I wondered what the point of the exercise was.
BA flys 23 weekly flights between London and Boston so it would seem unlikely that the airline is particularly short of capacity on the route……although this does appear to be a route on which BA has no real idea which aircraft to use.
Here’s what the outbound schedule looks like and take a look at how BA manages to use 4 of the 7 types of wide-body aircraft it operates:
BA213 LHR 11:20 – 14:00 BOS (Daily 747 service)
BA203 LHR 15:15 – 18:05 BOS (Mon, Thu 777-200 service)
BA215 LHR 16:40 – 19:20 BOS (Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri, Sa, Sun 747 service)
BA215 LHR 16:40 – 19:20 BOS (Wed 777-300 service)
BA239 LHR 18:55 – 21:30 BOS (Daily 787-9 service)
Image courtesy of Ronnie McDonald via Flickr
The A380 was supposed to be taking over flights BA213/212 from 2 February but that is now no longer happening…..perhaps using 5 of their 7 types of wide-body aircraft on one route was a step too far for BA 🙂
So, if you’re booked to fly to Boston between 2 February and 25 March on BA213/212…..
BA213 LHR 11:20 – 14:00 BOS
BA212 BOS 17:55 – 05:10+1 day LHR
….you’ll find that you’re now flying in a pretty old Boeing 747 rather than a pretty new Airbus A380.
As always this will be particularly important to those with seat assignments as they’re probably all over the place now – the 747 and A380 really don’t have that much in common!
It’s also bad news for those booked into First Class as the British Airways 747 First Class cabin (reviewed here) isn’t as good as the one that the A380 offers (review coming next week).
Qatar Airways Cancels One of Its A350 Services To Paris
It’s not news that Qatar Airways has been having a lot of issues getting some of it’s new planes delivered on time and we’ve seen numerous route changes as a result of this…now we have another.
Qatar Airways was due to ramp up its A350 service between Doha and Paris from 16 December with a second A350 aircraft set to take over flights QR041/042 (an A350 already operates one of Qatar’s 3 daily lights to Paris)…but that’s no longer going to happen.
In all honesty, considering the issues that Qatar Airways has been having with A350 deliveries, putting a second A350 on the Paris route was always an ambitious stretch and it’s not exactly a shock to see the airline pull the plug on the idea.
The Doha – Paris schedule will continue to look like this:
QR041 DOH 01:30 – 06:30 CDG (Daily 777-300ER service)
QR039 DOH 07:10 – 12:25 CDG (Daily A380 service)
QR037 DOH 15:05 – 20:05 CDG (Daily A350 service)
QR042 CDG 09:25 – 17:45 DOH (Daily 777-300ER service)
QR040 CDG 15:15 – 23:35 DOH (Daily A380 service)
QR038 CDG 21:20 – 05;40+1 day DOH (Daily A350 service)
This is bad news for both Business Class and Economy Class passengers – the A350 had a far superior Business Class cabin to the 777-300ER (which I’ll be flying and reviewing next year) and, in Economy Class, the A350 offers an inch more seat width throughout the cabin (seat pitch is about the same on both aircraft).
So, if you were booked to fly on QR041 or QR042 on or after 16 December I’d check you reservations because you’re no longer scheduled to fly on the A350 – you’re now on a Qatar Airways 777-300ER.
Bottom Line
Check your reservations if you were booked on any of these flights and make sure you re-choose your seat assignments before anyone else notices that there has been an aircraft swap.
