Austin is a tricky market with very little long haul flying. It’s been one of the fastest growing airports in the United States, year after year and for years. But air service has grown even faster than demand.
American Airlines expanded mightily during the pandemic, with regional jets to numerous cities that likely violated their pilot scope clause and that lost money. Though then-Chief Commercial Officer Vasu Raja described Austin as his “love language” most of that flying is gone (replaced, in part, by gate squatting flights from Delta that sort of work flying migrants out of border towns).
There are no flights from Austin to Asia. To Europe there’s London, Amsterdam (KLM) and Frankfurt (Lufthansa) – with the latter two less than daily.
London was first, described as the perfect example of a route made possible by the Boeing 787. It worked well enough that British Airways grew the route to a Boeing 777 and even to a 747 when they were responding to competition from Norwegian flying Austin to London Gatwick.
In recent years BA has flown an Airbus A350. (Norwegian, which stopped flying long haul early in the pandemic, had planned to introduce Austin – Paris as well.)
Now British Airways plans to introduce a second Austin flight six days a week, for a total of thirteen weekly flights as part of its joint venture with American Airlines.
Pretty cool to see Austin pick up a 2nd daily flight (except Sunday) after Virgin Atlantic left in January. Timings:
• BA187 Depart LHR 4:05 PM Arrive AUS 8:20 PM
• BA186 Depart AUS 10:15 PM Arrive LHR 1:40 PM (next day)— Ishrion Aviation (@IshrionA) September 12, 2024
British Airways currently runs an Airbus A350-1000 on the Austin – London route. With the introduction of a second flight this will change to a Boeing 777-200ER and a Boeing 787-10.
It appears, then, that Austin will see the return of British Airways first class. 787-10s have two rows of four first class seats, however while flight schedules are loaded it doesn’t appear that first class inventory has been loaded for these flights at this point.
But what’s a bit concerning is that while London Heathrow-based Boeing 777-200s all have their Club Suite business class product, they’ve been running three Gatwick-based 777-200s out of Heathrow without these seats. I believe the three aircraft are G-VIIV, G-VIIW, and G-VIIY and they’ve recently been to Washington Dulles, Chicago O’Hare, Boston and Atlanta. I don’t know BA’s plans for continuing to use these planes from Heathrow, and whether they’ll eventually see a retrofit if they do stay Heathrow-based.
I wouldn’t want to get a surprise booking that Austin – London flight, expecting a proper business class, and wind up with eight-abreast business class including those middle-of-middle cuddle seats.
Virgin Atlantic had been flying Austin – London, but really didn’t have much connectivity on either side of the Atlantic. At Heathrow their flights aren’t well-timed for connections given slot constraints, and most of their routes are transatlantic anyway. They could connect onto partners for someone looking to fly to places like Paris, of course. But the number of destinations was limited versus BA. With Virgin, whose load factors had been in the 30s and 40s, out of the picture on this route it makes sense for BA to pick up the demand during peak season (so starting at the end of March).
And it makes sense for it to be British Airways rather than joint venture partner American operating the route, even though they share the economics, because American bases plans at its own hubs. Transatlantic flights from secondary cities in the U.S. isn’t as efficient for them.
The weirdest add as part of this announcement is PIT.
In a different article resident idiot, Tim Dunn, proclaimed AA has no strategic advantages in the Atlantic world…
Let’s just say you don’t see KLM or LH adding flights to Austin, much less making it daily. And you see other Delta partners abandoning Austin — Virgin…
AA’s JV has the unique advantage of adding secondary cities profitably given the natural O&D to London vs other European capitals from every US city.
KLM and LH have a lot of advantages of their own, but the AA/BA JV provides strong O&D from nearly any US city — Even MSY has BA but not AF… despite the many that seem to think that AF is the natural partner to New Orleans for Europe
I’ve seen that the former LGW 777s are due to be retrofitted to club suites over the winter on the BA FT a couple of times recently. Hopefully that holds!
Who pays J fares and accepts worse than 1-2-1 seating?
Was stuck in the middle cuddle seats with a stranger of the opposite sex. I felt so uncomfortable that I remained in the full upright position all night— but the worst part was not being able to get out of these seats to go to the lavatory in the middle of the night. Stuck & claustrophobic.
@Dave
Someone with a oneworld corporate contract that wants a bed. It’s how business contracts work.
Also, TECHNICALLY, BA’s old Club World is 1-2-1. Not saying it’s what we expect today but it is technically all aisle access in the early world
@Dave, some people like flying with their second half and happily take 2-2-2 seating.
If one is unfortunate enough to fly alone and/or for work, then yes 1-2-1 is a must
I booked AUS-LHR a few wks ago for summer 2025. Was going to be the A350 and now the changed to the 777. Was I better off on the A350? Would you stay on the 777 or move to the 787?
That old business class arrangement has decent window seats. They are rear facing, which I like. It’s also extremely private, more private than a cabin with doors.
You say the three 777-200 without Club World suites are flying out of Gatwick to the USA but then you say “I don’t know BA’s plans for continuing to use these planes from Heathrow, and whether they’ll eventually see a retrofit if they do stay Heathrow-based.” Did you mean Gatwick? or if the planes move from Gatwick to LHR? I may have misread it.
I’ve enjoyed the few times I’ve flown from AUS to LHR on the A350. It was very quiet and smooth and the seats were fine but nothing exceptional. The doors didn’t work properly on either flight (it took the FA pulling with all their strength from a standing position to get it to close -both flights!). I do love BA First though and would enjoy flying that again. And all this is head’s and shoulders above the awful LH options direct to FRA from AUS. And as a loyal Star Alliance person it is annoying to have to pick AA partner instead of UA one, but the LH planes are just so bad. I travel a lot for work internationally and love having the option to skip a connecting flight in the US.
@MaxPower: Tim Dunn may be slightly biased toward Delta (cough cough), but he’s definitely no idiot: He knows more about this industry than most of us (for sure me included). That said, I’m agreed with the balance of your comment.
I agree with Lara S. except that I’ve found AA Business to be much better than BA First especially when considering the price differential. But the AUS-LHR is certainly convenient but you still have to deal with LHR . . . both ways when connecting.