BA all business class service

Read this in the FT on the weekend:

British Airways is planning an all-premium class transatlantic service between the US and mainland European cities as part of a head-on challenge to its leading continental rivals. Willie Walsh, BA chief executive, said such services, which would not be on offer in the UK, were planned to start in the summer of next year. The plan represents BA’s effort to take early advantage of the recently agreed US/European Union ‘open skies’ deal to liberalise transatlantic air services.

The operation of such premium class services, possibly all-business class or two-class services including some premium economy seating, could create direct links for BA between the US, most probably New York, and cities such as Paris, Zurich, Frankfurt, Milan or Madrid.

They will pose a direct challenge to BA’s biggest European rivals Air France-KLM and Lufthansa at their main hubs and to the leading US operators out of New York.

They will mark the first time that BA has tried to fly long-haul out of Europe other than from the UK. However, Chris Avery, aviation analyst at JPMorgan, warned that BA’s previous forays outside Heathrow had ‘cost it a lot of money before it gave up’.

Mr Walsh said BA would use much smaller aircraft for its US/continental Europe routes, such as Boeing 757s or 767s from its existing fleet, rather than the bigger capacity 747s and 777s it uses on most of its existing long-haul services out of London.

Virgin Atlantic has previously said that it had similar US/continental Europe plans, but it isyet to announce any concrete move.

Mr Walsh said BA was seeking to exploit its strong premium brand in the US and in particular its presence at New York JFK airport, where it operates its own terminal, as well as the strength of its inflight product, where it pioneered fully-flat bed seats in business class.

The BA plan is also a response to the rapid growth of the new breed of all-business class operators that have sprung up across the North Atlantic in the past 18 months.

These include Eos and Maxjet of the US flying chiefly between London Stansted and JFK, Silverjet of the UK between London Luton and New York Newark, and France’s L’Avion between Paris Orly and Newark

Sounds interesting….