Does anyone know if British Airways will be returning to Australian skies anytime soon? I know they are flying daily to Singapore and Hong Kong, however not Sydney yet.
I need to return to London in August, and I have a ticket booked with BA, what should I do??
Its unlikely that those flights will go ahead, they will likely (if at all) only return when free travel between Australia and the UK is back. However, new bookings are being accepted for September so I would assume its a month by month basis. I booked some recently for Dec /Jan (hopeful)
I had flights booked for July which BA kindly refunded in full without even having to ask, I was notified that the flights were cancelled three weeks before the date I was due to depart. I'm aware that usually a voucher is offered but for some reason it wasn't in my case. Best think you can do is email them, or call if you have a few hours spare.
Alternatively try requesting a voucher through the website and you will open a dialogue with them.
BA is more likely to come back early to mid next year but given the state of the UK's control of Covid don't expect it to be much before that. Qatar and Emirates will fill the gap due to their hubs and cargo capacity. BA doesn't have such a hub to pick up cargo and passengers in the same way. I notice QF has a regular A330 to Singapore for cargo only which also squeezes BA opportunities, but I may be wrong though.
It's unlikely to be before there is any lifting of travel restrictions between UK and Aus (your guess is as good as mine as to how long that takes!). I also imagine BA won't be operating flights if max passenger capacity is only 50 passengers, they (unlike the ME3) have to answer to shareholders and no way are they doing anything but losing money on flights with that sort of passenger load. As someone that has flown the route many times over the last 8 years, (and setting aside the inevitable carping about BA's hard product, which always gets said by someone whenever the airline is mentioned) I suspect that it does do quite well for BA, so would be very surprised to see it axed permanently. There were strong rumours prior to the current situation that they were also considering adding a flight to Melbourne - clearly thats unlikely anytime soon.
With the recent increase of Qatar's stake in IAG (parent company of BA), there had been speculation in the UK that BA will run codeshares with Qatar for Australian flights. BA ticket holders would fly in their metal to Doha, and then QR operating the Doha - SYD / MEL / PER / BNE / CBR sectors.
Obviously, that may be thrown out now, but if we see rationalisation of airlines, and slow uptake of seats by passengers, I suspect these types of arrangements will become more common.
In the nearer term, I reckon BA will be prioritising rebuilding trans-Atlantic travel than an ultra-long haul route.
timothyshears
timothyshears
Member since 26 Jul 2017
Total posts 19
Does anyone know if British Airways will be returning to Australian skies anytime soon? I know they are flying daily to Singapore and Hong Kong, however not Sydney yet.
I need to return to London in August, and I have a ticket booked with BA, what should I do??
TDAG
TDAG
BAEC
Member since 10 Jul 2019
Total posts 12
Its unlikely that those flights will go ahead, they will likely (if at all) only return when free travel between Australia and the UK is back. However, new bookings are being accepted for September so I would assume its a month by month basis. I booked some recently for Dec /Jan (hopeful)
I had flights booked for July which BA kindly refunded in full without even having to ask, I was notified that the flights were cancelled three weeks before the date I was due to depart. I'm aware that usually a voucher is offered but for some reason it wasn't in my case. Best think you can do is email them, or call if you have a few hours spare.
Alternatively try requesting a voucher through the website and you will open a dialogue with them.
patrickk
patrickk
Qantas
Member since 19 Apr 2012
Total posts 737
BA is more likely to come back early to mid next year but given the state of the UK's control of Covid don't expect it to be much before that. Qatar and Emirates will fill the gap due to their hubs and cargo capacity. BA doesn't have such a hub to pick up cargo and passengers in the same way. I notice QF has a regular A330 to Singapore for cargo only which also squeezes BA opportunities, but I may be wrong though.
jrfsp
jrfsp
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 04 Mar 2014
Total posts 105
I think the route was performing well prior to Covid, so i think it will come back eventually, probably on a smaller aircraft, maybe 787-9
Ourmanin
Ourmanin
Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer
Member since 08 Jun 2018
Total posts 144
It's unlikely to be before there is any lifting of travel restrictions between UK and Aus (your guess is as good as mine as to how long that takes!). I also imagine BA won't be operating flights if max passenger capacity is only 50 passengers, they (unlike the ME3) have to answer to shareholders and no way are they doing anything but losing money on flights with that sort of passenger load. As someone that has flown the route many times over the last 8 years, (and setting aside the inevitable carping about BA's hard product, which always gets said by someone whenever the airline is mentioned) I suspect that it does do quite well for BA, so would be very surprised to see it axed permanently. There were strong rumours prior to the current situation that they were also considering adding a flight to Melbourne - clearly thats unlikely anytime soon.
Rezzadogs
Rezzadogs
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 12 Jan 2017
Total posts 8
With the recent increase of Qatar's stake in IAG (parent company of BA), there had been speculation in the UK that BA will run codeshares with Qatar for Australian flights. BA ticket holders would fly in their metal to Doha, and then QR operating the Doha - SYD / MEL / PER / BNE / CBR sectors.
Obviously, that may be thrown out now, but if we see rationalisation of airlines, and slow uptake of seats by passengers, I suspect these types of arrangements will become more common.
In the nearer term, I reckon BA will be prioritising rebuilding trans-Atlantic travel than an ultra-long haul route.