British Airways has resumed service from Heathrow to both Nashville and New Orleans. This brings to 24 BA's US network from London this week. The only confirmed US route still to return is San Jose, with its first flight set for the first day of the summer season.

Heathrow to Nashville & New Orleans are back

The Tennessee and Louisiana cities of Nashville and New Orleans are once again connected non-stop to Europe. On December 9th, BA resumed both from Heathrow, with each in the air to the US when this article was written.

It comes a month and a day after the US reopened to most fully vaccinated Europeans. It follows BA resuming Heathrow to Baltimore and Las Vegas and Gatwick to Orlando and Tampa, and before that Heathrow to Austin and San Diego.

BA Heathrow to Nashville
"Speedbird 223 November" pushed back at 13:34 and took off at 13:31. It is operated by G-ZBJB, which was delivered in June 2013. When writing, it is cruising at 40,000 feet. Image: Radarbox.com.

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Initially three weekly, but Nashville to increase

The schedule is as follows (all times are local). Nashville currently runs on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays but will rise to five-weekly from the start of summer 2022. Meanwhile, New Orleans is and will remain served on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

  • BA223: Heathrow to Nashville; 13:30-16:50
  • BA222: Nashville to Heathrow; 19:20-09:20+1 (the following day)
  • BA225: Heathrow to New Orleans; 13:55-18:10
  • BA224: New Orleans to Heathrow; 20:25-11:00+1 (the next day)

Both routes use 214-seat B787-8s, with no first class, 35 business seats, and an almost one-quarter larger economy cabin than the B787-9. The smaller B787-8 is especially good for thinner and higher leisure or lower-premium long-haul services.

BA 787
Nashville and New Orleans see the B787. As will San Jose next year. Photo: Tom Boon - Simple Flying.

San Jose is the last confirmed US route

The last remaining US route definitely returning is Heathrow to San Jose, California. Inaugurated in May 2016 and last served in March 2020, the 5,369-mile (8,640km) route is bookable from March 27th, the first day of the summer 2022 season.

With five weekly flights, BA279 will leave Heathrow at 14:55 and arrive at 17:55 local time. Returning, BA278 will depart at 19:55 and arrive back at 14:10 local time. The B787-8 will primarily be next year, although the larger and more premium -9 variant is scheduled for winter 2022.

While BA has scheduled Heathrow to Pittsburgh and Gatwick to JFK for next summer, neither are bookable, and it isn't clear if they'll materialize. BA had applied to operate a once-daily service to Indianapolis next year. The carrier had two historic slots allocated to the route, but not surprisingly, the additional requested five new slot pairs were not approved.

BA's US network this week
BA's US network this week. Image: GCMap.

BA currently has 24 routes to the US

In the present week, BA has 243 outbound flights to the US from Heathrow and Gatwick, OAG data shows, 80% of the flights it had in the same week in 2019. North America is an enormously important market for BA profit-wise, so it isn't surprising it has added back more flights than other long-haul destinations, which remain at 71%.

BA's US network this week involves 22 US airports and 24 routes. There's an average of 10 weekly flights per route, down only slightly on 2019, although demand and fares may be a different story.

Will you be flying across the North Atlantic next year? Let us know in the comments.