• 

  British Airways

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  BA/BAW

  Airline Type:

  Full Service Carrier

  Hub(s):

  London Heathrow Airport, London Gatwick Airport

  Year Founded:

  1974

  Alliance:

  oneworld

  Airline Group:

  IAG

  CEO:

  Sean Doyle

  Country:

  United Kingdom

British Airways is leasing four 209-seat A321s from fellow oneworld member Finnair. Pilots and cabin crew are from Finnair, while onboard items are BA-branded.

Finland's flag carrier has spare capacity primarily because of its Russia-driven woes. Extra capacity is something that BA seeks, especially as the all-important peak summer season, with higher demand, approaches. It is another way of dealing with staff shortages.

Currently, there are two A321s

BA is presently using two A321s from Finnair, as detailed below. A further two examples will enter its fleet in the coming weeks in time for a June start. It is unclear if specific aircraft will be used throughout the contract or if they'll be replaced.

Notice that the two aircraft operated inbound on regular, scheduled Finnair services. This meant that additional flights weren't necessary, saving BA further positioning costs. There was also no need for other slots to enable the arrivals. As you might imagine, the normal return flights to Helsinki didn't operate.

• OH-LZO: a 5.12-year-old aircraft, delivered to Finnair in April 2017. It positioned from Helsinki to London Heathrow on May 2nd on flight AY1335, the carrier's normal mid-afternoon arrival. It landed at 14:45. It began flying for BA on May 3rd. The first flight: BA604 to Pisa at 08:35
• OH-LZU: a 3.8-year-old example, delivered to Finland's flag carrier in July 2018. It positioned from Helsinki to London Heathrow on May 2nd on AY1339, the carrier's regular evening arrival. It landed at 20:06 and first flew for BA at 08:15 on May 3rd as BA2606 to Naples

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24 routes from London Heathrow

The latest schedule filing available via OAG shows BA has scheduled flights by Finnair until July 30th, but it is extremely likely they'll extend beyond that. It's just that details aren't yet available.

The current two aircraft together have four departures from Heathrow every day (two each). However, that'll double to eight from June 1st – clearly showing when the remaining two aircraft will be used – and up to 9x daily departures from June 12th. Between May 3rd and July 30th, they'll operate 653 outbound flights.

Based on data from May 9th, 24 routes from Heathrow will see Finnair's A321s until the end of July, as shown in the map below. Budapest and Faro have by far the lion's chunk – 37% of departures are to these places – with Prague, Marseille, and Pisa also important.

In contrast, many routes, including Billund, Gothenburg, Naples, Nuremberg, Porto, and Oslo, will them infrequently. In the case of Oslo, just three times: May 10th, May 19th, and July 12th. As ever, it may change.

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A look at Titan

The deal with Finnair is one part of many short-term tactics to avoid further disruption. Another was the use of G-ZAPX, a 21.8-year-old Titan Airways B757-200. This is the only Titan aircraft that BA seems to have used in the past couple of weeks.

Flightradar24 shows G-ZAPX positioned from London Stansted to London Gatwick on April 30th. Between May 1st and 4th, it was deployed to Bari, Dubrovnik, Kos, Lanzarote, Malta, Tenerife South, and Venice. Since May 7th, the aircraft has operated for TUI.

When writing, it is unclear if or when BA will use Titan airways again this summer. And, if it does, where they'll be used.