• British Airways, Cabin Crew Training, Customer Service
    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

Despite initially expected to begin in March, British Airways' Dallas flights are now by the A380, replacing the B777-300ER. The use of the A380 marks the first time since April 2020 that Dallas has seen the double-decker quadjet, then with Qantas. However, BA's A380 service is, for now, scheduled only until next March, after which the B787-10 is due to take over.

The A380 to Dallas

BA first used the A380 to the Dallas hub on July 1st. The honor went to G-XLEF, an 8.5-year-old aircraft delivered to BA in May 2014. The A380 operates 1x daily to Dallas. The schedule is as follows, with all times local:

  1. Heathrow to Dallas: BA193, 13:05-17:00 (block time of 9h 55m)
  2. Dallas to Heathrow: BA192, 19:30-10:30+1 (9h)

British Airways has served Dallas for numerous years after inheriting the route from British Caledonian. Looking at the past 30 years, BA served it from Gatwick until March 2008 using DC-10s and then B777-200ERs. It switched to Heathrow and the B777-200ER continued, replaced in December 2010 by the now-retired B747-400. The B747-400 remains BA's leading aircraft on Heathrow-Dallas, although the B777-300ER, B787-9, and B787-10 have been used. Now the A380 joins them.

BA Dallas London Heathrow A380
When writing, BA192 is en route to London Heathrow using the call sign 'Speedbird Nine-Two Whisky'. It has 1h 56m remaining. Image: Flightradar24.

Stay aware: Sign up for my weekly new routes newsletter.

Heathrow-Dallas has grown hugely

American and BA serve Heathrow-Dallas, a real oneworld route. While July Heathrow-Dallas flights are up by 1% over the same month in 2019 – there are still up to five daily flights, just slightly more often now – that's just part of the story.

Cirium shows that seats for sale have risen by a considerable 21.3%, the same as available seat miles (seats x distance). There are now over 17,000 more monthly roundtrip seats on the route, an enormous increase in a long-established and mature market.

Discover more aviation news.

A big rise in premium cabins

While there are far more economy seats for sale, premium cabins have grown the most on a percentage basis. First-class capacity is up by 67% versus July 2019, and business by 34%. From a business perspective, let's hope the market's significant capacity increase still means prices and loads remain firm.

It is, of course, from much bigger aircraft being used. If American and BA are combined, seats per flight have risen from 278 to 333. American no longer uses a mix of B777-200ERs and B777-300ERs, and now only deploys the larger variant, while BA exclusively uses the A380.

BA A380 Dallas1
BA and American have up to 5x daily Heathrow-Dallas flights. Photo: via Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

BA has doubled seats per flight

In June 2019, BA deployed low-capacity, four-class B777-200ERs. This equipment shift to the A380 means seats per flight have gone from 224 to 469, up by 109%.

While the A380 has the same number of first class seats as four-class B777-200ERs, Club World capacity has doubled (48 to 97), World Traveller Plus is up by 38% (40 to 55), and World Traveller, standard economy, by a whopping 148% (122 to 303).

Will you be flying BA from Dallas this year? If so, let us know in the comments.