BA’s Customs Coup

August 18, 2008 – 8:20 pm

Way back in February BA announced it would begin flying London City Airport to New York City with 2 A318s.  Speculation arose about how they would stretch the aircraft on the westbound leg and soon it came out that there would be a refueling stop in Ireland.  Would Guests accept a half hour stopover for the convenience of flying through London City?

Now we know that answer will be, yes.  BA has arranged for its guests to go through US customs during the 40 minute stop in Ireland.  This is a great business proposition:

  1. Guests will be allowed to check in as late as 15 minutes before the flight when departing from London
  2. London City airport is far, far more convenient than any other London Airport (check out this Google map)
  3. Guests will be cleared through customs before they get to JFK (It will be interesting to see how this works in practice as none of the other premium carriers (Eos, Silverjet) were able to bypass customs at their NYC airports).
  4. BA will offer the only all premium service on the NYC-LON route with 32 business class seats on an A318.

During the brief heyday of Eos and Silverjet there were hundreds of all premium seats full going back and forth across the Atlantic between NYC and LON.  BA should have no issues filling 32.

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