[Music]
uk flag carrier british airways boasts a
large and diverse fleet of aircraft the
london-based one world founding member
has more than 250 aircraft at its
disposal with a further 23 at its
regional subsidiary va city flyer
in 2022 we see the airbus a380 return to
widespread service at the airline
following a pandemic induced hiatus
let's take a deeper look at the entire
british airways fleet as it stands this
year
there are presently 254 aircraft in
british airways mainline fleet but these
more than the half make up its narrow
body fleet which consists entirely of
airbus jets
the smallest of these are its a319s of
which it currently flies 30.
the airline had been one of the few
operators of the a318 but the type was
retired in march of 2020
this lone baby boss had been used on the
airline special ba1 service from london
city airport to new york jfk
the unique all business class service
made a westbound stop in shannon ireland
for refueling and us customs
pre-clearance
the most numerous narrow body at va is
the larger a320 with 67 examples present
in the fleet the next generation a320
neo is also playing an increasing role
at british airways the airline has
received 17 examples to date and it has
another five on order
when it comes to the stretched fuselage
a321co variant all 18 examples in the
british airways fleet are presently
listed as inactive
these are some of the airline's oldest
aircraft with an average age of 16 and a
half years
meanwhile all 10 of its much younger
a321 neos are active the airline also
has a further two examples of the a321
neo on order
while airbus is the dominant force at ba
in terms of narrow body jets its u.s
competitor boeing has a greater share
when it comes to twin oil aircraft
the boeing triple 7 family is especially
popular with 43 777 200 ers and 16 777
300 ers currently in the fleet
interestingly british airways was the
global launch customer for the ge90
powered boeing triple 7 in november 1995
the first boeing triple seven powered by
these engines was delivered to the
airline during ceremonies in everett
washington
more recently some of the airlines
triple sevens made the news but for all
the wrong reasons
on january 26th of this year the
aircraft's door came off the plane while
it was being towed in johannesburg south
africa
thankfully no passengers were on board
when the incident occurred it had been
suggested that the jet bridge was left
extended to the aircraft ripping off the
open door as the plane was pushed past
it
in addition to the triple sevens
prominence at british airways today the
triple seven as a type will be a key
part of the airline's future especially
with the retirement of boeing 747 400s
while the triple 7x will eventually
become the airline's flagship aircraft
airbus had once put forward a bid
involving the double-decker a380 the
european plane maker had offered british
airways a mixed fleet of a380s some new
and some retired from other airlines
particularly middle eastern ones like
qatar or emirates that they would help
source
with two full decks the ample space
would have allowed ba to be creative
with their new club world class possibly
even offering bars and showers to their
premium guests
however the airline declined the offer
from airbus going with boeing's triple
7x bit
ceo of british airways at the time alex
cruz was quite vocal about the decision
the proposition that airbus put forth
simply did not even come close to
comparison with the boeing offer and
that was a combination as rumored in the
press of new aircraft and used aircraft
etc
crews went on saying imagine that we
find a suitable used relatively new a380
whose owners don't want anymore think
malaysian think emirates think lufthansa
imagine they give it to us at a really
reasonable price everything breaks down
the moment you start thinking about the
inside of the aircraft to put that into
a lease rate all of a sudden it takes
the aircraft completely out of the
market
british airways eventually decided on 42
triple seven nines made up of 18 firm
orders and 24 options
this order is intended to replace the
airline's 747 and aging triple 7 fleets
the airline had revealed that it would
take delivery of these 18 777x jets
between 2024 and 2027
although this is still subject to change
the airline had been expecting its first
delivery in 2022 but boeing has been
continuously pushing its delivery
schedule back
boeing was due to deliver the first
aircraft in 2020 but delays to the
programme have caused this to slip
several times
while not centering on the boeing triple
seven nine a 2021 report from ihe stated
the following the group has certain
rights to cancel commitments in the
event of significant delays to aircraft
deliveries caused by the aircraft
manufacturers no such rights had been
exercised as at december 31st
2020.
the airline is also notable for
operating all three variants of the 787
dreamliner family
at the time of making this video ch
aviation shows 12 7878
eight seven 187879
and just two seven eight seven tens the
number of seven eight seven tens is set
to multiply in the coming years with
another ten examples of the stretch
dreamliner on order
in interesting ba 787 news december 2020
saw three of the airline 787 dreamliners
sustain engine damage from foreign
object debris while at chicago o'hare
the airline needed to perform heavy
maintenance on the affected engines
resulting in unforeseen costs and
cancelled flights
in december of 2021 the airline launched
a suit against the city of chicago
requesting over three million dollars in
damages
the airlines court filing says that
while traversing the runway the three
aircraft's engines ingested debris that
have been left behind following
resurfacing and expansion work on one of
o'hare's terminals
reportedly the debris caused significant
damage to all six engines forcing ba to
take the planes out of operation for
several days
the airline states that the engines
required complete tear downs and
inspections leading to the cancellation
of several flights
ba claims that the city of chicago
operator of o'hare neglected to fulfill
its duties to keep the taxiways and
runways free from debris foreign objects
and other contaminants
under federal laws rules and regulations
the city of chicago had duties to
inspect the taxiways and runways and to
remove any foreign object debris left on
the taxiways and runways following
construction and resurfacing works and
the city of chicago failed to meet these
duties british airways said in the suit
as reported by law 360.
since news of the lawsuit emerged last
december no further information or
developments on the case have been made
public
moving on to the rest of the airline's
wide-body fleet airbus also still has an
important role to play in this domain
indeed its a350 1000 was touted in may
2021 as a potential new flagship for the
uk flag carrier all nine examples of the
type are presently active and they'll be
joined in the coming years by another
nine a350 1000s
last but not least ba is also notable
for being an ongoing operator of the
double decker airbus a380
the super jumbo has had a difficult last
couple of years with airlines largely
electing to sideline the type due to the
pandemic
there are currently 12 a380s in ba's
fleet but only part of this fleet is
active at the moment
the airline reintroduced the type on
short haul services in november 2021
before recommencing long-haul a380
operations a month later
this year will be a key year for the
a380 and ba has already added it to
three more us summer routes as travel
looks to recover
the airline's active jets had all
undergone heavy maintenance at lufthansa
technic facilities in manila since the
start of the pandemic this has included
both the airline's youngest and oldest
a380s
at the time of making this video eight
of the super jumbos are listed as park
notably golf x-ray lima echo echo is
being stored in doha while two others
echo bravo and echo kilo are listed as
being parked in madrid
it may seem hard to believe but it's
been well over a year since the last
british airways boeing 747 400 left
london heathrow airport the airline
decided to scrap its remaining fleet
several years early in response to the
coveted 19 pandemic
october 8th 2020 is a day that will go
down in the british airways history box
after around half a century of boeing
747 flights in and out of london
heathrow the queen of the skies left the
airport in the chatham dockyard livery
for the very last time
some 57 boeing
400s have flown with british airways
the departure of the boeing 747 from the
british airways fleet wasn't such a
surprise what was a surprise for many
was the timing of the last flight as
british airways had intended to retire
the queen of the skies by 2024
the aircraft were intended to be
replaced by the airline's outstanding
triple seven nine order at the time
british airways wasn't expecting demand
to recover until around 2024 fully and
it didn't make sense to pay to maintain
the jumbo jet to maybe bring some of
them back for six to 12 months
as you can see british airways operates
quite a diverse fleet of aircraft both
big and small both boeing and airbus
while it's sad to see the mighty boeing
747 now gone from the airline it'll be
exciting to see the new triple seven x
join in two or three years time
so which ba aircraft have you flown on
what is your best or worst memory when
flying with the airline
let us know your thoughts in the
comments
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