A British Airways Airbus A318 at London City Airport operating the service

Club World London City was an executive all-business-class flight service between London City Airport and New York City marketed by British Airways. The service launched in September 2009 and operated until March 2020.

Service

BA began the service in September 2009, using two Airbus A318s fitted with 32 lie-flat beds in an all business class cabin.[1][2] Flights operate under the numbers previously reserved for Concorde: BA001 – BA004.[3][4]

Until 2016, the service was operated twice-daily on weekdays between London City Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport with one daily service operating at weekends. Due to the short runway at London City Airport limiting fuel uptake, westbound flights from London to New York made a stop at Shannon Airport for refueling, where passengers on board flight BA1 cleared US Customs and Immigration, arriving in New York as domestic passengers.[5]

Although the fuel stop in Shannon led to a longer flight time compared to flights departing from Heathrow Airport to New York, passengers still saved time flying the London City service because they could check a bag just 20 minutes before departure compared to the 60 minutes required at Heathrow. The ability to clear US Customs and Immigration during the refueling allowed passengers to save time after landing in New York; however, the introduction of Global Entry negated some of these time savings.[6]

BA3, the second daily flight, enjoyed preclearance until 2012 when the US preclearance facility in Shannon shortened its operating hours.[7] The flight was cancelled in 2016, leaving one daily service which preclears in Shannon.[8] The service was suspended in March 2020 amidst COVID-19, before being officially cancelled in August 2020.[9]

Operations

British Airways (BA) Limited
IATA ICAO Callsign
BA BAT GHERKIN[10]
Founded11 June 2012[11]
Ceased operations2015
Fleet size2
Destinations2
Parent companyBritish Airways
HeadquartersWaterside, Harmondsworth, United Kingdom
Websitebritishairways.com

British Airways (BA) Limited[12] was a British airline and a subsidiary of British Airways created in 2012 to operate the Club World London City service.[13] The subsidiary was established as Acoperco Limited on 14 March 2012,[12] which applied for operating and route licences with the Civil Aviation Authority the same month. British Airways transferred its two A318 aircraft to the certificate of the new subsidiary.[13] The airline had codeshare agreements with American Airlines, Finnair, Iberia, and US Airways.[14]

The Club World London City services returned to being operated directly by British Airways PLC in 2015 although no changes were made to the aircraft, crews or product offered.[15]

Fleet

The service was operated using two Airbus A318-100 aircraft. Between 2012 and 2015, British Airways Limited operated the aircraft under a wet-lease arrangement with British Airways.[13][14] After 2015, they were directly operated by the mainline British Airways, with no changes to the service offered.[15] Each aircraft has 32 business class seats in a 2-2 configuration of eight rows which recline fully-flat.[16] In-flight entertainment is provided via iPads distributed to passengers.[6]

Titan Airways, a UK charter airline, acquired one of the A318s in 2017 to expand its operations after British Airways cancelled the second daily Club World London City service.[17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kaminski-Morrow, David. "Exclusive: British Airways A318 all-business cabin revealed". Flightglobal. Archived from the original on 13 January 2012. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
  2. ↑ "British Airways orders two Airbus A318s to launch London City-New York route". Forbes. Archived from the original on 30 May 2008. Retrieved 27 May 2008.
  3. ↑ "British Airways Picks A318 Over Boeing 717 For Narrowbody Purchase". aeroworldnet.com. Archived from the original on 18 June 2008. Retrieved 12 September 2009.http://www.pprune.org/cabin-crew-wannabes/print-264389-ba-cityflyer-3.html Archived 19 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ "BA All Business Flights to Include Westbound Fuel Stop in Shannon Airport, Republic of Ireland". Flightglobal. Archived from the original on 15 March 2012. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
  5. ↑ "British Airways cancels one of its London City to New York all-business class services". Business Traveller. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  6. 1 2 Rabinowitz, Jason (4 August 2020). "Goodbye to British Airways' baby bus, the all-premium A318". Runway Girl. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  7. ↑ "BA003 New York service to lose US pre-clearance at Shannon". Business Traveller. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  8. ↑ "British Airways cancels one of its London City to New York all-business class services". Business Traveller. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  9. ↑ "British Airways confirms end of all business class LCY-JFK service". Business Traveller. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  10. ↑ Molnar, Matt (14 June 2012). "In Possible Financing Move, British Airways Launches New Subsidiary to Operate Existing A318 Transatlantic Flights at NYCAviation". Nycaviation.com.
  11. ↑ "BA Launches New Subsidiary BA Ltd". Routesonline. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  12. 1 2 "BRITISH AIRWAYS (BA) LIMITED overview". Companies House. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  13. 1 2 3 Kaminski-Morrow, David (13 June 2012). "BA to operate premium A318s under new subsidiary". Flightglobal.com. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  14. 1 2 "OST-2012-0081 – British Airways – EU-US Codesharing with Iberia and American". Airlineinfo.com. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
  15. 1 2 "CWLCY op by BA Ltd. no more". FlyerTalk Forums.
  16. ↑ "Flight review: British Airways A318 London City to New York". Business Traveller. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  17. ↑ "Titan to acquire all-premium A318 from BA". Flight Global. 3 May 2017. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
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