British Airways confirmed its Airbus A380s will be returning to the skies sooner than expected, with first flights to take off in November 2021.
The airline will initially bring back four of its 12 A380s, which will start operations on short-haul destinations so that crew can get familiar with the aircraft again, it announced on October 6, 2021.
The superjumbo will then operate flights to Miami and Los Angeles in November 2021, followed by Dubai the following month.
The earlier than expected return of the A380 to the fleet comes after the United States said it would open up its borders to international travelers.
“This is an exciting time for British Airways and our customers as we see borders re-opening,” Neil Chernoff, BA director of network and alliances said in a statement. “With welcome news from the US, we are dramatically increasing flights and bringing home some of our A380s to give our customers as many options as possible.”
Transatlantic travel opening up is a big relief for carriers like British Airways, which said it now plans to fly to 23 US airports this winter, offering 246 flights a week. That would be more than any other transatlantic carrier, the British airline said.
Services to New York, for example, will be increased to five a day and then up to eight a day in December.
British Airways also said it had added more seats to vacation hot spots like Marrakech and Dalman for leisure travelers this October, coinciding with school breaks in Britain. It will also restart flights to ski destinations such as Innsbruck, Grenoble and Sazlburg from December. It will increase frequencies of flights to key European cities such as Amsterdam, Geneva, Dublin, Berlin, Paris and Rome.
(Credit: Stuart Bailey/British Airways)