British Airways (BA) confirmed to AeroTime that it will terminate the historical all-business class flight BA1/BA2 between New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and London City Airport (LCY) with the Airbus A318 as the parent company of BA, International Airlines Group (IAG), announced it was retiring the A318 fleet.
The news comes as IAG reported a net loss of €3.8 billion in H1 2020.
IAG reported heavy losses that resulted in a change of strategy for the Group, forcing it to adapt and restructure its worldwide operations and fleet compositions for subsidiary airlines.
Sadly, this decision also affected BA’s Airbus A318 fleet, also known as the ‘Baby Bus,’ which also offered an all-business experience for passengers flying across the Atlantic between London and New York.
The legendary flight BA1/BA2 was suspended on March 24 and was set to resume on September 1, 2020. But now, the future of the BA1 is unclear, as British Airways will retire its Airbus A318 fleet and cancel the all-business class flight.
Previously, the flight number belonged to BA’s Concorde service between London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR) and JFK, until the supersonic jet’s retirement in 2003.
British Airways confirmed the news to AeroTime News.
“As we adapt to the decrease in passenger demand as a result of the Covid-19 global pandemic we can confirm that we will no longer operate our business class-only flights from London City to New York, JFK via Shannon,” said the BA representative.