The last surviving “business class only” airline service between London and New York next week celebrates its fifth anniversary, despite being written off as a massive gamble when it launched during the recession.
The twice-daily British Airways flights connecting Docklands’ London City airport with JFK in the Big Apple have flown 200,000 passengers — each paying between around £2,000 and £6,000 return — since the inaugural departure on September 30, 2009.
The apparently ill-timed launch came almost exactly a year after the fall of Lehman Brothers when business and first class plane bookings were plummeting as the world economy lurched into recession. Three business-only airlines, Maxjet, Eos and Silverjet, had already collapsed.
But BA executives said they have been delighted by the surprise popularity of their route, which has been hugely boosted by the explosive growth of the east London economy and the success of the Docklands financial district. Abigail Comber, head of marketing at BA, said: “After five years it’s still going strong and we’re really pleased about that”. As a sign of confidence, BA’s boss Willie Walsh gave the service the prestigious flight codes formerly reserved for Concorde, BA 001 to BA 004.
The flights have a 15-minute check-in for passengers with only hand baggage, and save the hour-and-a-half slog across London to Heathrow from Docklands.
The Airbus 318 planes carry only 32 passengers but have to stop at Shannon airport in Ireland before crossing the Atlantic because they cannot take off from the short runway at City with enough fuel to do it in one go.
But passengers save time by clearing US immigration in advance at Shannon. One, consultant Andrew Solum from Limehouse, said: “My record at JFK for getting out of the plane into a taxi is three minutes. ”
