In the documents that were distributed in the course of the presentation of the half-year figures, the International Airlines Group announced the phasing out of the last remaining Airbus A318 aircraft. This is likely to have an impact on the London-City-New York route in particular.
British Airways has been offering a pure business class product to New York from the inner-city City Airport for a long time. This is served with the A318, which has only 32 seats. On the outbound flight to JFK, a refueling stop is made in Shannon, Ireland, where passengers can also complete immigration formalities into the United States. Thus, the flight formally arrives in the US as a domestic flight. A benefit for travelers. The return flight is non-stop.
However, the corona pandemic meant that flights BA1 / 2 were temporarily suspended and should pause until at least October 2020. But now it is clear that the abandonment of this exclusive connection should be final, because with the G-EUNA the last Airbus A318 will be phased out.
A spokeswoman for British Airways confirmed on request that the route London-City-New York-JFK will be permanently closed. The company cited the decline in passenger demand due to the corona pandemic as the background. This ends another era at BA, because the A318 flights from London City were under flight numbers that were previously used for Concorde.