The Canadian market has certainly benefited from British Airways’ (BA) fleet renewal programme with Vancouver the latest city to be served by its latest generation airliners. After utilising the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on flights between London and Calgary, Montreal and Toronto, BA has confirmed it will introduce the A380 in the London – Vancouver market from next summer, becoming the first airline to fly the Super Jumbo to the western Canadian city.
As exclusively first revealed by our schedules blog, Airline Route, on July 29, 2015, BA will introduce the A380 on its daily BA084/085 rotation from May 1, 2016, replacing the Boeing 747-400 that currently serves the route. The airline’s inventory had shown this route switching from the 747-400 to the 777-200ER from mid-May next year, but this is thought to have been simply a slot sitter ahead of the formal agreement on the A380 deployment.
BA’s schedule listing had also shown a new five times weekly summer seasonal 777-200ER rotation to operate alongside the daily flight (BA086/087). However, this has now been dropped following the confirmation of the A380 introduction.
“It has been nine years since Airbus first brought the A380 to YVR as part of its test flight schedule, and since that time much has changed—but not our appetite to see this superjumbo in action on a commercial route,” said Craig Richmond, president and chief executive officer, Vancouver Airport Authority.
“I wish to congratulate British Airways, one of our longest-standing airline partners, for putting an A380 on the Vancouver -Heathrow route. To see this incredible aircraft return to Vancouver International Airport with scheduled service will be very exciting,” he added.
BA has already taken delivery of nine A380s and is due to add a further three aircraft to its fleet by the middle of next year. The airline has configured its A380s with 469-seats - 14 First suites on the main deck, and 97 Club World seats, split between the main and upper deck, a World Traveller Plus cabin of 55 seats and with 303 seats in World Traveller. This is around 170 passengers more than the airline’s Boeing 747-400 seating configuration.
While Vancouver will be the first Canadian destination to be served by BA with the A380, it will be the fourth destination in North America linked to London by the SuperJumbo after Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, and from October this year, Miami. BA also uses the type on flights to Hong Kong, Johannesburg and Singapore.
Our analysis of Sabre Airport Data Intelligence demand statistics show that over 530,000 passengers a year are flying between London Heathrow and Vancouver, a route also served by Air Canada and up until last year, Virgin Atlantic Airways. BA is carrying around 275,000 passengers a year and the data suggests loads have grown to beyond 90 per cent in each of the last three full years, driving the need for additional capacity.
The chart, below, highlights the seasonality of this market and how segment demand rises between May and September each year.
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