British Airways will soon be rolling out a change that will no doubt be controversial with those who like their traditional English breakfast…
British Airways simplifies Club Europe breakfast service
As of January 7, 2026, British Airways will be modifying the breakfast service on many of its short flights within Europe, for those traveling in the carrier’s Club Europe business class.
Currently, the airline typically offers two or three hot options, but that will no longer be the case across the board. Under the new policy, the airline will instead simply have one option on select routes — a fruit plate, yogurt, and a heated pastry.
This policy will apply on flights to and from Amsterdam (AMS), Belfast (BHD), Brussels (BRU), Dublin (DUB), Jersey (JER), Manchester (MAN), Newcastle (NCL), and Paris (CDG). All other routes will continue to receive a full hot breakfast.
British Airways claims that it’s making this change in order to make it easier for crews to deliver meals to passengers, and to give them “more time in the cabin with customers.”
My take on British Airways’ breakfast policy change
I’ve always been impressed by how British Airways crews serve full hot breakfasts on short haul flights within Europe. Many of these routes have a flight time of just 45-60 minutes, and they’re flights where a US airline might not even serve a round of drinks to premium cabin passengers (let alone serving any amount of food, perhaps aside from packaged nuts).
For that matter, most European rivals (like Air France, KLM, Lufthansa, SWISS, etc.) don’t serve hot breakfasts on flights of this length. So if anything, British Airways is simply eliminating a competitive advantage, rather than leading the race to the bottom.
Then again, Brits care a lot more about a hot breakfast than people from France, Germany, etc., where a cold breakfast is the norm. Personally, as someone who doesn’t eat pork, I’m actually happy to see this change, since I never liked the full English breakfast. But I fully acknowledge that’s a “me” situation, and most people will disagree (and the airline should cater to most guests, and not to me).
Now, what’s British Airways’ real motivation for this change? Is it really so that the crew can spend more time in the cabin with customers? We have to be honest with ourselves, as it’s pretty clear what’s going on here — this is presumably about cost savings rather than anything else.
I’m not trying to be a cynic, but British Airways has a track record of this kind of stuff. I mean, this is the same airline that tried to extend the hours of brunch and supper on long haul flights, in order to serve less and cheaper food and save money. The airline did eventually backtrack there.
Bottom line
As of January 7, 2026, British Airways will be cutting hot breakfast on eight of its shortest and highest frequency routes. With this change, passengers will instead be offered fruit, yogurt, and a pastry. The airline claims this is being done to simplify service for the crew, and to allow them to spend more time in the cabin.
In fairness, British Airways did have the most extensive breakfast selection on flights of this length. That was presumably because Brits also expect a bit more from breakfast than those from some other countries in the region. I have no doubt that this change is being driven by an attempt to cut costs, given the airline we’re talking about.
What do you make of British Airways’ short haul breakfast changes?
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